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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 OSTI2022

Liquid bicontinuous stabilized assemblies by interfacial jamming of nanoparticles

A method for preparing a stabilized assembly includes combining a first liquid phase including nanoparticles and a second, immiscible liquid phase, dissolving in the second phase a first end-functionalized polymer having a first molecular weight, and a second end-functionalized polymer having a second molecular weight, wherein the second molecular weight is greater than the first molecular weight, applying a shearing external deformation field to increase the surface area of the first phase to create a new interface, wherein the nanoparticle surfactants form a disordered, jammed assembly at the new interface, and releasing the shearing external deformation field. The polymer and the nanoparticles can interact at an interface through ligand interactions to form nanoparticle surfactants and upon releasing the external deformation field the jammed assembly at the new interface traps the first phase in a deformed state having the first liquid phase and the second liquid phase as interpenetrating domains.

Huang, Caili↗
NASA NTRS2015

A plasma-based non-intrusive point source for acoustic beamforming applications

A laser-generated plasma acoustic point source is used to directly measure the point spread function (PSF) of a microphone phased array. In beamforming analysis of microphone phased array data, the true acoustic field is convolved with the array's PSF. By directly measuring the PSF, corrections to the array analysis can be computed and applied. The acoustic source is measured in an open-jet aeroacoustic facility to evaluate the effects of sampling rate, microphone installation, source shift, reflections, shear layer refraction and model presence. Results show that measurements exhibit behavior consistent with theory with regard to source shift and shear layer refraction. Application of a measured PSF in beamforming analysis shows the process provides an effective in-situ method for array calibration both with and without flow and allows for corrections to incorporate reflections and scattering. The technique improves the agreement of beamforming results with the true spectrum of a known source, especially in the presence of reflections.

phased array↗
NASA NTRS1989

The Baade-Wesselink method applied to field RR Lyrae stars. II - SW Andromedae, SW Draconis, and SS Fornacis

The Baade-Wesselink method has been combined with previous photometry and radial velocities to yield distances of 520 + or - 50 pc, 840 + or - 50 pc, and 780 + or - 150 pc, and mean absolute magnitudes of 0.88 + or - 0.20, 0.86 + or - 0.20, and 0.73 + or - 0.50, for SW And, SW Dra, and SS For, respectively. The present technique is able to account for the problem of phase-lag between spectroscopically and photometrically determined radial displacements in SW Dra, the Blazhko effect in SW And, and both the phase-lag and Blazhko effects in SS For.

Cacciari, C.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Electrical control of two-dimensional electron-hole fluids in the quantum Hall regime

We study the influence of quantizing perpendicular magnetic fields on the ground state of a bilayer with electron and hole fluids separated by an opaque tunnel barrier. In the absence of a field, the ground state at low carrier densities is a condensate of s-wave excitons that has spontaneous interlayer phase coherence. We find that a series of phase transitions emerge at strong perpendicular fields between condensed states and incompressible incoherent states with full electron and hole Landau levels. When the electron and hole densities are unequal, condensation can occur in higher angular momentum electron-hole pair states and, at weak fields, break rotational symmetry. Here, we explain how this physics is expressed in dual-gate phase diagrams, and predict transport and capacitively probed thermodynamic signatures that distinguish different states.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Automatic Differentiation in MetaPhysicL and Its Applications in MOOSE

Efficient solution via Newton’s method of nonlinear systems of equations requires an accurate representation of the Jacobian, corresponding to the derivatives of the component residual equations with respect to the degrees of freedom. In practice these systems of equations often arise from spatial discretization of partial differential equations used to model physical phenomena. These equations may involve domain motion or material equations that are complex functions of the systems’ degrees of freedom. Computing the Jacobian by hand in these situations is arduous and prone to error. Finite difference approximations of the Jacobian or its action are prone to truncation error, especially in multiphysics settings. Symbolic differentiation packages may be used, but often result in an excessive number of terms in realistic model scenarios. An alternative to symbolic and numerical differentiation is automatic differentiation (AD), which propagates derivatives with every elementary operation of a computer program, corresponding to continual application of the chain rule. Automatic differentiation offers the guarantee of an exact Jacobian at a relatively small overhead cost. In this work, we outline the adoption of AD in the Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) via the MetaPhysicL package. We describe the application of MOOSE’s AD capability to several sets of physics that were previously infeasible to model via hand-coded or Jacobian-free simulation techniques, including arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian and level-set simulations of laser melt pools, phase-field simulations with free energies provided through neural networks, and metallic nuclear fuel simulations that require inner Newton loop calculation of nonlinear material properties.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Evolution of titanium particle combustion in potassium perchlorate and air

