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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
NASA NTRS1998

Reverse Energy Cascade in Turbulent Weakly Ionized Plasmas

For systems far from equilibrium, the neglect of a role for viscous effects in turbulence may be generally inappropriate when the relaxation time for the molecular process approaches the local flow time (Orou et al. (1996)). Furthermore, for stationary collisional plasmas, the conventional Reynolds number is irrelevant under circumstances where the standard features of turbulence in ordinary gases are observed in the plasma (Johnson et al. (1987)). The current theoretical understanding of these turbulent phenomenon is particularly inadequate for turbulence associated with ionizing shock waves; generally speaking, thermodynamic, acoustic and pressure fluctuations are all seen as amplified across the shock wave followed by a dramatic decay (relaminarization) usually attributed to a lack of importance of viscosity in the turbulent regions. This decay would be accelerated when the flow speed is also reduced due to the importance usually given to the conventional Reynolds number (which is directly proportional to velocity) as a quality of turbulence index. However, evidence supporting this consensus is lacking. By contrast, recent evidence of vanishing triple correlations form De Silva et al. (1996) provides strong support for early theoretical speculation of inherently molecular effects in macroscopic turbulence in Tsuge (1974). This specifically suggests that the role of compressive effects ordinarily associated with the shock wave could be significantly muted by the existence of a strongly turbulent local environment. There is also more recent theoretical speculation (Frisch et al. (1984)) of an inherently and previously unsuspected non-dissipative nature to turbulence, with energy conservation being nurtured by reverse energy cascades in the turbulent fluctuation spectra. Furthermore, the role which might be played by fluctuations on quantum mechanical phenomena and variations in molecular parameters is completely unknown, especially of the sort which might be found in optical spectra. A determination of the role which changing turbulent parameters might play on optical signatures behind a reflected shock wave should therefore provide a useful tool for the evolution of theoretical models for turbulence.

Williams, Kyron↗
DOE OSTI2022

Plasma Mirrors For High Power Lasers: A new approach for high repetition rates combined with realistic PIC simulations

We describe a research program to develop high quality plasma mirrors for use with high repetition rate, high power laser facilities to greatly facilitate experiments in high energy density physics, particularly when using solid density targets. A system delivering ultrathin, free standing liquid crystal films that could handle PW class laser pulses was developed that preserved the laser beam image quality and improved pulse contrast by over two orders of magnitude. The pulse contrast improvement was measured using a high dynamic range cross-correlation. The system operated at a repetition rate of several PMs formed in situ per minute. Extension to 1 Hz repetition rates should be possible. As a practical application, a PM system was used to separate laser accelerated electrons from the ultrashort pulse drive laser so that the electron beam emittance could be directly measured. The 20 nm thick PMs did not contribute significantly to emittance degradation. It was also demonstrated that the films could operate in the difficult plasma and laser environment present for GeV laser based electron acceleration. PM operation is still not well understood and much work with PMs is done empirically. Accordingly, we also demonstrated a particle-in-cell based simulation technique that would model PM operation, tracking the PM operation from cold, neutral atoms to a hot dense plasma by accounting for multiphoton ionization, plasma collisionality, and the dynamically changing index of refraction. Simulations in 3D were compared to a 2D based approach that was comparable. Finally, we developed a simpler model that can predict the intensity at which a plasma mirror will have its peak reflectivity.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Magnetogenesis in a Collisionless Plasma: From Weibel Instability to Turbulent Dynamo

