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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 973 records · Page 54
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Optimization of the gamma reaction history diagnostic for double-shell pusher areal density and reaction history measurements on the National Ignition Facility

The double-shell inertial confinement fusion campaign, which consists of an aluminum ablator, a foam cushion, a high-Z pusher (tungsten or molybdenum), and liquid deuterium–tritium (DT) fuel, aims for its first DT filled implosions on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in 2024. The high-Z, high density pusher does not allow x-rays to escape the double-shell capsule. Therefore, nuclear diagnostics such as the Gamma Reaction History (GRH) diagnostic on the NIF are crucial for understanding high-Z implosion performance. To optimize the GRH measurement of fusion reaction history and the pusher’s areal density, the MCNP6.3-based forward model of the detector was built. When calculating the neutron-induced inelastic gamma ray production, the interaction of neutrons with the compressed fuel was additionally included. By folding the calculated gamma ray spectrum output and the previously calibrated GRH detector responses, the optimum set of GRH energy thresholds for measuring the pusher areal density is determined to be 2.9 and 6.3 MeV for DT double-shell experiments. In addition, the effect of the down-scattering of neutrons on the gamma ray spectrum, the minimum required yield for measurements, and the attenuation of the gamma rays through the pusher are analyzed.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sensor Impacts Evaluation and Verification: Expert Interview Responses

The sensor configuration/deployment method has critical impacts on energy efficient building control and thermal comfort. However, traditional sensor techniques for building operation and fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) are not necessarily optimal in terms of energy efficiency and thermal comfort, and their global effects are not thoroughly investigated. In an effort to address and overcome this limitation, a multilaboratory and multiyear project, “Sensor Impact Evaluation and Verification,” was proposed. Its purpose is to develop a framework to investigate the impacts of sensor deployment and configuration on building energy optimization, FDD, occupant thermal comfort, and potentially grid efficiency. The first project task was a literature review to establish a solid knowledge of and a background related to sensor technologies and placement. To accomplish this task, an extensive review of previous research literature was performed. A series of expert interviews were conducted to augment the findings of the literature review. This report summarizes the interview design and interview results and findings. The interview was designed and performed to (1) investigate the current status and limitations of sensor configuration, (2) identify the research gaps and expectations for potential improvements in sensor configuration and deployment, and (3) integrate expert (e.g., researcher, building operation practitioner) knowledge and experience to develop use-case scenarios.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

IER-501 CED-3b: Experiment Execution Summary for the Pulsed-Neutron Die-Away Experimental Testbed for Thermal Scattering Law Benchmarks (PNDA)

This report summarizes the experiments done for IER-501, a testbed for pulsed-neutron die-away (PNDA) experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The PNDA experiments were conducted in two separate two-day campaigns: one campaign for high-density polyethylene and another for Lucite. All experiments were performed at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. They will become high-quality benchmarks that serve to optimize and validate thermal neutron scattering laws (TSLs), which are high priority nuclear data for the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP). The report presents the PNDA design and its equipment, and it documents the experimental die-away curves. It presents the characterization measurements that have been performed to-date. Importantly, mass spectrometry measurements to determine sample impurities were not yet completed. These will be included in the final benchmark. The report gives the fitted decay constants for the die-away curves of each target sample. It also provides the data for the die-away curves in the appendices. The HDPE experiments examined twelve targets of varying size. The Lucite measurements included ten targets of varying size. Experimenters in the campaign were Daniel Siefman, William Zywiec, and Ruby Araj.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

DUNE DAQ R&D integration in ProtoDUNE Single-Phase at CERN

The DAQ system of ProtoDUNE-SP successfully proved its design principles and met the requirements of the beam run of 2018. The technical design of the DAQ system for the DUNE experiment has major differences compared to the prototype due to different requirements placed on the detector, as well as a radically different location of operation. The single-phase prototype at CERN is a major integration facility for R&D aspects of the DUNE DAQ system. The facility allows for the exploration of additional data processing capabilities and optimization of the FELIX system, which is the chosen TPC readout solution for the DUNE single-phase detectors. One of the fundamental differences from the prototype is that the DUNE DAQ relies on self-triggering. Therefore, real-time processing of the data stream for hit and trigger primitive finding is essential for the requirement of continuous readout. The supernova burst trigger requires a large and fast buffering technique, where 3D XPoint persistent memory solutions are evaluated and integrated. In order to maximize resource utilization of the FELIX hosting servers, the elimination of the 100 Gb network communication stack is desired. This implies the design and development of a single-host application layer, which is a fundamental element of the self-triggering chain. This paper discusses the evaluation and integration of these developments for the DUNE DAQ, in the ProtoDUNE environment.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

