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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 937 records · Page 52
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Transition from Collisional to Collisionless Regimes in Interpenetrating Plasma Flows on the National Ignition Facility

A study of the transition from collisional to collisionless plasma flows has been carried out at the National Ignition Facility using high Mach number (M > 4) counterstreaming plasmas. In these experiments, CD-CD and CD-CH planar foils separated by 6–10 mm are irradiated with laser energies of 250 kJ per foil, generating ~1000 km/s plasma flows. Varying the foil separation distance scales the ion density and average bulk velocity and, therefore, the ion-ion Coulomb mean free path, at the interaction region at the midplane. The characteristics of the flow interaction have been inferred from the neutrons and protons generated by deuteron-deuteron interactions and by x-ray emission from the hot, interpenetrating, and interacting plasmas. A localized burst of neutrons and bright x-ray emission near the midpoint of the counterstreaming flows was observed, suggesting strong heating and the initial stages of shock formation. As the separation of the CD-CH foils increases we observe enhanced neutron production compared to particle-in-cell simulations that include Coulomb collisions, but do not include collective collisionless plasma instabilities. Here, the observed plasma heating and enhanced neutron production is consistent with the initial stages of collisionless shock formation, mediated by the Weibel filamentation instability.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Ultrafast Structural Dynamics of Nanoparticles in Intense Laser Fields

Femtosecond laser pulses have opened new frontiers for the study of ultrafast phase transitions and non-equilibrium states of matter. In this letter, we report on structural dynamics in atomic clusters pumped with intense near-infrared (NIR) pulses into a nanoplasma state. Employing wide-angle scattering with intense femtosecond x-ray pulses from a free-electron laser source, we find that highly excited xenon nanoparticles retain their crystalline bulk structure and density in the inner core long after the driving NIR pulse. In conclusion, the observed emergence of structural disorder in the nanoplasma is consistent with a propagation from the surface to the inner core of the clusters.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Nanorelief of the natural cleavage surface of triglycine sulphate crystals with substitutional and interstitial impurities

Ferroelectric triglycine sulphate crystals (TGS) with substitutional (LADTGS+ADP, DTGS) and interstitial (Cr) impurities have been studied by atomic-force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence. The nanorelief parameters of the mirror cleavage TGS(010) surface have been measured with a high accuracy. A correlation between the crystal defect density in the bulk and the cleavage surface nanorelief is revealed at the submicrometer level.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Controls on Turbulent Mixing in a Strongly Stratified and Sheared Tidal River Plume

Considerable effort has been made to parameterize turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rate ..epsilon.. and mixing in buoyant plumes and stratified shear flows. Here, a parameterization based on Kunze et al. is examined, which estimates ..epsilon.. as the amount of energy contained in an unstable shear layer (Ri < Ric) that must be dissipated to increase the Richardson number Ri = N2/S2 to a critical value Ric within a turbulent decay time scale. Observations from the tidal Columbia River plume are used to quantitatively assess the relevant parameters controlling ..epsilon.. over a range of tidal and river discharge forcings. Observed ..epsilon.. is found to be characterized by Kunze et al.'s form within a factor of 2, while exhibiting slightly decreased skill near Ri = Ric. Observed dissipation rates are compared to estimates from a constant interfacial drag formulation that neglects the direct effects of stratification. This is found to be appropriate in energetic regimes when the bulk-averaged Richardson number Rib is less than Ric/4. However, when Rib > Ric/4, the effects of stratification must be included. Similarly, ..epsilon.. scaled by the bulk velocity and density differences over the plume displays a clear dependence on Rib, decreasing as Rib approaches Ric. The Kunze et al. ..epsilon.. parameterization is modified to form an expression for the nondimensional dissipation rate that is solely a function of Rib, displaying good agreement with the observations. It is suggested that this formulation is broadly applicable for unstable to marginally unstable stratified shear flows.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2013

Effect of low and high storage temperatures on head space gas concentrations and physical properties of wood pellets

