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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 811 records · Page 45
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Sparse sampling methods and probe systems for analytical instruments

Sparse sampling approaches and probe systems for analytical instruments are disclosed providing for effective sub-sampling of a specimen and inpainting to reconstruct representations of actual information. The sub-sampling involves serial acquisition of contiguous measured values lying at positions along a scan path extending in a line toward a first direction and having random perturbations in a second direction. The perturbations are limited within a predetermined distance from the line. Inpainting techniques are utilized among the measured values to reconstruct a representation of actual information regarding the specimen.

Kovarik, Libor↗
DOE OSTI2020

Softwarized Federations of Science Instruments with Edge-Continuum Containers

Significant expansion of capabilities of DOE science complex of supercomputers, instruments and networks is expected as powerful experimental facilities, exascale computers and terabit networks are added. Combined with the advances in edge and cloud computing technologies, DOE science users now have the promise of unprecedented execution of complex, continuum workflows, namely, small and latency-sensitive computations at the edge and site, massive computations at remote HPC systems, and everything in between on the cloud. But, bringing this capability to the science user requires overcoming the overwhelming complexity of forming the federations of systems, and efficiently and effectively orchestrating the workflows while ensuring high utilization of the expensive facilities. Current manual configuration of the federated systems simply will not scale, since the coordination across sites may take weeks to months, often leading to under-utilized and hard-to-diagnose compositions. A powerful, composable software stack will be developed to (i) wrap the systems so that federations can be composed fast in software, and (ii) containerize computations to be orchestrated across the edge, site, cloud and HPC resources.

Rao, Nageswara S.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Recent advances in nano-scale spatial resolution x-ray microscopy instrumentation at NSLS-II

X-ray microscopy is an invaluable and powerful characterization tool applied in many scientific fields, such as materials science, biology, environmental science, and energy research. In recent years it has been driven by rapid developments of novel technologies and systems resulting in imaging experiments elucidating structural inhomogeneities and chemical reactions at the nanometer scale. To obtain high spatial resolution comprehensive chemical and structural information, an X-ray microscope must be equipped with adequate capabilities and allow for simultaneous acquisition of multiple datasets. In recent years, a number of X-ray microscopes have been designed, constructed, and commissioned at NSLS-II. Here we provide an overview of the microscopy instrumentation development program at NSLS-II and specifically focus on the multilayer Laue lens-based hard X-ray nanoprobe optimized for ~10 nm spatial resolution imaging, its current status, and future upgrades along with recently constructed Kirkpatrick-Baez based scanning microscope designed for ~100 nm spatial resolution experiments.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Utilizing Additive Manufacturing to Create Prototype and Functional Beamline Instrumentation and Support Components

The world of beamline science is often fast-paced and dynamic. One of the major challenges in this environment is to be able to design, manufacture and then implement new items for use on the beamlines in a fast and accurate manner. Many times, this involves iterating the design to address unknown or new variables which were not pre- sent at the beginning of the project planning task. Through the use of additive manufacturing, I have been able to support the user programs of various (APS) Ad- vanced Photon Source beamlines* across multiple scien- tific disciplines. I will provide a few detailed examples of Items that were created for specific beamline applications and discuss what benefits they provided to the pertinent project. I will also talk about why choosing consumer- level printer options to produce the parts has been the direction I went and the pros and cons of this decision. Pri marily, this choice allowed for quicker turnaround times and the ability to make more frequent changes in an efficient manner. Currently, we are utilizing only the fused deposition modelling (FDM) type printers but I am exploring the addition of UV-activated resin printing, exotic materials that can be utilized using the current toolset, and the possibility of commercial metal printing systems. This technology has been a game-changer for the implementation of new support items and instrumentation over the last couple of years for the different disciplines I am sup- porting. I will discuss how the roadmap ahead and what the evolving technologies could potentially allow us to do.

Jensen, D.↗
DOE OSTI2019

UX Focused Development Work During Recent ORNL EPICS-Based Instrument Control System Upgrade Projects

The importance of usability and easy-to-use user interfaces (UI) have been recognized across many domains. However, the user-friendliness of scientific experiment control systems often lags behind industry standards in the flourishing user experience (UX) field. Scientific control systems can certainly benefit from these new UX research methods and approaches. Recent instrument control system upgrade projects at the SNS and HFIR facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory demonstrate the effectiveness of UX focused development work, and further reveal the need for more utilization of such techniques coming from the UX field. The ongoing control system upgrades are targeting the key facility-level priority of higher scientific productivity, and UX is one of the important tools to help us achieve this priority. We will highlight research methods and practices, introduce our findings and deliverables, and share challenges and lessons learned in applying UX methods to scientific control systems.

