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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Method Development for Experimental Characterization of Dynamic Strength of Aluminum Structures

Space Flight Hardware (SFH) experiences intense vibratory loading during flight, which only lasts a few minutes. When determining the appropriate size of these components to withstand such loading without becoming damaged (plastically deforming or breaking), standard design practice is to assume that the peak dynamic loads are applied statically. In doing so, the resulting stress is compared against a material strength parameter obtained from a quasi-static experiment. Since the near-peak stresses are only experienced over a small fraction of time in reality, this approach leads to design conservatism that unnecessarily increases structural mass as well as the associated inefficiency and financial cost. In an effort to modernize engineering design standards to appropriately consider the higher practical strength of dynamically loaded structures, this overarching research project seeks to develop an experimental test procedure for quantifying the dynamic strength of metallic alloys as a function of excitation frequency. In the ideal case, the characterization test would include an in-situ method for monitoring the onset and progression of plastic deformation of the test specimen undergoing vibratory loading. These new tests are designed to be high intensity (forcing amplitude), short term (60 seconds at full amplitude), and cyclic in nature (sinusoidal excitation via attached stinger to an otherwise cantilevered beam). In addition, the initial metallic alloy under investigation is 6061 aluminum, due to its wide use and applicability for SFH. Thus far, the most promising monitoring method under development with live-capacity is to track hysteresis behavior of the beam from power dissipation trends, calculated via force (from transducer on excitation stinger) and velocity (measurements from Laser Doppler Vibrometer) data and work to distinguish between elastic and plastic features. As a key component of this ongoing method development, any pseudo-live indication of plasticity can be corroborated against the outcome of a pre-post assessment of damage via macroscopic evaluation of beam geometry (i.e. assessing any permanent change in the beam’s tip deflection). Support for experimental design decisions as well as dynamic strength data from tests with excitation frequencies of 10, 40, and 55 Hz will be discussed. This work contributes to the foundation for a new type of vibration-based characterization experiments and generates initial data on the functional strength of 6061 aluminum under the conditions considered. Keywords: vibrations, plastic deformation, aluminum

vibrations↗

DOE OSTI2020

Spectral Element Applications in Complex Nuclear Reactor Geometries: Tet-to-Hex Meshing

The spectral element code Nek5000 is an open-source, higher-order computational fluid dynamics code developed at Argonne National Laboratory. It is designed to solve incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, but it also has a low-Mach-number approximation feature available. Large eddy simulation is approached by explicit filtering of the velocity field (and other fields) to mimic the effect of dissipation due to the unresolved scale. The computational domain is decomposed into second-order hexahedral elements that conform to the boundaries. However, generating a high-quality pure-hexahedral mesh can be challenging for some problems. For simple geometries, traditional blocking methods can be used to decompose the domain into smaller blocks to generate a so-called structural mesh. A structural mesh can maintain good orthogonality but can have a highly skewed mesh to conform to the geometry, as well as unnecessary refinement in the far field. Moreover, for geometries with relative complexity, blocking the geometry becomes impossible. To address these issues, we adopted a let-to-hex strategy to generate a pure hexahedral mesh for Nek5000. First, we generate a pure tetrahedral mesh for the geometry; then we divide one tetrahedral element into four hexahedral elements. A pure tetrahedral mesh could be easily generated for complex geometries by using many current meshing codes. In this paper, we use the commercial codes ANSYS meshing and ANSYSICEM to generate the pure tetrahedral mesh and then convert it to a pure hexahedral mesh. Boundary layers are extruded in ANSYSICEM to maintain near-wall resolution.

