SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Process sensitivity”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

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

At least 1,081 records · Page 60

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2020

Reaction Rate Sensitivity of the Production of γ-Ray Emitting Isotopes in Core-collapse Supernovae

Radioactive isotopes produced in core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) provide useful insights into the underlying processes driving the collapse mechanism and the origins of elemental abundances. Their study generates a confluence of major physics research, including experimental measurements of nuclear reaction rates, astrophysical modeling, and γ-ray observations. Here we identify the key nuclear reaction rates to the nucleosynthesis of observable radioactive isotopes in explosive silicon burning during CCSNe. Using the nuclear reaction network calculator SkyNet and current REACLIB reaction rates, we evolve temperature–density–time profiles of the innermost 0.45 M⊙ ejecta from the core collapse and explosion of a 12 M⊙ star. Individually varying 3403 reaction rates by factors of 100, we identify 141 reactions that cause significant differences in the isotopes of interest, namely, 43 K, 47 Ca, 44,47 Sc, 44 Ti, 48,51 Cr, 48,49 V, 52,53 Mn, 55,59 Fe, 56,57 Co, and 56,57,59 Ni. For each of these reactions, we present a novel method to extract the temperature range pertinent to the nucleosynthesis of the relevant isotope; the resulting temperatures lie within the range T = 0.47–6.15 GK. Limiting the variations to within 1σ of STARLIB reaction rate uncertainties further reduces the identified reactions to 48 key rates, which can be used to guide future experimental research. Complete results are presented in tabular form.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Microstructural Engineering of Mn-Alloyed Austenitic Steel for Hydrogen Storage and Delivery

Austenitic stainless steels are commonly used for hydrogen storage and transportation. These alloys have a high nickel (Ni) content, which increases alloy cost. In this study, high manganese (Mn) austenitic alloys were evaluated as potential lower cost alternatives. Two heats of high Mn alloys with different stacking fault energies (SFE) of ~29 mJ·m -2 and 49 mJ·m -2 were acquired. Additionally, a new vanadium (V)-microalloyed high Mn alloy was designed to achieve a SFE of 47 mJ·m -2 to minimize planar slip deformation mechanisms. Post-processing via cold working in conjunction with aging was also performed on the V-microalloyed high Mn steel. Hydrogen embrittlement sensitivity was investigated using circumferential notch tensile specimens cathodically charged with hydrogen in a 0.05M NaOH electrolytic solution. The alloys were compared to a cold-worked 316L stainless steel, which exhibited no strength loss due to hydrogen. The high Mn alloys with SFE of ~29 mJ·m 2 and 49 mJ·m -2 had notch strength losses of 11 and 6 pct, respectively. The V-microalloyed high Mn steel in the as-hot-rolled condition had a notch strength loss of 17 pct. Furthermore, the V-microalloyed high Mn steel in the cold worked and aged condition indicated no notch strength loss in hydrogen, which was comparable to the performance of the 316L stainless steel.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Low-Energy Backgrounds in Solid-State Phonon and Charge Detectors

Solid-state phonon and charge detectors probe the scattering of weakly interacting particles, such as dark matter and neutrinos, through their low recoil thresholds. Recent advancements have pushed sensitivity to eV-scale energy depositions, uncovering previously-unseen low-energy excess backgrounds. While some arise from known processes such as thermal radiation, luminescence, and stress, others remain unexplained. This review examines these backgrounds, their possible origins, and parallels to low-energy effects in solids. Their understanding is essential for interpreting particle interactions at and below the eV-scale.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2022

Environmental effects on aerosol–cloud interaction in non-precipitating marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds over the eastern North Atlantic