Yao, Marie Xingxing↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Modern Ethernet Data Acquisition Architecture for Fermilab Beam Instrumentation

The Fermilab Accelerator Division, Instrumentation Department is adopting an open-source framework to replace our embedded VME-based data acquisition systems. Utilizing an iterative methodology, we first moved to embedded Linux, removing the need for VxWorks. Next, we adopted Ethernet on each data acquisition module eliminating the need for the VME backplane in addition to communicating with a rack mount server. Development of DDCP (Distributed Data Communications Protocol), allowed for an abstraction between the firmware and software layers. Each data acquisition module was adapted to read out using 1 GbE and aggregated at a switch which up linked to a 10 GbE network. Current development includes scaling the system to aggregate more modules, to increase bandwidth to support multiple systems and to adopt MicroTCA as a crate technology. The architecture was utilized on various beamlines around the Fermilab complex including PIP2IT, FAST/IOTA and the Muon Delivery Ring. In summary, we were able to develop a data acquisition framework which incrementally replaces VxWorks & VME hardware as well as increases our total bandwidth to 10 Gbit/s using off the shelf Ethernet technology.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Beamline Instrumentation for Future Parity-Violation Experiments

The parity-violating electron scattering community has made tremendous progress over the last twenty five years in their ability to measure tiny asymmetries of order 100 parts per billion (ppb) with beam-related corrections and systematic errors of a few ppb. Future experiments are planned for about an order of magnitude smaller asymmetries and with higher rates in the detectors. These new experiments pose new challenges for the beam instrumentation and for the strategy for setting up the beam. In this contribution to PAVI14 I discuss several of these challenges and demands, with a focus on developments at Jefferson Lab.

Michaels, Robert↗
DOE OSTI2023

Analyzing Hardware and Software Common Cause Failures in Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems using Dual Error Propagation Method

This paper develops a methodology for quantifying software common cause failures (CCFs) in digital instrumentation and control (I&C) systems of nuclear power plants. To support the transition of analog I&C systems to digital in nuclear power plants, probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) techniques are used. The hardware components of the I&C systems have reliability databases that can be used in the PRA studies. However, the failure data for redundant software components of the systems is sparse. Failure of components constitutes a CCF, wherein two or more components or systems fail due to a single shared cause and coupling mechanism. This paper proposes a quantification approach that can simultaneously model hardware and software components, incorporate the CCFs of software systems in the models, and bridge the gap between the failure quantification of models and the development of CCF parametric databases. We demonstrate the dual error propagation method (DEPM) by developing I&C systems failure models for a representative digital reactor trip system. The DEPM models are built to simulate the control and data flows within the systems and can accommodate failure states. By expanding DEPM to software CCFs, we generated alpha factor parameter estimates for each of the modeled error propagation mechanisms.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Dynamic Model Agnostic Reliability Evaluation of Machine-Learning Models Integrated in Instrumentation & Control Systems

In recent years, the field of data-driven neural network-based machine learning (ML) algorithms has grown significantly and spurred research in its applicability to instrumentation and control systems. While they are promising in operational contexts, the trustworthiness of such algorithms is not adequately assessed. Failures of ML-integrated systems are poorly understood; the lack of comprehensive risk modeling can degrade the trustworthiness of these systems. In recent reports by the National Institute for Standards and Technology, trustworthiness in ML is a critical barrier to adoption and will play a vital role in intelligent systems' safe and accountable operation. Thus, in this work, we demonstrate a real-time model-agnostic method to evaluate the relative reliability of ML predictions by incorporating out-of-distribution detection on the training dataset. It is well documented that ML algorithms excel at interpolation (or near-interpolation) tasks but significantly degrade at extrapolation. This occurs when new samples are "far" from training samples. The method, referred to as the Laplacian distributed decay for reliability (LADDR), determines the difference between the operational and training datasets, which is used to calculate a prediction's relative reliability. LADDR is demonstrated on a feedforward neural network-based model used to predict safety significant factors during different loss-of-flow transients. LADDR is intended as a "data supervisor" and determines the appropriateness of well-trained ML models in the context of operational conditions. Ultimately, LADDR illustrates how training data can be used as evidence to support the trustworthiness of ML predictions when utilized for conventional interpolation tasks.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

JHR Project: a future Material Testing Reactor working as an International user Facility: The key-role of instrumentation in support to the development of modern experimental capacity