ANSYS ICEM↗

DOE OSTI2025

Bio-inspired multiscale design for perovskite solar cells

Metal halide perovskite semiconductors have attractive light-harvesting and charge-carrier transport properties for photovoltaics. Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and modules have demonstrated their commercial promise with high power conversion efficiencies, but still face stability challenges. In this Review, we explore how biomaterials offer design inspiration for the development of durable and efficient PSCs at three different scales. At the molecular level, bio-inspired molecular interactions are harnessed towards crystallization control and degradation prevention, which offers an enhancement in long-term maximum-power-point tracking stability. At the microstructural level, self-healing and strength-enhancing strategies, utilizing dynamic bonds and interfacial reinforcement, can help PSCs to recover from physical damage and maintain high performance. At the device level, macroscopic functionalities, such as moth-eye-inspired structures tailored to different layers, can collectively enable antireflection, radiative cooling and self-cleaning to optimize light management, heat dissipation and encapsulation in PSCs. Bio-inspired PSC research can combine improved efficiency and lifetime, with abundant, biocompatible alternatives to conventional stabilizers. Future efforts should focus on screening bioinspired molecules to optimize film crystallization and stability, developing self-healing mechanisms triggered by operational stress, designing cost-efficient biomicrostructures, and integrating multifunctional encapsulation to enhance the efficiency and lifespan of PSCs.

Duan, Tianwei↗

NASA NTRS2004

Measurements of Acoustic Properties of Porous and Granular Materials and Application to Vibration Control

For application of porous and granular materials to vibro-acoustic controls, a finite dynamic strength of the solid component (frame) is an important design factor. The primary goal of this study was to investigate structural vibration damping through this frame wave propagation for various poroelastic materials. A measurement method to investigate the vibration characteristics of the frame was proposed. The measured properties were found to follow closely the characteristics of the viscoelastic materials - the dynamic modulus increased with frequency and the degree of the frequency dependence was determined by its loss factor. The dynamic stiffness of hollow cylindrical beams containing porous and granular materials as damping treatment was measured also. The data were used to extract the damping materials characteristics using the Rayleigh-Ritz method. The results suggested that the acoustic structure interaction between the frame and the structure enhances the dissipation of the vibration energy significantly.

Park, Junhong↗

NASA NTRS2009

A CFD Approach to Modeling Spacecraft Fuel Slosh

Energy dissipation and resonant coupling from sloshing fuel in spacecraft fuel tanks is a problem that occurs in the design of many spacecraft. In the case of a spin stabilized spacecraft, this energy dissipation can cause a growth in the spacecrafts' nutation (wobble) that may lead to disastrous consequences for the mission. Even in non-spinning spacecraft, coupling between the spacecraft or upper stage flight control system and an unanticipated slosh resonance can result in catastrophe. By using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solver such as Fluent, a model for this fuel slosh can be created. The accuracy of the model must be tested by comparing its results to an experimental test case. Such a model will allow for the variation of many different parameters such as fluid viscosity and gravitational field, yielding a deeper understanding of spacecraft slosh dynamics. In order to gain a better understanding of the dynamics behind sloshing fluids, the Launch Services Program (LSP) at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is interested in finding ways to better model this behavior. Thanks to past research, a state-of-the-art fuel slosh research facility was designed and fabricated at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). This test facility has produced interesting results and a fairly reliable parameter estimation process to predict the necessary values that accurately characterize a mechanical pendulum analog model. The current study at ERAU uses a different approach to model the free surface sloshing of liquid in a spherical tank using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. Using a software package called Fluent, a model was created to simulate the sloshing motion of the propellant. This finite volume program uses a technique called the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method to model the interaction between two fluids [4]. For the case of free surface slosh, the two fluids are the propellant and air. As the fuel sloshes around in the tank, it naturally displaces the air. Using the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy equations, as well as the VOF equations, one can predict the behavior of the sloshing fluid and calculate the forces, pressure gradients, and velocity field for the entire liquid as a function of time.

