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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 1,009 records · Page 56
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Lunar occultation observation of μ Sgr: A progress report

Lunar Occultation (LO) is an event where limb of the Moon passing over a particular heavenly bodies such as stars, asteroids, or planets. In other words, during the event, stars, asteroids and planets are occulted by the Moon. When occulted objects contact the lunar limb, there will be a diffraction fringe(s) which can be measured photometrically, until the signal vanishes into noise. This event will give us a valuable information about binarities (of stars) and/or angular diameters estimation (of stars, planets, asteroids) in milliarcsecond resolution, by fitting with theoretical LO pattern. CCDs are common for LO observation because of its fast read out, and recently are developed for sub-meter class telescope. In this paper, our LO observation attempt of μ Sgr and its progress report are presented. The observation was conducted on July 30{sup th}, 2012 at Bosscha Observatory, Indonesia, using 45cm f/12 GOTO telescope combined with ST-9 XE CCD camera and Bessel B filter. We used drift-scan method to obtain light curve of the star as it was disappearing behind Moon's dark limb. Our goal is to detect binarity (or multiplicity) of this particular object.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Breathing dynamics based parameter sensitivity analysis of hetero-polymeric DNA

We study the parameter sensitivity of hetero-polymeric DNA within the purview of DNA breathing dynamics. The degree of correlation between the mean bubble size and the model parameters is estimated for this purpose for three different DNA sequences. The analysis leads us to a better understanding of the sequence dependent nature of the breathing dynamics of hetero-polymeric DNA. Out of the 14 model parameters for DNA stability in the statistical Poland-Scheraga approach, the hydrogen bond interaction ε{sub hb}(AT) for an AT base pair and the ring factor ξ turn out to be the most sensitive parameters. In addition, the stacking interaction ε{sub st}(TA-TA) for an TA-TA nearest neighbor pair of base-pairs is found to be the most sensitive one among all stacking interactions. Moreover, we also establish that the nature of stacking interaction has a deciding effect on the DNA breathing dynamics, not the number of times a particular stacking interaction appears in a sequence. We show that the sensitivity analysis can be used as an effective measure to guide a stochastic optimization technique to find the kinetic rate constants related to the dynamics as opposed to the case where the rate constants are measured using the conventional unbiased way of optimization.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Design and development of liquid filled polymeric fibers with flexure rate viscoelastic properties

The design and development of a novel category of bi-component polymeric fibers, made of a polymeric sheath and a liquid core is described. To understand and to analyze the flow of molten polymer and liquid within a spin pack, we built a macroscale analogon where co-flow of polymer and liquid is investigated systematically. The macroscale analogon is composed of a glass cylinder with a finite length and a coaxial capillary. The inner fluid flows in the capillary and at its outlet meets the outer fluid flowing inside the glass cylinder. The fluids are pumped into the setup using pressurized bottles with controlled flow rates. A high-speed camera is placed in front of the glass cylinder to record the transient and the steady flow of the two phases and the morphology of their interface during co-flow. We systematically analyzed the combination of various fluids and different injection channel geometries, and used these findings to design a customized spin pack. Extrusion trials with molten polymers and specific liquids resulted in the production of liquid filled polymeric fibers (LFF) with different amounts of liquid from 3% to 33%vol. and diameters from 150μm to 1mm. Fiber morphology has been investigated with the help of optical microscopy and computer tomography, in order to analyze both surface and core morphology. Mechanical characterization of fibers has been carried out with special care to the damping capacity of such fibers using two different methods: two point bending tests to evaluate the energy dissipation of fibers upon bending at low frequency values (0.005-0.5Hz), and analysis of vibration reduction to determine the quality factor at the resonance frequency of the 1{sup st} and 3{sup rd} vibration mode.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Nanotechnology finding its way into flame retardancy

