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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1973

Resolution of point sources of light as analyzed by quantum detection theory.

The resolvability of point sources of incoherent thermal light is analyzed by quantum detection theory in terms of two hypothesis-testing problems. In the first, the observer must decide whether there are two sources of equal radiant power at given locations, or whether there is only one source of twice the power located midway between them. In the second problem, either one, but not both, of two point sources is radiating, and the observer must decide which it is. The decisions are based on optimum processing of the electromagnetic field at the aperture of an optical instrument. In both problems the density operators of the field under the two hypotheses do not commute. The error probabilities, determined as functions of the separation of the points and the mean number of received photons, characterize the ultimate resolvability of the sources.

Helstrom, C. W.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Switching Circuit for Shop Vacuum System

No internal connections to machine tools required. Switching circuit controls vacuum system draws debris from grinders and sanders in machine shop. Circuit automatically turns on vacuum system whenever at least one sander or grinder operating. Debris safely removed, even when operator neglects to turn on vacuum system manually. Pickup coils sense alternating magnetic fields just outside operating machines. Signal from any coil or combination of coils causes vacuum system to be turned on.

Burley, R. K.↗
DOE OSTI2012

Charge Form Factors of Light Nuclei in Chiral Effective Field Theory

We use potentials and charge operators derived in chiral effective field theory ($\chi$EFT) to calculate charge form factors of $A=2-4$ nuclei up to next-to-next-to-next-to-next-to leading order (N4LO). The sensitivity of the results is studied as function of the cutoff $\Lambda$ in the chiral potentials and charge operators. We also present results obtained in a hybrid approach using the conventional AV18 potential and the $\chi$EFT charge operators. The theoretical results are compared to the experimental data for momentum transfers $Q$ up to $(2-3)\,m_{\pi}$. Reasonable agreement is obtained between theory and experiment.

Piarulli, Maria↗
DOE OSTI2018

Study of Critical Current and n-Values of 2G HTS Tapes: Their Magnetic Field-Angular Dependence

Since many applications of YBCO tapes operate in external magnetic fields, it is necessary to investigate the magneto-angular dependence of critical current and n-values in coated conductors. In this paper, five commercial YBCO tapes with different microstructures produced by three different manufacturers are chosen. The selected samples have a width of 2.0, 4.0, 4.8, 6.0 or 12 mm, with copper, brass or stainless steel laminations. The critical current density dependence J{sub c}(B, θ) and n-values characteristics n(B, θ) of the tapes are comprehensively measured under various magnetic fields and orientations. Afterwards, the obtained experimental data sets are successfully fitted using a novel multi-objective model which considers the material anisotropy. By using this approach, a fitting function I{sub c}(B, θ) can always be obtained to accurately describe the experimental data, regardless of the fabrication and width differences of the superconducting tapes. Moreover, our experiment shows that when subject to different external magnetic fields, the angular dependence of n-values characteristics is directly correlated with the corresponding critical current profiles. Our results are helpful to predict the critical current of electromagnetically interacting 2G HTS wires, thereby improving the design and performance of the devices made from YBCO tapes.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Pajarito Aerosol Couplings to Ecosystems (PACE) Field Campaign Report

Laboratory (LANL) worked on the Pajarito Aerosol Couplings to Ecosystems (PACE) intensive operational period (IOP). PACE’s primary goal was to demonstrate routine Mobile Aerosol Observing System (MAOS) field operations and improve instrumental and operational performance. LANL operated the instruments efficiently and effectively with remote guidance by the instrument mentors. This was the first time a complex suite of instruments had been operated under the ARM model and it proved to be a very successful and cost-effective model to build upon.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

A polarimetry-based field-deployable non-interruptive mirror soiling detection method

The soiling level of heliostat mirrors in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) fields is one of the key factors that significantly influences optical efficiency. State-of-the-art methods of monitoring heliostats soiling levels still face various challenges, including slow speed, labor-intensive operations, resolution and accuracy constraints or interruptions to solar field operations. Here, we present a rapid, cost-effective, and non-intrusive method for mirror soiling detection based on polarimetric imaging, referred to as Polarimetric Imaging-based Mirror Soiling (PIMS). The compact PIMS device is designed for integration with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), enabling rapid, large-area assessments of heliostat mirrors for efficient soiling detection. Our method utilizes the correlation between the Degree of Linear Polarization (DoLP) and surface soiling level based on Mie scattering theory and Monte Carlo simulations. Field deployment of the PIMS method requires minimal device installation, and its UAV-based operation allows for soiling detection without interrupting plant activities. The PIMS method holds the potential for mirror soiling detection across various concentrated solar power (CSP) plants and can be further adapted for other types of solar fields, such as parabolic trough systems.