Abstract. Over the eastern North Atlantic (ENA) ocean, a total of 20 non-precipitating single-layer marine boundary layer (MBL) stratus and stratocumulus cloud cases are selected to investigate the impacts of the environmental variables on the aerosol–cloud interaction (ACIr) using the ground-based measurements from the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) facility at the ENA site during 2016–2018. The ACIr represents the relative change in cloud droplet effective radius re with respect to the relative change in cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration at 0.2 % supersaturation (NCCN,0.2 %) in the stratified water vapor environment. The ACIr values vary from −0.01 to 0.22 with increasing sub-cloud boundary layer precipitable water vapor (PWVBL) conditions, indicating that re is more sensitive to the CCN loading under sufficient water vapor supply, owing to the combined effect of enhanced condensational growth and coalescence processes associated with higher Nc and PWVBL. The principal component analysis shows that the most pronounced pattern during the selected cases is the co-variations in the MBL conditions characterized by the vertical component of turbulence kinetic energy (TKEw), the decoupling index (Di), and PWVBL. The environmental effects on ACIr emerge after the data are stratified into different TKEw regimes. The ACIr values, under both lower and higher PWVBL conditions, more than double from the low-TKEw to high-TKEw regime. This can be explained by the fact that stronger boundary layer turbulence maintains a well-mixed MBL, strengthening the connection between cloud microphysical properties and the below-cloud CCN and moisture sources. With sufficient water vapor and low CCN loading, the active coalescence process broadens the cloud droplet size spectra and consequently results in an enlargement of re. The enhanced activation of CCN and the cloud droplet condensational growth induced by the higher below-cloud CCN loading can effectively decrease re, which jointly presents as the increased ACIr. This study examines the importance of environmental effects on the ACIr assessments and provides observational constraints to future model evaluations of aerosol–cloud interactions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2026

The South Pole Telescope AGN Monitoring Campaign: First Release of SPTpol Bright AGN Light Curves

The South Pole Telescope (SPT) collaboration has recently embarked upon a campaign to monitor the brightness of a sample of active galactic nuclei (AGN), both in real time and in archival SPT data. The original design of the SPT was optimized for observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at arc-minute and larger angular scales, and it has been used for this purpose for nearly twenty years, using three generations of CMB cameras. Recently it has been recognized that data from CMB experiments have the potential to be used for AGN monitoring. In this paper, we present the first public release of data from a full sample of SPT-monitored AGN, comprising 158 AGN light curves and associated data from the SPTpol camera, which was operational from 2012-2016. These light curves were created using observations from the SPTpol 500 deg$^{2}$ survey, in which the instrument was used to scan a 500 deg$^2$ patch of the sky several times per day with detectors sensitive to radiation in bands centered at 90 and 150 GHz. We provide a comprehensive description of the observations, the data processing methods, and the resulting light curve catalog. As an example of analyses that these data enable, we searched for a correlation between variability and spectral index, and we looked for ``bluer-when-brighter'' trends in the sample. Our analysis finds $> 10 σ$ correlation between fractional intrinsic variance and mean spectral index in the sample, but no significant evidence for bluer-when-brighter trends. The datasets from this study can be accessed through the SPT Treasury Record of AGN With Historical Activity and Time-Series or STRAWHAT catalog. This initial data release includes SPTpol light curves at 90 and 150 GHz, focusing on total intensity. In later updates, SPTpol polarization data and new observations from the SPT-3G instrument at 90, 150, and 220 GHz will be included.

Hood, J.C., II [Chicago U., KICP; Chicago U., Astr↗

DOE OSTI2022

Sensitivity of Global Ocean Deoxygenation to Vertical and Isopycnal Mixing in an Ocean Biogeochemistry Model

Large-scale loss of oxygen under global warming is termed “ocean deoxygenation” and is caused by the imbalance between physical supply and biological consumption of oxygen in the ocean interior. Significant progress has been made in the theoretical understanding of ocean deoxygenation; however, many questions remain unresolved. The oxygen change in the tropical thermocline is poorly understood, with diverging projections among different models. Physical oxygen supply is controlled by a suite of processes that transport oxygen-rich surface waters into the interior ocean, which is expected to weaken due to increasing stratification under global warming. Using a numerical model and a series of sensitivity experiments, the role of ocean mixing is examined in terms of effects on the mean state and the response to a transient warming. Both vertical and horizontal (isopycnal) mixing coefficients are systematically varied over a wide range, and the resulting oxygen distributions in equilibrated and transient simulations are examined. The spatial patterns of oxygen loss are sensitive to both vertical and isopycnal mixing, and the sign of tropical oxygen trend under climate warming can reverse depending on the choice of mixing parameters. An elevated level of isopycnal mixing disrupts the vertical advective-diffusive balance of the tropical thermocline, increasing the mean state oxygen as well as the magnitude of the transient oxygen decline. These results provide first-order explanations for the diverging behaviors of simulated tropical oxygen with respect to ocean mixing parameters.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Earth-system-model evaluation of cloud and precipitation occurrence for supercooled and warm clouds over the Southern Ocean's Macquarie Island

