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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 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Investigation and validation of the dynamic response of an acoustically levitated particle using the lattice Boltzmann method

The stable levitation of an analyte sample in an acoustic levitator is a primary requirement for accurate x-ray characterization of its scientific structure. A rigid particle oscillates in an under-damped manner when introduced into the node of established standing acoustic waves. This investigation has employed the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), a computational fluid dynamics technique, for the analysis of such rigid particle dynamics in acoustic levitation. The simulation uses the two dimensional and nine velocity (D2Q9) Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook formulation to levitate a rigid 1.6 mm diameter nylon ($\rho$ = 1150 kg/m 3 ) particle in the air at standard pressure and temperature conditions. The presented work is the first reported simulation of realistic acoustic levitator boundary conditions using the LBM. The simulation can capture the particle-fluid interactions that produce dynamic levitation at less than one-period timescale in the ultrasonic frequency regime. An experiment was conducted by levitating a 1.6mm-diameter nylon sphere to estimate the oscillations, and the oscillating frequency was found to be 50 Hz. The dynamic simulation results are consistent with experimental results for particle oscillations within the same order of magnitude, indicating that LBM formulation can be successfully used to study acoustic levitation to understand and mitigate particle jitter. The distortion of the acoustic field due to a levitating particle's presence was also analyzed to demonstrate how the presence of the particle can disrupt adjacent levitating nodes.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Phonon-mediated lipid raft formation in biological membranes

Short-wavelength collective molecular motions, also known as phonons, have recently attracted much interest in revealing dynamic properties of biological membranes through the use of neutron and x-ray scattering, infrared and Raman spectroscopies, and molecular dynamics simulations. Experimentally detecting unique vibrational patterns such as, shear phonon excitations, viscoelastic crossovers, transverse acoustic phonon gaps, and continuous and truncated optical phonon modes in cellular membranes, to name a few, has proven non-trivial. Here, we review recent advances in liquid thermodynamics that have resulted in the development of the phonon theory of 1 liquids. The theory has important predictions regarding the shear vibrational spectra of fluids, namely the emergence of viscoelastic crossovers and transverse acoustic phonon gaps. Furthermore, we show that these vibrational patterns are common in soft (non-crystalline) materials, including, but not limited to liquids, colloids, liquid crystals (mesogens), block copolymers, and biological membranes. The existence of viscoelastic crossovers and acoustic phonon gaps define the self-diffusion properties of cellular membranes and provide a molecular picture of the transient nature of lipid rafts.1 Importantly, the timescales (picoseconds) for the formation and dissolution of transient lipid rafts match the lifetime of the formation and breakdown of interfacial water hydrogen bonds. Apart from acoustic propagating phonon modes, biological membranes can also support more energetic non-propagating optical phonon excitations, also known as standing waves or breathing modes. Importantly, optical phonons can be truncated due to the existence of finite size nanodomains made up of strongly correlated lipid-cholesterol molecular pairs. These strongly coupled molecular pairs can serve as nucleation centers for the formation of stable rafts at larger length scales, due to correlations of spontaneous fluctuations (Onsager’s regression hypothesis). Finally and importantly, molecular level viscoelastic crossovers, acoustic phonon gaps, and continuous and truncated optical phonon modes may offer insights as to how lipid-lipid and lipid-protein interactions enable biological function.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Interacting dark sector within ETHOS: Cosmological constraints from SPT cluster abundance with DES and HST weak lensing data

We use galaxy cluster abundance measurements from the South Pole Telescope enhanced by multicomponent matched filter confirmation and complemented with mass information obtained using weak-lensing data from Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES Y3) and targeted Hubble Space Telescope observations for probing deviations from the cold dark matter paradigm. Concretely, we consider a class of dark sector models featuring interactions between dark matter (DM) and a dark radiation (DR) component within the framework of the effective theory of structure formation (ETHOS). We focus on scenarios that lead to power suppression over a wide range of scales, and thus can be tested with data sensitive to large scales, as realized, for example, for DM–DR interactions following from an unbroken non-Abelian 𝑆⁢𝑈⁡(𝑁) gauge theory (interaction rate with power-law index 𝑛 = 0 within the ETHOS parametrization). Cluster abundance measurements are mostly sensitive to the amount of DR interacting with DM, parametrized by the ratio of DR temperature to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature, 𝜉 DR = 𝑇 DR /𝑇 CMB . We find an upper limit 𝜉 DR < 17% at 95% credibility. When the cluster data are combined with Planck 2018 CMB data along with baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements we find 𝜉 DR < 10%, corresponding to a limit on the abundance of interacting DR that is around 3 times tighter than that from CMB + BAO data alone. We also discuss the complementarity of weak lensing informed cluster abundance studies with probes sensitive to smaller scales, explore the impact on our analysis of massive neutrinos, and comment on a slight preference for the presence of a nonzero interacting DR abundance, which enables a physical solution to the 𝑆 8 tension.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Beam Spray Thresholds in ICF-Relevant Plasmas

