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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

Fast and flexible control of beam longitudinal phase space for high-repetition-rate x-ray free-electron lasers

The wide-ranging requirements for the photon properties from multiple beamlines in superconducting based free-electron lasers (FELs) demand more challenging beam manipulation techniques. Shot-by-shot control of electron beam bunch length and peak current at high repetition rate up to megahertz is highly desired. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of a method based on a 2-m-long normal conducting radio-frequency cavity to achieve fast and flexible control of beam compression and realize the full potential of the facility, including theoretical analysis, beam dynamics simulations, and conceptual cavity design for the Linac Coherent Light Source II and its high-energy upgrade. We illustrate the physical mechanism of the chirping cavity on the control of the final beam compression and propose methods to lower the requirements for the cavity parameters. The application of this method will allow tailored photon properties of individual beamlines to optimize their performance and drastically improve the multiplexing capabilities of a high-repetition rate FEL facility.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Fluid Film Bearing Code Development

The next generation of rocket engine turbopumps is being developed by industry through Government-directed contracts. These turbopumps will use fluid film bearings because they eliminate the life and shaft-speed limitations of rolling-element bearings, increase turbopump design flexibility, and reduce the need for turbopump overhauls and maintenance. The design of the fluid film bearings for these turbopumps, however, requires sophisticated analysis tools to model the complex physical behavior characteristic of fluid film bearings operating at high speeds with low viscosity fluids. State-of-the-art analysis and design tools are being developed at the Texas A&M University under a grant guided by the NASA Lewis Research Center. The latest version of the code, HYDROFLEXT, is a thermohydrodynamic bulk flow analysis with fluid compressibility, full inertia, and fully developed turbulence models. It can predict the static and dynamic force response of rigid and flexible pad hydrodynamic bearings and of rigid and tilting pad hydrostatic bearings. The Texas A&M code is a comprehensive analysis tool, incorporating key fluid phenomenon pertinent to bearings that operate at high speeds with low-viscosity fluids typical of those used in rocket engine turbopumps. Specifically, the energy equation was implemented into the code to enable fluid properties to vary with temperature and pressure. This is particularly important for cryogenic fluids because their properties are sensitive to temperature as well as pressure. As shown in the figure, predicted bearing mass flow rates vary significantly depending on the fluid model used. Because cryogens are semicompressible fluids and the bearing dynamic characteristics are highly sensitive to fluid compressibility, fluid compressibility effects are also modeled. The code contains fluid properties for liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen, and liquid nitrogen as well as for water and air. Other fluids can be handled by the code provided that the user inputs information that relates the fluid transport properties to the temperature.

Source record↗

Heating of the solar corona by the resonant absorption of Alfven waves

An improved method for calculating the resonance absorption heating rate is discussed and the results are compared with observations in the solar corona. To accomplish this, the wave equation for a dissipative, compressible plasma is derived from the linearized magnetohydrodynamic equations for a plasma with transverse Alfven speed gradients. For parameters representative of the solar corona, it is found that a two-scale description of the wave motion is appropriate. The large-scale motion, which can be approximated as nearly ideal, has a scale which is on the order of the width of the loop. The small-scale wave, however, has a transverse scale much smaller than the width of the loop, with a width of about 0.3-250 km, and is highly dissipative. These two wave motions are coupled in a narrow resonance region in the loop where the global wave frequency equals the local Alfven wave frequency. Formally, this coupling comes about from using the method of matched asymptotic expansions to match the inner and outer (small and large scale) solutions. The resultant heating rate can be calculated from either of these solutions. A formula derived using the outer (ideal) solution is presented, and shown to be consistent with observations of heating and line broadening in the solar corona.

