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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 1,045 records · Page 58
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Heating and current drive requirements towards steady state operation in ITER

Steady state scenarios envisaged for ITER aim at optimizing the bootstrap current, while maintaining sufficient confinement and stability to provide the necessary fusion yield. Non-inductive scenarios will need to operate with Internal Transport Barriers (ITBs) in order to reach adequate fusion gain at typical currents of 9 MA. However, the large pressure gradients associated with ITBs in regions of weak or negative magnetic shear can be conducive to ideal MHD instabilities, reducing the no-wall limit. The E × B flow shear from toroidal plasma rotation is expected to be low in ITER, with a major role in the ITB dynamics being played by magnetic geometry. Combinations of H/CD sources that maintain weakly reversed magnetic shear profiles throughout the discharge are the focus of this work. Time-dependent transport simulations indicate that, with a trade-off of the EC equatorial and upper launcher, the formation and sustainment of quasi-steady state ITBs could be demonstrated in ITER with the baseline heating configuration. However, with proper constraints from peeling-ballooning theory on the pedestal width and height, the fusion gain and the maximum non-inductive current are below the ITER target. Upgrades of the heating and current drive system in ITER, like the use of Lower Hybrid current drive, could overcome these limitations, sustaining higher non-inductive current and confinement, more expanded ITBs which are ideal MHD stable.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Ion and electron cyclotron wall conditioning in stellarator and tokamak magnetic field configuration on WEGA

Discharge wall conditioning is an effective tool to improve plasma performance in tokamaks and stellarators. RF Discharge Conditioning (RFDC) techniques are envisaged for use during operational campaigns on superconducting devices like the ITER tokamak and W7-X stellarator, as alternative to DC Glow Discharge Conditioning which is inefficient in presence of magnetic fields. This contribution investigates RFDC in both the ion and electron cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF and ECRF) on the WEGA device (Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics, Greifswald, Germany) as preparation for W7-X operation. ECRF discharges produced by localised absorption of RF power at EC resonance layers suffer from poor radial discharge homogeneity in the tokamak vacuum magnetic field configuration, severely limiting the plasma wetted wall areas and consequently the conditioning efficiency. The non-localised production of ICRF discharges by collisional RF power absorption features much improved discharge homogeneity making Ion Cyclotron Wall Conditioning (ICWC) the favoured RFDC technique for superconducting tokamaks. RFDC with the stellarator vacuum magnetic field needs to aim at sufficient plasma densities at and outside the last closed flux surface (LCFS), maximising the convective plasma flux along the open field lines to the wall. Whereas for ICRF discharges this condition is easily fulfilled, on WEGA for He-ECRF discharges this could be achieved as well by off axis heating close to the LCFS. In stellarator magnetic field configuration it is found that He-ICWC for wall desaturation is at least one order of magnitude more efficient than He-ECWC. Novel ECWC methods are proposed that can decrease this efficiency gap with ICWC to a factor 2-3. The efficiency difference is less pronounced in case of H{sub 2}-ICWC and ECWC for isotopic exchange.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Status of ECRH project on EAST Tokamak

A 140GHz electron cyclotron resonance heating and current drive (EC H and CD) project for EAST Tokamak is launched in 2011 with a total power of 4MW and pulse length of 100 s. The main objectives of the system are to provide central H and CD, assist start-up and control of MHD activities. The system comprises four gyrotrons each with nominal output power of 1MW at 140GHz. The RF power, transmitted through four evacuated corrugated waveguides will be injected into plasma from the low field side (radial port). The front steering equatorial launcher directs the RF beam over ±25° toroidally and scans over 38° poloidally. At present, the construction of the first 1MW system is undergoing for the expected campaign in the end of 2013. In this paper, the current status of the development and the design of the 140-GHz ECRH system are presented.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Electrospun nanocomposite fibrous polymer electrolyte for secondary lithium battery applications