Headspace gas concentrations and wood pellet properties were studied in sealed glass canisters at 5–40 degrees C storage temperatures. CO2 and CO concentrations at 5, 10, 20 and 40 degrees C at the end of 23–28 days of storage were 1600 and 200, 4700 and 1200, and 31 200 and 15 800 parts per million by volume (ppmv) respectively. Corresponding O2 concentration was about 19•49, 19•20, 18•0 and 2•07% respectively. Non-linear regression equations adequately described the gas concentrations in the storage container as a function of time. Safe level estimation functions developed were linear for O2 and logarithmic for CO and CO2 concentrations. Measured pellet properties moisture, length, diameter, unit, bulk and tapped density, durability, calorific value, ash content and per cent fines were in the range of 4•6–5•02%, 14–15 mm, 6•4–6•5 mm, 1125–1175 kg m-3, 750–770 kg m-3, 825–840 kg m-3, 73–74%, 18•32–18•78 MJ kg-1, 0•65–0•74% and 0•13–0•15%. Durability values of pellets decreased by 13% at 40 degrees C storage temperature and other properties changed marginally.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Cameco UO 3 Materials Analysis

Uranium trioxide (UO 3 ) was characterized using a variety of techniques to better understand its physical properties. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were collected to examine particle morphology, which consisted of semi-spherical particles that tended to agglomerate before sonication. Particle size analysis revealed a singular mode distribution with a mean particle size of 43.0 {micro}m. After sonication a bimodal distribution was produced with peak particle sizes at 0.226 μm and 9.43 μm. The O/U ratio was measured to be 3.09 by Cameco in 2009, by gravimetric analysis. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the sample was mostly Υ-UO 3 (87.1%) with a small amount of UO 3 ̣ 0.80 H 2 O (12.9%). Bulk and tap densities were determined to be 3.678 ±} 0.2 and 4.81 ± 0.2 g/cm 3 }, respectively (crystalline density is 7.3 g/cm 3 ). The stoichiometry was measured to be 2.99 in 2012.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2019

A multiscale approach to modeling carbon cycling within a high-elevation watershed (Final Report)

This report is to summarize the technical work completed during the project entitled "A Multiscale Approach to Modeling Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling within a High Elevation Watershed" (Award: DE-SC0014556). The report covers work completed between 08/01/2015 and 07/31/2018. The overarching objective of the work was to conduct a multi-scale reactive transport investigation of C and N in a high-elevation catchment in Colorado for the purposes of evaluating modeling approaches for describing net fluxes of C and N and their relationship to measurable hydrologic parameters. To accomplish this objective, we developed two microcatchment observatories where we have characterized the inventories of carbon and nitrogen and the fluxes of carbon into and out of the soil zone in tandem with environmental parameters, including soil moisture and temperature. We further evaluated watershed-scale carbon fluxes using measured concentration-discharge observations. To characterize the inventories of carbon and nitrogen, we developed a new approach for molecular characterization of soil organic carbon functional group abundance (SOC-fga) and applied this approach to bulk soil and density fractions from 4 profiles across the catchments. The speciation data was paired with radiocarbon and NMR measurements. To characterize fluxes, soil gas concentrations and carbon dioxide flux measurements were made throughout three growing seasons (2016, 2017, 2018) and combined with ground-based and remote sensing estimates of plant phenology. Paired laboratory studies investigated the response of microbial respiration to changing soil moisture as a function of soil depth and landscape position. Two modeling approaches have been developed. The first approach uses a diffusion-reaction approach to calculate the depth profile of carbon dioxide production rates based on measured profiles and surface efflux rates. The second modeling approach, a dormancy-enabled microbial model describes the microbial response to soil moisture by accounting for two distinct microbial strategists.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

IWTU TI-102 – Part 2 Sample Analyses

Samples from the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) were collected for analysis after TI-102 – Part 2 shutdown. The scope of analyses performed by Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) included: • Scanning electron micrography (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis for particle morphology, particle size, and elemental composition estimates • Loss on ignition (LOI) for determining the fraction that is coke and not bauxite • Proximate and ultimate analysis • Particle-size analysis using sieve trays • Bulk and particle density • Elemental analysis • Solubility • X-ray diffraction for mineralogy analysis • Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). This report provides the results of those analyses.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1978

