Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “SIMULATOR”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 955 records · Page 53

Frustration- and doping-induced magnetism in a Fermi–Hubbard simulator

Geometrical frustration in strongly correlated systems can give rise to a plethora of novel ordered states and intriguing magnetic phases, such as quantum spin liquids. Promising candidate materials for such phases can be described by the Hubbard model on an anisotropic triangular lattice, a paradigmatic model capturing the interplay between strong correlations and magnetic frustration. However, the fate of frustrated magnetism in the presence of itinerant dopants remains unclear, as well as its connection to the doped phases of the square Hubbard model. Here we investigate the local spin order of a Hubbard model with controllable frustration and doping, using ultracold fermions in anisotropic optical lattices continuously tunable from a square to a triangular geometry. At half-filling and strong interactions U/t ≈ 9, we observe at the single-site level how frustration reduces the range of magnetic correlations and drives a transition from a collinear Néel antiferromagnet to a short-range correlated 120° spiral phase. Away from half-filling, the triangular limit shows enhanced antiferromagnetic correlations on the hole-doped side and a reversal to ferromagnetic correlations at particle dopings above 20%, hinting at the role of kinetic magnetism in frustrated systems. Furthermore, this work paves the way towards exploring possible chiral ordered or superconducting phases in triangular lattices and realizing t–t' square lattice Hubbard models that may be essential to describe superconductivity in cuprate materials.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Monte Carlo Simulation of Gamma-Ray Response of BaF2 and CaF2

We have employed a Monte Carlo (MC) method to study intrinsic properties of two alkaline-earth halides, namely BaF2 and CaF2, relevant to their use as radiation detector materials. The MC method follows the fate of individual electron-hole (e-h) pairs and thus allows for a detailed description of the microscopic structure of ionization tracks created by incident γ-ray radiation. The properties of interest include the mean energy required to create an e-h pair, W, Fano factor, F, the maximum theoretical light yield, and the spatial distribution of e-h pairs resulting from γ-ray excitation. Although W and F vary with incident photon energy at low energies, they tend to constant values at energies higher than 1 keV. W is determined to be 18.9 and 19.8 eV for BaF2 and CaF2, respectively, in agreement with published data. The e-h pair spatial distributions exhibit a linear distribution along the fast electron tracks with high e-h pair densities at the end of the tracks. Most e-h pairs are created by interband transition and plasmon excitation in both scintillators, but the e-h pairs along fast electron tracks in BaF2 are slightly clustered, forming nanoscale domains and resulting in the higher e-h pair densities than in CaF2. Combining the maximum theoretical light yields calculated for BaF2 and CaF2 with those obtained for CsI and NaI shows that the theoretical light yield decreases linearly with increasing band gap energy.

detector materials↗

Temporal resolution criterion for correctly simulating relativistic electron motion in a high-intensity laser field

Particle-in-cell codes are now standard tools for studying ultra-intense laser-plasma interactions. Motivated by direct laser acceleration of electrons in sub-critical plasmas, we examine temporal resolution requirements that must be satisfied to accurately calculate electron dynamics in strong laser fields. Using the motion of a single electron in a perfect plane electromagnetic wave as a test problem, we show surprising deterioration of the numerical accuracy with increasing wave amplitude a{sub 0} for a given time-step. We go on to show analytically that the time-step must be significantly less than λ/ca{sub 0} to achieve good accuracy. We thus propose adaptive electron sub-cycling as an efficient remedy.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Electrolyte pore/solution partitioning by expanded grand canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulation

Using a newly developed grand canonical Monte Carlo approach based on fractional exchanges of dissolved ions and water molecules, we studied equilibrium partitioning of both components between laterally extended apolar confinements and surrounding electrolyte solution. Accurate calculations of the Hamiltonian and tensorial pressure components at anisotropic conditions in the pore required the development of a novel algorithm for a self-consistent correction of nonelectrostatic cut-off effects. At pore widths above the kinetic threshold to capillary evaporation, the molality of the salt inside the confinement grows in parallel with that of the bulk phase, but presents a nonuniform width-dependence, being depleted at some and elevated at other separations. The presence of the salt enhances the layered structure in the slit and lengthens the range of inter-wall pressure exerted by the metastable liquid. Solvation pressure becomes increasingly repulsive with growing salt molality in the surrounding bath. Depending on the sign of the excess molality in the pore, the wetting free energy of pore walls is either increased or decreased by the presence of the salt. Because of simultaneous rise in the solution surface tension, which increases the free-energy cost of vapor nucleation, the rise in the apparent hydrophobicity of the walls has not been shown to enhance the volatility of the metastable liquid in the pores.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Application of a New Ensemble Conserving Quantum Dynamics Simulation Algorithm to Liquid para-Hydrogen and ortho-Deuterium

Here, we apply the Feynman-Kleinert Quasi-Classical Wigner (FK-QCW) method developed in our previous work [Smith et al., J. Chem. Phys. 142, 244112 (2015)] for the determination of the dynamic structure factor of liquid para-hydrogen and ortho-deuterium at state points of (T = 20.0 K, n = 21.24 nm -3 ) and (T = 23.0 K, n = 24.61 nm -3 ), respectively. When applied to this challenging system, it is shown that this new FK-QCW method consistently reproduces the experimental dynamic structure factor reported by Smith et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 140, 034501 (2014)] for all momentum transfers considered. Moreover, this shows that FK-QCW provides a substantial improvement over the Feynman-Kleinert linearized path-integral method, in which purely classical dynamics are used. Furthermore, for small momentum transfers, it is shown that FK-QCW provides nearly the same results as ring-polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD), thus suggesting that FK-QCW provides a potentially more appealing algorithm than RPMD since it is not formally limited to correlation functions involving linear operators.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Theoretically informed Monte Carlo simulation of liquid crystals by sampling of alignment-tensor fields

A theoretically informed coarse-grained Monte Carlo method is proposed for studying liquid crystals. The free energy functional of the system is described in the framework of the Landau-de Gennes formalism. The alignment field and its gradients are approximated by finite differences, and the free energy is minimized through a stochastic sampling technique. The validity of the proposed method is established by comparing the results of the proposed approach to those of traditional free energy minimization techniques. Its usefulness is illustrated in the context of three systems, namely, a nematic liquid crystal confined in a slit channel, a nematic liquid crystal droplet, and a chiral liquid crystal in the bulk. It is found that for systems that exhibit multiple metastable morphologies, the proposed Monte Carlo method is generally able to identify lower free energy states that are often missed by traditional approaches. Importantly, the Monte Carlo method identifies such states from random initial configurations, thereby obviating the need for educated initial guesses that can be difficult to formulate.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A generalized force-modified potential energy surface for mechanochemical simulations

We describe the modifications that a spatially varying external load produces on a Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface (PES) by calculating static quantities of interest. The effects of the external loads are exemplified using electronic structure calculations (at the HF/6-31G{sup ∗∗} level) of two different molecules: ethane and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-s-triazine (RDX). The calculated transition states and Hessian matrices of stationary points show that spatially varying external loads shift the stationary points and modify the curvature of the PES, thereby affecting the harmonic transition rates by altering both the energy barrier as well as the prefactor. The harmonic spectra of both molecules are blueshifted with increasing compressive “pressure.” Some stationary points on the RDX-PES disappear under application of the external load, indicating the merging of an energy minimum with a saddle point.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Plasma viscosity with mass transport in spherical inertial confinement fusion implosion simulations