Understanding titanium particle combustion processes is critical not only for characterizing existing pyrotechnic systems but also for creating new igniter designs. In order to characterize titanium particle combustion processes, morphologies, and temperatures, simultaneous spatially-resolved electric field holography and imaging pyrometry techniques were used to capture post-ignition data at up to 7 kHz. Due to the phase and thermal distortions present in the combustion cloud, traditional digital in-line holography techniques fail to capture accurate data. Here in this work, electric field holography techniques are used in order to cancel distortions and capture the three-dimensional spatial locations and diameters of the particles. In order to estimate the projected surface temperatures of the titanium particles, an imaging pyrometry method that ratios emission at 750 and 850 nm is utilized. Using these diagnostics, joint statistics are collected for particle size, morphology, velocity, and temperature. Results show that, early in the combustion process, the titanium particles are primarily oxidized by potassium perchlorate inside the igniter cup, resulting in projected surface temperatures near 3000 K. Later in the process, the particles interact with ambient air, resulting in lower surface temperatures around 2400 K and the formation of flame zones. These results are consistent with adiabatic flame temperature predictions as well as particle morphology observations of a titanium core with a TiO 2 surface. Late stage particle expansion, star fragmentation, and molten droplet breakup events are also observed using the time-resolved morphology and temperature diagnostics. These results illustrate the different stages of titanium particle combustion in pyrotechnic environments, which can be used to inform improvements in next-generation igniters.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Axisymmetric hydrodynamics in numerical relativity using a multipatch method

In this paper, we describe a method of implementing the axisymmetric evolution of general-relativistic hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics through modification of a multipatch grid scheme. In order to ease the computational requirements required to evolve the post-merger phase of systems involving binary compact massive objects in numerical relativity, it is often beneficial to take advantage of these system's tendency to rapidly settle into states that are nearly axisymmetric, allowing for 2D evolution of secular timescales. We implement this scheme in the spectral Einstein code and show the results of application of this method to four test systems including viscosity, magnetic fields, and neutrino radiation transport. Our results show that this method can be used to quickly allow already existing 3D infrastructure that makes use of local coordinate system transformations to be made to run in axisymmetric 2D with the flexible grid creation capabilities of multipatch methods. Our code tests include a simple model of a binary neutron star postmerger remnant, for which we confirm the formation of a massive torus which is a promising source of post-merger ejecta.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Magnon interactions in the quantum paramagnetic phase of CoNb 2 O 6

In this work, we study effects of magnon interactions in the excitation spectrum of CoNb 2 O 6 in the quantum paramagnetic phase in transverse field, where the 1/S spin-wave theory exhibits unphysical divergences at the critical field. We propose a self-consistent Hartree-Fock approach that eliminates such unphysical singularities while preserving the integrity of the singular threshold phenomena of magnon decay and spectrum renormalization that are present in both theory and experiment. With the microscopic parameters adopted from previous studies, this method yields a close quantitative agreement with the available experimental data for CoNb 2 O 6 in the relevant regime. Furthermore, insights into the general structure of the spin-anisotropic model of CoNb 2 O 6 and related zigzag chain materials are also provided and a discussion of the effects of additional longitudinal field on the spectrum is given.