Davila, Joseph M.↗

The Pele Simulation Suite for Reacting Flows at Exascale

In this work, we present the Pele suite of software tools for compressible and incompressible reacting flows. The Pele suite leverages several different libraries, notably AMReX and SUNDIALS, to achieve performance portability on heterogeneous computing architectures across the supercomputing landscape. The Pele suite is comprised of PeleC, a compressible reacting flow block-structured adaptive mesh refinement solver, PeleLMeX, a low-Mach number reacting flow block-structured adaptive mesh refinement solver, Pele-Physics, a library for transport, thermodynamics, finite rate chemistry, soot, spray and radiation physics. The objective of this paper is (i) to present the code development efforts necessary to achieve highly effective and scalable applications for exascale machines and (ii) to detail the performance results of the Combustion-Pele project applications on Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Frontier. We show good weak and strong scaling results for both PeleC and PeleLMeX up to more than 50 billion cells on more than 4096 Frontier graphics processing unit nodes. We also present a capability demonstration simulation of a dual-fuel pulse compression ignition engine (six adaptive mesh refinement levels, and 60 billion cells or 2.1 trillion degrees of freedom) on Frontier, to date one of the largest simulations performed on the first exascale-class supercomputer.

adaptive mesh refinement↗

Dynamic recrystallization of a wrought magnesium alloy: Grain size and texture maps and their application for mechanical behavior predictions

Effect of dynamic recrystallization (DRX) on the grain refinement and texture modification was studied by conducting a series of hot compression on AZ31B Mg alloy. Processing-grain size-texture maps were established as a function of temperature, strain rate, strain, and the Zener-Hollomon parameter (Z). Moreover, influence of simultaneous changes in the grain size and texture on tensile yield strength and ductility of the hot-worked Mg alloy was studied using the grain size and texture maps established. The processing-grain size map showed that the DRX grain size decreased with the increase in Z, also revealing various characteristics ranging from a grain growth, grain refinement, to a bimodal distribution of ultrafine grains and partially recrystallized grains. The effect of twinning on the grain refinement was also evident at high Z conditions. The processing-texture map revealed that the initial fiber texture was altered significantly to a shear, off-normal, or extension-twin texture with the increase in Z. The Schmid-factor maps were calculated to identify a dominant deformation mode during a subsequent tensile deformation of the hot-worked samples. Finally, a corresponding Hall-Petch relationship for each dominant deformation mode was used to establish tensile yield-strength maps, which agree well with the measured data.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Multi-messenger dynamic imaging of laser-driven shocks in water using a plasma wakefield accelerator

Understanding dense matter hydrodynamics is critical for predicting plasma behavior in environments relevant to laser-driven inertial confinement fusion. Traditional diagnostic sources face limitations in brightness, spatiotemporal resolution, and in their ability to detect relevant electromagnetic fields. In this work, we present a dual-probe, multi-messenger laser wakefield accelerator platform combining ultrafast X-rays and relativistic electron beams at 1 Hz, to interrogate a free-flowing water target in vacuum, heated by an intense 200 ps laser pulse. This scheme enables high-repetition-rate tracking the evolution of the interaction using both particle types. Betatron X-rays reveal a cylindrically symmetric shock compression morphology assisted by low-density vapor, resembling foam-layer-assisted fusion targets. The synchronized electron beam detects time-evolving electromagnetic fields, uncovering charge separation and ion species differentiation during plasma expansion – phenomena not captured by photons or hydrodynamic simulations. We show that combining both probes provides complementary insights spanning kinetic to hydrodynamic regimes, highlighting the need for hybrid physics models to accurately predict fusion-relevant plasma behavior.