Beam spray measurements suggest thresholds that are a factor of ≈2 to 15× less than expected based on the filamentation figure of merit often quoted in the literature. In this moderate-intensity regime, the relevant mechanism is forward stimulated Brillouin scattering (FSBS). Both weak ion acoustic wave damping and thermal enhancement of ion acoustic waves contribute to the low thresholds. FSBS imparts a redshift to the transmitted beam. Here, regarding the specific possibility of beam spray occurring outside the laser entrance holes of an indirectly driven hohlraum, this shift may be the most concerning feature owing to the high sensitivity of crossed-beam energy transfer to the interacting beam wavelengths in the subsequent overlap region.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Geophysical and Planetary Acoustics on Balloons

Natural events and human activity often generate acoustic waves capable of traveling tens to tens of thousands of kilometers across the globe. Ground-based acoustic sensors are limited to dry land and often suffer from wind noise. In contrast, balloon borne acoustic sensors can cross oceans, polar ice caps, and other inhospitable areas, greatly expanding sensor coverage. Since they move with the mean wind speed, their background noise levels are exceptionally low. In the last six years, such sensors have recorded sounds from colliding ocean waves, surface and buried chemical explosions, thunder, wind/mountain interactions, wind turbines, aircraft, and possibly meteors and the aurora. These results have led to new insights on acoustic heating of the upper atmosphere, the detectability of underground explosions, and directional sound fields generated by ocean waves.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Abundance and properties of dark radiation from the cosmic microwave background

We study the cosmological signatures of new light relics that are collisionless like standard neutrinos or are strongly interacting. We provide a simple and succinct rephrasing of their physical effects in the cosmic microwave background, as well as the resulting parameter degeneracies with other cosmological parameters, in terms of the total radiation abundance and the fraction thereof that freely streams. In these more general terms, interacting and noninteracting light relics are differentiated by their respective decrease and increase of the free-streaming fraction, and, moreover, the scale-dependent interplay thereof with a common, correlated reduction of the fraction of matter in baryons. We then derive updated constraints on various dark-radiation scenarios with the latest cosmological observations, employing this language to identify the physical origin of the impact of each dataset. The “PR4” reanalyses of Planck CMB data prefer a larger primordial helium yield and therefore also slightly more radiation than the 2018 analysis; we investigate the differences between the two releases that drives these shifts. Smaller free-streaming fractions are disfavored by the excess lensing of the CMB measured in lensing reconstruction data from Planck and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. On the other hand, baryon acoustic oscillation measurements from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument drive marginal detections of new, strongly interacting light relics due to that data's preference for lower matter fractions. Finally, we forecast measurements from the CMB-S4 experiment.

cosmological parameters from CMBR↗
DOE OSTI2022

Helmholtz vibrations in bowed strings

We report for almost 160 years, it has been known that Helmholtz oscillations, unique to vibrating strings in bowed instruments (violin, cello, etc.), have two distinct regimes: “slip” and “stick.” During the slip regime, the force at the bow-string interaction is attributed to friction between the sliding bow hair and the vibrating string, with a friction coefficient that decreases with increasing relative velocity. Yet the hair-string interaction during the stick regime is less understood. We propose that the interaction force during the stick regime is proportional to the product of the longitudinal acoustic impedance of the bow hair to the relative bow-string velocity. We validate this hypothesis by solving the string's differential equation of motion, including an enhanced formulation to avoid parasitic high-frequency oscillations. This physical model enables us to analyze, in real time, the characteristics of the Helmholtz oscillations, including the string shape, excitation of harmonics, Schelleng ripples, and string energy, showing that the bowed string gains energy during the stick regime and loses energy during the slip regime.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Utah FORGE: Neubrex Well 16B(78)-32 DAS Data - April, 2024