Research and development on fuel and material behaviour under irradiation is a key issue for sustainable nuclear energy in order to meet specific needs by keeping the best level of safety. These needs mainly deal with a constant improvement of performances and safety in order to optimize the fuel cycle and hence to reach nuclear energy sustainable objectives. A sustainable nuclear energy requires a high level of performances in order to meet specific needs such as: - Pursuing improvement of the performances and safety of present and coming water cooled reactor technologies. This will require a continuous R and D support following a long-term trend driven by the plant life management, safety demonstration, flexibility and economics improvement. Experimental irradiations of structure materials are necessary to anticipate these material behaviours and will contribute to their optimisation. - Upgrading continuously nuclear fuel technology in present and future nuclear power plants to achieve better performances and to optimise the fuel cycle keeping the best level of safety. Fuel evolution for generation II, III and III+ is a key stake requiring developments, qualification tests and safety experiments to ensure the competitiveness and safety: experimental tests exploring the full range of fuel behaviour determine fuel stability limits and safety margins, as a major input for the fuel reliability analysis. To perform such accurate and innovative progress and developments, specific and ad hoc instrumentation, irradiation devices, measurement methods are necessary to be set up inside or beside the material testing reactor (MTR) core. These experiments require beforehand in situ and on line sophisticated measurements to accurately determine different key parameters such as thermal and fast neutron fluxes and nuclear heating in order to precisely monitor and control the conducted assays. The new Material Testing Reactor JHR (Jules Horowitz Reactor) currently under construction at CEA Cadarache research centre in the south of France will represent a major Research Infrastructure for scientific studies regarding material and fuel behavior under irradiation. It will also be devoted to medical isotopes production. Hence JHR will offer a real opportunity to perform R and D programs regarding needs above and hence will crucially contribute to the selection, optimization and qualification of these innovative materials and fuels. The JHR reactor objectives, principles and main characteristics associated to specific experimental devices associated to measurement techniques and methodology, their performances, their limitations and field of applications will be presented and discussed. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2015

On use of ZPR research reactors and associated instrumentation and measurement methods for reactor physics studies

The French atomic and alternative energies -CEA- is strongly involved in research and development programs concerning the use of nuclear energy as a clean and reliable source of energy and consequently is working on the present and future generation of reactors on various topics such as ageing plant management, optimization of the plutonium stockpile, waste management and innovative systems exploration. Core physics studies are an essential part of this comprehensive R and D effort. In particular, the Zero Power Reactor (ZPR) of CEA: EOLE, MINERVE and MASURCA play an important role in the validation of neutron (as well photon) physics calculation tools (codes and nuclear data). The experimental programs defined in the CEA's ZPR facilities aim at improving the calculation routes by reducing the uncertainties of the experimental databases. They also provide accurate data on innovative systems in terms of new materials (moderating and decoupling materials) and new concepts (ADS, ABWR, new MTR (e.g. JHR), GENIV) involving new fuels, absorbers and coolant materials. Conducting such interesting experimental R and D programs is based on determining and measuring main parameters of phenomena of interest to qualify calculation tools and nuclear data 'libraries'. Determining these parameters relies on the use of numerous and different experimental techniques using specific and appropriate instrumentation and detection tools. Main ZPR experimental programs at CEA, their objectives and challenges will be presented and discussed. Future development and perspectives regarding ZPR reactors and associated programs will be also presented. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Measurements of Ionizing Radiation Doses Induced by High Irradiance Laser on Targets in LCLS MEC Instrument - Paper 75

High-power laser interaction with targets in vacuum at high laser irradiance levels can generate plasma and, consequently, create ionizing radiation hazards. The theory for ionizing radiation generation from laser-plasma interaction is complicated. The basics of theory and phenomenology are available qualitatively. However, the ionizing radiation yields associated with laser-plasma interaction have not been well quantified. Based on the theoretical analysis and review of the published reports and measurement data, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) developed an analytic model to estimate conservatively the electron temperature and photon radiation yield (Sv/J) of a laser pulse hitting a solid target at 1 m as a function of laser irradiance between 10{sup 15} and 10{sup 21} W/cm{sup 2}. Ionizing radiation measurements from high-intensity laser-induced plasma interactions on solid targets inside the Al-walled vacuum chamber of the LCLS MEC instrument at SLAC were conducted using passive and active detectors at irradiance between 3x10{sup 16} and 6x10{sup 17} W/cm{sup 2}. Each run of the more than 20 runs had a unique set of laser, optic and target conditions with laser pulses rastering over the target surface mainly perpendicularly at a fixed irradiance. Significant effort was made in characterizing the laser irradiance values for each configuration of laser, focusing mirror, and target; four irradiances with targets of Au foils and copper plate were found to produce good measurement results. Electron doses inside the target chamber were highly anisotropic and peaked at backward direction by several orders of magnitude. Photon doses outside the target chamber were nearly isotropic (a factor of ∼2 higher in backward direction). When considering the large uncertainties of the irradiance (a factor of 2-3) and the potential shielding effects from detectors and target chamber, the measured photon dose rates at 1 m (150 mJ and 10 Hz) outside the target chamber (when averaged over different types of detectors) were in good agreement (a factor of ∼3) with the calculated values of the SLAC model, except at 3.0x10{sup 16} W/cm{sup 2}, which has an electron temperature of only 14 keV. At 6x10{sup 17} W/cm{sup 2}, a low level of ∼0.1 mrem/h from fast neutrons was measured (at 1 m, 150 mJ and 10 Hz) with a neutron-to-photon dose ratio of 0.2%. This is equivalent to a neutron dose yield of 2.8x10{sup -8} mSv/J (to be compared to the LULI measurements of 1x10{sup -4} mSv/J at 3x10{sup 19} W/cm{sup 2}). Both active and passive types of detectors performed well and the dose results were consistent, which is the same as the dose measurements in the Titan laser facility. Active detectors were not affected by the electromagnetic pulses associated with the MEC laser system; this was different from the Titan radiation measurements, in which all active detectors failed to respond, likely due to the high EMP in the Titan's high laser intensity fields. (authors)