We report on a first-principles numerical and theoretical study of plasma dynamo in a fully kinetic framework. By applying an external mechanical force to an initially unmagnetized plasma, we develop a self-consistent treatment of the generation of “seed” magnetic fields, the formation of turbulence, and the inductive amplification of fields by the fluctuation dynamo. Driven large-scale motions in an unmagnetized, weakly collisional plasma are subject to strong phase mixing, which leads to the development of thermal pressure anisotropy. This anisotropy triggers the Weibel instability, which produces filamentary “seed” magnetic fields on plasma-kinetic scales. The plasma is thereby magnetized, enabling efficient stretching and folding of the fields by the plasma motions and the development of Larmor-scale kinetic instabilities such as the firehose and mirror. The scattering of particles off the associated microscale magnetic fluctuations provides an effective viscosity, regulating the field morphology and turbulence. During this process, the seed field is further amplified by the fluctuation dynamo until energy equipartition with the turbulent flow is reached. By demonstrating that equipartition magnetic fields can be generated from an initially unmagnetized plasma through large-scale turbulent flows, this work has important implications for the origin and amplification of magnetic fields in the intracluster and intergalactic mediums.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Strong suppression of heat conduction in a laboratory replica of galaxy-cluster turbulent plasmas

In conventional gases and plasmas, it is known that heat fluxes are proportional to temperature gradients, with collisions between particles mediating energy flow from hotter to colder regions and the coefficient of thermal conduction given by Spitzer’s theory. However, this theory breaks down in magnetized, turbulent, weakly collisional plasmas, although modifications are difficult to predict from first principles due to the complex, multiscale nature of the problem. Understanding heat transport is important in astrophysical plasmas such as those in galaxy clusters, where observed temperature profiles are explicable only in the presence of a strong suppression of heat conduction compared to Spitzer’s theory. To address this problem, we have created a replica of such a system in a laser laboratory experiment. Our data show a reduction of heat transport by two orders of magnitude or more, leading to large temperature variations on small spatial scales (as is seen in cluster plasmas).

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Three-dimensional plasmoid-mediated reconnection and turbulence in Hall magnetohydrodynamics

Plasmoid instability accelerates reconnection in collisional plasmas by transforming a laminar reconnection layer into numerous plasmoids connected by secondary current sheets in two dimensions (2D) and by fostering self-generated turbulent reconnection in three dimensions (3D). In large-scale astrophysical and space systems, plasmoid instability likely initiates in the collisional regime but may transition into the collisionless regime as the fragmentation of the current sheet progresses toward kinetic scales. Hall magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) models are widely regarded as a simplified yet effective representation of the transition from collisional to collisionless reconnection. However, plasmoid instability in 2D Hall MHD simulations often leads to a single-X-line reconnection configuration, which significantly differs from fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulation results. This study shows that single-X-line reconnection is less likely to occur in 3D compared to 2D. Moreover, depending on the Lundquist number and the ratio between the system size and the kinetic scale, Hall MHD can also realize 3D self-generated turbulent reconnection. We analyze the features of the self-generated turbulent state, including the energy power spectra and the scale dependence of turbulent eddy anisotropy.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2021

An asymptotic-preserving 2D-2P relativistic Drift-Kinetic-Equation solver for runaway electron simulations in axisymmetric tokamaks

We propose an asymptotic-preserving (AP), uniformly convergent numerical scheme for the relativistic collisional Drift-Kinetic Equation (rDKE) to simulate runaway electrons in axisymmetric toroidal magnetic field geometries typical of tokamak devices. The approach is derived from an exact Green's function solution with numerical approximations of quantifiable impact, and results in a simple, two-step operator-split algorithm, consisting of a collisional Eulerian step, and a Lagrangian orbit-integration step with analytically prescribed kernels. The AP character of the approach is demonstrated by analysis of the dominant numerical errors, as well as by numerical experiments. We demonstrate the ability of the algorithm to provide accurate answers regardless of plasma collisionality on a circular axisymmetric tokamak geometry.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2022

Revolutionizing Our Understanding of Particle Energization in Space Plasmas Using on-Board Wave-Particle Correlator Instrumentation