Nanotechnology is one of the key technologies of the 21{sup st} century. The exploitation of 'new' effects that arise from materials structured on the nano-scale has also been proposed successfully for flame retardancy of polymers since the end of the 90s. Of all of the approaches these include, at this time the use of nanocomposites offers the best potential for industrial application, also some other ideas are sketched, such as using electrospun nanofibers mats or layer-by-layer deposits as protection coatings, as well as sub-micrometer multilayer coatings as effective IR-mirrors. The general phenomena, inducing a flow limit in the pyrolysing melt and changing the fire residue, are identified in nanocomposites. Key experiments are performed such as quasi online investigation of the protection layer formation to understand what is going on in detail. The flame retardancy mechanisms are discussed and their impact on fire behaviour quantified. With the latter, the presentation pushes forward the state of the art. For instance, the heat shielding is experimentally quantified for a layered silicate epoxy resin nanocomposite proving that it is the only import mechanism controlling the reduction in peak heat release rate in the investigated system for different irradiations. The flame retardancy performance is assessed comprehensively illuminating not only the strengths but also the weak points of the concepts. Guidelines for materials development are deduced and discussed. Apart from inorganic fillers (layered silicate, boehmite, etc.) not only carbon nanoobjects such as multiwall carbon nanotubes, multilayer graphene and graphene are investigated, but also nanoparticles that are more reactive and harbor the potential for more beneficial interactions with the polymer matrix.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Shear-horizontal surface acoustic wave phononic device with high density filling material for ultra-low power sensing applications

Finite element simulations of a phononic shear-horizontal surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor based on ST 90°-X Quartz reveal a dramatic reduction in power consumption. The phononic sensor is realized by artificially structuring the delay path to form an acoustic meta-material comprised of a periodic microcavity array incorporating high-density materials such as tantalum or tungsten. Constructive interference of the scattered and secondary reflected waves at every microcavity interface leads to acoustic energy confinement in the high-density regions translating into reduced power loss. Tantalum filled cavities show the best performance while tungsten inclusions create a phononic bandgap. Based on our simulation results, SAW devices with tantalum filled microcavities were fabricated and shown to significantly decrease insertion loss. Our findings offer encouraging prospects for designing low power, highly sensitive portable biosensors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

A poloidal section neutron camera for MAST upgrade

The Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak Upgrade (MAST Upgrade) is intended as a demonstration of the physics viability of the Spherical Tokamak (ST) concept and as a platform for contributing to ITER/DEMO physics. Concerning physics exploitation, MAST Upgrade plasma scenarios can contribute to the ITER Tokamak physics particularly in the field of fast particle behavior and current drive studies. At present, MAST is equipped with a prototype neutron camera (NC). On the basis of the experience and results from previous experimental campaigns using the NC, the conceptual design of a neutron camera upgrade (NC Upgrade) is being developed. As part of the MAST Upgrade, the NC Upgrade is considered a high priority diagnostic since it would allow studies in the field of fast ions and current drive with good temporal and spatial resolution. In this paper, we explore an optional design with the camera array viewing the poloidal section of the plasma from different directions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

High temperature, single mode, long infrared (λ = 17.8 μm) InAs-based quantum cascade lasers

We demonstrate quantum cascade lasers in the InAs/AlSb material system which operate up to 333 K (in pulsed regime) at λ = 17.8 μm. They employ metal-metal optical waveguides and the threshold current density is 1.6 kA/cm{sup 2} at 78 K. We also report distributed-feedback devices obtained using the same laser material via a 1{sup st}-order Bragg grating inscribed in the sole top metallic contact. Spectral single mode operation with more than 20 dB side mode suppression ratio is achieved at a temperature of 300 K. Large wavelength tuning rates, of the order of 1.5 nm/K, are demonstrated. A wavelength coverage of 0.38 μm is achieved in single-mode regime over a temperature range of 255 K.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Investigating the solid-liquid phase transition of water nanofilms using the generalized replica exchange method