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2015

2013 Caliban and Prospero experiments for the study of the behavior of radiation protection instrumentations in case of a criticality accident - 14346

Experiments using the CALIBAN and PROSPERO reactors were performed in 2013 in the framework of a collaboration between IRSN and CEA. The objective was to provide data about the possibility to use information given by radiation protection instrumentations (RPI) in the case of a criticality accident. In that purpose, the behavior of RPI was studied for various kinetics of the reactors which simulated different starts of a criticality accident. The article presents the safety issues associated with these experiments, i.e. the possible use of information given by the RPI for the emergency response of a criticality accident (detection of the accident, triage of the personnel, follow-up of the accident and reentry). Then, one paragraph is dedicated to the presentation of the tested material. In addition, the CALIBAN and PROSPERO reactors are briefly described, followed by the performed experiments. The RPI are neither designed nor dedicated to be used in case of a criticality accident. However, the preliminary conclusion of the experiments performed in 2013 is that the tested RPI have a correct behavior for slow kinetic experiments performed with the PROSPERO reactor, but might give less reliable and accurate information for pulse experiments performed with the CALIBAN reactor. In the last case, they can nevertheless provide information that can be helpful for the emergency response and the limitation of the consequences of the criticality accident. However, if the RPI are included in the emergency response of a criticality accident (detection, triage, follow-up, reentry), emergency procedures should be adapted. Other experiments might be performed in order to confirm results and to extend the number of tested materials, in particular portable survey meters or contamination area monitors. (authors)

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Novel Instrumentation for Advanced Quantum Chromodynamics Studies with Flavor Sensitivity