A leap forward in our understanding of particle energization in plasmas throughout the heliosphere is essential to answer longstanding questions in heliophysics, including the heating of the solar corona, acceleration of the solar wind, and energization of particles that lead to observable phenomena, such as the Earth’s aurora. The low densities and high temperatures of typical heliospheric environments lead to weakly collisional plasma conditions. Under these conditions, the energization of particles occurs primarily through collisionless interactions between the electromagnetic fields and the individual plasma particles with energies characteristic of a particular interaction. To understand how the plasma heating and particle acceleration impacts the macroscopic evolution of the heliosphere, impacting phenomena such as extreme space weather, it is critical to understand these collisionless wave-particle interactions on the characteristic ion and electron kinetic timescales. Such understanding requires high-cadence measurements of both the electromagnetic fields and the three-dimensional particle velocity distributions. Although existing instrument technology enables these measurements, a major challenge to maximize the scientific return from these measurements is the limited amount of data that can be transmitted to the ground due to telemetry constraints. A valuable, but underutilized, approach to overcome this limitation is to compute on-board correlations of the maximum-cadence field and particle measurements to improve the sampling time by several orders of magnitude. Here we review the fundamentals of the innovative field-particle correlation technique, present a formulation of the technique that can be implemented as an on-board wave-particle correlator, and estimate results that can be achieved with existing instrumental capabilities for particle velocity distribution measurements.

plasma heating↗
NASA NTRS1980

Radiative cooling efficiencies and predicted spectra of species of the Io plasma torus

Calculations of the physical condition of the Io plasma torus have been made based on the recent Voyager EUV observations. The calculations represent an assumed thin plasma collisional ionization equilibrium among the states within each species. The observations of the torus are all consistent with this condition. The major energy loss mechanism is radiative cooling in discrete transitions. Calculations of radiative cooling efficiencies of the identified species leads to an estimated energy loss rate of at least 1.5 x 10 to the 12th watts. The mean electron temperature and density of the plasma are estimated to be 100,000 K and 2100/cu cm. The estimated number densities of S III, S IV, and O III are roughly 95, 80, and 190-740/cu cm. Upper limits have been placed on a number of other species based on the first published Voyager EUV spectrum of the torus. The assumption that energy is supplied to the torus through injection of neutral particles from Io leads to the conclusion that ion loss rates are controlled by diffusion, and relative species abundances consequently are not controlled by collisional ionization equilibrium.

Shemansky, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Spectral line shapes. Volume 4 - Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, June 9-13, 1986

The present conference discusses topics in line broadening and shift phenomena in low-to-moderately dense plasmas, resonances in the continuum, hot and dense laser-produced plasmas, collisional broadening and intermolecular potentials, molecular broadening and collision-induced spectroscopy, collisional redistribution and laser-assisted collision processes, coherent and nonlinear spectroscopy, astrophysical line-shapes, and short-wavelength lasers. Attention is given to the widths and shifts of Be ion lines, the Stark broadening of Xe II and Fe I lines, perturbed and unperturbed series in the line-shapes of autoionizing Rydberg series, the line-broadening of hydrogenic ions in dense plasmas, Doppler-free line-shapes, the Franck-Condon principle, the dynamics of laser-assisted reactive collisions, the gas-kinetic effects of light, collision-induced processes in nonlinear optics, and line-shaping phenomena in cool stars.

Exton, Reginald J.↗
DOE OSTI2020

High-energy ballistic electrons in low-pressure radio-frequency plasmas

This study demonstrates the presence of a small number of high-energy ballistic electrons (HEBEs) that originate from secondary electrons in low-pressure radio-frequency (rf) plasmas. The kinetic behaviors of the HEBEs are illustrated through electron energy probability functions from the fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, showing two wavy high-energy tails and two bifurcations during one rf cycle. Test-particle simulations and a semi-analytical method associated with nonlocal electron kinetics are performed to characterize the HEBE trajectories, which reveal the ballistic nature of the HEBEs and their typical bouncing features between the rf sheaths. Parameter dependence of the HEBEs on the discharge conditions (e.g., gas pressure, gap distance, and rf frequency) are identified, which is relevant to the plasma collisionality. With a pronounced presence of HEBEs, the overall impacts of the secondary electron emission on discharge parameters, such as electron power absorption and ionization rate, are also illustrated.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1974

