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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 NTRS1985

On accuracy conditions for the numerical computation of waves

The Helmholtz equation (Delta + K(2)n(2))u = f with a variable index of refraction n, and a suitable radiation condition at infinity serves as a model for a wide variety of wave propagation problems. Such problems can be solved numerically by first truncating the given unbounded domain and imposing a suitable outgoing radiation condition on an artificial boundary and then solving the resulting problem on the bounded domain by direct discretization (for example, using a finite element method). In practical applications, the mesh size h and the wave number K, are not independent but are constrained by the accuracy of the desired computation. It will be shown that the number of points per wavelength, measured by (Kh)(-1), is not sufficient to determine the accuracy of a given discretization. For example, the quantity K(3)h(2) is shown to determine the accuracy in the L(2) norm for a second-order discretization method applied to several propagation models.

Bayliss, A.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Time-dependent simulation of cosmic-ray shocks, including Alfven transport

Time evolution of plane, cosmic-ray modified shocks has been simulated numerically for the case with parallel magnetic fields. Computations were done in a 'three-fluid' dynamical model incorporating cosmic-ray and Alfven-wave energy transport equations. Nonlinear feedback from the cosmic rays and Alfven waves is included in the equation of motion for the underlying plasma, as is the finite propagation speed and energy dissipation of the Alfven waves. Exploratory results confirm earlier, steady state analyses that found these Alfven transport effects to be potentially important when the upstream Alfven speed and gas sound speeds are comparable. As noted earlier, Alfven transport effects tend to reduce the transfer of energy through a shock from gas to energetic particles. These studies show as well that the timescale for modification of the shock is altered in nonlinear ways. It is clear, however, that the consequences of Alfven transport are strongly model dependent and that both advection of cosmic rays by the waves and dissipation of wave energy in the plasma will be important to model correctly when quantitative results are needed. Comparison is made between simulations based on a constant diffusion coefficient and more realistic diffusion models allowing the diffusion coefficient to vary in response to changes in Alfven wave intensity. No really substantive differences were found between them.

Jones, T. W.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Langmuir turbulence in suspended kelp farms

This study investigates the influence of suspended kelp farms on ocean mixed layer hydrodynamics in the presence of currents and waves. We use the large eddy simulation method, where the wave effect is incorporated by solving the wave-averaged equations. Distinct Langmuir circulation patterns are generated within various suspended farm configurations, including horizontally uniform kelp blocks and spaced kelp rows. Intensified turbulence arises from the farm-generated Langmuir circulation, as opposed to the standard Langmuir turbulence observed without a farm. The creation of Langmuir circulation within the farm is attributed to two primary factors depending on farm configuration: (i) enhanced vertical shear due to kelp frond area density variability, and (ii) enhanced lateral shear due to canopy discontinuity at lateral edges of spaced rows. Both enhanced vertical and lateral shear of streamwise velocity, representing the lateral and vertical vorticity components, respectively, can be tilted into downstream vorticity to create Langmuir circulation. This vorticity tilting is driven by the Craik–Leibovich vortex force associated with the Stokes drift of surface gravity waves. In addition to the farm-generated Langmuir turbulence, canopy shear layer turbulence is created at the farm bottom edge due to drag discontinuity. The intensity of different types of turbulence depends on both kelp frond area density and the geometric configuration of the farm. The farm-generated turbulence has substantial consequences for nutrient supply and kelp growth. These findings also underscore the significance of the presence of obstacle structures in modifying ocean mixed layer characteristics.

Bo, Tong (ORCID:0000000260300561)↗
DOE OSTI2023

Excitation of toroidally localized harmonics of global Alfvén eigenmodes

Abstract The spherical tokamak NSTX and the upgraded, higher toroidal field, NSTX-U, routinely create plasmas with large un-thermalized populations of super-Alfvénic fast ions. This population of non-thermal energetic ions excites a broad spectrum of Alfvénic waves, from the lower frequency (≈30 kHz–≈200 kHz) toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (Cheng and Chance 1986 Phys. Fluids 29 3695), to the higher frequency (400 kHz–3 MHz) global Alfvén eigenmodes (GAEs) and compressional Alfvén eigenmodes (Goedbloed 1975 Phys. Fluids 18 1258). In this paper we present evidence that the GAE non-linearly excite modes, presumably GAE, at frequencies consistent with non-linear or 3-wave coupling. The observation of the excitation of 2 nd harmonic GAE through the intrinsic non-linearity of Global Alfvén modes demonstrates that the non-linear terms can act as an exciter-antenna inside the plasma, broadcasting at harmonics of the mode frequency and with concomitantly shorter wavelengths. As with experiments using external antenna to excite otherwise weakly stable Alfvénic modes, this data can provide information about the stability of modes at harmonics of the GAE. It may also provide information on the nature of the non-linearities in the wave dispersion equation or a direct measure of the mode amplitude (Smith et al 2006 Phys. Plasmas 13 042504). We also report that the short wavelength 2 nd harmonic GAE can be strongly toroidally localized. The observation that the shorter wavelength ( n ≈ 20) 2 nd harmonic modes can be toroidally localized potentially has implications for the impact of fast-ion driven instabilities on fast-ion confinement in ITER and future fusion reactors (Gorelenkov et al 2014 Nucl. Fusion 54 125001).