Abstract. Over the remote Southern Ocean (SO), cloud feedbacks contribute substantially to Earth system model (ESM) radiative biases. The evolution of low Southern Ocean clouds (cloud-top heights < ∼ 3 km) is strongly modulated by precipitation and/or evaporation, which act as the primary sink of cloud condensate. Constraining precipitation processes in ESMs requires robust observations suitable for process-level evaluations. A year-long subset (April 2016–March 2017) of ground-based profiling instrumentation deployed during the Macquarie Island Cloud and Radiation Experiment (MICRE) field campaign (54.5∘ S, 158.9∘ E) combines a 95 GHz (W-band) Doppler cloud radar, two lidar ceilometers, and balloon-borne soundings to quantify the occurrence frequency of precipitation from the liquid-phase cloud base. Liquid-based clouds at Macquarie Island precipitate ∼ 70 % of the time, with deeper and colder clouds precipitating more frequently and at a higher intensity compared to thinner and warmer clouds. Supercooled cloud layers precipitate more readily than layers with cloud-top temperatures > 0 ∘C, regardless of the geometric thickness of the layer, and also evaporate more frequently. We further demonstrate an approach to employ these observational constraints for evaluation of a 9-year GISS-ModelE3 ESM simulation. Model output is processed through the Earth Model Column Collaboratory (EMC2) radar and lidar instrument simulator with the same instrument specifications as those deployed during MICRE, therefore accounting for instrument sensitivities and ensuring a coherent comparison. Relative to MICRE observations, the ESM produces a smaller cloud occurrence frequency, smaller precipitation occurrence frequency, and greater sub-cloud evaporation. The lower precipitation occurrence frequency by the ESM relative to MICRE contrasts with numerous studies that suggest a ubiquitous bias by ESMs to precipitate too frequently over the SO when compared with satellite-based observations, likely owing to sensitivity limitations of spaceborne instrumentation and different sampling methodologies for ground- versus space-based observations. Despite these deficiencies, the ESM reproduces the observed tendency for deeper and colder clouds to precipitate more frequently and at a higher intensity. The ESM also reproduces specific cloud regimes, including near-surface clouds that account for ∼ 25 % of liquid-based clouds during MICRE and optically thin, non-precipitating clouds that account for ∼ 27 % of clouds with bases higher than 250 m. We suggest that the demonstrated framework, which merges observations with appropriately constrained model output, is a valuable approach to evaluate processes responsible for cloud radiative feedbacks in ESMs.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Novel Instrumentation for Advanced Quantum Chromodynamics Studies with Flavor Sensitivity