Scaling and merging time-resolved pink-beam diffraction with variational inference

Time-resolved x-ray crystallography (TR-X) at synchrotrons and free electron lasers is a promising technique for recording dynamics of molecules at atomic resolution. While experimental methods for TR-X have proliferated and matured, data analysis is often difficult. Extracting small, time-dependent changes in signal is frequently a bottleneck for practitioners. Recent work demonstrated this challenge can be addressed when merging redundant observations by a statistical technique known as variational inference (VI). However, the variational approach to time-resolved data analysis requires identification of successful hyperparameters in order to optimally extract signal. In this case study, we present a successful application of VI to time-resolved changes in an enzyme, DJ-1, upon mixing with a substrate molecule, methylglyoxal. We present a strategy to extract high signal-to-noise changes in electron density from these data. Furthermore, we conduct an ablation study, in which we systematically remove one hyperparameter at a time to demonstrate the impact of each hyperparameter choice on the success of our model. We expect this case study will serve as a practical example for how others may deploy VI in order to analyze their time-resolved diffraction data.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Ultrafast jet classification at the HL-LHC

Abstract Three machine learning models are used to perform jet origin classification. These models are optimized for deployment on a field-programmable gate array device. In this context, we demonstrate how latency and resource consumption scale with the input size and choice of algorithm. Moreover, the models proposed here are designed to work on the type of data and under the foreseen conditions at the CERN large hadron collider during its high-luminosity phase. Through quantization-aware training and efficient synthetization for a specific field programmable gate array, we show that O ( 100 ) ns inference of complex architectures such as Deep Sets and Interaction Networks is feasible at a relatively low computational resource cost.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

MemXCT: Design, Optimization, Scaling, and Reproducibility of X-Ray Tomography Imaging

Here, this work extends our previous research entitled "MemXCT: Memory-centric X-ray CT Reconstruction with Massive Parallelization" that was originally published at SC19 conference (Hidayetoglu et al., 2019) with reproducibility of the computational imaging performance. X-ray computed tomography (XCT) is regularly used at synchrotron light sources to study the internal morphology of materials at high resolution. However, experimental constraints, such as radiation sensitivity, can result in noisy or undersampled measurements. Further, depending on the resolution, sample size and data acquisition rates, the resulting noisy dataset can be in the order of terabytes. Advanced iterative reconstruction techniques can produce high-quality images from noisy measurements, but their computational requirements have made their use an exception rather than the rule. We propose a novel memory-centric approach that avoids redundant computations at the expense of additional memory complexity. We develop a memory-centric iterative reconstruction system, MemXCT, that uses an optimized SpMV implementation with two-level pseudo-Hilbert ordering and multi-stage input buffering. We evaluate MemXCT on various supercomputer architectures involving KNL and GPU. MemXCT can reconstruct a large (11Kx11K) mouse brain tomogram in 10 seconds using 4096 KNL nodes (256K cores). The results presented in our original article at the SC19 were based on large-scale supercomputing resources. The MemXCT application was selected for the Student Cluster Competition (SCC) Reproducibility Challenge and evaluated on a variety of cloud computing resources by universities around the world in the SC20 conference. We summarize the results of the top-ranked SCC Reproducibility Challenge teams and identify the most pertinent measures for ensuring the reproducibility of our experiments in this article.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Rechargeable Micro-Batteries

The quest for efficient power sources for small sensors has led to a growing interest in rechargeable micro-batteries, offering the potential to harness energy from various sources for extended periods. This project delves into a multifaceted project aimed at enhancing the performance and viability of rechargeable micro-batteries in this context. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has leveraged its expertise in primary micro-battery development, evolving into a software-driven approach for designing cylindrical micro-batteries. This project addresses the cycle life issue through innovative cell design, electrode optimization, and electrolyte refinement. A case study of the MB1842 rechargeable micro-battery demonstrates the promising outcomes of these advancements, showcasing a capacity of 0.32 mAh at ~1C (0.35 mA) and remarkable cycle performance, extending the cycle life to 510-570 cycles at 80% end-of-life (EOL), 710-760 cycles at 70% EOL and 840-940 cycles at 60% EOL, thereby ensuring a service life of 10 years for these rechargeable micro-batteries. This endeavor represents a significant stride towards unlocking the full potential of rechargeable micro-batteries, paving the way for their widespread application in small sensor technologies. The outcome from this project also successfully supports the award of a new project: 80621 - Self-Powered Modular Acoustic Telemetry System with Sensing.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Refractive axicon for X-ray microscopy applications: design, optimization, and experiment