This dataset comprises Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) data collected from the Utah FORGE monitoring well 16B(78)-32 (the producer well) during hydraulic fracture stimulation operations conducted in April 2024. The data were acquired continuously over the stimulation period at a temporal sampling rate of 10,000 Hz (10 kS/s) and a spatial resolution of approximately 3.35 feet (1.02109 meters). The measurements were captured using a Neubrex NBX-S4100 Time Gated Digital DAS interrogator unit connected to a single-mode fiber optic cable, which was permanently installed within the casing string. All recorded channels correspond to downhole segments of the fiber optic cable, from a measured depth (MD) of 5,369.35 feet to 10,352.11 feet. The DAS data reflect raw acoustic energy generated by physical processes within and surrounding the well during stimulation activities at wells 16A(78)-32 and 16B(78)-32. These data have potential applications in analyzing cross-well strain, far-field strain rates (including microseismic activity), induced seismicity, and seismic imaging. Metadata embedded in the attributes of the HDF5 files include detailed information on the measured depths of the channels, interrogation parameters, and other acquisition details. The dataset also includes a recording of a seminar held on September 19, 2024, where Neubrex's Chief Operating Officer presented insights into the data collection, analysis, and preliminary findings. The raw data files, stored in HDF5 format, are organized chronologically according to the recording intervals from April 9 to April 24, 2024, with each file corresponding to a 12-second recording interval.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

The Sensitivity of Chemical Kinetic Models on Flame Transfer Functions in Acoustic Fluctuation Environments with Varying Equivalence Ratios

Various factors affect the heat release response of flames – thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, acoustics, etc. The coupling of heat release rate and acoustics, in particular, is essential to the design of combustion devices so as to avoid adverse effects during their operation. Modeling flames in acoustic environments requires an accurate understanding of the fundamental physics that occurs when flames interact with a fluctuating pressure field. Over the past couple of decades, researchers have been quantifying the impact of this fluctuating pressure field on the unsteady heat release rate. The flame transfer functions computed have also been shown to depend on the level of detail in the chemical kinetic model. This paper attempts to bridge the gap between these studies to understand how sensitive the flame transfer function is to various kinetic models. The problem is studied by performing multiple one-dimensional simulations using the low-Mach solver NGA. The detailed GRI-Mech 3.0 will be used for comparison. Also, the pressure amplitude and reactant equivalence ratio are varied to understand how the environment affects this sensitivity.

Girdhar, Anant↗
DOE OSTI2020

Collisionless adiabatic afterglow

In this work, we study, by numerical and analytical means, the evolution of a collisionless plasma initiated between absorbing walls. The ensuing flow is described by rarefaction waves that travel inward from the boundaries, interact, and eventually vanish after crossing through, leading up to the asymptotic stage of the decay. Particle simulations indicate that the kinetic evolution strongly resembles one found in isentropic gas dynamics. Namely, a very gradual density profile forms in the expanding central region where the rarefaction waves interact, with an accompanying linear velocity profile. Asymptotically, the density falls off as 1/t. The density and the flux at the boundary show little variation over the period when rarefaction waves still exist. Plasma potential, on the other hand, drops quite rapidly (on the underlying ion-acoustic timescale) to less than initial electron temperature Te when over 70% of the particles still remain in the system. This is due to electron kinetics being governed by conservation of adiabatic invariant in a slowly varying potential well. Analytical model of the velocity distribution is presented to explain the simulations. The results have implications for afterglow plasmas used in material processing and also for ion-extraction devices. One property of potential interest is good uniformity of the decaying plasma that occurs after approximately one ion-acoustic time.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Localization of deformation in fluid-saturated sandstone

Herein we discuss a laboratory study of inelastic deformation and localization was conducted to evaluate microseismicity and fracture in fluid-saturated rock. Plane strain compression experiments were performed on oil- and water-saturated Berea sandstone under dry, drained, undrained, and quasi-unjacketed conditions. Parameters associated with the elastic and inelastic material response were accurately measured and used in a constitutive model to predict localization of deformation under the drained and undrained conditions. Acoustic emission (AE) activity was recorded and the onset of inelastic response in fluid-saturated rock, similar to dry rock, coincided with an increase in AE rate. Fracture initiation and propagation were successfully monitored by AE locations. Clustering of AE events and the start of inhomogeneous deformation inferred from displacement measurements are shown to be well correlated with the model prediction of the onset of localized deformation under various rock-fluid interaction conditions.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Moving Embedded Boundary Approach for the Compressible Navier-Stokes Equations in a Block-Structured Adaptive Refinement Framework