The true nature of ordinary matter has always fascinated humankind, whose imagination has been pointed to the right direction since the 5th century BC with the first known atomic theory by Leucippus and Democritus. They described the matter as formed by small, invisible, indivisible, and eternal particles: the atoms. A long investigation followed them, including contributions from several of history?s greatest philosophers and scientists. The progress led to the understanding that atoms have an internal structure consisting of a central nucleus composed of protons and neutrons, surrounded by a cloud of electrons. About 50 years ago, scientists discovered that nucleons also have an internal structure. Through the Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) experiments, on which a lepton is scattered off a nucleon, it was possible to access the distribution of partons inside the nucleon along the longitudinal direction defined by the hard-scale probe. It was a crucial step in developing Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), currently the best theory describing the subatomic matter. Ultimately, DIS was recognized as a limited tool to investigate the nucleon structure because it is mainly sensitive to observables at the probe?s energy scale. In recent decades, theoretical developments have allowed defining soft-scale observables by measuring more complex processes. Reactions such as Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering (SIDIS) with single or di-hadron production, can provide information about the momentum of parton inside the nucleon. In particular, polarized SIDIS allows access to the Transverse-Momentum-Dependent (TMD) parton distributions describing the correlations of the quark and gluon degrees of freedom in transverse momentum and spin. This study can provide three-dimensional imaging of nucleon structure and inner dynamics, as long as the hadronic component in the final state can be measured. Identifying the species of the produced particles provides information on the quark flavor and assumes a crucial role in this context. The thesis describes the work carried out by the author in preparing novel instrumentation for particle identification in the final state of DIS experiments, to support modern analysis of the parton dynamics within the basic confined object (nucleon) with flavor sensitivity. The work has been focused on the CLAS12 spectrometer in operation at Jefferson Laboratory (JLab), Newport News, VA, USA, and the ePIC experiment in preparation for the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Long Island, NY, USA. CLAS12 is a fixed-target experiment using a 12 GeV beam of polarized electrons scattering off polarized nuclear targets. In 2018 and 2022, two Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector modules were installed to improve the ?±/K± separation in the high-momentum region (3÷8 GeV/c) of the experiment. The author contributed to the assembly, installation, and com- missioning of the second RICH module, to the efficiency studies of the first module, and to the first SIDIS analysis with high-momentum kaons identified by the RICH. These studies led to the observation of the first spin asymmetry with high-momentum kaons from the CLAS12 experiment, and an initial assessment of the systematic error associated with the hadron identification. ePIC will be the first experiment at the future EIC, the new collider designed to expand the frontiers of QCD. The author was involved in the development of the dual-radiator Ring Imaging Cherenkov (dRICH). This detector will interpolate the measurements of the Cherenkov angles of photons produced by relativistic particles crossing two different radiators to identify charged hadrons. The author contributed to the studies conducted with the dRICH prototype, developing the reconstruction and analysis software and simulations, characterizing the aerogel radiator samples, and being responsible for the tracking system used during the beam tests. The performance obtained by the prototype has been progressively improved and the results are now comparable with the expectation derived from the simulation and satisfy the requirements of the experiment. In Chapter 1, the SIDIS theory is briefly introduced, outlying the connection with the experimental measurement. Chapter 2 includes the description of the CLAS12 RICH, its assembly and installation, and the efficiency study. In Chapter 3, the analysis of the Beam-Spin Asymmetry associated with SIDIS kaons is described. Chapter 4 describes the contribution to the dRICH for EIC, starting from a description of the ePIC experiment and focusing on the studies performed for the dRICH prototype. The conclusions of this work are summarized at the end.

Vallarino, Simone↗

DOE OSTI2023

Modeling dust mineralogical composition: sensitivity to soil mineralogy atlases and their expected climate impacts

Soil dust aerosols are a key component of the climate system, as they interact with short- and long-wave radiation, alter cloud formation processes, affect atmospheric chemistry and play a role in biogeochemical cycles by providing nutrient inputs such as iron and phosphorus. The influence of dust on these processes depends on its physicochemical properties, which, far from being homogeneous, are shaped by its regionally varying mineral composition. The relative amount of minerals in dust depends on the source region and shows a large geographical variability. However, many state-of-the-art Earth system models (ESMs), upon which climate analyses and projections rely, still consider dust mineralogy to be invariant. The explicit representation of minerals in ESMs is more hindered by our limited knowledge of the global soil composition along with the resulting size-resolved airborne mineralogy than by computational constraints. In this work we introduce an explicit mineralogy representation within the state-of-the-art Multiscale Online Nonhydrostatic AtmospheRe CHemistry (MONARCH) model. We review and compare two existing soil mineralogy datasets, which remain a source of uncertainty for dust mineralogy modeling and provide an evaluation of multiannual simulations against available mineralogy observations. Soil mineralogy datasets are based on measurements performed after wet sieving, which breaks the aggregates found in the parent soil. Our model predicts the emitted particle size distribution (PSD) in terms of its constituent minerals based on brittle fragmentation theory (BFT), which reconstructs the emitted mineral aggregates destroyed by wet sieving. Our simulations broadly reproduce the most abundant mineral fractions independently of the soil composition data used. Feldspars and calcite are highly sensitive to the soil mineralogy map, mainly due to the different assumptions made in each soil dataset to extrapolate a handful of soil measurements to arid and semi-arid regions worldwide. For the least abundant or more difficult-to-determine minerals, such as iron oxides, uncertainties in soil mineralogy yield differences in annual mean aerosol mass fractions of up to ~ 100 %. Although BFT restores coarse aggregates including phyllosilicates that usually break during soil analysis, we still identify an overestimation of coarse quartz mass fractions (above 2 µm in diameter). In a dedicated experiment, we estimate the fraction of dust with undetermined composition as given by a soil map, which makes up ~ 10 % of the emitted dust mass at the global scale and can be regionally larger. Changes in the underlying soil mineralogy impact our estimates of climate-relevant variables, particularly affecting the regional variability of the single-scattering albedo at solar wavelengths or the total iron deposited over oceans. All in all, this assessment represents a baseline for future model experiments including new mineralogical maps constrained by high-quality spaceborne hyperspectral measurements, such as those arising from the NASA Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Electroweak interactions in Nucleons and Nuclei