CSP Field↗
DOE OSTI2023

Nonreciprocal Supercurrents in a Field-Free Graphene Josephson Triode

Superconducting diodes are proposed non-reciprocal circuit elements that should exhibit nondissipative transport in one direction while being resistive in the opposite direction. Multiple examples of such devices have emerged in the past couple of years, however their efficiency is typically limited, and most of them require magnetic field to function. Here we present a device achieving efficiencies upwards of 90% while operating at zero field. Our samples consist of a network of three graphene Josephson junctions linked by a common superconducting island, to which we refer as a Josephson triode. The triode is tuned by applying a control current to one of the contacts, thereby breaking the time-reversal symmetry of the current flow. The triode’s utility is demonstrated by rectifying a small (tens of nA amplitude) applied square wave. Finally, we speculate that devices of this type could be realistically employed in the modern quantum circuits.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2019

Investigation of the transition from streamer to uniform ‘overvoltage’ mode of atmospheric air nanosecond-pulsed dielectric barrier discharge

A nanosecond-pulsed dielectric barrier discharge ignited in atmospheric air was studied by optical emission spectroscopy to investigate the time- and space-resolved development of the reduced electric field. The discharge operated in two distinct modes that correlate with the values of the applied electric field: non-uniform streamer regime and uniform breakdown regime. It is shown that the reduced electric field in the non-uniform mode corresponds to the propagation of cathode-directed streamers, while in uniform discharge both molecular nitrogen emission and the reduced electric field are uniformly distributed along the gap during the initial discharge development stage with corresponding lower reduced electric field values.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1976

Demonstration of the frequency offset errors introduced by an incorrect setting of the Zeeman/magnetic field adjustment on the cesium beam frequency standard

The fine frequency setting of a cesium beam frequency standard is accomplished by adjusting the C field control with the appropriate Zeeman frequency applied to the harmonic generator. A novice operator in the field, even when using the correct Zeeman frequency input, may mistakenly set the C field to any one of seven major Beam I peaks (fingers) represented by the Ramsey curve. This can result in frequency offset errors of as much as 2.5 parts in ten to the tenth. The effects of maladjustment are demonstrated and suggestions are discussed on how to avoid the subtle traps associated with C field adjustments.

Kaufmann, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Rovers for Mars Polar Exploration

Mobility is a generic capability needed for Mars exploration. Requirements for mobility range from those needed to get observations of individual rocks all the way to those for getting high-resolution observations of regional areas. The Pathfinder mission and field experiments simulating rover missions provide guidance as to rover capabilities that can reasonably be expected in the next decade. Success of rover missions in achieving science goals depends on having adequate support imaging to enable traverses to targets of high science interest. Rover field experiments to date have used aerial photographs to provide support imaging. Pathfinder Sojourner operated in the field of view of the IMP camera. Plans for the future involve the use of descent imagers. However, the descent imager planned for the 2001 mission achieves resolution adequate to plan rover traverses only in the near vicinity of the lander (within a few hundred meters). Aircraft could provide aerial support imaging with a resolution of 10 cm over the entire area accessible to a rover. Aircraft could also provide the mobility needed to explore regional scale areas

Stoker, C.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Experimental Investigation of Polymer Induced Fouling of Heater Tubes in the First-Ever Polymer Flood Pilot on Alaska North Slope