ISEE plasma observations near the subsolar magnetopause

High-resolution plasma observations are analyzed which were performed during four successive inbound passes of the ISEE 1 and 2 spacecraft. A total of nine magnetopause crossings were made near the subsolar point under widely differing orientations of the interplanetary magnetic field. It is found that (1) large fluctuations that often appear to be temporal in nature characterize the magnetosheath flow near the magnetopause; (2) the plasma density and pressure between about 0.1 and 0.3 earth radius outside the magnetopause often begin to decrease gradually as the magnetopause is approached, in conjunction with an increase in magnetic-field strength; (3) the magnetopause, in cases where it can be well resolved, exhibits fluctuations in density, pressure, and bulk velocity about average magnetosheath values; and (5) the only thick (low-latitude) boundary layer observed was characterized by sharp changes at its inner and outer edges.

Paschmann, G.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Mass and energy balance in the 1973 August 9 flare

The mass and energy balance of the thermal plasma during the decay phase of the solar flare of August 9, 1973, are studied. The analysis is based on observationally determined values for the differential emission measure, density, turbulent and bulk velocities, and physical dimensions. The total particle content and total thermal energy content of the flare plasmas with temperatures above 100,000 K and their variation with time are calculated. The particle loss and the energy losses through radiation, conduction, and convection are evaluated. The decrease in total particle content can be accounted for by the convective losses through the loop footprints at 100,000 K. Radiation is the dominant energy loss mechanism although convective losses at 100,000 K can be important. Conductive losses at 100,000 K into cooler chromospheric material appear to be negligible. The decrease in the total energy content during the decay phase is equal to the sum of the energy losses over the period of observation. No requirement is found for continued heating during the decay phase.

Dere, K. P.↗
NASA NTRS1985

The cleft ion fountain - A two-dimensional kinetic model

The transport of ionospheric ions from a source in the polar cleft ionosphere through the polar magnetosphere is investigated using a two-dimensional, kinetic, trajectory-based code. The transport model includes the effects of gravitation, longitudinal magnetic gradient force, convection electric fields, and parallel electric fields. Individual ion trajectories as well as distribution functions and resulting bulk parameters of density, parallel average energy, and parallel flux for a presumed cleft ionosphere source distribution are presented for various conditions to illustrate parametrically the dependences on source energies, convection electric field strengths, ion masses, and parallel electric field strengths. The essential features of the model are consistent with the concept of a cleft-based ion fountain supplying ionospheric ions to the polar magnetosphere, and the resulting plasma distributions and parameters are in general agreement with recent low-energy ion measurements from the DE 1 satellite.

Horwitz, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Electric potential distributions at the interface between plasmasheet clouds

At the interface between two plasma clouds with different densities, temperatures, and/or bulk velocities, there are large charge separation electric fields which can be modeled in the framework of a collisionless theory for tangential discontinuities. Two different classes of layers were identified: the first one corresponds to (stable) ion layers which are thicker than one ion Lamor radius; the second one corresponds to (unstable) electron layers which are only a few electron Larmor radii thick. It is suggested that these thin electron layers with large electric potential gradients (up to 400 mV/m) are the regions where large-amplitude electrostatic waves are spontaneously generated. These waves scatter the pitch angles of the ambient plasmasheet electron into the atmospheric loss cone. The unstable electron layers can therefore be considered as the seat of strong pitch angle scattering for the primary auroral electrons.

Evans, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Studies of ionospheric plasma and electrodynamics and their application to ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling

The contribution of the Dynamics Explorer (DE) program to the study of small-scale structure in the equatorial ionospheric number density and the bulk motion of the plasma in the equatorial ionosphere is considered. DE results have helped elucidate the role of E region and F region winds in decreasing the magnitude of variations in the east-west plasma drift at night, as a function of magnetic flux tube apex height, with increasing height above the altitude of the peak F region concentration. Other results concern the ionospheric convection pattern at high latitudes during periods of southward IMF, the magnetosphere/solar-wind interaction that may be involved in the production of the convection pattern, and the characteristics of the high-latitude ionospheric plasma motion during periods of northward IMF.