Marsell, Brandon↗

NASA NTRS2018

Physics-Based Approach to Predict the Solar Activity Cycles

Observations of the complex highly non-linear dynamics of global turbulent flows and magnetic fields are currently available only from Earth-side observations. Recent progress in helioseismology has provided us some additional information about the subsurface dynamics, but its relation to the magnetic field evolution is not yet understood. These limitations cause uncertainties that are difficult take into account, and perform proper calibration of dynamo models. The current dynamo models have also uncertainties due to the complicated turbulent physics of magnetic field generation, transport and dissipation. Because of the uncertainties in both observations and theory, the data assimilation approach is natural way for the solar cycle prediction and estimating uncertainties of this prediction. I will discuss the prediction results for the upcoming Solar Cycle 25 and their uncertainties and affect of Ensemble Kalman Filter parameters to resulting predictions.

Physics-Based↗

DOE OSTI2025

Effective Action for Relativistic Hydrodynamics from the Crooks Fluctuation Theorem

A new effective theory framework for fluctuating hydrodynamics in the relativistic regime is derived using standard thermodynamical principles and general properties of nonequilibrium stochastic dynamics. For the first time, we establish clear and concise conditions for ensuring that the resulting effective theories are causal, stable, and well-posed within general relativity. Here, these properties are independent of spacetime foliation and are valid in the full nonlinear regime. Out-of-equilibrium fluctuations are constrained by a relativistically covariant version of the Crooks fluctuation theorem, which determines how the entropy production is distributed even when the system is driven by an external force. This leads to an emerging Z 2 symmetry responsible for imposing fluctuation-dissipation relations for n-point correlation functions, which matches the standard constraints for the Schwinger-Keldysh effective action.

Fluctuation theorems↗

DOE OSTI2020

As a Matter of State: The Role of Thermodynamics in Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence

Turbulence simulations play a key role in advancing the general understanding of the physical properties of turbulence and in interpreting astrophysical observations of turbulent plasmas. For the sake of simplicity, however, turbulence simulations are often conducted in the isothermal limit. Given that the majority of astrophysical systems are not governed by isothermal dynamics, we aim to quantify the impact of thermodynamics on the physics of turbulence, through varying adiabatic index, γ, combined with a range of optically thin cooling functions. Here, we present a suite of ideal magnetohydrodynamics simulations of thermally balanced stationary turbulence in the subsonic, super-Alfvénic, high ${\beta }_{{\rm{p}}}$ (ratio of thermal to magnetic pressure) regime, where turbulent dissipation is balanced by two idealized cooling functions (approximating linear cooling and free–free emission) and examine the impact of the equation of state by considering cases that correspond to isothermal, monatomic, and diatomic gases. We find a strong anticorrelation between thermal and magnetic pressure independent of thermodynamics, whereas the strong anticorrelation between density and magnetic field found in the isothermal case weakens with increasing γ. Similarly, the linear relation between variations in density and thermal pressure with sonic Mach number becomes steeper with increasing γ. This suggests that there exists a degeneracy in these relations with respect to thermodynamics and Mach number in this regime, which is dominated by slow magnetosonic modes. These results have implications for attempts to infer (e.g.,) Mach numbers from (e.g.,) Faraday rotation measurements, without additional information regarding the thermodynamics of the plasma. However, our results suggest that this degeneracy can be broken by utilizing higher-order moments of observable distribution functions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Uniformly decaying subspaces for error-mitigated quantum computation

Here, we present a general condition to obtain subspaces that decay uniformly in a system governed by the Lindblad master equation and use them to perform error-mitigated quantum computation. The expectation values of dynamics encoded in such subspaces are unbiased estimators of noise-free expectation values. In analogy to the decoherence free subspaces which are left invariant by the action of Lindblad operators, we show that the uniformly decaying subspaces are left invariant (up to orthogonal terms) by the action of the dissipative part of the Lindblad equation. We apply our theory to a system of qubits and qudits undergoing relaxation with varying decay rates and show that such subspaces can be used to eliminate bias up to first-order variations in the decay rates without requiring full knowledge of noise. Since such a bias cannot be corrected through standard symmetry verification, our method can improve error mitigation in dual-rail qubits and, given partial knowledge of noise, can perform better than probabilistic error cancellation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Machine-Learning-Based Adaptive Thinning of CrIS Radiances to Improve Global Tropical Cyclone Analysis and Forecasts