Mineral fouling in heat exchangers has been extensively investigated by researchers in recent times. The oil and gas industry has a long history of fouling issues in production systems as a result of produced fluids treatment. Due to decline in production rates in oilfields new technologies are being developed and field tested in pilots. Polymer flooding is one such technology that involves addition of polymers to injection fluids to enhance oil production. A polymer flood pilot has been set up in the Schrader Bluff viscous oil reservoir at Milne Point field on the Alaska North Slope (ANS). The results from the pilot are encouraging, however a major concern of the operator is the influence of polymer on the production system after breakthrough, especially the fouling in heat exchangers. This study investigates the propensity of polymer fouling on the heater tubes as a function of different variables, with the ultimate goal of determining safe and efficient operating conditions. This work applies a multi-experimental approach to study the severity of polymer-induced fouling in both dynamic and static states of produced fluids as well as studying the stability of polymer solutions at different temperatures. A unique experimental setup was designed and developed in-house to simulate the fouling process on the heating tube. The influence of heating tube skin temperature, tube material, and polymer concentration on fouling tendency was investigated. Each test was run five times with the same tube, and in each run, the freshly prepared synthetic brine and polymer solution was heated from 77°F to 122°F to mimic field-operating conditions. The heating time and fouling amount were recorded for each run. Dynamic Scale Loop (DSL) tests were conducted to study fouling due to polymer at different temperatures (165°F to 350°F) in a dynamic state of fluid flow where the fluids mimic the residence time of fluids in the heat exchanger on the field pilot. Cloud point measurement has also been conducted to find the critical temperature at which the polymer in solution becomes unstable and precipitates out. The morphology and composition of the deposit samples were analyzed by environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. It was found that the presence of polymer in produced fluids would aggravate the fouling issues on both carbon steel and stainless-steel surfaces at all tested skin temperatures. Only higher skin temperatures of 250°F and 350°F could cause polymer-induced fouling issues on the copper tube surface, and the fouling tendency increased with polymer concentration. At the lower skin temperatures of 165°F, no polymer-induced fouling was identified on the copper tube. A critical temperature that is related to the cloud point of the polymer solution was believed to exist, below which polymer-induced fouling would not occur, and only mineral scale was deposited but above which the polymer would aggravate the fouling issue. The cloud point of the tested polymer solution was determined to be between 220°F and 230°F. In the DSL tests it was found that at higher skin temperatures of 250°F and 350°F tube blocking was observed in the DSL tests whereas the tests at 165°F and 200°F did not show any tube blocking in the same time period. These experiments also manifested the influence of cloud point of the solution as deposit rate increased significantly in both carbon steel and stainless-steel tubes when the skin temperature was higher than the solution cloud point. The results of this study have provided guidance to the operator for the field-operations.

Dhaliwal, Anshul↗
DOE OSTI2013

A spin observable for a Dirac particle

We discuss the form of the spin operator in relativistic quantum mechanics. We derive the form of the spin operator in the case when the states with negative energies are admitted. It appears that for a Dirac particle the spin operator reduces to the so called mean-spin operator introduced by Foldy and Wouthuysen. We show that the spin operator transforms under Lorentz group action according to an operator Wigner rotation, analogously as a Bloch vector describing polarization of a particle in momentum representation. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We examine the problem of a relativistic spin operator in the case of a Dirac particle. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We show that a proper spin operator coincides for positive energies with the operator used in quantum field theory. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer This operator can be extended for negative energies. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We show that this operator is equivalent to the so called mean-spin operator introduced by Foldy and Wouthuysen. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The spin operator transforms under Lorentz group action according to the operator Wigner rotation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

The effective field theory of dark energy

We propose a universal description of dark energy and modified gravity that includes all single-field models. By extending a formalism previously applied to inflation, we consider the metric universally coupled to matter fields and we write in terms of it the most general unitary gauge action consistent with the residual unbroken symmetries of spatial diffeomorphisms. Our action is particularly suited for cosmological perturbation theory: the background evolution depends on only three operators. All other operators start at least at quadratic order in the perturbations and their effects can be studied independently and systematically. In particular, we focus on the properties of a few operators which appear in non-minimally coupled scalar-tensor gravity and galileon theories. In this context, we study the mixing between gravity and the scalar degree of freedom. We assess the quantum and classical stability, derive the speed of sound of fluctuations and the renormalization of the Newton constant. The scalar can always be de-mixed from gravity at quadratic order in the perturbations, but not necessarily through a conformal rescaling of the metric. We show how to express covariant field-operators in our formalism and give several explicit examples of dark energy and modified gravity models in our language. Finally, we discuss the relation with the covariant EFT methods recently appeared in the literature.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Grassmann phase space methods for fermions. II. Field theory