In a full-field transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM) setup, a condenser X-ray optical element is used to illuminate the sample by condensing the X-ray beam delivered by the synchrotron storage ring. On-going and future upgrades of synchrotron facilities to diffraction-limited storage rings will pose new challenges to these TXM setups, such as much smaller X-ray beams on the condenser. Here, we demonstrate that a refractive axicon can be used as an X-ray beam shaper to match the ring-shaped aperture of the condenser. Aiming at more efficient use of the incoming X-ray intensity, we explore several axicon designs both analytically and with numerical simulations. The axicons were produced by two-photon polymerization 3D printing on thin silicon nitride membrane substrates. The first characterization of the axicon was carried out at the TOMCAT beamline of the Swiss Light Source (Switzerland).

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Spectroscopic performance of Low-Gain Avalanche Diodes for different types of radiation

LGADs (Low-Gain Avalanche Diodes or Detectors) are a type of silicon Avalanche Photo-Diodes originally developed for the fast detection of minimum ionizing particles in high-energy physics experiments. Thanks to their fast timing performance, the LGAD paradigm enables detectors to accurately measure minimum ionizing particles with a timing resolution of a few tens of picoseconds. Such a performance is due to a thin substrate and the presence of a moderate signal gain. This internal gain of a few tens is enough to compensate for the reduced charge deposition in the thinner substrate and the noise of fast read-out systems. While LGADs are optimized for the detection of minimum ionizing particles for high-energy particle detectors, it is critical to study their performance for the detection of different types of particle, such as X-rays, gamma-rays, or alphas. In this paper, we evaluate the gain of three types of LGADs: two devices with different geometries and doping profiles fabricated by Brookhaven National Laboratory, and one fabricated by Hamamatsu Photonics with a different process. Since the gain in LGADs depends on the bias voltage applied to the sensor, pulse-height spectra have been acquired for bias voltages spanning from the depletion voltage up to the breakdown voltage. Finally, the signal-to-noise ratio of the generated signals and the shape of their spectra allow us to probe the underlying physics of the multiplication process.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Extensive analysis of reconstruction algorithms for DESI 2024 baryon acoustic oscillations

Reconstruction of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) signal has been a standard procedure in BAO analyses over the past decade and has helped to improve the BAO parameter precision by a factor of ∼2 on average. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) BAO analysis for the first year (DR1) data uses the “standard” reconstruction framework, in which the displacement field is estimated from the observed density field by solving the linearized continuity equation in redshift space, and galaxy and random positions are shifted in order to partially remove non-linearities. There are several approaches to solving for the displacement field in real survey data, including the multigrid (MG), iterative Fast Fourier Transform (iFFT), and iterative Fast Fourier Transform particle (iFFTP) algorithms. In this work, we analyze these algorithms and compare them with various metrics including two-point statistics and the displacement itself using realistic DESI mocks. We focus on three representative DESI samples, the emission line galaxies (ELG), quasars (QSO), and the bright galaxy sample (BGS), which cover the extreme redshifts and number densities, and potential wide-angle effects. We conclude that the MG and iFFT algorithms agree within 0.4% in post-reconstruction power spectrum on BAO scales with the RecSym convention, which does not remove large-scale redshift space distortions (RSDs), in all three tracers. The RecSym convention appears to be less sensitive to displacement errors than the RecIso convention, which attempts to remove large-scale RSDs. However, iFFTP deviates from the first two; thus, we recommend against using iFFTP without further development. In addition, we provide the optimal settings for reconstruction for five years of DESI observation. The analyses presented in this work pave the way for DESI DR1 analysis as well as future BAO analyses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Characterization of 6 Li-loaded pulse-shape-discriminating plastic scintillators

