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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 883 records · Page 49
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1994

Strain sensing using optical fibers

The main source of attenuation which will be studied is the optical fiber's sensitivity to bending at radii that are much larger than the radius of the fiber. This type of environmental attenuation causes losses that are a function of the severity of the bend. The average attenuation caused by bending varies exponentially with the bend radius. There are many different fibers, sources, and testing equipment available. This thesis describes tests that were performed to evaluate the variables that effect bending related attenuation and will discuss the consistency of the results. Descriptions and comparisons will be made between single mode and multimode fibers as well as instrumentation comparisons between detection equipment. Detailed analysis of the effects of the whispering gallery mode will be performed along with theorized methods for characterization of these modes.

Houghton, Richard↗
NASA NTRS2010

Air-Sea Spray Airborne Radar Profiler Characterizes Energy Fluxes in Hurricanes

A report discusses ASAP (Air-sea Spray Airborne Profiler), a dual-wavelength radar profiler that provides measurement information about the droplet size distribution (DSD) of sea-spray, which can be used to estimate heat and moisture fluxes for hurricane research. Researchers have recently determined that sea spray can have a large effect on the magnitude and distribution of the air-sea energy flux at hurricane -force wind speeds. To obtain information about the DSD, two parameters of the DSD are required; for example, overall DSD amplitude and DSD mean diameter. This requires two measurements. Two frequencies are used, with a large enough separation that the differential frequency provides size information. One frequency is 94 GHz; the other is 220 GHz. These correspond to the Rayleigh and Mie regions. Above a surface wind speed of 10 m/ s, production of sea spray grows exponentially. Both the number of large droplets and the altitude they reach are a function of the surface wind speed.

Durden, Stephen L.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Observed distribution functions of H, He, C, O, and Fe in corotating energetic particle streams - Implications for interplanetary acceleration and propagation

Distribution functions for H, He, C, O, and Fe derived from our IMP 8 measurements of about 0.15 to 8 MeV per nucleon particles in three corotating streams observed near Earth are shown to have a simple exponential dependence on the particle speed. The e-folding speed, typically 0.01c, is found to be the same for the distribution functions of all elements examined, and varies little from one corotating event to the next. The relative abundances of energetic particles in these events resemble most closely the solar coronal composition and thus, presumably, that of the solar wind. These results may imply that acceleration of these particles, which occurs in corotating interaction regions at several AU from the sun, is by a statistical process.

Gloeckler, G.↗
DOE OSTI2013

Pyrolysis Pathways of Sulfonated Polyethylene, an Alternative Carbon Fiber Precursor

Sulfonated polyethylene is an emerging precursor for the production of carbon fibers. Pyrolysis of sulfonated polyethylene was characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). n-heptane-4-sulfonic acid (H4S) was selected as a model compound for the study of sulfonated polyethylene. Density functional theory and conventional transition state theory were used to determine the rate constants of pyrolysis for H4S from 300-1000 K. Multiple reaction channels from two different mechanisms were explored: 1) internal five-centered elimination (Ei 5) and 2) radical chain reaction. The pyrolysis of H4S was simulated with kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) to obtain TGA plots that compared favorably to experiment. We observed that at tem- peratures < 550 K, the radical mechanism was dominant and yielded the trans-alkene, whereas cis-alkene was formed at higher temperatures from the internal elimination. The maximum rates of % mass loss became independent of initial OH radical concentration at 440-480 K. Experimentally, the maximum % mass loss occurred from 440-460 K (heating rate dependent). Activation energies derived from the kMC-simulated TGAs of H4S (26-29 kcal/mol) agreed with experiment for sulfonated polyethylene ( 31 kcal/mol). The simulations revealed that in this region, decomposition of radical HOSO2 became competitive to H abstraction by HOSO2, making OH the carrying radical for the reaction chain. The maximum rate of % mass loss for internal elimination was observed at temperatures > 600 K. Low-scale carbonization utilizes temperatures < 620 K; thus, internal elimination will not be competitive. Ei5 elimination has been studied for sulfoxides and sulfones, but this represents the first study of internal elimination in sulfonic acids. Nonlinear Arrhenius plots were found for all bimolecular reactions. The most significant nonlinear behavior was observed for reactions where the barrier was small. For reactions with low activation barriers, nonlinearity was traced to conflicting trends between the exponential temperature dependence of the energetic term and the temperature dependence of the vibrational partition function of the transitional modes.