The neutrino oscillation experiments are being performed using detectors having moderate to heavy nuclear targets like $^{12}{C}$, $^{16}{O}$, $^{40}{Ar}$, $^{56}{Fe}$, $^{208}{Pb}$, etc. to get a reasonably good number of events. Many present-day neutrino experiments are taking data in the few GeV (1 $\leq$ E$_{\nu}$ $\leq$ 10 GeV) energy region of neutrinos and antineutrinos to which some of the neutrino oscillation parameters are sensitive and required to understand CP violation in the lepton sector. This is the energy region which is most intriguing as it receives the contribution from the Quasielastic Scattering~(QE), Inelastic Scattering(IE), Shallow Inelastic Scattering (SIS) and the Deep Inelastic Scattering~(DIS) processes. This thesis details three different studies: \begin{itemize} \item First, a DIS study was performed with the MINERvA experiment at the Fermilab. MINERvA is a dedicated neutrino and antineutrino cross-section measurement experiment and uses (anti)neutrino beams in the two energy runs {\it viz.} the low energy run~(the peak of which lies $\sim$ 3 GeV) and the medium energy run(the peak lies at $\sim$ 6 GeV). The MINERvA experiment is using several nuclear targets like $^{4}$He, $^{12}$C, $^{16}$O, $^{56}$Fe and $^{208}$Pb and the aim is to perform EMC~(European Muon Collaboration experiment using charged lepton beam on several nuclear targets) kind of measurements to understand the nuclear medium effects in both the neutrino and antineutrino modes in the wide region of Bjorken scaling variable $x$, and the four-momentum transfer squared $Q^2$, covering the quasielastic, inelastic, and the deep inelastic scattering regions. In the medium energy region, it is expected that more than 30\% of the events would arise due to DIS processes. \item Second part of the thesis includes the analysis of the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory(INO) atmospheric neutrino experiment. This work is dedicated to studying atmospheric neutrino and ant ineutrino oscillation parameters in the INO experiment. We present the ICAL sensitivity to confirm a non-zero value of the difference in atmospheric mass squared of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos i.e. ($|\Delta m^{2}_{32}|$-$|\Delta\overline{m^{2}}_{32}|$). \item Third, the theoretical work that was performed at the Aligarh Muslim University. This work has been performed keeping in mind the theoretical development of a model that will describe the associated particle production induced by photons, electrons, neutrinos, and antineutrinos. We have studied the associated particle production induced by photons which receive the contributions from the non-resonant terms and from the nucleon, hyperon, and kaon resonances. \end{itemize}

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Guideline for Characterizing and Evaluating a Candidate Project Site for Solar Thermal Applications