The effects of viscosity and small-scale atomic-level mixing on plasmas in inertial confinement fusion(ICF) currently represent challenges in ICF research. Many current ICF hydrodynamic codes ignore the effects of viscosity though recent research indicates viscosity and mixing by classical transport processes may have a substantial impact on implosion dynamics. In this paper, we have implemented a Lagrangian hydrodynamic code in one-dimensional spherical geometry with plasmaviscosity and mass transport and including a three temperature model for ions, electrons, and radiation treated in a gray radiation diffusion approximation. The code is used to study ICF implosion differences with and without plasmaviscosity and to determine the impacts of viscosity on temperature histories and neutron yield. It was found that plasmaviscosity has substantial impacts on ICF shock dynamics characterized by shock burn timing, maximum burn temperatures, convergence ratio, and time history of neutron production rates. Finally, plasmaviscosity reduces the need for artificial viscosity to maintain numerical stability in the Lagrangian formulation and also modifies the flux-limiting needed for electron thermal conduction.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Time-dependent analysis of visible helium line-ratios for electron temperature and density diagnostic using synthetic simulations on NSTX-U

Helium line-ratios for electron temperature (T{sub e}) and density (n{sub e}) plasma diagnostic in the Scrape-Off-Layer (SOL) and edge regions of tokamaks are widely used. Due to their intensities and proximity of wavelengths, the singlet, 667.8 and 728.1 nm, and triplet, 706.5 nm, visible lines have been typically preferred. Time-dependency of the triplet line (706.5 nm) has been previously analyzed in detail by including transient effects on line-ratios during gas-puff diagnostic applications. In this work, several line-ratio combinations within each of the two spin systems are analyzed with the purpose of eliminating transient effects to extend the application of this powerful diagnostic to high temporal resolution characterization of plasmas. The analysis is done using synthetic emission modeling and diagnostic for low electron density NSTX SOL plasma conditions by several visible lines. Quasi-static equilibrium and time-dependent models are employed to evaluate transient effects of the atomic population levels that may affect the derived electron temperatures and densities as the helium gas-puff penetrates the plasma. The analysis of a wider range of spectral lines will help to extend this powerful diagnostic to experiments where the wavelength range of the measured spectra may be constrained either by limitations of the spectrometer or by other conflicting lines from different ions.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Large-Scale Materials Modeling at Quantum Accuracy: Ab Initio Simulations of Quasicrystals and Interacting Extended Defects in Metallic Alloys

Ab initio electronic-structure has remained dichotomous between achievable accuracy and length-scale. Quantum many-body (QMB) methods realize quantum accuracy but fail to scale. Density functional theory (DFT) scales favorably but remains far from quantum accuracy. We present a framework that breaks this dichotomy by use of three interconnected modules: (i) invDFT: a methodological advance in inverse DFT linking QMB methods to DFT; (ii) MLXC: a machine-learned density functional trained with invDFT data, commensurate with quantum accuracy; (iii) DFT-FE-MLXC: an adaptive higher-order spectral finite-element (FE) based DFT implementation that integrates MLXC with efficient solver strategies and HPC innovations in FE-specific dense linear algebra, mixed-precision algorithms, and asynchronous compute-communication. Furthermore, we demonstrate a paradigm shift in DFT that not only provides an accuracy commensurate with QMB methods in ground-state energies, but also attains an unprecedented performance of 659.7 PFLOPS (43.1% peak FP64 performance) on 619,124 electrons using 8,000 GPU nodes of Frontier supercomputer.

density functional theory↗

Dancoff-based Wigner-Seitz approximation for the subgroup resonance self-shielding in the VERA neutronic simulator MPACT

The MPACT neutronics module of the Virtual Environment for Reactor Analysis (VERA) has used the subgroup method for resonance self-shielding calculation, for which two-dimensional (2D) fixed-source transport calculations are performed using the method of characteristics for resonance energy groups. When considering thermal feedbacks, the subgroup calculation must be performed at each outer iteration. Therefore, the computing time for cross section processing is a significant burden for computational efficiency. The Dancoff-based Wigner-Seitz approximation (DWA) capability has been implemented into MPACT in conjunction with the subgroup method, which has been used in SCALE/XSProc since SCALE version 6.0 and has recently been called an equivalent Dancoff-factor cell (EDC) method. The issue of relatively large reactivity bias in DWA for the gadolinia rods was resolved by introducing multiple Dancoff factors. Benchmark results for the VERA pressurized and boiling water reactor benchmark suites show that the DWA capability would significantly enhance computational efficiency with comparable accuracy. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Global patterns and controls of soil organic carbon dynamics as simulated by multiple terrestrial biosphere models. Current status and future directions