carbon fiber desulfonation pyrolysis dft tst kinet↗
DOE OSTI2018

On Distributions of Integral Functionals of Diffusions Stopped at Inverse Range Time

Methods for computing the distributions of integral functionals of diffusions stopped at inverse range time are developed. The moment, which is the minimum of the inverse range time and exponentially distributed stopping time independent of the diffusion, is also considered. An interesting example of the applications of these methods is presented.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2016

Helium reionization simulations. I. Modeling quasars as radiation sources

We introduce a new project to understand helium reionization using fully coupled N-body, hydrodynamics, and radiative transfer simulations. This project aims to capture correctly the thermal history of the intergalactic medium as a result of reionization and make predictions about the Lyα forest and baryon temperature–density relation. The dominant sources of radiation for this transition are quasars, so modeling the source population accurately is very important for making reliable predictions. In this first paper, we present a new method for populating dark matter halos with quasars. Our set of quasar models includes two different light curves, a lightbulb (simple on/off) and symmetric exponential model, and luminosity-dependent quasar lifetimes. Our method self-consistently reproduces an input quasar luminosity function given a halo catalog from an N-body simulation, and propagates quasars through the merger history of halo hosts. After calibrating quasar clustering using measurements from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, we find that the characteristic mass of quasar hosts is M{sub h}∼2.5×10{sup 12} h{sup −1} M{sub ⊙} for the lightbulb model, and M{sub h}∼2.3×10{sup 12} h{sup −1} M{sub ⊙} for the exponential model. In the latter model, the peak quasar luminosity for a given halo mass is larger than that in the former, typically by a factor of 1.5–2. The effective lifetime for quasars in the lightbulb model is 59 Myr, and in the exponential case, the effective time constant is about 15 Myr. We include semi-analytic calculations of helium reionization, and discuss how to include these quasars as sources of ionizing radiation for full hydrodynamics with radiative transfer simulations in order to study helium reionization.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Monte Carlo simulation of initial breakdown phase for magnetised toroidal ICRF discharges

The radio-frequency (RF) plasma production technique in the ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) attracts growing attention among fusion experts because of its high potential for solving several basic problems of reactor-oriented superconducting fusion machines, such as ICRF wall conditioning in tokamaks and stellarators (T{sub e} = 3−5eV, n{sub e}<10{sup 12}cm{sup −3}), ICRF-assisted tokamak start-up and target plasma production (n{sub e} = 10{sup 13}cm{sup −3}) in stellarators. Plasma initiation by ICRF has been studied intensively using single particle descriptions and basic analytic models. To further improve the present understanding on plasma production employing the vacuum RF field of ICRF antennas in toroidal devices in presence of the toroidal magnetic field, and its parametric dependencies a Monte Carlo code has been developed. The 1D code RFdinity1D describes the motion of electrons, accelerated by the RF field in front of the ICRF antenna, along one toroidal magnetic field line. Dependent on their individual energies and the related electron collision cross sections (ionisation, excitation and dissociation) weighted by a Monte Carlo procedure, an electron avalanche may occur. Breakdown conditions are discussed as function of RF discharge parameters (i) RF vacuum electric field strength, (ii) RF frequency and (iii) neutral pressure (H2). The slope of the exponential density increase, taken as measure for the breakdown speed, shows qualitative agreement to experimental breakdown times as found in literature and experimental data of the ASDEX upgrade and TEXTOR tokamak, and is interpreted by studying the characteristic electron velocity distribution functions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

A new variation of the Buckingham exponential-6 potential with a tunable, singularity-free short-range repulsion and an adjustable long-range attraction