Lithium-loaded organic plastic scintillators combine sensitivity to γ rays with the ability to detect both fast and slow neutrons, making them valuable for applications in nuclear security and in basic nuclear and particle physics. The goal of this work is to characterize the neutron response of two custom lithium-loaded organic plastic scintillators developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Both are ternary polystyrene-based formulations containing 1.5 wt.% 6 Li salts of isobutyric acid, but they differ in their primary and secondary dye compositions: one uses m-terphenyl as the primary fluor and with Exalite 404 as the wavelength shifter, whereas the other uses 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO) and 9,10-diphenyl-anthracene, respectively. The temporal response of the scintillators was measured via time-correlated single photon counting for γ-ray and neutron events. The proton light yield was measured using the double time-of-flight technique from 1.3 to 15 MeV at the 88-Inch Cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. For the slow neutron response, an AmBe source moderated with polyethylene was used, and the light output from the 6 Li(n,α)t reaction was characterized. Differences in ionization quenching and temporal response were observed between the two materials with the PPO-containing scintillator exhibiting higher ionization quenching. These results provide performance benchmarks that can guide the design and optimization of future lithium-loaded plastic scintillators for use in basic science and applications.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Evaluation of the response to electrons and pions in the scintillating fiber and lead calorimeter for the future electron-ion collider

The performance of the Baby Barrel Electromagnetic Calorimeter (Baby BCAL) — a small-scale lead-scintillating-fiber (Pb/ScFi) prototype of the GlueX Barrel Electromagnetic Calorimeter (BCAL) — was tested in a dedicated beam campaign at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility (FTBF). This study provides a benchmark for the Pb/ScFi component of the future Barrel Imaging Calorimeter (BIC) in the ePIC detector at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The detector response to electrons and pions was studied at beam energies between 4 and 10 GeV, extending previous GlueX tests to a higher energy regime. The calibrated detector exhibits good linearity within uncertainties, and its electron energy resolution meets EIC requirements. The data further constrain the constant term in the energy resolution to below 1.9%, improving upon previous constraints at lower energies. Simulations reproduce key features of the electron and pion data within the limitations of the collected dataset and the FTBF test environment. Electron-pion separation in the test beam setup was analyzed using multiple methods, incorporating varying degrees of beam-related effects. The inclusion of longitudinal shower profile information enhanced the separation performance, underscoring its relevance for the full-scale BIC in ePIC. These results provide essential benchmarks for the Pb/ScFi section of the future BIC, validating detector simulations and guiding optimization strategies for electron-pion discrimination.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Time Resolution Characterization of 4H-SiC LGADs with a 90 Sr Source

This work presents timing measurements of 4H-SiC Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (4H-SiC LGADs) using beta particles from a 90Sr source. The 4H-SiC LGADs exhibit fast signal responses, and a time resolution of 61 ps was achieved, comparable to that of standard Si LGADs. The present limitation in the time resolution of 4H-SiC LGADs appears to stem from limited charge generation. Nevertheless, their higher voltage tolerance and faster carrier drift suggest that, with increased charge collection, their timing performance could approach or even surpass that of Si LGADs. Furthermore, these results demonstrate the strong potential of 4H-SiC LGADs as a robust platform for precision timing in future 4D tracking detectors, while also highlighting that signal charge is the dominant factor currently limiting their performance, indicating that further optimization of gain and drift structures will be essential for future development.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

HIBP Applications to Advance Understanding of Plasma Transport Physics (2011-2017) (and subsequently titled) Development of Beam Measurements to Advance Understanding of Transients and Improve Validation (2017-2020) (Final Technical Report)