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

On how fast ions enhance the regulation of drift wave turbulence by zonal flows

Abstract This paper presents a mechanism for enhanced regulation of drift wave turbulence by zonal flows in the presence of a fast ion population. It demonstrates that dilution effects due to the energetic particles (EPs) have a far-reaching impact on all aspects of the nonlinear dynamics. The modulational growth of zonal flow shear and the corresponding evolution of drift wave energy are calculated with dilution effects. The coupled zonal flow growth and drift wave energy equations are reduced to a predator–prey model. This is solved for the fixed points, which represents the various states of the system. Results display a strong dependence on dilution, which leads to greatly reduced levels of saturated turbulence and transport. Implications for the FIRE mode plasma of KSTAR are discussed in detail. This model is perhaps the simplest dynamical one which captures the beneficial effects of EPs on confinement.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Leaky guided waves in generic bars: Numerical prediction and experimental validation by means of ultrasonic underwater testing

Guided Ultrasonic Waves (GUWs) are used in several industrial and civil applications for the non-destructive tests and inspection of mechanical waveguides immersed in fluids. As well known, the impedance mismatch at the fluid-structure interface causes the bulk waves traveling inside the waveguide to be partially refracted in the surrounding fluid. The leakage of bulk waves involves continuous energy radiation along the propagation direction, resulting in high attenuation rates and, consequently, reduced inspection ranges. In this work, the dispersion behaviour of leaky guided waves that propagate in immersed waveguides of general cross-section is investigated. To this end, a Semi-Analytical Finite Element (SAFE) method coupled with a 2.5D Boundary Element method (BEM) is used to extract the wave dispersion equation. The proposed formulation avoids the well known limitations of analytical methods in treating complex geometries as well as those of Finite Element-based methods in representing propagation processes in unbounded domains. Numerical and experimental results are presented, in which the dispersion curves are extracted for different bars of arbitrary shape immersed in water. The results obtained in this paper can be useful for the design of testing conditions in practical applications and to tune experimental set up.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Monitoring internal organ motion with continuous wave radar in CT

Purpose: To avoid motion artifacts in medical imaging or to minimize the exposure of healthy tissues in radiation therapy, medical devices are often synchronized with the patient's respiratory motion. Today's respiratory motion monitors require additional effort to prepare the patients, e.g., mounting a motion belt or placing an optical reflector on the patient's breast. Furthermore, they are not able to measure internal organ motion without implanting markers. An interesting alternative to assess the patient's organ motion is continuous wave radar. The aim of this work is to design, implement, and evaluate such a radar system focusing on application in CT.Methods: The authors designed a radar system operating in the 860 MHz band to monitor the patient motion. In the intended application of the radar system, the antennas are located close to the patient's body inside the table of a CT system. One receive and four transmitting antennas are used to avoid the requirement of exact patient positioning. The radar waves propagate into the patient's body and are reflected at tissue boundaries, for example at the borderline between muscle and adipose tissue, or at the boundaries of organs. At present, the authors focus on the detection of respiratory motion. The radar system consists of the hardware mentioned above as well as of dedicated signal processing software to extract the desired information from the radar signal. The system was evaluated using simulations and measurements. To simulate the radar system, a simulation model based on radar and wave field equations was designed and 4D respiratory-gated CT data sets were used as input. The simulated radar signals and the measured data were processed in the same way. The radar system hardware and the signal processing algorithms were tested with data from ten volunteers. As a reference, the respiratory motion signal was recorded using a breast belt simultaneously with the radar measurements.Results: Concerning the measurements of the test persons, there is a very good correlation (ρ= 0.917) between the respiratory motion phases received by the radar system and the external motion monitor. Our concept of using an array of transmitting antennas turned out to be widely insensitive to the positioning of the test persons. A time shift between the respiratory motion curves recorded with the radar system and the motion curves from the external respiratory monitor was observed which indicates a slight difference between internal organ motion and motion detected by the external respiratory monitor. The simulations were in good accordance with the measurements.Conclusions: A continuous wave radar operating in the near field of the antennas can be used to determine the respiratory motion of humans accurately. In contrast to trigger systems used today, the radar system is able to measure motion inside the body. If such a monitor was routinely available in clinical CT, it would be possible optimizing the scan start with respect to the respiratory state of the patient. Breathing commands would potentially widely be avoided, and as far as uncooperative patients or children are concerned, less sedation might be necessary. Further applications of the radar system could be in radiation therapy or interventional imaging for instance.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Stability and response of trapped solitary wave solutions of coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations in an external, $\mathcal{PT}$- and supersymmetric potential