We introduce new generalized (reverting to the original) and extended (not reverting to the original) 4-parameter forms of the (B-2) Potential Energy Function (PEF) of Wang etal. (L.-P. Wang, J. Chen and T. van Voorhis, J. Chem. Theor. Comp. 9, 452 (2013)), which is itself a modification of the Buckingham exponential-6 PEF. The new forms have a tunable, singularity-free short-range repulsion and an adjustable long-range attraction. They produce fits to high quality ab initio data for the X–(H2O), X=F, Cl, Br, I and M+(H2O), M=Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs dimers that are between 1 and 2 orders of magnitude better than the original 3-parameter (B-2) and modified Buckingham exponential-6 PEFs. They are also slightly better than the 4-parameter generalized Buckingham exponential-6(gBe-6) and of comparable quality with the 4-parameter extended Morse (eM) PEFs introduced recently by us.

Werhahn, Jasper C.↗
DOE OSTI2013

X-ray irradiation induced changes in electron transport in stabilized a-Se photoconductors

We have examined the effect of high-dose x-ray irradiation on electron transport in stabilized amorphous selenium (a-Se) x-ray photoconductive films (of the type used in x-ray image detectors) by measuring the electron lifetime τ{sub e} through interrupted-field time-of-flight experiments. X-ray induced effects have been examined through two types of experiments. In recovery experiments, the a-Se was preirradiated with and without an applied field (5 V/μm) during irradiation with sufficient dose (typically ∼20 Gy at 21 °C) to significantly reduce the electron lifetime by ∼50%, and then the recovery of the lifetime was monitored as a function of time at three different temperatures, 10 °C, 21 °C, and 35 °C. The lifetime recovery kinetics was exponential with a relaxation time τ{sub r} that is thermally activated with an activation energy of 1.66 eV. τ{sub r} is a few hours at 21 °C and only a few minutes at 35 °C. In experiments examining the irradiation induced effects, the a-Se film was repeatedly exposed to x-ray radiation and the changes in the drift mobility and lifetime were monitored as a function of accumulated dose D. There was no observable change in the drift mobility. At 21 °C, the concentration of x-ray induced deep traps (or capture centers), N{sub d}, increases linearly with D (N{sub d} ∼ D) whereas at 35 °C, the recovery process prevents a linear increase in N{sub d} with D, and N{sub d} saturates. In all cases, even under high dose irradiation (∼50 Gy), the lifetime was recoverable to its original equilibrium (pre-exposure) value within a few relaxation times.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Measurement of elastic pp scattering at $\sqrt{\hbox {s}} = \hbox {8}$ TeV in the Coulomb–nuclear interference region: Determination of the ρ-parameter and the total cross-section

Here, the TOTEM experiment at the CERN LHC has measured elastic proton–proton scattering at the centre-of-mass energy s√=8TeV and four-momentum transfers squared, |t|, from 6 × 10 –4 to 0.2 GeV 2 . Near the lower end of the t-interval the differential cross-section is sensitive to the interference between the hadronic and the electromagnetic scattering amplitudes. This article presents the elastic cross-section measurement and the constraints it imposes on the functional forms of the modulus and phase of the hadronic elastic amplitude. The data exclude the traditional Simplified West and Yennie interference formula that requires a constant phase and a purely exponential modulus of the hadronic amplitude. For parametrisations of the hadronic modulus with second- or third-order polynomials in the exponent, the data are compatible with hadronic phase functions giving either central or peripheral behaviour in the impact parameter picture of elastic scattering. In both cases, the ρ-parameter is found to be 0.12±0.03. The results for the total hadronic cross-section are σ tot = (102.9±2.3) mb and (103.0±2.3) mb for central and peripheral phase formulations, respectively. Both are consistent with previous TOTEM measurements.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Properties of a potential energy matrix in oscillator basis

Matrix elements of potential energy are examined in detail. We consider a model problem — a particle in a central potential. The most popular forms of central potential are taken up, namely, square-well potential, Gaussian, Yukawa and exponential potentials. We study eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the potential energy matrix constructed with oscillator functions. It is demonstrated that eigenvalues coincide with the potential energy in coordinate space at some specific discrete points. We establish approximate values for these points. It is also shown that the eigenfunctions of the potential energy matrix are the expansion coefficients of the spherical Bessel functions in a harmonic oscillator basis. We also demonstrate a close relation between the separable approximation and L{sup 2} basis (J-matrix) method for the quantum theory of scattering.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