This work is focused on optimizing the assimilation of hyperspectral infrared (IR) radiances from the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) with the goal of improving the representation of tropical cyclones (TCs) in global analyses and forecasts. Current operational assimilation systems rely on subsampling IR radiances on a regular thinning grid. A new and improved adaptive methodology based on machine learning (ML) recognizes TCs from geostationary satellite imagery and is implemented in the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model and data assimilation framework. The ML methodology is extensively trained on existing TC data sets and creates for each TC a dynamic mask, based on the evolving shape and life cycle of that specific event. Once a TC mask is created, a switch is then activated in the data assimilation system to alter the thinning, ingesting more CrIS radiances within the moving mask, thus increasing the TC sampling. After the TC dissipates, the assimilation of CrIS radiances reverts to normal data density. Results of TC segmentation provided by a state-of-the-art generative machine learning model known as the Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Model (DDPM) are compared to the previously used U-Net model. The new approach surpasses the performance of the previously developed one. The methodology is applied to both clear-sky and cloud-cleared radiances. Benefits from the latter methodology, particularly in improving the structure of TCs and the intensity forecasts, are presented.

Oreste Reale↗

NASA NTRS1990

Origin and dynamics of emission line clouds in cooling flow environments

The author suggests that since clouds are born co-moving in a turbulent intra-cluster medium (ICM), the allowed parameter space can now be opened up to a more acceptable range. Large-scale motions can be driven in the central parts of cooling flows by a number of mechanisms including the motion of the central and other galaxies, and the dissipation of advected, focussed rotational and magnetic energy. In addition to the velocity width paradox, two other paradoxes (Heckman et al. 1989) can be solved if the ICM is turbulent. Firstly, the heating source for the emission line regions has always been puzzling - line luminosities are extremely high for a given (optical or radio) galaxy luminosity compared to those in non-cooling flow galaxies, therefore a mechanism peculiar to cooling flows must be at work. However most, if not all, previously suggested heating mechanisms either fail to provide enough ionization or give the wrong line ratios, or both. The kinetic energy in the turbulence provides a natural energy source if it can be efficiently converted to cloud heat. Researchers suggest that this can be done via magneto-hydrodynamic waves through plasma slip. Secondly, while the x ray observations indicate extended mass deposition, the optical line emission is more centrally concentrated. Since many of the turbulence-inducing mechanisms are strongest in the central regions of the ICM, so is the method of heating. In other words material is dropping out everywhere but only being lit up in the center.

Loewenstein, Michael↗

DOE OSTI2025

Shock propagation in aerogel and TPP foams for inertial fusion energy target design

Achieving practical inertial fusion energy (IFE) requires the development of target designs with well-characterized microstructure and compression response. We measured shock dynamics in low-density (17.5–500 mg/cm 3 ) aerogel and two-photon polymerization (TPP) foams using x-ray phase contrast imaging (XPCI) methods and the Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reflector. By analyzing shock front evolution, we examined how target type and density influence shock propagation and energy dissipation. Talbot-XPCI shows that aerogels support a smooth, bowed shock front due to their homogeneous nanometer-scale pore network. In contrast, TPP foams exhibit irregular, stepwise propagation driven by interactions with their periodic micrometer-scale lattice. Shock velocity follows a power-law relation: aerogels deviate from classical ρ −1/2 scaling due to pore-collapse dissipation, while TPP foams follow the trend with larger uncertainties from density variations. Comparisons with xRAGE simulations reveal systematic underestimation of shock speeds. These results provide the first experimental constraints on shock propagation in TPP foams over a wide density range and highlight the influence of internal structure on anisotropic shock behavior. Our findings support improved benchmarking of EOS and hydrodynamic models and inform the design of foam architectures that promote implosion symmetry in IFE capsules.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Bistable random momentum transfer in a linear on-chip resonator