imaging techniques↗

Characterizing Stress Orientations in Southern Kansas

We repot that Induced seismicity predominantly occurs along faults that are optimally oriented to the local principal compressive stress direction, and the characterization of these stress orientations is an important component of understanding seismic hazards. The seismicity rate in southern Kansas rapidly increased in 2013 primarily due to the disposal of large volumes of wastewater into the Arbuckle Group. Previously, local stress orientations in this area were poorly constrained, which limited our understanding of the complex faulting and diverse earthquake mechanisms in this region. We use shear-wave splitting and focal mechanism inversion techniques to create multiple, independent estimates of maximum horizontal stress directions (S Hmax ) and their spatial variation across the study area. We then create an integrated model of stress orientations for southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma using our local results in conjunction with previous, regional stress orientation estimates. We find that S Hmax in both southern Kansas and central Oklahoma exhibits an east-northeast (~N78°E) orientation, and these regions bound a northeast (~N59°E) rotation within a ~20km area in northern Oklahoma near the Nemaha ridge.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

SAMPA Based Streaming Readout Data Acquisition Prototype

We have assembled a small-scale streaming data acquisition system based on the SAMPA front-end ASIC. The 32-channel SAMPA chip was designed for the high-luminosity upgrade of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber (TPC) detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The goals of the prototype system are to determine if the SAMPA chip is appropriate for use in detector systems at Jefferson Lab, and to gain experience with the hardware and software required to deploy streaming data acquisition systems in nuclear physics experiments. The 800 channel system is composed of components used in the ALICE TPC data acquisition upgrade. Five front-end cards (FEC) support five SAMPA chips each. SAMPA data streams on an FEC are concentrated into two high-speed (4.48 Gb/s) serial data streams by a pair Gigabit Transceiver ASICs (GBTx). These ten streams (44.8 Gb/s) are transmitted from the FECs over fibers to a PCIe based readout unit. The FPGA engine on the readout unit compresses data for transmission to a server via 100 Gb ethernet. Components on the FECs are radiation tolerant. High data rates can be handled. The system is by design scalable and thus provides a functional prototype for high-rate streaming readout at Jefferson Lab and the future Electron Ion Collider. We have made fundamental measurements (noise, linearity, time resolution) on the SAMPA ASIC. We have also coupled the readout system to a small Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detector and have studied its response to cosmic rays. A beam test of the system is planned.

ABBOTT, David↗

High temperature, low-cycle fatigue of copper-base alloys in argon. Part 2: Zirconium-copper at 482, 538 and 593 C

Zirconium-copper (1/2 hard) was tested in argon over the temperature range from 482 to 593 C in an evaluation of short-term tensile and low-cycle fatigue behavior. The effect of strain rate on the tensile properties was evaluated at 538 C and in general it was found that the yield and ultimate strengths increased as the strain rate was increased from 0.0004 to 0.01/sec. Ductility was essentially insensitive to strain rate in the case of the zirconium-copper alloy. Strain-rate and hold-time effects on the low cycle fatigue behavior of zirconium-copper were evaluated in argon at 538 C. These effects were as expected in that decreased fatigue life was noted as the strain rate decreased and when hold times were introduced into the tension portion of the strain-cycle. Hold times in compression were much less detrimental than hold times in tension.

Conway, J. B.↗

Instability of compressible boundary layers along curved walls with suction or cooling

This paper investigates the effect of suction of the boundary layer and wall cooling on the growth and development of three-dimensional longitudinal vortices over concave walls. The study is carried out for compressible flows for a range of Mach numbers from 0 to 5. Despite indications that small suction or small cooling rates locally reduce the critical Goertler number (destabilize the boundary layer), the overall effect of suction or cooling is to stabilize the boundary layer by reducing the amplitude ratio of the vortices. In case of suction, this becomes more difficult with increasing Mach number unless high suction rates are used. On the other hand, stabilizing the boundary layer with respect to Goertler vortices can hardly be achieved by cooling even when high cooling rates are used.