X-ray Diffraction of Water in Polyvinylpyrrolidone

PVP is a hydrophilic polymer commonly used as an excipient in pharmaceutical formulations. Here we have performed time-resolved high-energy X-ray scattering experiments on pellets of PVP at different humidity conditions for 1-2 days. A two-phase exponential decay in water sorption is found with a peak in the differential pair distribution function at 2.85 Å, which is attributed to the average (hydrogen bonded) carbonyl oxygen-water oxygen distance. Additional scattering measurements on powders with fixed compositions ranging from 2 to 12.3 wt % H 2 O were modeled with Empirical Potential Structure Refinement (EPSR). Further, the models reveal approximately linear relations between the carbonyl oxygen-water oxygen coordination number (nO C - O W ) and the water oxygen-water oxygen coordination number (nO W - O W ) versus water content in PVP. A stronger preference for water-water hydrogen bonding over carbonyl-water bonding is found. At all the concentrations studied the majority of water molecules were found to be randomly isolated, but a wide distribution of coordination environments of water molecules is found within the PVP polymer strands at the highest concentrations. Overall, the EPSR models indicate a continuous evolution in structure versus water content with nO W - O W =1 occurring at similar to 12 wt % H 2 O, i.e., the composition where, on average, each watermolecule is surrounded by one other water molecule.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

The dynamics of single protein molecules is non-equilibrium and self-similar over thirteen decades in time

Here, internal motions of proteins are essential to their function. The time dependence of protein structural fluctuations is highly complex, manifesting subdiffusive, non-exponential behavior with effective relaxation times existing over many decades in time, from ps up to ~10 2 s (refs 1-4). Here, using molecular dynamics simulations, we show that, on timescales from 10 –12 to 10 –5 s, motions in single proteins are self-similar, non-equilibrium and exhibit ageing. The characteristic relaxation time for a distance fluctuation, such as inter-domain motion, is observation-time-dependent, increasing in a simple, power-law fashion, arising from the fractal nature of the topology and geometry of the energy landscape explored. Diffusion over the energy landscape follows a non-ergodic continuous time random walk. Comparison with single-molecule experiments suggests that the non-equilibrium self-similar dynamical behavior persists up to timescales approaching the in vivo lifespan of individual protein molecules.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

Positron impact excitations of hydrogen atom embedded in dense quantum plasmas: Formation of Rydberg atoms

Formation of Rydberg atoms due to 1 s → nlm excitations of hydrogen by positron impact, for arbitrary n, l, m, in dense quantum plasma has been investigated using a distorted wave theory which includes screened dipole polarization potential. The interactions among the charged particles in the plasma have been represented by exponential cosine-screened Coulomb potentials. Making use of a simple variationally determined hydrogen wave function, it has been possible to obtain the distorted wave scattering amplitude in a closed analytical form. A detailed study has been made to explore the structure of differential and total cross sections in the energy range 20–300 eV of incident positron. For the unscreened case, our results agree nicely with some of the most accurate results available in the literature. To the best of our knowledge, such a study on the differential and total cross sections for 1 s → nlm inelastic positron-hydrogen collisions in dense quantum plasma is the first reported in the literature.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

A divergence-free constrained magnetic field interpolation method for scattered data