Heelis, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Interplanetary medium data book: Supplement 3A, 1977-1985

Supplement 3 of the Interplanetary Medium Data Book contains a detailed discussion of a data set compilation of hourly averaged interplanetary plasma and magnetic field parameters. The discussion addresses data sources, systematic and random differences, time shifting of ISEE 3 data, and plasma normalizations. Supplement 3 also contains solar rotation plots of field and plasma parameters. Supplement 3A contains computer-generated listings of selected parameters from the composite data set. These parameters are bulk speed (km/sec), density (per cu cm), temperature (in units of 1000 K) and the IMF parameters: average magnitude, latitude and longitude angles of the vector made up of the average GSE components, GSM Cartesian components, and the vector standard deviation. The units of field magnitude, components, and standard deviation are gammas, while the units of field direction angles and degrees.

Couzens, David A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Magnetic suspension using high temperature superconducting cores

The development of YBCO high temperature superconductors, in wire and tape forms, is rapidly approaching the point where the bulk transport current density j vs magnetic field H characteristics with liquid nitrogen cooling will enable its use in model cores. On the other hand, BSCCO high temperature superconductor in wire form has poor j-H characteristics at 77 K today, although with liquid helium or hydrogen cooling, it appears to be superior to NbTi superconductor. Since liquid nitrogen cooling is approx. 100 times cheaper than liquid helium cooling, the use of YBCO is very attractive for use in magnetic suspension. The design is discussed of a model core to accommodate lift and drag loads up to 6000 and 3000 N respectively. A comparison is made between the design performance of a liquid helium cooled NbTi (or BSCCO) superconducting core and a liquid nitrogen cooled YBCO superconducting core.

Scurlock, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS1992

A different view of plasma flow inside P/Halley

The Giotto spacecraft carried two different instruments - the JPA and the IMS - for the observation of hot ions in the coma of P/Halley. Although there are many similarities in the time and distance profiles of the plasma flow parameters (bulk velocity, number density, and temperature) computed from the two data sets, there are also some significant differences, especially at cometocentric distances less than 500,000 km. The principal discrepancies between the JPA results presented by Formisano et al. (1990) and the IMS observations are: (1) the IMS did not detect the levelling off of the speed and temperature profiles that Formisano et al. interpreted as flow stabilization; (2) the IMS detected differential north-south flow between the solar wind and cometary ions for only a brief interval when the magnetic field was oriented nearly southward, whereas Formisano et al. reported more extensive differential north-south flow that was independent of the direction of the field; (3) the JPA ion densities were factors of 2 to 4 higher than the IMS ion densities which, in turn, were an order of magnitude greater than theoretical values.

Neugebauer, M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Pseudospectral simulation of compressible turbulence using logarithmic variables

The direct numerical simulation of dissipative, highly compressible turbulent flow is performed using a pseudospectral Fourier technique. The governing equations are cast in a form where the important physical variables are the fluid velocity and the natural logarithms of the fluid density and temperature. Bulk viscosity is utilized to model polyatomic gases more accurately and to ensure numerical stability in the presence of strong shocks. Numerical examples include three-dimensional supersonic homogeneous turbulence and two-dimensional shock-turbulence interactions.

Shebalin, John V.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Self-consistent solar wind-LISM interaction including neutrals: A 4-fluid model

We investigate the interaction between the heliosphere and local interstellar medium, including charge-exchange self-consistently between the neutral and ionized components. The system is modelled as consisting of neutral hydrogen, protons and electrons. The electrons are assumed to contribute to the dynamics via a pressure that is everywhere equal to the proton pressure. The fluid equations for the protons and hydrogen are solved self-consistently, assuming the two species interact only via charge exchange. The protons are treated as a single isotropic fluid. The hydrogen is decomposed into three isotropic fluids: hydrogen of interstellar origin with characteristic temperature of approximately 104 K, hydrogen produced via charge exchange in the post-shock solar wind, with characteristic temperature of approximately 105 K, and hydrogen produced via charge exchange in the supersonic solar wind, relatively cool but expanding radially outward with the solar wind speed. Two-Dimensional time-dependent numerical simulations of this system are performed to calculate the number density, temperature and bulk velocity of neutral hydrogen and plasma everywhere in the heliosphere. These quantities are compared to relevant solar wind observations. Implications for the pick-up process in the supersonic solar wind, as well as heating and deceleration of the wind, are addressed.

Williams, L. L.↗