In this work, we present trapped solitary wave solutions of a coupled nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) system in 1 + 1 dimensions in the presence of an external, supersymmetric and complex $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric potential. The Schrödinger system this work focuses on possesses exact solutions whose existence, stability, and spatio-temporal dynamics are investigated by means of analytical and numerical methods. Two different variational approximations are considered where the stability and dynamics of the solitary waves are explored in terms of eight and twelve time-dependent collective coordinates (CCs). We find regions of stability for specific potential choices as well as analytic expressions for the small oscillation frequencies in the CC approximation. Our findings are further supported by performing systematic numerical simulations of the NLS system.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Stability of BEC galactic dark matter halos

In this paper we show that spherically symmetric BEC dark matter halos, with the sin r/r density profile, that accurately fit galactic rotation curves and represent a potential solution to the cusp-core problem are unstable. We do this by introducing back the density profiles into the fully time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii-Poisson system of equations. Using numerical methods to track the evolution of the system, we found that these galactic halos lose mass at an approximate rate of half of its mass in a time scale of dozens of Myr. We consider this time scale is enough as to consider these halos are unstable and unlikely to be formed. We provide some arguments to show that this behavior is general and discuss some other drawbacks of the model that restrict its viability.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Dirac open-quantum-system dynamics: Formulations and simulations

In this work, we present an open-system interaction formalism for the Dirac equation. Overcoming a complexity bottleneck of alternative formulations, our framework enables efficient numerical simulations (utilizing a typical desktop) of relativistic dynamics within the von Neumann density matrix and Wigner phase-space descriptions. Employing these instruments, we gain important insights into the effect of quantum dephasing for relativistic systems in many branches of physics. In particular, the conditions for robustness of Majorana spinors against dephasing are established. Using the Klein paradox and tunneling as examples, we show that quantum dephasing does not suppress negative energy particle generation. Hence, the Klein dynamics is also robust to dephasing.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2013

Domain wall model in the galactic Bose-Einstein condensate halo

We assume that the galactic dark matter halo, considered composed of an axionlike particles Bose-Einstein condensate [1], can present topological defects, namely domain walls, arising as the dark soliton solution for the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in a self-graviting potential. We investigate the influence that such substructures would have in the gravitational interactions within a galaxy. We find that, for the simple domain wall model proposed, the effects are too small to be identified, either by means of a local measurement of the gradient of the gravitational field or by analysing galaxy rotation curves. In the first case, the gradient of the gravitational field in the vicinity of the domain wall would be 10{sup −31} (m/s{sup 2})/m. In the second case, the ratio of the tangential velocity correction of a star due to the presence of the domain wall to the velocity in the spherical symmetric case would be 10{sup −8}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

One-Dimensional Forward–Forward Mean-Field Games

While the general theory for the terminal-initial value problem for mean-field games (MFGs) has achieved a substantial progress, the corresponding forward–forward problem is still poorly understood—even in the one-dimensional setting. Here, we consider one-dimensional forward–forward MFGs, study the existence of solutions and their long-time convergence. First, we discuss the relation between these models and systems of conservation laws. In particular, we identify new conserved quantities and study some qualitative properties of these systems. Next, we introduce a class of wave-like equations that are equivalent to forward–forward MFGs, and we derive a novel formulation as a system of conservation laws. For first-order logarithmic forward–forward MFG, we establish the existence of a global solution. Then, we consider a class of explicit solutions and show the existence of shocks. Finally, we examine parabolic forward–forward MFGs and establish the long-time convergence of the solutions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2012

Vortex lattices in a rotating Fermi superfluid in the BCS-BEC crossover with many Landau levels