This document presents a structured procedure for characterizing and evaluating candidate project sites for concentrating solar power (CSP) and solar heat for industrial processes (SHIP) applications. The objective is to provide project developers, researchers, and other stakeholders with a consistent, technology-agnostic framework for early-stage site assessment, enabling informed decision-making prior to significant investment in project development. Site selection is a critical factor in project success or failure for both CSP and SHIP projects. Key factors such as solar resource availability, land characteristics, environmental and regulatory constraints, infrastructure availability, and community context are determined by the choice of project site and can materially impact project performance, cost, schedule, and overall viability. This procedure is designed to systematically evaluate these factors, identify potential fatal flaws, and prioritize the most favorable candidate sites for further development. The process begins with rapid screening-level evaluation, using publicly available data to assess solar resource, land availability and suitability, zoning and land-use compatibility, and exclusion zones such as protected lands or sensitive habitats. Sites that meet the minimum screening criteria advance to a more detailed characterization. Subsequent sections of this report provide guidance for a next-level assessment of the most important technical and environmental parameters, including: 1) Solar resource quality, variability, and uncertainty using multiyear datasets and, where appropriate, on-site measurement campaigns; 2) Meteorological conditions such as wind, temperature, extreme weather events, and soiling impacts; 3) Land characteristics including slope, shading, and geotechnical conditions; and 4) Environmental and regulatory considerations, including permitting processes, endangered species, cultural resources, and visual impacts. The procedure also addresses infrastructure and integration considerations, including: 1) Grid interconnection requirements for CSP power generation projects; 2) Electrical and operational integration for SHIP facilities; 3) Water availability, quality, and permitting constraints, which are particularly critical for CSP in arid regions; and 4) Site access, construction logistics, and availability of workforce and supporting services. Recognizing the importance of social and economic context, the procedure includes evaluation of community engagement factors, such as stakeholder sentiment, proximity to sensitive visual receptors, workforce development opportunities, and local economic incentives. The outputs of these assessments are synthesized in a cost and risk evaluation, translating site characteristics into expected impacts on capital cost, operating cost, schedule, and technical risk. This is complemented by screening-level performance modeling, including 8760 simulations and long-term projections, to quantify expected energy or thermal output, assess variability thereof, and support comparison between candidate sites. Finally, the procedure provides high-level guidance on a structured go/no-go decision framework, categorizing sites based on identified risks and constraints, and outlining a clear path forward to feasibility studies and front-end engineering design for viable projects. By standardizing the site characterization process across both CSP and SHIP applications, this guideline aims to: 1) Improve consistency and transparency in early-stage project evaluation; 2) Reduce development risk and avoid investment in nonviable project sites; 3) Support collaboration between developers, researchers, and public agencies; and 4) Accelerate successful deployment of concentrating solar technologies for both power generation and industrial process heat.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Spectroscopic measurement of increases in hydrogen molecular rotational temperature with plasma-facing surface temperature and due to collisional-radiative processes in tokamaks

Abstract Spatially resolved rotational temperature of ground state hydrogen molecules desorbed from plasma-facing surface was measured in QUEST, LTX-β, and DIII-D tokamaks, and the increases of the rotational temperature with the surface temperature and due to collisional-radiative processes in the plasmas were evaluated. The increase due to collisional-radiative processes was calculated by solving rate equations considering electron and proton collisional excitation and deexcitation and spontaneous emission. The calculation results suggest a high sensitivity for the rotational temperature to electron and proton densities, but a negligible sensitivity to the electron, proton, and surface temperatures. In the three tokamaks with different plasma parameters and plasma-facing surface materials, the spatial profile of the rotational temperature was estimated using Fulcher-α emission lines (600–608 nm). In QUEST, the spatial profile of the rotational temperature was estimated from spatially resolved spectra. In the other tokamaks, the rotational temperature was evaluated assuming a single point emission with a location determined from the Fulcher-α emission profile as measured with a filtered camera. In metal-walled devices QUEST and LTX-β, the rotational temperature increased with the surface temperature, and the calculated collisional-radiative increase is consistent with measured increase assuming that the rotational temperature at the surface is approximately 500–600 K higher than the surface temperature. In DIII-D with carbon walls, a larger collisional-radiative increase than the other tokamaks was observed because of the higher density leading to a large difference from the calculated increase compared to the other smaller tokamaks. Measurement of the Fulcher-α emission profile with higher spatial resolution in DIII-D may reduce the difference and reveal the effect of the surface temperature on the rotational temperature. These results show the increases in the rotational temperature with the surface temperature and due to the collisional-radiative processes.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Simulation and Sensitivity Analysis of a Cryogenic Carbon Capture System for the Cement Industry

The talk will describe modeling and analysis of cryogenic systems for carbon capture from industrial point sources, thermodynamic and process simulation requirements to predict capture from typical flue gases, quantification of temperature and flow profiles for a range of gas feed compositions and capture levels, and impacts of process conditions and heat transfer on energy requirements for heat integration.