The true nature of ordinary matter has always fascinated humankind, whose imagination has been pointed to the right direction since the 5th century BC with the first known atomic theory by Leucippus and Democritus. They described the matter as formed by small, invisible, indivisible, and eternal particles: the atoms. A long investigation followed them, including contributions from several of history?s greatest philosophers and scientists. The progress led to the understanding that atoms have an internal structure consisting of a central nucleus composed of protons and neutrons, surrounded by a cloud of electrons. About 50 years ago, scientists discovered that nucleons also have an internal structure. Through the Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) experiments, on which a lepton is scattered off a nucleon, it was possible to access the distribution of partons inside the nucleon along the longitudinal direction defined by the hard-scale probe. It was a crucial step in developing Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), currently the best theory describing the subatomic matter. Ultimately, DIS was recognized as a limited tool to investigate the nucleon structure because it is mainly sensitive to observables at the probe?s energy scale. In recent decades, theoretical developments have allowed defining soft-scale observables by measuring more complex processes. Reactions such as Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering (SIDIS) with single or di-hadron production, can provide information about the momentum of parton inside the nucleon. In particular, polarized SIDIS allows access to the Transverse-Momentum-Dependent (TMD) parton distributions describing the correlations of the quark and gluon degrees of freedom in transverse momentum and spin. This study can provide three-dimensional imaging of nucleon structure and inner dynamics, as long as the hadronic component in the final state can be measured. Identifying the species of the produced particles provides information on the quark flavor and assumes a crucial role in this context. The thesis describes the work carried out by the author in preparing novel instrumentation for particle identification in the final state of DIS experiments, to support modern analysis of the parton dynamics within the basic confined object (nucleon) with flavor sensitivity. The work has been focused on the CLAS12 spectrometer in operation at Jefferson Laboratory (JLab), Newport News, VA, USA, and the ePIC experiment in preparation for the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Long Island, NY, USA. CLAS12 is a fixed-target experiment using a 12 GeV beam of polarized electrons scattering off polarized nuclear targets. In 2018 and 2022, two Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector modules were installed to improve the ?±/K± separation in the high-momentum region (3÷8 GeV/c) of the experiment. The author contributed to the assembly, installation, and com- missioning of the second RICH module, to the efficiency studies of the first module, and to the first SIDIS analysis with high-momentum kaons identified by the RICH. These studies led to the observation of the first spin asymmetry with high-momentum kaons from the CLAS12 experiment, and an initial assessment of the systematic error associated with the hadron identification. ePIC will be the first experiment at the future EIC, the new collider designed to expand the frontiers of QCD. The author was involved in the development of the dual-radiator Ring Imaging Cherenkov (dRICH). This detector will interpolate the measurements of the Cherenkov angles of photons produced by relativistic particles crossing two different radiators to identify charged hadrons. The author contributed to the studies conducted with the dRICH prototype, developing the reconstruction and analysis software and simulations, characterizing the aerogel radiator samples, and being responsible for the tracking system used during the beam tests. The performance obtained by the prototype has been progressively improved and the results are now comparable with the expectation derived from the simulation and satisfy the requirements of the experiment. In Chapter 1, the SIDIS theory is briefly introduced, outlying the connection with the experimental measurement. Chapter 2 includes the description of the CLAS12 RICH, its assembly and installation, and the efficiency study. In Chapter 3, the analysis of the Beam-Spin Asymmetry associated with SIDIS kaons is described. Chapter 4 describes the contribution to the dRICH for EIC, starting from a description of the ePIC experiment and focusing on the studies performed for the dRICH prototype. The conclusions of this work are summarized at the end.

Vallarino, Simone↗
DOE OSTI2024

Speckle contrast from the split-and-delay unit with seeded X-ray pulses of the MID instrument at European XFEL

We report on the coherence properties and characteristics of the split- and-delay unit at the Materials Imaging and Dynamics instrument of the European XFEL under seeded-beam conditions. Our investigation focuses on the speckle contrast extracted from the scattering patterns from static scatterers and pulse splitting characteristics. Seeded-beam operation enabled a high throughput of the split-and-delay unit. We highlight the invaluable potential of the split-and-delay unit for experimental investigations for enhancing our understanding of ultrafast phenomena in molecular liquids, such as water and aqueous solutions.

Fuoss, Paul↗
DOE OSTI2024

DICER: A new instrument at LANSCE to constrain neutron capture rates on radionuclides

. With very few exceptions, direct measurements of neutron capture rates on radionuclides have not been possible. A number of indirect methods have been pursued such as the surrogate method, the γ-ray strength function method, the Oslo method and the β-Oslo method. Substantial effort has been devoted to quantify the usually large systematic errors that accompany the results from these techniques. A new instrument has been developed at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) to provide more accu rate data on several radionuclides relevant to nuclear criticality safety, radiochemical diagnostics, astrophysics, nuclear forensics and nuclear security, by measuring the transmission of neutrons through radioactive samples and studying resonance properties. The Device for Indirect Capture on Radionuclides (DICER) and as sociated radionuclide production at the Isotope Production Facility (IPF), both at LANSCE, as well radioactive sample fabrication, have been under development the last few years. A description of the new apparatus, data on a few mid-weight stable isotopes and efforts on radionuclide measurements will be presented.

Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Measurement of Parity-Violating Modes of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Year 1 Luminous Red Galaxies' 4-Point Correlation Function

Here we report the first measurement of the parity-violating (PV) 4-Point Correlation Function (4PCF) of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument's Year 1 Luminous Red Galaxy (DESI Y1 LRG) sample, motivated by the potential detection of the PV 4PCF in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (SDSS BOSS) galaxies. In our auto-correlation ("auto") analysis, we find a statistically significant excess of the PV signal compared to mocks without any PV, at 4-10$σ$ depending on details of the analysis. This could arise either from genuine PV or from an underestimation of the variance in the mocks; it is unlikely to arise, at the signal level, from a systematic. We then cross-correlate ("cross") the putative PV signal between different, independent patches of sky, and there find no detection of parity violation. The two measurements are in significant tension: while the cross has somewhat larger error bars than the auto, this is not sufficient to explain the discrepancy. We thus present the current work as an intriguing addition to the PV work on BOSS and as motivation for exploring further the relationship between the auto and cross PV 4PCF analyses.

Slepian, Zachary [Florida U.]↗