1-dimensional spin chains↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quantifying magnetic field driven lattice distortions in kagome metals at the femto-scale using scanning tunneling microscopy

A wide array of unusual phenomena has recently been uncovered in kagome solids. The charge density wave (CDW) state in the kagome superconductor AV 3 Sb 5 , in particular, intrigued the community; the CDW phase appears to break the time-reversal symmetry despite the absence of spin magnetism, which has been tied to exotic orbital loop currents possibly intertwined with magnetic field tunable crystal distortions. To test this connection, precise determination of the lattice response to an applied magnetic field is crucial but can be challenging at the atomic scale. We establish a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) based method to study the evolution of the AV 3 Sb 5 atomic structure as a function of magnetic field. The method substantially reduces the errors of typical STM measurements, which are at the order of 1% when measuring an in-plane lattice constant change. Here, we find that the out-of-plane lattice constant of AV 3 Sb 5 remains unchanged (within 10 —6 ) by the application of both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic fields. We also reveal that the in-plane lattice response to magnetic field is at most at the order of 0.05%. Our experiments provide further constraints on time-reversal symmetry breaking in kagome metals and establish a tool for higher-resolution extraction of the field-lattice coupling at the nanoscale applicable to other quantum materials.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Synthesis of an aqueous, air-stable, superconducting 1T'-WS 2 monolayer

Liquid-phase chemical exfoliation can achieve industry-scale production of two-dimensional (2D) materials for a wide range of applications. However, many 2D materials with potential applications in quantum technologies often fail to leave the laboratory setting because of their air sensitivity and depreciation of physical performance after chemical processing. We report a simple chemical exfoliation method to create a stable, aqueous, surfactant-free, superconducting ink containing phase-pure 1T'-WS 2 monolayers that are isostructural to the air-sensitive topological insulator 1T'-WTe 2 . The printed film is metallic at room temperature and superconducting below 7.3 kelvin, shows strong anisotropic unconventional superconducting behavior with an in-plane and out-of-plane upper critical magnetic field of 30.1 and 5.3 tesla, and is stable at ambient conditions for at least 30 days. Our results show that chemical processing can make nontrivial 2D materials that were formerly only studied in laboratories commercially accessible.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1994

A new presentation of complex voltage data for Goldstone radar astronomy

A presentation method similar to a vector field display or a data-based grid has been used to visualize complex voltage test data taken over multiple subchannels. Unlike simple plots of all data points on the complex plane, the position of the data in the time series is part of the presentation, providing additional information to aid in fault isolation during readiness testing. The 'phase-magnitude' presentation, as it has come to be called, was designed for the demands of real-time data acquisition and processing with remote monitoring over low bandwidth communication links.

Howard, S. D.↗
NASA NTRS1996

A Numerical Simulation of Scattering from One-Dimensional Inhomogeneous Dielectric Random Surfaces

In this paper, an efficient numerical solution for the scattering problem of inhomogeneous dielectric rough surfaces is presented. The inhomogeneous dielectric random surface represents a bare soil surface and is considered to be comprised of a large number of randomly positioned dielectric humps of different sizes, shapes, and dielectric constants above an impedance surface. Clods with nonuniform moisture content and rocks are modeled by inhomogeneous dielectric humps and the underlying smooth wet soil surface is modeled by an impedance surface. In this technique, an efficient numerical solution for the constituent dielectric humps over an impedance surface is obtained using Green's function derived by the exact image theory in conjunction with the method of moments. The scattered field from a sample of the rough surface is obtained by summing the scattered fields from all the individual humps of the surface coherently ignoring the effect of multiple scattering between the humps. The statistical behavior of the scattering coefficient sigma(sup 0) is obtained from the calculation of scattered fields of many different realizations of the surface. Numerical results are presented for several different roughnesses and dielectric constants of the random surfaces. The numerical technique is verified by comparing the numerical solution with the solution based on the small perturbation method and the physical optics model for homogeneous rough surfaces. This technique can be used to study the behavior of scattering coefficient and phase difference statistics of rough soil surfaces for which no analytical solution exists.