Paul, Brandon↗

DOE OSTI2026

Depth-Resolved X-Ray Nanoimaging of Coherent and Incoherent Energy Transport in Silicon Carbide

Understanding lattice dynamics is crucial for optimizing the process of creating functional structures, such as laser writing of color-center defects. However, existing structural probes have difficulty measuring structural dynamics with submicrometer depth sensitivity. Here, in this study, a depth-resolved ultrafast X-ray nanodiffraction technique is developed to track the lattice dynamics of silicon carbide (SiC) in three dimensions. Upon laser excitation of an aluminum layer that acts as a heat and strain transducer, a specular Bragg peak of SiC shows an overall increase in the X-ray diffraction intensity rather than a peak shift. The relaxation dynamics of the increased intensity are significantly different when probed on and off the Bragg peak. The fast subnanosecond relaxation probed at the maximum of the Bragg peak is a result of the propagation of a coherent strain wave along the depth direction, while a slow relaxation probed at the wings of the Bragg peak reflects a localized incoherent lattice heating. To further visualize these processes, spatiotemporal maps were obtained by scanning the relative position and delay between the laser pump and X-ray probe beams, which capture the propagation of the strain wave, as well as a stationary structural distortion close to the aluminum/SiC interface. These depth-resolved structural measurements disentangle energy dissipation mechanisms in laser-excited SiC, and they open opportunities for finer control of, for example, the formation of optically addressable defect complexes central to quantum information applications.

X-ray nanodiffraction↗

DOE OSTI2022

The Influence of Environment on Post-Detonation Chemistry and Debris Formation (Abbreviated Final Report: 20-SI-006)

Predicting, responding to, or interpreting the chemical record preserved in debris derived from nuclear events can be challenging due to chemical fractionation. Chemical fractionation is where different species of the evolving radionuclide inventory segregate and/or are lost from the system over the timescales of debris formation. Both historic data and recent research suggest that the interaction and character of the local environment may exert controls on chemical fractionation by influencing the cooling and evolution of the associated fireball as well as the composition of the vapor term and resultant speciation. Prior to this work, an integrated platform permitting dynamic and concurrent consideration of physical and chemical evolution of early time post-detonation event environments did not exist. Our work merged historic data and experimental approaches to support development of a computational framework able to simulate fundamental processes (e.g., entrainment of local environment, oxidation chemistry, and cooling time scales) that may perturb the radionuclide inventory captured in post-detonation debris. Work with historic debris confirmed that entrained environmental material affect debris composition, structure, and radionuclide incorporation. Complementary work utilizing a readily controllable and tunable benchtop setup (a plasma flow reactor) simulated the late cooling of a nuclear fireball (e.g., T < 6000 K) and bounded the sensitivity of actinide speciation and particle size distribution to variations in oxygen concentration and cooling rates. Concurrent laser ablation and laser heating experiments were used to investigate the chemistry and physics of processes occurring in vaporized and/or rapidly heated actinides and other elements in the presence of oxygen. A more computationally efficient microphysical model was developed for predicting and evolving size distributions of particles forming from mixed vapor terms and simulating particle formation processes under a variety of extreme conditions. Continued study of historic nuclear event film confirmed that shockwave data and physics codes agree to within the uncertainty of the data. Good agreement was achieved for thermal emission from an airburst, however the paucity of low-temperature molecular opacity data for mixtures of air, bomb debris, entrained dirt, and water vapor complicate agreement for more elaborate scenarios. A multiphysics code (ALE3D) was modified to bring the necessary physics and chemistry, including these new data and insights, onto a single platform. Code development included improved initialization of large physical systems, modernization of chemistry capabilities, and modifications to enable inclusion of particle transport.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Updates to a Preliminary Probabilistic Performance Assessment Model for Radiological and Chemical Contamination at the West Valley Site, New York - 20420