A macroscopic plasma Lagrangian and its application to wave interactions and resonances

The derivation of a macroscopic plasma Lagrangian is considered, along with its application to the description of nonlinear three-wave interaction in a homogeneous plasma and linear resonance oscillations in a inhomogeneous plasma. One approach to obtain the Lagrangian is via the inverse problem of the calculus of variations for arbitrary first and second order quasilinear partial differential systems. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the given equations to be Euler-Lagrange equations of a Lagrangian are obtained. These conditions are then used to determine the transformations that convert some classes of non-Euler-Lagrange equations to Euler-Lagrange equation form. The Lagrangians for a linear resistive transmission line and a linear warm collisional plasma are derived as examples. Using energy considerations, the correct macroscopic plasma Lagrangian is shown to differ from the velocity-integrated low Lagrangian by a macroscopic potential energy that equals twice the particle thermal kinetic energy plus the energy lost by heat conduction.

Peng, Y. K. M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Current-driven plasma acceleration versus current-driven energy dissipation. I - Wave stability theory

The dominant unstable electrostatic wave modes of an electromagnetically accelerated plasma are investigated. The study is the first part of a three-phase program aimed at characterizing the current-driven turbulent dissipation degrading the efficiency of Lorentz force plasma accelerators such as the MPD thruster. The analysis uses a kinetic theory that includes magnetic and thermal effects as well as those of an electron current transverse to the magnetic field and collisions, thus combining all the features of previous models. Analytical and numerical solutions allow a detailed description of threshold criteria, finite growth behavior, destabilization mechanisms and maximized-growth characteristics of the dominant unstable modes. The lower hybrid current-driven instability is implicated as dominant and was found to preserve its character in the collisional plasma regime.

Kelly, A. J.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Particle collisionality in scaled kinetic plasma simulations

Kinetic plasma processes, such as magnetic reconnection, collisionless shocks, and turbulence, are fundamental to the dynamics of astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. Simulating these processes often requires particle-in-cell (PIC) methods, but the computational cost of fully kinetic simulations can necessitate the use of artificial parameters, such as a reduced speed of light and ion-to-electron mass ratio, to decrease expense. While these approximations can preserve overall dynamics under specific conditions, they introduce nontrivial impacts on particle collisionality that are not yet well understood. In this work, we develop a method to scale particle collisionality in simulations employing an artificial speed of light and/or an artificial ion-to-electron mass ratio. By introducing species-dependent scaling factors, we independently adjust inter- and intra-species collision rates to better replicate the collisional properties of the physical system. Our approach maintains the fidelity of electron and ion transport properties while preserving critical relaxation rates, such as energy exchange timescales, within the limits of weakly collisional plasma theory. Furthermore, we demonstrate the accuracy of this scaling method through benchmarking tests against theoretical relaxation rates and connecting to fluid theory, highlighting its ability to retain key transport properties. Existing collisional PIC implementations can be easily modified to include this scaling, which will enable deeper insights into the behavior of marginally collisional plasmas across various contexts.

Totorica, S. R. [Princeton Univ., NJ (United State↗
NASA NTRS1992

Transport of time-varying plasma currents by whistler wave packets

The relationship between pulsed currents and electromagnetic waves is examined in a regime characterized by electron MHD. Pulsed currents are generated by (1) collection/emission of charged particles by/from biased electrodes and (2) induction of currents by time-varying and moving magnetic fields. Pulsed currents are observed to propagate at the speed of whistler wave packets. Their field structure forms ropelike configurations which are electromagnetically force-free. Moving sources induce 'eddy' currents which excite waves and form Cerenkov-like whistler 'wings'. The radiation patterns of moving magnetic antennas and electrodynamic tethers are investigated. Nonlinear effects of large-amplitude, antenna-launched whistler pulses are observed. These involve a new modulational instability in which a channel of high conductivity which permits the wave/currents to penetrate deeply into a collisional plasma is formed.