Optical switches and bifurcation rely on the nonlinear response of materials. Here, we demonstrate linear temporal bifurcation responses in a passive multimode microresonator, with strongly coupled chaotic and whispering gallery modes (WGMs). In microdisks, the chaotic modes exhibit broadband transfer within the deformed cavities, but their transient response is less explored and yields a random output of the analog signal distributed uniformly from “0” to “1.” Here, we build chaotic states by perturbing the multimode microring resonators with densely packed silicon nanocrystals on the waveguide surface. In vivo measurements reveal random and “digitized” output that ONLY populates around 0 and 1 intensity levels. The bus waveguide mode couples first to chaotic modes, then either dissipates or tunnels into stable WGMs. This binary pathway generates high-contrast, digitized outputs. In conclusion, the fully passive device enables real-time conversion of periodic clock signals into binary outputs with contrasts exceeding 12.3 dB, data rates of up to 10 7 · bits per second, and 20 dB dynamic range.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2020

Investigation of finite-volume methods to capture shocks and turbulence spectra in compressible flows

The aim of the present paper is to provide a comparison between several finite-volume methods of different numerical accuracy: the second-order Godunov method with PPM interpolation and the high-order finite-volume WENO method. In this work, the results show that while on a smooth problem the high-order method performs better than the second-order one, when the solution contains a shock all the methods collapse to first-order accuracy. In the context of the decay of compressible homogeneous isotropic turbulence with shocklets, the actual overall order of accuracy of the methods reduces to second-order, despite the use of fifth-order reconstruction schemes at cell interfaces. Most important, results in terms of turbulent spectra are similar regardless of the numerical methods employed, except that the PPM method fails to provide an accurate representation in the high-frequency range of the spectra. It is found that this specific issue comes from the slope-limiting procedure and a novel hybrid PPM/WENO method is developed that has the ability to capture the turbulent spectra with the accuracy of a high-order method, but at the cost of the second-order Godunov method. Overall, it is shown that virtually the same physical solution can be obtained much faster by refining a simulation with the second-order method and carefully chosen numerical procedures, rather than running a coarse high-order simulation. Our results demonstrate the importance of evaluating the accuracy of a numerical method in terms of its actual spectral dissipation and dispersion properties on mixed smooth/shock cases, rather than by the theoretical formal order of convergence rate.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2020

Kinetic Simulations of Radiative Magnetic Reconnection in the Coronae of Accreting Black Holes

We perform 2D and 3D particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection in magnetically dominated e ± plasmas subject to strong Compton cooling. Magnetic reconnection under such conditions can operate in accretion disk coronae around black holes, which produce hard X-rays through Comptonization. Our simulations show that most of the plasma in the reconnection layer is kept cold by Compton losses and locked in magnetically dominated plasmoids with a small thermal pressure. Compton drag clears cavities inside plasmoids and also affects their bulk motions. These effects, however, weakly change the reconnection rate and the plasmoid size distribution from those in nonradiative reconnection. This demonstrates that the reconnection dynamics is governed by similar magnetic stresses in both cases and weakly affected by thermal pressure. We examine the energy distribution of particles energized by radiative reconnection and observe two distinct components: (1) A mildly relativistic peak, which results from bulk motions of cooled plasmoids. This component receives most of the dissipated reconnection power and dominates the output X-ray emission. The peak has a quasi-Maxwellian shape with an effective temperature of ~100 keV. Thus, it mimics thermal Comptonization used previously to fit hard-state spectra of accreting black holes. (2) A high-energy tail, which receives ~20% of the dissipated reconnection power. It is populated by particles accelerated impulsively at X-points or "picked up" by fast outflows from X-points. The high-energy particles immediately cool, and their inverse Compton emission explains the MeV spectral tail detected in the hard state of Cyg X-1. Our first-principle simulations support magnetic reconnection as a mechanism powering hard X-ray emission from magnetically dominated regions of accreting black holes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS1990

Polar thermospheric Joule heating, and redistribution of recombination energy in the upper mesosphere