The generalized Replica Exchange Method (gREM) was applied to study a solid-liquid phase transition in a nanoconfined bilayer water system using the monatomic water (mW) model. Exploiting optimally designed non-Boltzmann sampling weights with replica exchanges, gREM enables an effective sampling of configurations that are metastable or unstable in the canonical ensemble via successive unimodal energy distributions across phase transition regions, often characterized by S-loop or backbending in the statistical temperature. Extensive gREM simulations combined with Statistical Temperature Weighted Histogram Analysis Method (ST-WHAM) for nanoconfined mW water at various densities provide a comprehensive characterization of diverse thermodynamic and structural properties intrinsic to phase transitions. Graph representation of minimized structures of bilayer water systems determined by the basin-hopping global optimization revealed heterogeneous ice structures composed of pentagons, hexagons, and heptagons, consistent with an increasingly ordered solid phase with decreasing density. Apparent crossover from a first-order solid-liquid transition to a continuous one in nanoconfined mW water with increasing density of the system was observed in terms of a diminishing S-loop in the statistical temperature, smooth variation of internal energies and heat capacities, and a characteristic variation of lateral radial distribution functions, and transverse density profiles across transition regions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Modification of near-wall coherent structures by inertial particles

Direct numerical simulations are combined with two-way coupled Lagrangian point particles to study the effect of Reynolds number on particle-turbulence interaction. Turbulent planar Couette flow is simulated at a constant dispersed phase mass loading of ϕ{sub m} = 0.25 for particle Stokes numbers of St{sub K} = [O(1), O(10), O(100)] (based on the Stokes time scale of the particle and the Kolmogorov time scale of the flow) and bulk Reynolds numbers of Re{sub b} = [8100, 24000, 72000] (based on the plate velocity difference and separation distance). Statistics of swirling strength |λ{sub ci}| are used to evaluate the impact of particles on near-wall motions which are responsible for turbulent, wall-normal momentum transport. Instantaneously, the number of high-strength swirling motions near the wall decreases significantly in the presence of particles, and this trend is enhanced with increasing Re{sub b}. Conditional averages are computed using linear stochastic estimation, providing the average structures responsible for ejection events near the wall. These conditional eddies are weakened substantially by the presence of the dispersed phase, and this effect is again enhanced with increasing Re{sub b}. We propose a mechanism where particles, by interfering with the hairpin regeneration process near the wall, can influence turbulent fluxes in a way that increases with Re{sub b} despite only having direct interaction with scales on the same order as their small physical size. At the same time, turbulent momentum flux concentrated at higher wavenumbers with increasing Re{sub b} allows small particles to be effective agents for altering turbulent transport.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Theoretical study of thorium monoxide for the electron electric dipole moment search: Electronic properties of H{sup 3}Δ{sub 1} in ThO

Recently, improved limits on the electron electric dipole moment, and dimensionless constant, k{sub T,P}, characterizing the strength of the T,P-odd pseudoscalar–scalar electron–nucleus neutral current interaction in the H{sup 3}Δ{sub 1} state of ThO molecule were obtained by the ACME collaboration [J. Baron et al., Science 343, 269 (2014)]. The interpretation of the experiment in terms of these fundamental quantities is based on the results of theoretical study of appropriate ThO characteristics, the effective electric field acting on electron, E{sub eff}, and a parameter of the T,P-odd pseudoscalar–scalar interaction, W{sub T,P}, given in Skripnikov et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 139, 221103 (2013)] by St. Petersburg group. To reduce the uncertainties of the given limits, we report improved calculations of the molecular state–specific quantities E{sub eff}, 81.5 GV/cm, and W{sub T,P}, 112 kHz, with the uncertainty within 7% of the magnitudes. Thus, the values recommended to use for the upper limits of the quantities are 75.8 GV/cm and 104 kHz, correspondingly. The hyperfine structure constant, molecule-frame dipole moment of the H{sup 3}Δ{sub 1} state, and the H{sup 3}Δ{sub 1} → X{sup 1}Σ{sup +} transition energy which, in general, can serve as a measure of reliability of the obtained E{sub eff} and W{sub T,P} values are also calculated. In addition, we report the first calculation of g-factor for the H{sup 3}Δ{sub 1} state of ThO. The results are compared to the earlier experimental and theoretical studies, and a detailed analysis of uncertainties of the calculations is given.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Computational stochastic model of ions implantation