Sarabandi, Kamal↗
NASA NTRS2013

Nonlinear Dynamic Behavior of Impact Damage in a Composite Skin-Stiffener Structure

One of the key issues in composite structures for aircraft applications is the early identification of damage. Often, service induced damage does not involve visible plastic deformation, but internal matrix related damage, like delaminations. A wide range of technologies, comprising global vibration and local wave propagation methods can be employed for health monitoring purposes. Traditional low frequency modal analysis based methods are linear methods. The effectiveness of these methods is often limited since they rely on a stationary and linear approximation of the system. The nonlinear interaction between a low frequency wave field and a local impact induced skin-stiffener failure is experimentally demonstrated in this paper. The different mechanisms that are responsible for the nonlinearities (opening, closing and contact) of the distorted harmonic waveforms are separated with the help of phase portraits. A basic analytical model is employed to support the observations.

Ooijevaar, T. H.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Hydraulic Response to Thermal Stimulation Efforts at Raft River Based on Stepped Rate Injection Testing

The injection well stimulation project at the Raft River geothermal field tests the effect of long-term cold water injection and high pressure injection on well injectivity, improvements to which could reduce operating costs. The primary data for analysis and interpretation of the injection test are step-rate flow tests run before each new phase of the injection. These tests were analyzed using a combination of standard pump-test analytical solution methods and methods developed expressly for the observed conditions. The stepped rate injection tests, combined with long-term flow and pressure response data suggest that the well is located within a fractured formation of low transmissivity but high storativity. These calculated parameters appeared to increase with pressure during the first injection test and the higher values were reproduced during the second stepped rate test. Calculated transmissivity and storativity are on the order of 4E-5 m cm 2 and 1E-4 m Pa -1 , respectively. The apparent pressure dependence of fitted hydraulic parameters may reflect near-well fracture compliance that increased the effective radius of the wellbore during the first test. While the type curve fit analysis also suggests that the reservoir behaves as a uniformly fractured reservoir with a radial flow regime, the hydraulic parameters indicate that condition may exist only a very limited distance (<10 m) from the well. Longer-term pressure response suggests that flow in the system effectively reaches steady state in a period of less than a day, which may reflect pressure stabilization resulting from pressure-dependent permeability or a region of much higher permeability located with a few meters of the well. The transmissivity estimates obtained from this analysis, converted to approximate fracture density and aperture, provide useful constraints on the distance to which the thermal front may migrate from the well during the cold water injection phase of the stimulation project. We estimate that the cooling front will migrate less than a tenth of a kilometer over an approximately one-year injection period. Here, the effects of that cooling, however, may be substantial, because increases in permeability have maximum effect nearest the well.

cold water injection↗
DOE OSTI2022

Resource Recovery and Environmental Protection in Wyoming’s Greater Green River Basin Using Selective Nanostructured Membranes (Final Report)