Kellogg (1961), suggested that transport of atomic oxygen from the summer into the winter hemisphere and subsequent release of energy by three body recombination, O+O+N2 yields O2+N2+E, may contribute significantly to the so-called mesopause temperature anomaly. Earlier model calculations have shown that Kellogg's mechanism produces about a 10-percent increase in the temperature from summer to winter at 90 km. This process, however, is partly compensated by differential heating from absorption of UV radiation associated with dissociation of O2. In the auroral region of the thermosphere, there is a steady energy dissipation by Joule heating causing a redistribution and depletion of atomic oxygen due to wind-induced diffusion. With the removal of O, latent chemical energy normally released by three body recombination is also removed, and the result is that the temperature decreases by almost 2 percent near 90 km. Through dynamic feedback, this process reduces the depletion of atomic oxygen by about 25 percent and the temperature perturbation in the exosphere from 10 to 7 percent at polar latitudes. Under the influence of the internal dynamo interaction, the prevailing zonal circulation in the upper thermosphere changes direction when the redistribution of recombination energy is considered.

Mayr, H. G.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Statistical Mechanics of Turbulent Dynamos

Incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence and magnetic dynamos, which occur in magnetofluids with large fluid and magnetic Reynolds numbers, will be discussed. When Reynolds numbers are large and energy decays slowly, the distribution of energy with respect to length scale becomes quasi-stationary and MHD turbulence can be described statistically. In the limit of infinite Reynolds numbers, viscosity and resistivity become zero and if these values are used in the MHD equations ab initio, a model system called ideal MHD turbulence results. This model system is typically confined in simple geometries with some form of homogeneous boundary conditions, allowing for velocity and magnetic field to be represented by orthogonal function expansions. One advantage to this is that the coefficients of the expansions form a set of nonlinearly interacting variables whose behavior can be described by equilibrium statistical mechanics, i.e., by a canonical ensemble theory based on the global invariants (energy, cross helicity and magnetic helicity) of ideal MHD turbulence. Another advantage is that truncated expansions provide a finite dynamical system whose time evolution can be numerically simulated to test the predictions of the associated statistical mechanics. If ensemble predictions are the same as time averages, then the system is said to be ergodic; if not, the system is nonergodic. Although it had been implicitly assumed in the early days of ideal MHD statistical theory development that these finite dynamical systems were ergodic, numerical simulations provided sufficient evidence that they were, in fact, nonergodic. Specifically, while canonical ensemble theory predicted that expansion coefficients would be (i) zero-mean random variables with (ii) energy that decreased with length scale, it was found that although (ii) was correct, (i) was not and the expected ergodicity was broken. The exact cause of this broken ergodicity was explained, after much investigation, by greatly extending the statistical theory of ideal MHD turbulence. The mathematical details of broken ergodicity, in fact, give a quantitative explanation of how coherent structure, dynamic alignment and force-free states appear in turbulent magnetofluids. The relevance of these ideal results to real MHD turbulence occurs because broken ergodicity is most manifest in the ideal case at the largest length scales and it is in these largest scales that a real magnetofluid has the least dissipation, i.e., most closely approaches the behavior of an ideal magnetofluid. Furthermore, the effects grow stronger when cross and magnetic helicities grow large with respect to energy, and this is exactly what occurs with time in a real magnetofluid, where it is called selective decay. The relevance of these results found in ideal MHD turbulence theory to the real world is that they provide at least a qualitative explanation of why confined turbulent magnetofluids, such as the liquid iron that fills the Earth's outer core, produce stationary, large-scale magnetic fields, i.e., the geomagnetic field. These results should also apply to other planets as well as to plasma confinement devices on Earth and in space, and the effects should be manifest if Reynolds numbers are high enough and there is enough time for stationarity to occur, at least approximately. In the presentation, details will be given for both theoretical and numerical results, and references will be provided.

Shebalin, John V.↗

NASA NTRS2014

MHD Turbulence and Magnetic Dynamos

Shebalin, John V↗