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is the owner of the Western New York Nuclear Service Center (WNYNSC), a 1,351-ha site located approximately 48 km south of Buffalo, New York. In 1962, Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. (NFS) entered into agreements with the Atomic Energy Commission and New York State to construct the first commercial reprocessing plant of nuclear fuel in the United States at the WNYNSC. NFS built and operated the spent fuel reprocessing plant and waste disposal facilities, processing 640 Mg (640 metric tons) of spent nuclear fuel from 1966 to 1972 under an Atomic Energy Commission license. Nuclear fuel reprocessing operations halted in 1972 and never restarted, leaving behind radioactive and chemical wastes. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) was required to complete certain waste management activities under the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) Act of 1980 including decommissioning of WVDP facilities. As collaborating agencies, NYSERDA and the DOE are tasked with making decisions about decommissioning and risk reduction for the West Valley Site. Neptune and Company, Inc. (Neptune) was contracted to develop a probabilistic performance assessment (PPA) model to assist the agencies in their decision making process for decommissioning the WVDP and WNYNSC. One important tool that is needed in order to inform the decision-making process is a science-based model of the West Valley Site that evaluates potential future consequences for human health and the environment. This forms the core of the spatial domain of the West Valley PPA Model. The PPA Model, developed using the GoldSim system modeling software, is a tool intended to provide support for decision making that evaluates uncertainty, in a manner that is transparent, defensible, and robust. The PPA Model includes contaminant transport and health effects components, and is organized around geographically-grouped contaminated facilities. These include the waste disposal areas licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the State of New York, a waste tank farm for storage of high level radioactive waste resulting from reprocessing operations, and several areas contaminated with radioactive and chemical constituents. The PPA Model evaluates contaminant transport from these sources to points of exposure across the site and into receiving surface waters and sediments. Hypothetical people and wildlife could be exposed to contamination at these locations, and the effects of these exposures are evaluated. Contaminant transport processes to be evaluated in the PPA Model include groundwater and surface water transport, contaminant translocation by plants and animals, diffusion, and erosion. The evaluation of exposures to people in this preliminary model is limited to a resident farmer scenario, and ecological assessment is performed at the level of a screening analysis. The results of these preliminary evaluations inform future model developments. PPA Model results are subjected to sensitivity analysis in order to determine those pathways and parameters that are most significant in influencing the results. This information allows analysts and decision makers to focus on those aspects of Site behavior and processes. With this information, the decision makers can drive informed, defensible decisions regarding decommissioning of the Site. This paper includes an update of the information presented at WM2019 [1]. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2024

CTA and SWGO can discover Higgsino dark matter annihilation

Thermal Higgsino dark matter (DM), with a mass near 1.1 TeV, is one of the most well-motivated and untested DM candidates. Leveraging recent hydrodynamic cosmological simulations that give DM density profiles in Milky Way analog galaxies we show that the linelike gamma-ray signal predicted from Higgsino annihilation in the Galactic Center could be detected at high significance with the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) and Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) for all but the most pessimistic DM profiles. We perform the most sensitive search to-date for the linelike signal using 15 years of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope, coming within an order one factor of the necessary sensitivity to detect the Higgsino for some Milky Way analog DM density profiles. We show that H.E.S.S. has subleading sensitivity relative to Fermi for the Higgsino at present. In contrast, we analyze H.E.S.S. inner Galaxy data for the thermal wino model with a mass near 2.8 TeV; we find no evidence for a DM signal and exclude the wino by over a factor of two in cross section for all DM profiles considered. In the process, we identify and attempt to correct what appears to be an inconsistency in previous H.E.S.S. inner Galaxy analyses for DM annihilation related to the analysis effective area, which may weaken the DM cross-section sensitivity claimed in those works by around an order of magnitude.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Transcriptome Analysis of Drought-Resistant and Drought-Sensitive Sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor ) Genotypes in Response to PEG-Induced Drought Stress

Drought is a major limiting factor of crop yields. In response to drought, plants reprogram their gene expression, which ultimately regulates a multitude of biochemical and physiological processes. The timing of this reprogramming and the nature of the drought-regulated genes in different genotypes are thought to confer differential tolerance to drought stress. Sorghum is a highly drought-tolerant crop and has been increasingly used as a model cereal to identify genes that confer tolerance. Also, there is considerable natural variation in resistance to drought in different sorghum genotypes. Here, we evaluated drought resistance in four genotypes to polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced drought stress at the seedling stage and performed transcriptome analysis in seedlings of sorghum genotypes that are either drought-resistant or drought-sensitive to identify drought-regulated changes in gene expression that are unique to drought-resistant genotypes of sorghum. Our analysis revealed that about 180 genes are differentially regulated in response to drought stress only in drought-resistant genotypes and most of these (over 70%) are up-regulated in response to drought. Among these, about 70 genes are novel with no known function and the remaining are transcription factors, signaling and stress-related proteins implicated in drought tolerance in other crops. This study revealed a set of drought-regulated genes, including many genes encoding uncharacterized proteins that are associated with drought tolerance at the seedling stage.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