This is the Final Technical Report for the DoE Measurement Innovation (previously Diagnostic Development) grant DE-SC0006077 titled HIBP Applications to Advance Understanding of Plasma Transport Physics (2011-2017), and subsequently titled Development of Beam Measurements to Advance Understanding of Transients and Improve Validation (2017-2020). The grant was funded by the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) for the period 1 May 2011–17 July 2020. Work performed through the grant has resulted in diagnostic innovations and new measurement capabilities that will improve understanding of transport, magnetic equilibrium, and electric fields in magnetically confined plasmas. We have developed novel hardware and advanced techniques to expand beam-based diagnostic capabilities, and extend measurements to new operating regimes. Some have been realized using a Heavy Ion Beam Probe (HIBP) having traditional features, while other applications have joined our innovations with subsets of advantageous HIBP features. This work has established smaller, more economical detection systems and, in doing so, may enable substantial extension of scenarios in which beam-based diagnostics are deployed. Key Measurement Innovations include: Computer Models and Simulations of HIBP Applications-Computer modeling and simulating of HIBP applications is central to predicting interaction of beam particles with plasmas, designing diagnostic systems, and anticipating measurement characteristics. We have extended the capability and improved measurement fidelity of the HIBP diagnostic on the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) reversed field pinch (RFP); simulated feasibility of HIBP operation in the Helically Symmetric eXperiment (HSX) optimized stellarator; and investigated the plausibility of HIBP measurements in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. We have also developed a new technique that uses ion optics to model a finite phase-space beam. It yields more realistic (than traditional method) estimates of sample volume characteristics, which influence measurement resolution and sensitivity. Extension of Diagnostic Capabilities and Measurements on the MST RFP-Capabilities have been extended using the first and only HIBP installation on an RFP. Challenges associated with operation of the diagnostic on MST include the three-dimensional nature of particle trajectories, temporal topology and amplitude changes in the plasma equilibrium, and strong particle and radiative emission from the plasma. We have addressed these challenges through development of detailed and higher precision diagnostic simulations, calibrated subtraction of noise to resolve secondary ion signals, and implementation of hardware that enables higher fidelity measurement of plasma fluctuations. Development of New Hardware and Measurement Techniques - We have advanced beam-based measurement capabilities via development of new detectors and techniques to determine the poloidal magnetic flux ψ in the plasma, and enable placement of detectors close to the plasma and thus allow a smaller and less expensive diagnostic. We have demonstrated measurement of ψ, an ability that was made possible by development of highly effective noise reduction techniques. We also modeled the effect of non-ideal and instrumentation effects by developing a virtual (simulated) diagnostic. Application of beam-based diagnostics on various devices and multiple magnetic configurations (e.g. stellarator, tokamak, and reversed field pinch) enables investigation of critical physics issues and measurements resulting in the broad parameter space data needed to test and validate theory & modeling.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development and demonstration of a rolling ball viscometer for molten salts with near-minimum liquidus NaCl–KCl

The thermophysical characterization of molten chloride and fluoride salts is a key interest for the development of advanced molten salt nuclear reactors. Viscosity is one thermophysical property of interest; a high-accuracy understanding of this property is necessary for modeling the thermal energy transfer and mass flow rate for a given molten salt system. Only a few methods have consistently been used to measure the viscosity of molten chloride and fluoride salt systems, and large discrepancies have been observed in the literature between independent studies of nearly identical salt systems. As such, exploration of novel measurement methods or implementations may allow for further validation, improved measurement accuracy, and overall improved understanding about optimal approaches for measuring molten salt viscosity. Here, in this study, a novel implementation of the rolling ball viscometry method was used to measure the viscosity of a 44/56 mol % mixture of NaCl–KCl within a temperature range of 714–838 °C, with the intent to demonstrate the feasibility of this technique for molten salt viscosity measurement cross-validation. The purity of this salt was confirmed through laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. Measured viscosities were approximately 1.3–1.0 cP within this temperature range, and the overall uncertainty was 10.8%, which was determined through Gaussian error propagation. The results agree reasonably well with measured viscosities of similar NaCl–KCl mixtures in the literature (within 2%–20% depending on the temperature and study), although the experimental error in some of these comparative studies may be significant.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Method for active sensor signal optimization

A system and method for optimizing a fiber optic sensor by properly clocking or rotationally orienting a window with a fiber optic focuser. This method may include shining light through the focuser into the window and receiving with a reflectometer a first reflection from a first surface of the window and a second reflection from a second surface of the window. Next, the method may include calculating a delta of intensities between the first and second reflections, and then rotating an orientation of the window to a next rotational orientation. The steps of rotating the orientation of the window, receiving reflections, and calculating their delta may be repeated any plurality of times to solve for a plurality of deltas. Then, the method may include the steps of determining which one of the deltas is the largest and fixing the window to the focuser at a rotational orientation associated therewith.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Massive compression for high data rate macromolecular crystallography (HDRMX): impact on diffraction data and subsequent structural analysis

New higher-count-rate, integrating, large-area X-ray detectors with framing rates as high as 17400 images per second are beginning to be available. These will soon be used for specialized macromolecular crystallography experiments but will require optimal lossy compression algorithms to enable systems to keep up with data throughput. Some information may be lost. Can we minimize this loss with acceptable impact on structural information? To explore this question, we have considered several approaches: summing short sequences of images, binning to create the effect of larger pixels, use of JPEG-2000 lossy wavelet-based compression, and use of Hcompress, which is a Haar-wavelet-based lossy compression borrowed from astronomy. We also explore the effect of the combination of summing, binning, and Hcompress or JPEG-2000. In each of these last two methods one can specify approximately how much one wants the result to be compressed from the starting file size. These provide particularly effective lossy compressions that retain essential information for structure solution from Bragg reflections.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