Hybrid nanocomposite [poly(vinylidene fluoride -co- hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-co-HFP)/magnesium aluminate (MgAl{sub 2}O{sub 4})] fibrous polymer membranes were prepared by electrospinning method. The prepared pure and nanocomposite fibrous polymer electrolyte membranes were soaked into the liquid electrolyte 1M LiPF{sub 6} in EC: DEC (1:1,v/v). XRD and SEM are used to study the structural and morphological studies of nanocomposite electrospun fibrous polymer membranes. The nanocomposite fibrous polymer electrolyte membrane with 5 wt.% of MgAl{sub 2}O{sub 4} exhibits high ionic conductivity of 2.80 × 10{sup −3} S/cm at room temperature. The charge-discharge capacity of Li/LiCoO{sub 2} coin cells composed of the newly prepared nanocomposite [(16 wt.%) PVdF-co-HFP+(5 wt.%) MgAl{sub 2}O{sub 4}] fibrous polymer electrolyte membrane was also studied and compared with commercial Celgard separator.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Low-frequency, self-sustained oscillations in inductively coupled plasmas used for optical pumping

We have investigated very low frequency, on the order of one hertz, self-pulsing in alkali-metal inductively-coupled plasmas (i.e., rf-discharge lamps). This self-pulsing has the potential to significantly vary signal-to-noise ratios and (via the ac-Stark shift) resonant frequencies in optically pumped atomic clocks and magnetometers (e.g., the atomic clocks now flying on GPS and Galileo global navigation system satellites). The phenomenon arises from a nonlinear interaction between the atomic physics of radiation trapping and the plasma's electrical nature. To explain the effect, we have developed an evaporation/condensation theory (EC theory) of the self-pulsing phenomenon.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Cross-type optical separation of elastic oblate capsules in a uniform flow

The dynamic behavior of an elastic capsule with an initially oblate spheroidal shape during cross-type optical separation was numerically investigated. The penalty immersed boundary method was adopted for the fluid-membrane interaction, and the optical force calculation was conducted by using the ray optics method including the ray-surface intersection algorithm. The oblate elastic capsule of b/a = 0.5 with different surface Young's moduli and different initial inclination angles was considered. The oblate capsule with higher surface Young's moduli was less deformed, and was more migrated for each initial inclination angle. Unlike the oblate rigid particle, the initially inclined capsules with moderate inclination angles were similarly migrated since the oblate elastic capsule was deformed during rotation near the laser beam axis. The oblate capsules can be separated according to the surface Young's modulus, except for nearly non-inclined capsules. As the fluid velocity decreased, the migration distance increased. The maximum deformation parameter was insensitive to the fluid velocity. Furthermore, a new dimensionless number (S{sub ec}) was introduced to predict the migration distance of the oblate elastic capsule.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Effect of {sup 12}C+{sup 12}C reaction and convective mixing on the progenitor mass of ONe white dwarfs

Stars in the mass range ∼8 - 12 M{sub ⊙} are the most numerous massive stars. This mass range is critical because it may lead to supernova (SN) explosion, so it is important for the production of heavy elements and the chemical evolution of the galaxy. We investigate the critical transition mass (M{sub up}), which is the minimum initial stellar mass that attains the conditions for hydrostatic carbon burning. Stars of masses < M{sub up} evolve to the Asymptotic Giant Branch and then develop CO White Dwarfs, while stars of masses ≥ M{sub up} ignite carbon in a partially degenerate CO core and form electron degenerate ONe cores. These stars evolve to the Super AGB (SAGB) phase and either become progenitors of ONe White Dwarfs or eventually explode as electron-capture SN (EC-SN). We study the sensitivity of M{sub up} to the C-burning reaction rate and to the treatment of convective mixing. In particular, we show the effect of a recent determination of the {sup 12}C+{sup 12}C fusion rate, as well as the extension of the convective core during hydrogen and helium burning on M{sub up} in solar metallicity stars. We choose the 9 M{sub ⊙} model to show the detailed characteristics of the evolution with the new C-burning rate.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Short-lived species detection of nitrous acid by external-cavity quantum cascade laser based quartz-enhanced photoacoustic absorption spectroscopy