Stenzel, R. L.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Uncertainties in Atomic Data for Modeling Astrophysical Charge Exchange Plasmas

Relevant uncertainties of theoretical atomic data are vital to determining the accuracy of plasma diagnostics in a number of areas, including, in particular, the astrophysical study. We present a new calculation of the uncertainties on the present theoretical ion-impact charge exchange atomic data and X-ray spectra, based on a set of comparisons with the existing laboratory data obtained in historical merged-beam, cold-target recoil-ion momentum spectroscopy, and electron beam ion traps experiments. The average systematic uncertainties are found to be 35–88% on the total cross sections, and 57–75% on the characteristic line ratios. The model deviation increases as the collision energy decreases. The errors on total cross sections further induce a significant uncertainty to the calculation of ionization balance for low-temperature collisional plasmas. Substantial improvements of the atomic database and dedicated laboratory measurements are needed to obtain the current models, ready for the X-ray spectra from the next X-ray spectroscopic mission.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Fluid-Kinetic Coupling: Advanced Discretizations for Simulations on Emerging Heterogeneous Architectures (LDRD FY20-0643)

Plasma physics simulations are vital for a host of Sandia mission concerns, for fundamental science, and for clean energy in the form of fusion power. Sandia's most mature plasma physics simulation capabilities come in the form of particle-in-cell (PIC) models and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) models. MHD models for a plasma work well in denser plasma regimes when there is enough material that the plasma approximates a fluid. PIC models, on the other hand, work well in lower-density regimes, in which there is not too much to simulate; error in PIC scales as the square root of the number of particles, making high-accuracy simulations expensive. Real-world applications, however, almost always involve a transition region between the high-density regimes where MHD is appropriate, and the low-density regimes for PIC. In such a transition region, a direct discretization of Vlasov is appropriate. Such discretizations come with their own computational costs, however; the phase-space mesh for Vlasov can involve up to six dimensions (seven if time is included), and to apply appropriate homogeneous boundary conditions in velocity space requires meshing a substantial padding region to ensure that the distribution remains sufficiently close to zero at the velocity boundaries. Moreover, for collisional plasmas, the right-hand side of the Vlasov equation is a collision operator, which is non-local in velocity space, and which may dominate the cost of the Vlasov solver. The present LDRD project endeavors to develop modern, foundational tools for the development of continuum-kinetic Vlasov solvers, using the discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin (DPG) methodology, for discretization of Vlasov, and machine-learning (ML) models to enable efficient evaluation of collision operators. DPG affords several key advantages. First, it has a built-in, robust error indicator, allowing us to adapt the mesh in a very natural way, enabling a coarse velocity-space mesh near the homogeneous boundaries, and a fine mesh where the solution has fine features. Second, it is an inherently high-order, high-intensity method, requiring extra local computations to determine so-called optimal test functions, which makes it particularly suited to modern hardware in which floating-point throughput is increasing at a faster rate than memory bandwidth. Finally, DPG is a residual-minimizing method, which enables high-accuracy computation: in typical cases, the method delivers something very close to the $L^2$ projection of the exact solution. Meanwhile, the ML-based collision model we adopt affords a cost structure that scales as the square root of a standard direct evaluation. Moreover, we design our model to conserve mass, momentum, and energy by construction, and our approach to training is highly flexible, in that it can incorporate not only synthetic data from direct-simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) codes, but also experimental data. We have developed two DPG formulations for Vlasov-Poisson: a time-marching, backward-Euler discretization and a space-time discretization. We have conducted a number of numerical experiments to verify the approach in a 1D1V setting. In this report, we detail these formulations and experiments. We also summarize some new theoretical results developed as part of this project (published as papers previously): some new analysis of DPG for the convection-reaction problem (of which the Vlasov equation is an instance), a new exponential integrator for DPG, and some numerical exploration of various DPG-based time-marching approaches to the heat equation. As part of this work, we have contributed extensively to the Camellia open-source library; we also describe the new capabilities and their usage. We have also developed a well-documented methodology for single-species collision operators, which we applied to argon and demonstrated with numerical experiments. We summarize those results here, as well as describing at a high level a design extending the methodology to multi-species operators. We have released a new open-source library, MLC, under a BSD license; we include a summary of its capabilities as well.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Dissipative magnetohydrodynamics for nonresistive relativistic plasmas: An implicit second-order flux-conservative formulation with stiff relaxation