El-Hady, N. M.↗

Coded multiple chirp spread spectrum system and overlay service

An asynchronous spread-spectrum system called coded multiple chirp is proposed, and the possible spread-spectrum overlay over an analog FM-TV signal is investigated by computer simulation. Multiple single-sloped up and down chirps are encoded by a pseudonoise code and decoded by dechirpers (pulse-compression filters) followed by a digital code correlator. The performance of the proposed system, expressed in terms of in probability of bit error and code miss probability, is similar to that of FSK (frequency shift keying) using codewords if sufficient compression gain is used. When chirp is used to overlay an FM-TV channel, two chirp signals with data rate up to 25 kb/s could be overlaid in a 36-MHz satellite transponder without significant mutual interference. Performance estimates for a VSAT (very small aperture terminal) earth station operating at C-band show that a 2.4-m antenna and 300-mW transmitter could send a 2.4-kb/s signal to a large central earth station over an occupied channel.

Kim, Junghwan↗

Composites of low-density trialuminides: Particulate and long fiber reinforcements

An examination of the ternary L1(sub 2) trialuminides, Al66Ti25Mn9, Al67Ti25Cr8, and Al22Ti8Fe3 in compression, bending, and tension revealed that none of these compounds exhibited a desirable balance of strength, ductility, and oxidation resistance. Subsequently, specific quaternary and quinary compositions were cast, homogenized, and isothermally forged. Both, the monolithic material and its particulate reinforced counterparts were examined in compression, three point bend, and tension as a function of temperature, and at high temperatures as a function of strain rate. An alternate approach that was examined in this program to enhance the low temperature damage tolerance of these materials was to incorporate long refractory metal wires in the matrix. In summary, it appears that of the various matrix compositions examined, ternary Al66Ti25Mn9 exhibits the best balance in strength, ductility, and oxidation resistance. Although the idea of refractory metal wire reinforcement is an attractive one, a successful combination remains to be identified.

Kumar, K. S.↗

Rotational relaxation of molecular H2 at moderate temperatures

A coupled rotation-vibration-dissociation model is used to compute the rotational relaxation times for molecular hydrogen as a function of final temperatures (500-5000 K) in a hypothetical scenario of sudden compression. The theoretical model is based on a master equation solver. The bound-bound and bound-free transition rates have been computed using a quasi-classical trajectory method. A review of the available experimental data on the rotational relaxation of hydrogen is presented, with a critical overview of the method of measurements and data reduction, including the sources of errors. The experimental data are compared with the computed results.

Sharma, S. P.↗

The Impact on Simulated Storm Structure and Intensity of Variations in the Lifted Condensation Level and the Level of Free Convection

The sensitivities of convective storm structure and intensity to changes in the altitudes of the prestorm environmental lifted condensation level and level of free convection axe studied using a full-physics three-dimensional cloud model. Matrices of simulations are conducted for a range of LCL=LFC altitudes, using a single moderately-sheared curved hodograph trace in conjunction with 1 convective available potential energy values of either 800 or 2000 J/kg, with the matrices consisting of all four combinations of two distinct choices of buoyancy and shear profile shape. For each value of CAPE, the LCL=LFC altitudes are also allowed to vary in a series of simulations based on the most highly compressed buoyancy and shear profiles for that CAPE, with the environmental buoyancy profile shape, subcloud equivalent potential temperature, subcloud lapse rates of temperature and moisture, and wind profile held fixed. For each CAPE, one final simulation is conducted using a near optimal LFC, but a lowered LCL, with a neutrally buoyant environmental thermal profile specified in between. Results show that, for the buoyancy-starved small-CAPE environments, the simulated storms are supercells and are generally largest and most intense when LCL=LFC altitudes lie in the approximate range 1.5-2.5 km above the surface. The simulations show similar trends for the shear-starved large-CAPE environments, except that conversion from supercell to multicell morphology frequently occurs when the LCL is high. For choices of LCL=LFC height within the optimal 1.5-2.5 km range, peak storm updraft overturning efficiency may approaches unity relative to parcel theory, while for lower LCL=LFC heights, overturning efficiency is reduced significantly. The enhancements of overturning efficiency and updraft diameter with increasing LFC height are shown to be the result of systematic increases in the mean equivalent potential temperature of the updraft at cloud base. For the shear-starved environments, the tendency for outflow dominance is eliminated, but a large overturning efficiency maintained, when a low LCL is used in conjunction with a high LFC. The result regarding outflow dominance at high LCL is consistent with expectations, but the beneficial effect of a high LFC on convective overturning efficiency has not previously been widely recognized. The simulation findings here also appear to be consistent with statistics from previous severe storm environment climatologies, but provide a new framework for interpreting those statistics.