Spectroscopic detection of short-lived gaseous nitrous acid (HONO) at 1254.85 cm{sup −1} was realized by off-beam coupled quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) in conjunction with an external cavity quantum cascade lasers (EC-QCL). High sensitivity monitoring of HONO was performed within a very small gas-sample volume (of ∼40 mm{sup 3}) allowing a significant reduction (of about 4 orders of magnitude) of air sampling residence time which is highly desired for accurate quantification of chemically reactive short-lived species. Calibration of the developed QEPAS-based HONO sensor was carried out by means of lab-generated HONO samples whose concentrations were determined by direct absorption spectroscopy involving a ∼109.5 m multipass cell and a distributed feedback QCL. A minimum detection limit (MDL) of 66 ppbv (1 σ) HONO was achieved at 70 mbar using a laser output power of 50 mW and 1 s integration time, which corresponded to a normalized noise equivalent absorption coefficient of 3.6 × 10{sup −8 }cm{sup −1} W/Hz{sup 1/2}. This MDL was down to 7 ppbv at the optimal integration time of 150 s. The corresponding 1σ minimum detected absorption coefficient is ∼1.1 × 10{sup −7 }cm{sup −1} (MDL ∼ 3 ppbv) in 1 s and ∼1.1 × 10{sup −8 }cm{sup −1} (MDL ∼ 330 pptv) in 150 s, respectively, with 1 W laser power.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Structural and ionic conductivity studies of electrospun polymer blend P(VdF-co-HFP)/PMMA electrolyte membrane for lithium battery application

A novel fibrous polymer blend [(100-x) % P(VdF-co-HFP)/x % PMMA, x = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50] electrolyte membranes were prepared by electrospinning technique. Structural, thermal and surface morphology of all the compositions of electrospun polymer blend membranes were studied by using XRD, DSC & SEM. The newly developed five different compositions of polymer blend fibrous electrolyte membranes were obtained by soaking in an electrolyte solution contains 1M LiPF{sub 6} in EC: DEC (1:1,v/v). The wet-ability and conductivity of all the compositions of polymer blend electrolyte membranes are evaluated through electrolyte uptake and impedance measurements. The polymer blend [90% P(VdF-co-HFP)/10% PMMA] electrolyte membrane showed good wet-ability and high conductivity (1.788 × 10{sup −3} Scm{sup −1}) at room temperature.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Synthesis and electrochemical properties of layered structure Li[Ni{sub 0.5}Co{sub 0.25}Mn{sub 0.25}]O{sub 2} cathode material

Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries are currently the energy source of choice for cell phones, laptops, and other mobile electronic devices due to their balance of high energy density with high power density compared to other electrochemical energy carriers. In the present study, mixed hydroxide method is used to prepare Li[Ni{sub 0.5}Co{sub 0.25}Mn{sub 0.25}]O{sub 2} from the precursors and analyze qualitatively and studied the electrochemical properties. The XRD spectrum exhibited predominant (003) orientation at 2θ =18.39{sup o} corresponding to hexagonal layered structure of R3m symmetry with evaluated lattice parameters are a= 2.84 Å, c= 14.43 Å. Raman measurements were performed to understand the microstructure and vibrational modes of the prepared sample. From the electrochemical (EC) studies an initial discharge capacity of about 140 mAhg{sup −1} with good cyclic stability was observed for the prepared sample in the potential range 0.0 −1.0V in aqueous medium.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Vibration piezoelectric energy harvester with multi-beam

This work presents a novel vibration piezoelectric energy harvester, which is a micro piezoelectric cantilever with multi-beam. The characteristics of the PZT (Pb(Zr{sub 0.53}Ti{sub 0.47})O{sub 3}) thin film were measured; XRD (X-ray diffraction) pattern and AFM (Atomic Force Microscope) image of the PZT thin film were measured, and show that the PZT (Pb(Zr{sub 0.53}Ti{sub 0.47})O{sub 3}) thin film is highly (110) crystal oriented; the leakage current is maintained in nA magnitude, the residual polarisation Pr is 37.037 μC/cm{sup 2}, the coercive field voltage Ec is 27.083 kV/cm, and the piezoelectric constant d{sub 33} is 28 pC/N. In order to test the dynamic performance of the energy harvester, a new measuring system was set up. The maximum output voltage of the single beam of the multi-beam can achieve 80.78 mV under an acceleration of 1 g at 260 Hz of frequency; the maximum output voltage of the single beam of the multi-beam is almost 20 mV at 1400 Hz frequency. .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