Implantation flux ions into crystal leads to phase transition /PT/ 1-st kind. Damaging lattice is associated with processes clustering vacancies and gaseous bubbles as well their brownian motion. System of stochastic differential equations /SDEs/ Ito for evolution stochastic dynamical variables corresponds to the superposition Wiener processes. The kinetic equations in partial derivatives /KE/, Kolmogorov-Feller and Einstein-Smolukhovskii, were formulated for nucleation into lattice of weakly soluble gases. According theory, coefficients of stochastic and kinetic equations uniquely related. Radiation stimulated phase transition are characterized by kinetic distribution functions /DFs/ of implanted clusters versus their sizes and depth of gas penetration into lattice. Macroscopic parameters of kinetics such as the porosity and stress calculated in thin layers metal/dielectric due to Xe{sup ++} irradiation are attracted as example. Predictions of porosity, important for validation accumulation stresses in surfaces, can be applied at restoring of objects the cultural heritage.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Structural and transport properties of CdSe nanorods

The nanorods of cadmium selenide (CdSe) have been synthesized by soft chemical route. The selected area electron diffraction pattern, high resolution TEM and X-ray diffraction pattern indicate the cubic structure of the sample. The band gap of the sample is obtained using Tauc relation to UV-visible spectrum and found to be 1.92 eV. 1{sup st} order and 2{sup nd} order Raman bands are followed to investigate the behaviour of the phonon modes of the materials which is considered to be important to predict the potential of the material to microwave applications. Thermal behaviour of the sample is investigated using differential scanning calorimeter. Kissinger equation is used to calculate the activation energy of the sample, which is found to be 1.67 eV.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Initiation of vacuum insulator surface high-voltage flashover with electrons produced by laser illumination

In this paper, experiments are described in which cylindrical vacuum insulator samples and samples inclined at 45° relative to the cathode were stressed by microsecond timescale high-voltage pulses and illuminated by focused UV laser beam pulses. In these experiments, we were able to distinguish between flashover initiated by the laser producing only photo-electrons and when plasma is formed. It was shown that flashover is predominantly initiated near the cathode triple junction. Even dense plasma formed near the anode triple junction does not necessarily lead to vacuum surface flashover. The experimental results directly confirm our conjecture that insulator surface breakdown can be avoided by preventing its initiation [J. G. Leopold et al., Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 10, 060401 (2007)] and complement our previous experimental results [J. Z. Gleizer et al., IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul. 21, 2394 (2014) and J. Z. Gleizer et al., J. Appl. Phys. 117, 073301 (2015)].

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

B2, B7 or B10: Which palm-based blend mandate wise to be chosen in Malaysia?

The diminishing fossil energy resources, coupled with heightened interest in the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions and concerns about energy security have motivated Malaysia to produce palm-based biodiesel and it has been started to be exported since 2006. In line with this issue, the government in Malaysia launched the palm-based biodiesel blending mandate of five percent (B5) in the federal administration of Putrajaya on 1{sup st} June 2011. This was then followed by four states: Malacca on July 11, Negeri Sembilan on August 1, Kuala Lumpur on September 1 and Selangor on October 1 of the same year but it is yet to be implemented nationwide. However what is the wise blend mandate to be chosen? Thus, this paper seeks to examine the possible impact of various blend mandates implementation (B2, B7 and B10) on the palm oil industry market variables (stock and price) since the main aim of biodiesel industry in Malaysia is to reduce domestic palm oil stock to below one million tones and provide a floor price to support Crude Palm Oil (CPO) prices at RM2,000 per tonne. A structural econometric model consisting of nine structural equations and three identities was proposed in this study. The model has been estimated by two stage least squares (2SLS) method using annual data for the period 1976-2013. The study indicates that counterfactual simulation of a decrease from B5 to B2 predicts a decrease (11.2 per cent) in CPO domestic consumption for biodiesel usage, 731.02 per cent reduction in CPO stock and an increase of 27.41 percent in domestic price of CPO. However the increase in the blend mandate from B5 to B7 and B10 suggest that domestic consumption of CPO for biodiesel purpose increase 7.40 and 18.55 percent respectively. The interesting findings in this study suggest that no matter whether Malaysian government increase or decrease the blend mandate the increase in the price of CPO are the same with an increase of is 27.41 percent. Hence, this study suggests that the lower blend mandate is the most favourable on.+-e compared to increasing it in this short period due to high production cost of CPO prices. However, future study on economic feasibility of palm-based biodiesel has to be conducted to support this study.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2016