We present an explicit analytical analysis of the ground state of vortex lattice structure, based on a minimization of the generalized Gross-Pitaevskii energy functional in a trapped rotating Fermi superfluid gas. By a Bogoliubov-like transformation we find that the coarse-grained average of the atomic density varies as inverted parabola in three dimensional cases; the Fermi superfluid in the BEC regime enters into the lowest Landau level at fast rotation, in which the vortices form an almost regular triangular lattice over a central region and the vortex lattice is expanded along the radial direction in the outer region; the fluid in the unitarity and BCS regimes occupies many low-lying Landau levels, in which a trapped gas with a triangular vortex lattice has a superfluid core surrounded by a normal gas. The calculation is qualitatively consistent with recent numerical and experimental data both in the vortex lattice structure and vortex numbers and in the density profiles versus the stirring frequency in the whole BCS-BEC crossover. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We present an analysis of vortex lattice in an interacting trapped rotating Fermi superfluid gas. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Decomposing the vortex from the condensate, we can explain the vortex lattice. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The calculation is consistent with numerical and experimental data. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer It can characterize experimentally properties in different regimes of the BCS-BEC crossover.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Classifying topology in photonic crystal slabs with radiative environments

Abstract In the recent years, photonic Chern materials have attracted substantial interest as they feature topological edge states that are robust against disorder, promising to realize defect-agnostic integrated photonic crystal slab devices. However, the out-of-plane radiative losses in those photonic Chern slabs has been previously neglected, yielding limited accuracy for predictions of these systems’ topological protection. Here, we develop a general framework for measuring the topological protection in photonic systems, such as in photonic crystal slabs, while accounting for in-plane and out-of-plane radiative losses. Our approach relies on the spectral localizer that combines the position and Hamiltonian matrices of the system to draw a real-picture of the system’s topology. This operator-based approach to topology allows us to use an effective Hamiltonian directly derived from the full-wave Maxwell equations after discretization via finite-elements method (FEM), resulting in the full account of all the system’s physical processes. As the spectral FEM-localizer is constructed solely from FEM discretization of the system’s master equation, the proposed framework is applicable to any physical system and is compatible with commonly used FEM software. Moving forward, we anticipate the generality of the method to aid in the topological classification of a broad range of complex physical systems.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Renormalized dynamic charge shielding on the electron-atom collision: Eikonal analysis

The influence of the dynamic renormalization plasma shielding on the electron-atom collision is investigated in a dense strongly coupled electron system. The semiclassical eikonal method and effective interaction potential are employed to obtain the eikonal scattering phase shift and eikonal collision cross section as functions of the Debye length, impact parameter, projectile energy, and thermal energy. It is found that the renormalized dynamic charge shielding effect enhances the eikonal collision cross section. The variation of the dynamic renormalization shielding on the electron-atom collision is also discussed.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Function space requirements for the single-electron functions within the multiparticle Schroedinger equation

Our previously described method to approximate the many-electron wavefunction in the multiparticle Schroedinger equation reduces this problem to operations on many single-electron functions. In this work, we analyze these operations to determine which function spaces are appropriate for various intermediate functions in order to bound the output. This knowledge then allows us to choose the function spaces in which to control the error of a numerical method for single-electron functions. We find that an efficient choice is to maintain the single-electron functions in L{sup 2} Intersection L{sup 4}, the product of these functions in L{sup 1} Intersection L{sup 2}, the Poisson kernel applied to the product in L{sup 4}, a function times the Poisson kernel applied to the product in L{sup 2}, and the nuclear potential times a function in L{sup 4/3}. Due to the integral operator formulation, we do not require differentiability.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Extending Romanovski polynomials in quantum mechanics

Some extensions of the (third-class) Romanovski polynomials (also called Romanovski/pseudo-Jacobi polynomials), which appear in bound-state wavefunctions of rationally extended Scarf II and Rosen-Morse I potentials, are considered. For the former potentials, the generalized polynomials satisfy a finite orthogonality relation, while for the latter an infinite set of relations among polynomials with degree-dependent parameters is obtained. Both types of relations are counterparts of those known for conventional polynomials. In the absence of any direct information on the zeros of the Romanovski polynomials present in denominators, the regularity of the constructed potentials is checked by taking advantage of the disconjugacy properties of second-order differential equations of Schrödinger type. It is also shown that on going from Scarf I to Scarf II or from Rosen-Morse II to Rosen-Morse I potentials, the variety of rational extensions is narrowed down from types I, II, and III to type III only.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