A thermodynamical analysis of rf current drive with fast electrons

The problem of rf current drive (CD) by pushing fast electrons with high-parallel-phase-velocity waves, such as lower-hybrid (LH) or electron-cyclotron (EC) waves, is revisited using the first and second laws, the former to retrieve the well-known one-dimensional (1D) steady-state CD efficiency, and the latter to calculate a lower bound for the rate of entropy production when approaching steady state. The laws of thermodynamics are written in a form that explicitly takes care of frictional dissipation and are thus applied to a population of fast electrons evolving under the influence of a dc electric field, rf waves, and collisions while in contact with a thermal, Maxwellian reservoir with a well-defined temperature. Besides the laws of macroscopic thermodynamics, there is recourse to basic elements of kinetic theory only, being assumed a residual dc electric field and a strong rf drive, capable of sustaining in the resonant region, where waves interact with electrons, a raised fast-electron tail distribution, which becomes an essentially flat plateau in the case of the 1D theory for LHCD. Within the 1D model, particularly suited for LHCD as it solely retains fast-electron dynamics in velocity space parallel to the ambient magnetic field, an H theorem for rf CD is also derived, which is written in different forms, and additional physics is recovered, such as the synergy between the dc and rf power sources, including the rf-induced hot conductivity, as well as the equation for electron-bulk heating. As much as possible 1D results are extended to 2D, to account for ECCD by also considering fast-electron velocity-space dynamics in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field, which leads to a detailed discussion on how the definition of an rf-induced conductivity may depend on whether one works at constant rf current or power. Moreover, working out the collisional dissipated power and entropy-production rate written in terms of the fast-electron distribution, it is shown that the well-known formula for the steady-state CD efficiency, usually obtained from the first law in the form of power balance between the external sources and collisional losses, emerges as a lower bound for that CD figure of merit, in what can be interpreted as an instance of the second law.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

RF wave propagation and scattering in turbulent tokamak plasmas

Drift wave turbulence driven by the steep electron and ion temperature gradients in H-mode divertor tokamaks produce scattering of the RF waves used for heating and current drive. The X-ray emission spectra produced by the fast electrons require the turbulence broaden RF wave spectrum. Both the 5 GHz Lower Hybrid waves and the 170 GHz electron cyclotron [EC] RF waves experience scattering and diffraction by the electron density fluctuations. With strong LHCD there are bifurcations in the coupled turbulent transport dynamics giving improved steady-state confinement states. The stochastic scattering of the RF rays makes the prediction of the distribution of the rays and the associated particle heating a statistical problem. Thus, we introduce a Fokker-Planck equation for the probably density of the RF rays. The general frame work of the coupled system of coupled high frequency current driving rays with the low-frequency turbulent transport determines the profiles of the plasma density and temperatures.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Impact of central ECCD on steady-state hybrid scenario in DIII-D

“Steady-state” hybrid plasmas in DIII-D with zero surface loop voltage have been maintained for up to two current relaxation times using 3.4 MW of central electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD). In addition to driving ≈0.2 MA of plasma current, central ECCD leads to significant changes in Alfvén eigenmode (AE) activity and thermal transport. For neutral-beam-only heating, strong AE activity is observed that causes a ∼35% degradation in the neutron rate. With central ECCD this AE activity is suppressed, replaced by a bursty energetic particle mode that appears more benign as the neutron rate is closer to the classical value. The electron thermal diffusivity increases by ≈50% for 2.4 MW of ECCD compared to neutral-beam-only cases. Fortunately, the global thermal confinement factor remains the same (H{sub 98y2}=1.4) as the higher thermal transport for P{sub EC}=2.4 MW hybrids is offset by the decreased fast ion transport resulting from AE suppression.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Optical modeling and physical performances evaluations for the JT-60SA ECRF antenna