A computational technique has been developed to perform compressible flow simulations involving moving boundaries using an embedded boundary approach within the block-structured adaptive mesh refinement (SAMR) framework of AMReX [1], [91], [92]. We leverage the SAMR capability to obtain quantitatively accurate results whilst using robust, second-order finite volume schemes. A conservative, unsplit, cut-cell approach is utilized and a ghost-cell approach is developed for computing the flux on the moving, embedded boundary faces. A third-order least-squares formulation has been developed to compute the wall velocity gradients, and was found to significantly improve the performance of the solver in terms of the quantitative comparison of surface quantities such as the skin friction coefficient. Various test cases are performed to validate the method, and compared with analytical, experimental, and other numerical results in literature. Inviscid and viscous test cases are performed that span a wide regime of flow speeds - acoustic (harmonically pulsating sphere), smooth flows (expansion fan created by a receding piston) and flows with shocks (shock-cylinder interaction, shock-wedge interaction, pitching NACA 0012 airfoil and shock-cone interaction). A closed system with moving boundaries - an oscillating piston in a cylinder, showed that the percentage error in mass within the system decreases with refinement, demonstrating that the numerical scheme is conservative with grid refinement, but is not discretely conservative. Viscous test cases involve that of a horizontally moving cylinder at Re = 40, an inline oscillating cylinder at Re = 100, and a transversely oscillating cylinder at Re = 185. The judicious use of adaptive mesh refinement with appropriate refinement criteria to capture the regions of interest leads to well-resolved flow features, and good quantitative comparison is observed with the results available in literature.

adaptive refinement↗
DOE OSTI2022

Acoustic force spectroscopy reveals subtle differences in cellulose unbinding behavior of carbohydrate-binding modules

Protein adsorption to solid carbohydrate interfaces is critical to many biological processes, particularly in biomass deconstruction. To engineer more-efficient enzymes for biomass deconstruction into sugars, it is necessary to characterize the complex protein–carbohydrate interfacial interactions. A carbohydrate-binding module (CBM) is often associated with microbial surface-tethered cellulosomes or secreted cellulase enzymes to enhance substrate accessibility. However, it is not well known how CBMs recognize, bind, and dissociate from polysaccharides to facilitate efficient cellulolytic activity, due to the lack of mechanistic understanding and a suitable toolkit to study CBM–substrate interactions. Our work outlines a general approach to study the unbinding behavior of CBMs from polysaccharide surfaces using a highly multiplexed single-molecule force spectroscopy assay. Here, we apply acoustic force spectroscopy (AFS) to probe a Clostridium thermocellum cellulosomal scaffoldin protein (CBM3a) and measure its dissociation from nanocellulose surfaces at physiologically relevant, low force loading rates. An automated microfluidic setup and method for uniform deposition of insoluble polysaccharides on the AFS chip surfaces are demonstrated. The rupture forces of wild-type CBM3a, and its Y67A mutant, unbinding from nanocellulose surfaces suggests distinct multimodal CBM binding conformations, with structural mechanisms further explored using molecular dynamics simulations. Applying classical dynamic force spectroscopy theory, the single-molecule unbinding rate at zero force is extrapolated and found to agree with bulk equilibrium unbinding rates estimated independently using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring. However, our results also highlight critical limitations of applying classical theory to explain the highly multivalent binding interactions for cellulose–CBM bond rupture forces exceeding 15 pN.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

An effective field theory of magneto-elasticity

We utilize the coset construction to derive the effective field theory of magnon-phonon interactions in (anti)-ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic insulating materials. The action is used to calculate the equations of motion which generalize the Landau-Lifshitz and stress equations to allow for magneto-acoustic couplings to all orders in the fields at lowest order in the derivative expansion. We also include the symmetry breaking effects due to Zeeman, and Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interactions. This effective theory is a toolbox for the study of magneto-elastic phenomena from first principles. As an example we use this theory to calculate the leading order contribution to the magnon decay width due to its the decay into phonons.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Laser transport and backscatter in low-density SiO 2 and Ta2O 5 foams