Produced water (PW) represents a sizable waste stream that is co-generated with oil and natural gas production. In 2021 Wyoming ranked 8th and 9th, respectively in domestic oil and natural gas production. In 2017 Wyoming ranked as the 4th highest generator of PW in the U.S, accounting for 7% of the total volume generated. In the context of being the 3rd most arid state in the U.S., the value of water reuse becomes obvious. PW reuse, and resource recovery, in any form requires some level of treatment to remove particulates, residual (free, dispersed) hydrocarbons, organics, and salts. The level of treatment depends on the requirements of the reuse, or resource recovery, application. PW management systems in Wyoming employ in order of volume of PW managed the following management strategies: reinjection for enhanced oil recovery, surface discharge, deep well injection, evaporation ponds (impoundments), and commercial management/treatment. Complicating treatment efforts are the relatively high concentrations of organics (natural and synthetic), dispersed/free hydrocarbons, benzene-toluene-ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) compounds, biologicals, salts, and minerals. Hydrocarbons (dispersed/dissolved crude oils) and BTEX compounds, as well as synthetic organics, present economic and environmental concerns. The former represents lost revenue, while the latter results in negative environmental impacts like emissions from surface impoundments. The overall objective of this proposal was to synthesize superhydrophilic/oleophobic and superhydrophobic/oleophilic membranes for selectively concentrating and then separating BTEX compounds and oil and grease (O&G) from PW originating from the Greater Green River Basin (GGRB) in Wyoming. Three specific research aims were pursued to accomplish this overall objective. This final report details the development of the superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic membranes, as well as the design of the membrane module prototypes specifically. The technoeconomic assessment is separately reported in another document. 1. Aim #1 – Material optimization and performance evaluation of superhydrophilic/oleophobic and superhydrophobic/oleophilic membranes made by electrospinning/spraying. 2. Aim #2 – Design and construction of cross-flow membrane modules for selectively concentrating and then separating BTEX/oil from GGRB produced water. 3. Aim #3 – Techno-economic assessment of BTEX/oil recovery, and clean water production, using superhydrophilic/oleophobic and superhydrophobic/oleophilic membrane separation for GGRB PW. Superhydrophobic membranes were synthesized by electrospinning poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) nanofibers onto polyester (PET) substrates and electrospraying nano-carbon black/PVDF-HFP onto the nanofibrous layer. These membranes were characterized by high (>8000 liters per square meter per hour per bar (LMH/bar)) permeance values for pure hydrocarbon phases and a high hydrocarbon selectivity (>96%) when treating GGRB PW. All results were obtained when operating the membrane in a crossflow configuration representative of actual field operating conditions. Solvent/oil properties, specifically viscosity and total surface energy/tension, affected permeance across the membrane, which resulted in light mineral oil (394 LMH/bar) and o-xylene (1834 LMH/bar) being characterized by lower permeance values in the pure phase tests. Mixed phase fluxes between 40 to 80 LMH were obtained for the PW when operating the membrane at a feed pressure of 0.3 bar. Flux decreased as the mixed phase concentration in the feed decreased pointing to the importance of maximizing the collision efficiency between the emulsion and the membrane surface and maximizing the emulsion concentration in the feed and the turbulence within the feed channel. These tests demonstrated that the superhydrophobic membranes developed here are a viable hydrocarbon recovery method for GGRB PWs and should be pursued for testing in pilot-scale trials. Superhydrophilic membranes were successfully synthesized via electrospinning/spraying using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers as a base nanofibrous matrix. Integration of polyaniline (PANI) into the nanofibrous matrix produced a superior membrane, for water filtration applications, relative to PAN alone and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) when integrated into the nanofibrous matrix. This conclusion was based on the PANI-PAN resistance to flux loss (fouling) when treating model solvent/oil solutions representative of GGRB PWs and field collected PW from the GGRB. The synthesized PAN membranes outperformed a commercially available PAN membrane designed for oil/water separation. This finding indicates that the surface chemical and physical characteristics of the electrospun membranes presents improved properties for filtration of challenging waters like GGRB PWs. The electrospun membranes therefore show promise overall as a substitute for conventionally polymerized membranes in PW treatment applications. The PANI-PAN membrane specifically presents superior performance characteristics for concentration O&G prior to treatment by the hydrocarbon recovery membrane and producing high-quality filtrate for reuse and/or additional treatment (desalination).