The purpose of this work is the optical modeling and physical performances evaluations of the JT-60SA ECRF launcher system. The beams have been simulated with the electromagnetic code GRASP® and used as input for ECCD calculations performed with the beam tracing code GRAY, capable of modeling propagation, absorption and current drive of an EC Gaussion beam with general astigmatism. Full details of the optical analysis has been taken into account to model the launched beams. Inductive and advanced reference scenarios has been analysed for physical evaluations in the full poloidal and toroidal steering ranges for two slightly different layouts of the launcher system.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2018

Pixel-to-pixel variation on a calibrated PILATUS3-based multi-energy soft x-ray detector

A multi-energy soft x-ray pin-hole camera based on the PILATUS3 100 K x-ray detector has recently been installed on the Madison Symmetric Torus. This photon-counting detector consists of a two-dimensional array of ∼100 000 pixels for which the photon lower-threshold cutoff energy Ec can be independently set for each pixel. This capability allows the measurement of plasma x-ray emissivity in multiple energy ranges with a unique combination of spatial and spectral resolution and the inference of a variety of important plasma properties (e.g., Te, nZ, Zeff). The energy dependence of each pixel is calibrated for the 1.6–6 keV range by scanning individual trimbit settings, while the detector is exposed to fluorescence emission from Ag, In, Mo, Ti, V, and Zr targets. The resulting data for each line are then fit to a characteristic “S-curve” which determines the mapping between the 64 possible trimbit settings for each pixel. The statistical variation of this calibration from pixel-to-pixel was explored, and it was found that the discreteness of trimbit settings results in an effective threshold resolution of ΔE < 100 eV. A separate calibration was performed for the 4–14 keV range, with a resolution of ΔE < 200 eV.

VanMeter, P. (ORCID:0000000244537948)↗
DOE OSTI2021

Deep level study of chlorine-based dry etched β-Ga 2 O 3

Chlorine-based gases are used for the reactive ion etching (RIE) of β-Ga 2 O 3 . However, the effects of Cl-plasma on the electronic properties of β-Ga 2 O 3 are not known. In order to shed light on this topic, we carried out an experimental and theoretical study on β-Ga 2 O 3 epilayers treated with Cl 2 /Ar or BCl 3 /Ar plasma. We found four traps in the 0.2–0.8 eV energy range below the conduction band edge (EC). Two of these, located at E C -0.24 eV and E C -0.28 eV, arise only when the epilayers are treated with BCl 3 /Ar. While the involvement of Cl in their microscopic structure is not discarded, the possibility that these two levels might have an intrinsic nature seems more plausible. Our findings might explain the reported effects on the Schottky barrier diodes of β-Ga 2 O 3 when RIE is employed during processing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Benchmark between antenna code TOPICA, RAPLICASOL and Petra-M for the ICRH ITER antenna

ITER will be equipped with three plasma heating systems: neutral beam (NB), electron cyclotron (EC), and ion cy-clotron resonance heating (ICRH). The latter consists of two identical ICRH antennas to deliver 20 MW to the plasma (baseline, upgradable to 40 MW). ICRH will play a crucial role in the ignition and sustainment of burning plasmas in ITER. A high fidelity and robust modeling effort to understand the interaction of the IC waves with the scrape-off-layer (SOL) plasma is a very important aspect. Among the main important research topics, we have the assessment of the antenna loading for different plasma scenarios, the role of the lower hybrid resonance in front of the antenna and how to include it in our models, and the RF sheath boundary conditions to evaluate the antenna impurity generation. In this work, we tackle the first of these by reporting on ICRF simulations employing the Petra-M code, which is an electromagnetic simulation tool for modeling RF wave propagation based on MFEM [http://mfem.org] for the ITER ICRH antenna. Moreover, a benchmark between the well tested antenna codes TOPICA, RAPLI-CASOL, which is based on COMSOL [www.comsol.com], and the Petra-M code is also presented. In conclusion, S- and Z-matrices and wave electric field are compared showing an excellent agreement among these codes.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