Experiments using a single 527 nm wavelength beam interacting with sub- and supercritical density SiO 2 and Ta 2 O 5 foams examined laser propagation and backscatter from laser–plasma instabilities such as Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS). Two densities of each material were examined, and multiple diagnostics were used to characterize the propagation and backscatter. For 5 mg/cc SiO 2 (n e /n c = 0.375), the laser propagation distance was well approximated by treating the foam as a gas. However, for the 2 mg/cc SiO 2 foam (n e /n c = 0.15), the same model over-predicts the propagation distance by ~40%. Furthermore, existing analytical theories on propagation through subcritical foams were able to account for this difference. The laser heat wave propagated ~1/2 as far in Ta 2 O 5 than SiO 2 foams with similar electron density. We showed that this difference is due to the increased radiation losses in the higher Z foam. The fraction of backscattered light scales linearly with incident laser intensity for the range of intensities examined. Ta 2 O 5 foams had significantly lower levels of backscatter (1–3%) than the SiO 2 (4–8%), which is consistent with estimates of large Landau damping due to the presence of the oxygen atoms. The measured fraction of SBS backscattered laser energy for a 2 mg/cc SiO 2 foam shot was ~4 times lower than predicted by simulations assuming a gas-like foam. We found that we needed to assume increased ion heating such that T i /T e ~1.2–1.5 in the plasma to agree with the measured SBS reflectivity. Analytical models of laser-heated foams predict preferential heating of the ions as has been observed in previous experiments.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Acoustic Radiation From a Superconducting Qubit: From Spontaneous Emission to Rabi Oscillations

Hybrid quantum systems that utilize controllable coupling between phonons and superconducting qubits could pave the way for a new generation of compact quantum memories and sensor technologies. However, the same electromechanical interaction mechanisms that enable coherent qubit-phonon coupling can also lead to decoherence due to the spontaneous phonon emission. In this paper we study the dynamics of a qubit coupled to an acoustic resonator by a piezoelectric film. By varying the surface topography of the resonator from rough to flat to shaped, we explore the crossover from fast decay of an excited qubit to quantum-coherent coupling between the qubit and an isolated phonon mode. The developed theoretical model allows us to establish and check quantitative links between the results obtained for the rough and shaped topographies. Discrepancy between the theory and the data for the flat resonator points to the imperfections of the studied device. Our experimental approach may be used for precision measurements of crystalline vibrations, the design of quantum memories, and the study of electromechanical contributions to dielectric loss.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Interacting Dirac magnons in the van der Waals ferromagnet CrBr 3

We study the effects of magnon-magnon interactions in the two-dimensional van der Waals ferromagnet CrBr 3 focusing on its honeycomb lattice structure. Motivated by earlier theoretical predictions of temperature-induced spectral shifts and van Hove singularities in the magnon dispersion [S. S. Pershoguba et al., Phys. Rev. X 8, 011010 (2018)], we go beyond the commonly used thermal magnon approximation by applying second-order perturbation theory in a fully numerical framework. Our analysis uncovers significant deviations from previous analysis: in particular, the predicted singularities are absent, consistent with recent inelastic neutron scattering measurements [S. E. Nikitin et al ., Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 127201 (2022)]. Moreover, we find that the temperature dependence of the renormalized magnon spectrum exhibits a distinct 𝑇 3 behavior for the optical magnon branch, while retaining 𝑇 2 behavior for the acoustic or down magnon band. This feature sheds light on the collective dynamics of Dirac magnons and their interactions. We further compare the honeycomb case with a triangular Bravais lattice, relevant for ferromagnetic monolayer MnBi 2 ⁢Te 4 , and show that both systems lack singular features while displaying quite distinct thermal trends.

Holstein-Primakoff method↗
DOE OSTI2024

Photochemically induced acousto-optics in gases

Acousto-optics consists of launching acoustic waves in a medium (usually a crystal) in order to modulate its refractive index and create a tunable optical grating. Here, in this article, we present the theoretical basis of an alternative scheme to generate acousto-optics in a gas, where the acoustic waves are initiated by the localized absorption (and thus gas heating) of spatially modulated UV light, as was demonstrated by Michine and Yoneda [Commun. Phys. 3, 24 (2020)]. We identify the chemical reactions initiated by the absorption of UV light via the photodissociation of ozone molecules present in the gas, and calculate the resulting temperature increase in the gas as a function of space and time. Solving the Euler fluid equations shows that the modulated, isochoric heating initiates a mixed acoustic-entropy wave in the gas, whose high-amplitude density (and thus refractive index) modulation can be used to manipulate a high-power laser. We calculate that diffraction efficiencies near 100% can be obtained using only a few millimeters of gas containing a few percent ozone fraction at room temperature, with UV fluences of less than 100 mJ/cm 2 —consistent with the experimental measurements. Our analysis suggests possible ways to optimize the diffraction efficiency by changing the buffer gas composition. Gases have optics damage thresholds 2–3 orders of magnitude beyond those of solids; these optical elements should therefore be able to manipulate kilojoule-class lasers.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