An interpolation method to evaluate magnetic fields, given its unstructured and scattered magnetic data, is presented. The method is based on the reconstruction of the global magnetic field using a superposition of orthogonal functions. The coefficients of the expansion are obtained by minimizing a cost function defined as the L2 norm of the difference between the ground truth and the reconstructed magnetic field evaluated on the training data. The divergence-free condition is incorporated as a constraint in the cost function, allowing the method to achieve arbitrarily small errors in the magnetic field divergence. An exponential decay of the approximation error is observed and compared with the less favorable algebraic decay of local splines. Compared to local methods involving computationally expensive search algorithms, the proposed method exhibits a significant reduction of the computational complexity of the field evaluation, while maintaining a small error in the divergence even in the presence of magnetic islands and stochasticity. Finally, applications to the computation of Poincaré sections using data obtained from numerical solutions of the magnetohydrodynamic equations in toroidal geometry are presented and compared with local methods currently in use.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Formation of the oxyl’s potential energy surface by the spectral kinetics of a vibrational mode

One of the most reactive intermediates for oxidative reactions is the oxyl radical, an electron-deficient oxygen atom. The discovery of a new vibration upon photoexcitation of the oxygen evolution catalysis detected the oxyl radical at the SrTiO3 surface. The vibration was assigned to a motion of the sub-surface oxygen underneath the titanium oxyl (Ti–O●−) created upon hole transfer to (or electron extraction from) a hydroxylated surface site. Evidence for such an interfacial mode is derived from its spectral shape, which exhibited a Fano resonance—a coupling of a sharp normal mode to continuum excitations. Here, this Fano resonance is utilized to derive precise formation kinetics of the oxyl radical and its associated potential energy surface (PES). From the Fano lineshape, the formation kinetics are obtained from the anti-resonance (the kinetics of the coupling factor), the resonance (the kinetics of the coupled continuum excitations), and the frequency integrated spectrum (the kinetics of the normal mode’s cross-section). All three perspectives yield logistic function growth with a half-rise of 2.3 ± 0.3 ps and a time constant of 0.48 ± 0.09 ps. A non-equilibrium transient associated with photoexcitation is separated from the rise of the equilibrated PES. The logistic function characterizes the oxyl coverage at the very initial stages (t ∼ 0) to have an exponential growth rate that quickly decreases toward zero as a limiting coverage is reached. Such time-dependent reaction kinetics identify a dynamic activation barrier associated with the formation of a PES and quantify it for oxyl radical coverage.

Chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2021

Low-temperature emergent neuromorphic networks with correlated oxide devices

Significance Designing neuromorphic hardware for cryoelectronics is an important area of research as the field of computing paradigms beyond complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) progresses. Superconductivity and metal−insulator transitions are two of the most celebrated emergent, collective properties found in quantum materials such as strongly correlated oxides. Here, we present simulations of artificial neural networks that can be designed by combining superconducting devices (e.g. Josephson junctions) with Mott metal−insulator transition−based tunable resistor devices. Our simulations show that 1) neurons and synapses can be seamlessly created, 2) their functions can be tuned via learning, and 3) controlling disorder by incorporating light ions enables exponential multiplicity of states. The results open up directions for incorporating emergent behavior seen in condensed matter into hardware design for artificial intelligence.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

GRAVITATIONAL ENCOUNTERS AND THE EVOLUTION OF GALACTIC NUCLEI. III. ANOMALOUS RELAXATION

This paper is the third in a series presenting the results of direct numerical integrations of the Fokker–Planck equation for stars orbiting a supermassive black hole (SBH) at the center of a galaxy. The algorithm of Paper II included diffusion coefficients that described the effects of random (“classical”) and correlated (“resonant”) relaxation. In this paper, the diffusion coefficients of Paper II have been generalized to account for the effects of “anomalous relaxation,” the qualitatively different way in which eccentric orbits evolve in the regime of rapid relativistic precession. Two functional forms for the anomalous diffusion coefficients are investigated, based on power-law or exponential modifications of the resonant diffusion coefficients. The parameters defining the modified coefficients are first constrained by comparing the results of Fokker–Planck integrations with previously published N-body integrations. Steady-state solutions are then obtained via the Fokker–Planck equation for models with properties similar to those of the Milky Way nucleus. Inclusion of anomalous relaxation leads to the formation of less prominent cores than in the case of resonant relaxation alone, due to the lengthening of diffusion timescales for eccentric orbits. Steady-state capture rates of stars by the SBH are found to always be less than capture rates in the presence of resonant relaxation alone.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