In both quantum optics and cold atom physics, the behaviour of bosonic photons and atoms is often treated using phase space methods, where mode annihilation and creation operators are represented by c-number phase space variables, with the density operator equivalent to a distribution function of these variables. The anti-commutation rules for fermion annihilation, creation operators suggests the possibility of using anti-commuting Grassmann variables to represent these operators. However, in spite of the seminal work by Cahill and Glauber and a few applications, the use of Grassmann phase space methods in quantum-atom optics to treat fermionic systems is rather rare, though fermion coherent states using Grassmann variables are widely used in particle physics. This paper presents a phase space theory for fermion systems based on distribution functionals, which replace the density operator and involve Grassmann fields representing anti-commuting fermion field annihilation, creation operators. It is an extension of a previous phase space theory paper for fermions (Paper I) based on separate modes, in which the density operator is replaced by a distribution function depending on Grassmann phase space variables which represent the mode annihilation and creation operators. This further development of the theory is important for the situation when large numbers of fermions are involved, resulting in too many modes to treat separately. Here Grassmann fields, distribution functionals, functional Fokker–Planck equations and Ito stochastic field equations are involved. Typical applications to a trapped Fermi gas of interacting spin 1/2 fermionic atoms and to multi-component Fermi gases with non-zero range interactions are presented, showing that the Ito stochastic field equations are local in these cases. For the spin 1/2 case we also show how simple solutions can be obtained both for the untrapped case and for an optical lattice trapping potential.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

A labeled dataset for building HVAC systems operating in faulted and fault-free states

Abstract Open data is fueling innovation across many fields. In the domain of building science, datasets that can be used to inform the development of operational applications - for example new control algorithms and performance analysis methods - are extremely difficult to come by. This article summarizes the development and content of the largest known public dataset of building system operations in faulted and fault free states. It covers the most common HVAC systems and configurations in commercial buildings, across a range of climates, fault types, and fault severities. The time series points that are contained in the dataset include measurements that are commonly encountered in existing buildings as well as some that are less typical. Simulation tools, experimental test facilities, and in-situ field operation were used to generate the data. To inform more data-hungry algorithms, most of the simulated data cover a year of operation for each fault-severity combination. The data set is a significant expansion of that first published by the lead authors in 2020.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

Active Seismoelectric Monitoring of CO 2 Injection

Conference presentation at Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) Conference 2024, Houston, Texas, March 11–13, 2024. We investigated the use of active seismoelectric monitoring (ASE) to determine its effectiveness in detecting CO 2 injected deep underground and as an additional monitoring option for carbon storage projects. The EERC performed an ASE survey in February of 2023 at Pennel oil field near Baker, Montana, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored Williston Basin CO 2 Field Laboratory in conjunction with operating partner Denbury Inc. The field site is part of the Cedar Creek Anticline geologic structure, with CO 2 planned for injection into a stacked storage complex (SSC) in the Interlake Formation containing both a residual oil zone and a conventional reservoir. The objective was to test the ASE method’s ability to characterize baseline fluid distribution in both the near surface and the SSC prior to CO 2 injection.

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS↗
DOE OSTI2012

H{sup -} beam extraction from a cesium seeded field effect transistor based radio frequency negative hydrogen ion source

H{sup -} beam was successfully extracted from a cesium seeded ion source operated using a field effect transistor inverter power supply as a radio frequency (RF) wave source. High density hydrogen plasma more than 10{sup 19} m{sup -3} was obtained using an external type antenna with RF frequency of lower than 0.5 MHz. The source was isolated by an isolation transformer and H{sup -} ion beam was extracted from a single aperture. Acceleration current and extraction current increased with the increase of extraction voltage. Addition of a small amount of cesium vapor into the source enhanced the currents.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Compact deuterium-tritium neutron generator using a novel field ionization source

Active interrogation using neutrons is an effective method for detecting shielded nuclear material. A lightweight, lunch-box-sized, battery-operated neutron source would enable new concepts of operation in the field. We have developed at-scale components for a highly portable, completely self-contained, pulsed Deuterium-Tritium (DT) neutron source producing 14 MeV neutrons with average yields of 10{sup 7} n/s. A gated, field ionization ion source using etched electrodes has been developed that produces pulsed ion currents up to 500 nA. A compact Cockcroft-Walton high voltage source is used to accelerate deuterons into a metal hydride target for neutron production. The results of full scale DT tests using the field ionization source are presented.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