Based on a 14-moment closure for nonresistive (general-) relativistic viscous plasmas, here we describe a new numerical scheme that is able to handle all first-order dissipative effects (heat conduction, bulk and shear viscosities), as well the anisotropies induced by the presence of magnetic fields. The latter is parametrized in terms of a thermal gyrofrequency or, equivalently, a thermal Larmor radius and allows to correctly capture the thermal Hall effect. By solving an extended Israel-Stewart-like system for the dissipative quantities that enforces algebraic constraints via stiff-relaxation, we are able to cast all first-order dissipative terms in flux-divergence form. This allows us to apply traditional high-resolution shock capturing methods to the equations, making the system suitable for the numerical study of highly turbulent flows. We present several numerical tests to assess the robustness of our numerical scheme in flat spacetime. The 14-moment closure can seamlessly interpolate between the highly collisional limit found in neutron star mergers, and the highly anisotropic limit of relativistic Braginskii magnetohydrodynamics appropriate for weakly collisional plasmas in black-hole accretion problems. We believe that this new formulation and numerical scheme will be useful for a broad class of relativistic magnetized flows.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

L-H transition trigger physics in ITER-similar plasmas with applied n = 3 magnetic perturbations

The L–H transition power threshold PLH is observed to increase with applied n = 3 resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP) in ITER-similar-shape plasmas with balanced neutral beam torque injection in DIII-D. The increase is most pronounced with added electron–cyclotron heating: PLH increases with decreasing edge plasma collisionality as PLH/PLH-08 ~ (ν*)−0.5, where PLH-08 is the 2008 ITPA multi-machine power threshold scaling. This result raises concerns for H-mode access at low edge collisionality in ITER, where RMP may have to be applied before the L–H transition to safely suppress the first edge-localized mode. Non-axisymmetric modifications with RMP include a simultaneous reduction of the radial electric field (Er) well depth and E × B shear. This can be attributed to increasing edge toroidal co-current rotation, and is consistent with substantially increased local long-wavelength turbulence (measured via beam emission spectroscopy). At high RMP perturbation strength the edge electric field Er reverses sign locally (becomes positive), with changes in dominant turbulence modes. Edge magnetic stochasticity provides an attractive explanation of the observed modifications, and the observed changes in toroidal rotation and Er are consistent with a simple fluid model describing radial electron current flow along stochastic fieldlines. The observed collisionality dependence of the L-mode edge electric field with applied RMP is also qualitatively consistent with this model. Reflectometry data indicate a significant reduction of the normalized L-mode radial density gradient a/Ln at high RMP field with simultaneous increase in radial particle flux and electron thermal flux from power balance analysis. We conjecture that the increase of PLH with RMP results from the combined effects of reduced E × B flow shear (increasing turbulent transport levels) and toroidal/poloidal flow modulation due to edge stochasticity. Initial experiments indicate that non-resonant n = 3 magnetic perturbations lead only to relatively small changes in Er, E × B shear and fluctuation characteristics, and have less impact on the L–H transition power threshold. This motivates further exploration of the RMP spectrum dependence of PLH for possible mitigation of the observed threshold increase.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