On the relative rotational motion between rigid fibers and fluid in turbulent channel flow

In this study, the rotation of small rigid fibers relative to the surrounding fluid in wall-bounded turbulence is examined by means of direct numerical simulations coupled with Lagrangian tracking. Statistics of the relative (fiber-to-fluid) angular velocity, referred to as slip spin in the present study, are evaluated by modelling fibers as prolate spheroidal particles with Stokes number, St, ranging from 1 to 100 and aspect ratio, λ, ranging from 3 to 50. Results are compared one-to-one with those obtained for spherical particles (λ = 1) to highlight effects due to fiber length. The statistical moments of the slip spin show that differences in the rotation rate of fibers and fluid are influenced by inertia, but depend strongly also on fiber length: Departures from the spherical shape, even when small, are associated with an increase of rotational inertia and prevent fibers from passively following the surrounding fluid. An increase of fiber length, in addition, decouples the rotational dynamics of a fiber from its translational dynamics suggesting that the two motions can be modelled independently only for long enough fibers (e.g., for aspect ratios of order ten or higher in the present simulations)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Growth and characterization of cubic and non-cubic Ge nanocrystals

Germanium nanocrystals with tetragonal (ST-12) and diamond like cubic (Ge-I) phases have been selectively grown by controlling the ionization and electrostatic potential of Ge clusters in an ion cluster beam deposition system. Predominantly tetragonal nanocrystals were obtained when grown using neutral clusters. The percentage of cubic phase increased when grown by ionizing the clusters and accelerating them towards substrates by applying electrostatic bias in the range of 1.5 –2.5 kV. Raman spectroscopic measurement showed strong peak at 275 cm{sup −1} and 300 cm{sup −1} for tetragonal and cubic Ge nanocrystals, respectively. TEM measurements showed crystalline lattice fringes of both type of the nanocrystals. The selected area electron diffraction patterns showed (111) and (210) as the dominating lattice planes for tetragonal nanocrystals while the cubic phases had (111), (311) and (331) as the prominent lattice planes. The optical absorption edge redshifted from 1.75 to 1.55 eV as the percentage of the cubic phases increased in the NC composition in the composite film.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Effect of sintering temperature on structural and dielectric properties of Bi and Li co-substituted SrTiO{sub 3}

Sintering is an important factor that affects the microstructure development in ceramics. In this work, Bi and Li co-substituted Strontium Titanate (ST) ceramics samples sintered at different temperatures are prepared and analyzed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). XRD was used to detect phase structure of the sintered samples and SEM was used for microstructure analysis. Dielectric properties of Bi and Li co-substituted SrTiO{sub 3} samples were measured using Agilent 4294A Impedance analyzer in the frequency range 40 Hz to 5 MHz at room temperature. The result reveals that the dielectric constant of Bi and Li co-substituted SrTiO{sub 3} ceramics increases with increasing sintering temperature up to 1250°C and then decreases beyond that. The highest value of dielectric constant obtained is 860 at 1KHz frequency and lowest dielectric loss observed is 0.04 at the same frequency for samples sintered at 1250°C. Also the grain size increases with increase of sintering temperature.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Current status of BL-2B at photon factory

A new soft x-ray beamline BL-2B at Photon Factory of High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK-PF) covers energy range from vacuum ultraviolet (30 eV) to soft x-ray (4000 eV). This wide energy range could be achieved by employing two undulators and two monochromators. Two different energy range undulators were installed tandem to a 9-meter straight section of PF storage ring. The 1{sup st} undulator is for VUV (30 eV) to SX (280 eV), while the other one is for SX (280 eV) to HX (4000 eV). It is also necessary to be equipped with two different monochrometors for energy above and under 2000 eV; grating monochrometor and double crystal monochrometor. One of the main purposes of this bemaline is spectroscopic study of light elements contained in several functional materials. The beamline is designed for photoemission spectroscopy (PES), X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) and other types of experiments. The performance of the new beamline is reported and typical examples of its application to material science are demonstrated.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