02 PETROLEUM↗
NASA NTRS2005

On Modeling Air/Space-Borne Radar Returns in the Melting Layer

The bright band is the enhanced radar echo associated with the melting of hydrometeors in stratiform rain where the melting process usually occurs below 0 C isotherm over a distance of about 500m. To simulate this radar signature, a scattering model of melting snow is proposed in which the fractional water content is prescribed as a function of the radius of a spherical mixed- phase particle consisting of air, ice and water. The model is based on the observation that melting starts at the surface of the particle and then gradually develops towards the center. To compute the scattering parameters of a non-uniform melting particle, the particle is modeled as a sphere represented by a collection of 64(exp 3) cubic cells of identical size where the probability of water at any cell is prescribed as a function of the radius. The internal field of the particle, used for deriving the effective dielectric constant, is computed by the Conjugate Gradient and Fast Fourier Transform (CGFFT) numerical methods. To make computations of the scattering parameters more efficient, a multi-layer stratified-sphere scattering model is introduced after demonstrating that the scattering parameters of the non-uniformly melting particle can be accurately reproduced by the stratified sphere. In conjunction with a melting layer model that describes the melting fractions and fall velocities of hydrometeors as a function of the distance from the 0 C isotherm, the stratified-sphere model is used to simulate the radar bright band profiles. These simulated profiles are shown to compare well with measurements from the Precipitation Radar (PR) aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite and a dual-wavelength airborne radar. The results suggest that the proposed model of a melting snow particle may be useful in studying the characteristics of the bright-band in particular and mixed- phase hydrometeors in general.

Liao, Liang↗
DOE OSTI2024

Plasma-based particle sources

High-brightness particle beams generated by advanced accelerator concepts have the potential to become an essential part of future accelerator technology. In particular, high-gradient accelerators can generate and rapidly accelerate particle beams to relativistic energies. The rapid acceleration and strong confining fields can minimize irreversible detrimental effects to the beam brightness that occur at low beam energies, such as emittance growth or pulse elongation caused by space charge forces. Due to the high accelerating gradients, these novel accelerators are also significantly more compact than conventional technology. Advanced accelerators can be extremely variable and are capable of generating particle beams with vastly different properties using the same driver and setup with only modest changes to the interaction parameters. So far, efforts have mainly been focused on the generation of electron beams, but there are concepts to extend the sources to generate spin-polarized electron beams or positron beams. The beam parameters of these particle sources are largely determined by the injection and subsequent acceleration processes. Although, over the last decade there has been significant progress, the sources are still lacking a sufficiently high 6-dimensional (D) phase-space density that includes small transverse emittance, small energy spread and high charge, and operation at high repetition rate. This is required for future particle colliders with a sufficiently high luminosity or for more near-term applications, such as enabling the operation of free-electron lasers (FELs) in the X-ray regime. Major research and development efforts are required to address these limitations in order to realize these approaches for a front-end injector for a future collider or next-generation light sources. In particular, this includes methods to control and manipulate the phase-space and spin degrees-of-freedom of ultrashort plasma-based electron bunches with high accuracy, and methods that increase efficiency and repetition rate. These efforts also include the development of high-resolution diagnostics, such as full 6D phase-space measurements, beam polarimetry and high-fidelity simulation tools. A further increase in beam luminosity can be achieve through emittance damping. Emittance cooling via the emission of synchrotron radiation using current technology requires kilometer-scale damping rings. For future colliders, the damping rings might be replaced by a substantially more compact plasma-based approach. Here, plasma wigglers with significantly stronger magnetic fields are used instead of permanent-magnet based wigglers to achieve similar damping performance but over a two orders of magnitude reduced length.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Molecular Functionalization of Semiconductor Surfaces

The presence of molecules on semiconductor surfaces can have a profound impact on their properties and applications in solar energy conversion. In this chapter we discuss the methods used to effect functionalization of semiconductor surfaces with molecular dipoles and catalysts. A major focus is the energetic impacts such molecules have to the fields at the semiconductor|contact interface. These field modulations are strongly dependent on the nature of the surface-bound molecule including its dipole moment and orientation as well as the distance of the dipole from the semiconductor surface. The contacting phase also has a strong impact on the energetics, since ions in the liquid electrolytes relevant to inorganic photochemistry partially screen dipolar effects at the surface. In addition to detailed description of these fundamentals, we present the history of this field as well as state-of-the-art chemistries that leverage the preceding decades of knowledge to impart the molecular interfacial layer with dynamic properties such as light absorption and catalysis. The challenges of establishing stable molecular attachment schemes at semiconductor|electrolyte interfaces are interwoven throughout the chapter. We conclude with a prognosis and future outlook that we hope will be a useful guide to those interested in developing the next generation of molecular chemistries at photoelectrode interfaces.

CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS,I↗