Soil is the largest organic carbon (C) pool of terrestrial ecosystems, and loss from soil accounts for a large pro portion of land-atmosphere C exchange. Due to large pool size and variable residence time from years to millennia, even small changes in soil organic C(SOC) have substantial effects on the terrestrial C budget, thereby affecting atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)concentration and climate change. In the past decades, a wide variety of studies have been conducted to quantify global SOC stocks and soil exchange with the atmosphere through site measurements, inventories, and empirical/process-based modeling. However, these estimates are highly uncertain and identifying major driving forces controlling soil C storage and fluxes remains a key research challenge his study has compiled century-long (1901-2010)estimates of SOC storage and heterotrophic respiration (Rh) from ten terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs) in the Multi-scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project (MsTMIP) and two observation based datasets. The ten-TBM ensemble shows that global SOC estimate range from 4 to 2111 Pg C (1 Pg = 10 15 g) with a median value of 1158 Pg C33 in 2010. Modeling approach estimates a broad range of Rh from 35 to 69 Pg C yr -1 with a median value of 51Pg C yr -1 during 200–2010. The largest uncertainty in SOC stocks exists in the 40–65°N latitude band while Rh differences are the largest in the tropics. All the models agreed that climate and land use changes have decreased SOC stocks while elevated CO 2 and atmospheric nitrogen deposition have increased SOC stocks though the response varied significantly among models. Model representations of temperature and moisture sensitivity,nutrient limitation and land use partially explain the divergent estimates of global SOC stocks and soil fluxes in this study. In addition, major sources of uncertainty from model estimation include exclusion of SOC storage in wetlands and peatlands as well as C storage in deep soil layers.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Climatic effects of irrigation over the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain in China simulated by the weather research and forecasting model: Simulated Irrigation Effects in China

In this study, we apply the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with an operational-like irrigation scheme to investigate the climatic effects of irrigation over the Huang-Huai-Hai plain (3HP) in China. Multiple numerical experiments with irrigation off/on during spring, summer and both spring and summer are conducted, respectively. Our results show that the warm bias in surface temperature and dry bias in soil moisture are reduced over the 3HP region during growing seasons when irrigation is turned on in the model. Air temperature during non-growing seasons is also affected by irrigation due to the persistent effects of soil moisture on land-air energy exchanges and ground heat storage. Irrigation can induce a cooler planetary boundary layer (PBL) during growing seasons, causing a wetter PBL with more low-level clouds during spring but relatively dryer PBL in summer. Further analyses indicate that the dryer summer is highly related to the changes in the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) circulation that is modified by irrigation effect. Spring irrigation may induce a decreased land-ocean thermal contrast, leading to a possible weaker EASM. Summer irrigation, however, evidently cools the atmosphere column and forces a southward shift of the upper-level jet, which results in more precipitation in Yangtze River basin but less over southern and northern China during summer.

3HP↗

First Principles Simulations of Electrified Interfaces in Electrochemistry

This chapter discusses some of the recent advances made in the first principles modeling of electrochemical catalysts. It also discusses the key development, namely the ability to explicitly treat the effects of surface electrification due to electrochemical processes and applied voltages in a computationally efficient manner. The chapter introduces the thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of electrified metal-solution interfaces. It then discusses the structure of the electrode-electrolyte interface and the effects of applied voltages, followed by an overview of the first-principles model and a motivating example. The chapter also provides a brief summary of classical thermodynamics and describes the basics of thermodynamic detour. It considers the thermodynamics of macroscopic systems and introduces several useful fundamental relations. Here, the chapter also considers a system to exist in a certain macrostate, which is a particular thermodynamic state specified by a set of fixed properties such as constant particle number, constant volume, and constant temperature.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