McCaul, Eugene W., Jr.↗

Constitutive Theory Developed for Monolithic Ceramic Materials

With the increasing use of advanced ceramic materials in high-temperature structural applications such as advanced heat engine components, the need arises to accurately predict thermomechanical behavior that is inherently time-dependent and that is hereditary in the sense that the current behavior depends not only on current conditions but also on the material's thermomechanical history. Most current analytical life prediction methods for both subcritical crack growth and creep models use elastic stress fields to predict the time-dependent reliability response of components subjected to elevated service temperatures. Inelastic response at high temperatures has been well documented in the materials science literature for these material systems, but this issue has been ignored by the engineering design community. From a design engineer's perspective, it is imperative to emphasize that accurate predictions of time-dependent reliability demand accurate stress field information. Ceramic materials exhibit different time-dependent behavior in tension and compression. Thus, inelastic deformation models for ceramics must be constructed in a fashion that admits both sensitivity to hydrostatic stress and differing behavior in tension and compression. A number of constitutive theories for materials that exhibit sensitivity to the hydrostatic component of stress have been proposed that characterize deformation using time-independent classical plasticity as a foundation. However, none of these theories allow different behavior in tension and compression. In addition, these theories are somewhat lacking in that they are unable to capture the creep, relaxation, and rate-sensitive phenomena exhibited by ceramic materials at high temperatures. The objective of this effort at the NASA Lewis Research Center has been to formulate a macroscopic continuum theory that captures these time-dependent phenomena. Specifically, the effort has focused on inelastic deformation behavior associated with these service conditions by developing a multiaxial viscoplastic constitutive model that accounts for time-dependent hereditary material deformation (such as creep and stress relaxation) in monolithic structural ceramics. Using continuum principles of engineering mechanics, we derived the complete viscoplastic theory from a scalar dissipative potential function.

Janosik, Lesley A.↗

Water outlet control mechanism for fuel cell system operation in variable gravity environments

A self-regulated water separator provides centrifugal separation of fuel cell product water from oxidant gas. The system uses the flow energy of the fuel cell's two-phase water and oxidant flow stream and a regulated ejector or other reactant circulation pump providing the two-phase fluid flow. The system further uses a means of controlling the water outlet flow rate away from the water separator that uses both the ejector's or reactant pump's supply pressure and a compressibility sensor to provide overall control of separated water flow either back to the separator or away from the separator.

Vasquez, Arturo↗

Subband Coding Methods for Seismic Data Compression

This paper presents a study of seismic data compression techniques and a compression algorithm based on subband coding. The compression technique described could be used as a progressive transmission system, where successive refinements of the data can be requested by the user. This allows seismologists to first examine a coarse version of waveforms with minimal usage of the channel and then decide where refinements are required. Rate-distortion performance results are presented and comparisons are made with two block transform methods.

subband coding seismic data compression techniques↗

Mesospheric dynamics and chemistry from SME data

A fast Curtis matrix calculation of cooling rates due to the 15 micron band of CO2 is modified to parameterize the detailed calculations by Dickinson (1984) of infrared cooling by CO2 in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. The calculations included separate NLTE treatment of the different 15 micron bands likely to be important for cooling. The goal was to compress the detailed properties of the different bands into a modified Curtis matrix, which represents one composite band with appropriate averaged radiative properties to allow for a simple and quick calculation of cooling rates given a temperature profile. Vertical constituent transport in the mesosphere was also studied.

Strobel, Darrell F.↗