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At least 1,135 records · Page 63

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NASA NTRS2003

Ectomycorrhizal Community Structure and Soil Characteristics of Mature Lodgepole Pine (Pinus Contorta) and Adjacent Stands of Old Growth Mixed Conifer in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming USA

Forest development patterns following disturbance are known to influence the physical and chemical attributes of soils at different points in time. Changes in soil resources are thought to have a corresponding effect on ectomycorrhizal (ECM) community structure. We used molecular methods to compare below-ground ECM species richness, composition, and abundance between adjacent stands of homogenous lodgepole pine and old growth mixed conifer in Yellowstone National Park (YNP). In each stand-type we collected soil cores to both identify mycorrhizae and assess soil chemistry. Although no statistical difference was observed in the mean number of ECM root tips per core between stand types, the total number of species identified (85 versus 35) and the mean number of species per core (8.8 +/- 0.6 versus 2.5 +/- 0.3) were significantly higher in lodgepole pine. Differences between the actual and estimated species richness levels indicated that these forest types support a high number of ECM species and that undersampling was severe. Species compositions were widely disparate between stands where only four species were shared out of a total of 116. Soil analysis also revealed that mixed conifer was significantly lower in pH, but higher in organic matter, potassium, phosphorus, and ammonium when compared to lodgepole pine stands. Species richness per core was correlated with these chemical data, however, analysis of covariance indicated that stand type was the only statistically significant factor in the observed difference in species richness. Our data suggest that ECM fungal richness increases as homogenous lodgepole pine stands grow and mature, but declines after Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir colonize. Despite difficulties linking species composition with soil chemistry, there are a variety of physical and chemical factors that could be influencing ECM community structure. Future field experiments are necessary to test some of the mechanisms potentially operating within this system.

Douglas, Robert B.↗

NASA NTRS1985

A critical analysis of air shower structure functions and size spectrum measurements with the NBU air shower array

A total of 11,000 showers in the size range 10 to the 4 to 10 to the 6 particles so far detected by the NBU air shower array has been analyzed using five different structure functions. A comparison of structure functions in terms: (1) of shower size; and (2) electron density at various core distances has been discussed to indicate the present status of structure functions in air shower analysis.

Chaudhuri, N.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Discovering invariant spatial features in electron energy loss spectroscopy images on the mesoscopic and atomic levels

Over the last two decades, Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) imaging with a scanning transmission electron microscope has emerged as a technique of choice for visualizing complex chemical, electronic, plasmonic, and phononic phenomena in complex materials and structures. The availability of the EELS data necessitates the development of methods to analyze multidimensional data sets with complex spatial and energy structures. Traditionally, the analysis of these data sets has been based on analysis of individual spectra, one at a time, whereas the spatial structure and correlations between individual spatial pixels containing the relevant information of the physics of underpinning processes have generally been ignored and analyzed only via the visualization as 2D maps. Here, we develop a machine learning-based approach and workflows for the analysis of spatial structures in 3D EELS data sets using a combination of dimensionality reduction and multichannel rotationally invariant variational autoencoders. This approach is illustrated for the analysis of both the plasmonic phenomena in a system of nanowires and in the core excitations in functional oxides using low loss and core-loss EELS, respectively. The code developed in this manuscript is open sourced and freely available and provided as a Jupyter notebook for the interested reader.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2021

Two-dimensional correlation analysis for x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Abstract X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measures the binding energy of core-level electrons, which are well-localised to specific atomic sites in a molecular system, providing valuable information on the local chemical environment. The technique relies on measuring the photoelectron spectrum upon x-ray photoionisation, and the resolution is often limited by the bandwidth of the ionising x-ray pulse. This is particularly problematic for time-resolved XPS, where the desired time resolution enforces a fundamental lower limit on the bandwidth of the x-ray source. In this work, we report a novel correlation analysis which exploits the correlation between the x-ray and photoelectron spectra to improve the resolution of XPS measurements. We show that with this correlation-based spectral-domain ghost imaging method we can achieve sub-bandwidth resolution in XPS measurements. This analysis method enables XPS for sources with large bandwidth or spectral jitter, previously considered unfeasible for XPS measurements.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Advanced Modeling of Control-Structure Interaction in Thrust Vector Control Systems

The Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage (CS) Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system is comprised of 8 mechanical feedback Shuttle heritage Type III TVC actuators and four RS-25 engines, each attached to a Shuttle heritage gimbal block/bearing. Two actuators are used to move each engine in two planes perpendicular to one another (i.e., pitch and yaw). The TVC system design leverages hardware from the Space Shuttle program as well as new hardware designed specifically for the Core Stage. During the development of the SLS TVC system, a family of advanced dynamics models were developed to extend and compliment the simplified quasi-linear “simplex” model historically used for flight control design and stability analysis. The importance of these advanced models became increasingly evident after ambient and hot fire testing of the Core Stage, which revealed a number of findings associated with the dynamic response of the TVC integrated system. Test responses suggested that the TVC did not meet its performance specifications and its step and frequency responses exhibited unexpected departures from prior lab tests and modeled behavior. One driving factor for these results was a higher-than-expected degree of coupling between the TVC system, the engine dynamics, and the Core Stage structure. This paper is the third installment in a seven-paper series surveying the design, engineering, test validation, and flight performance of the Core Stage Thrust Vector Control system. In this paper, a new method of modeling rocket vehicle thrust vectoring servoelastic dynamics is presented. In this approach, the load dynamics are replaced by a detailed finite element model containing both the rigid body and elastic modes. A partitioning technique is used to compute the effective compliance from the modal data and obtain accurate simulation results using a reduced number of generalized coordinates. Coupled backup structure and nozzle attach compliance effects on multiple engines are captured in higher fidelity than with a spring approximation, eliciting novel effects due to the complex load paths involved in the Core Stage structure. Validation of the model is demonstrated using a variety of structural/modal, laboratory, and full-scale hot fire test data.

Launch Vehicles↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Advanced Modeling of Control-Structure Interaction in Thrust Vector Control Systems

Launch Vehicles↗

NASA NTRS1991

Gas core reactor concepts and technology - Issues and baseline strategy

Results of a research program including phenomenological studies, conceptual design, and systems analysis of a series of gaseous/vapor fissile fuel driven engines for space power platforms and for thermal and electric propulsion are reviewed. It is noted that gas and vapor phase reactors provide the path for minimum mass in orbit and trip times, with a specific impulse from 1020 sec at the lowest technololgical risk to 5200 sec at the highest technological risk. The discussion covers various configurations of gas core reactors and critical technologies and the nuclear vapor thermal rocket engine.

Diaz, Nils J.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Core 74001/2 - Grain size and petrology as a key to the rate of in-situ reworking and lateral transport on the lunar surface

A suite of samples from the double drive tube 74001/2 has been studied. Material from this core mainly consists of orange and black droplets interpreted to be volcanic pyroclastic ejecta. Grain size analysis indicates that this material is very homogeneous in its grain size properties. It is also the finest and best sorted suite of soil samples in the lunar collection having a mean grain size of 40 microns and a mean standard deviation of 1.75 phi. The upper 5.5 cm of this core has apparently undergone in situ reworking by meteorites over a period of about 10 million years. This reworked zone contains 'exotic' grains including basalt, mineral fragments, vitric breccias, and agglutinates. One type of agglutinate is unique and has been made primarily from orange and black glass droplets melted and welded together by micrometeorite impacts. Other agglutinates are made mainly from basaltic fragments and minerals. The amount of 'exotic' material added to the core combined with an estimate of the location of the source areas for the 'exotic' material allows us to estimate that a maximum of about 0.36 gm per sq cm of regolith surface is added from a radius of about 1 meter in 10 million years. Furthermore, no more than about 0.01 gm per sq cm of regolith surface is added from a radius of about 100 meters in 10 million years.

Mckay, D. S.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Fluoride-Cooled High-Temperature Pebble-Bed Reactor Reference Plant Model Updates

This work presents the latest improvements to, and investigations performed with, the Fluoride-Cooled High-Temperature Pebble-Bed Reactor reference plant models for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. These models, developed with the Comprehensive Reactor Analysis Bundle, or BlueCRAB, serve as the foundation for the future development of detailed design evaluation models based on license applications. BlueCRAB is the code suite proposed for non-light-water reactor systems safety analyses, and it incorporates various simulation tools developed by the Nuclear Energy Advance Modeling and Simulation program, including the Griffin code for reactor physics, the Pronghorn and SAM codes for core thermal fluids, the BISON code for solid conduction and fuel performance, and the SAM code for system analysis. The primary objective of this work is to assess the level of readiness of BlueCRAB for modeling fluoride-cooled high-temperature pebble-bed reactors. We first developed numerical models in BlueCRAB that include the key physics for this technology, ensuring an adequate level of fidelity for modeling the core performance during accident scenarios. This was followed by simulation of transient scenarios, two loss-of-forced-cooling events (one protected and one unprotected), and two control rod withdrawal events (one delayed and one prompt supercritical reactivity insertion). The analysis includes comparisons between the 2-D thermal fluid porous media models in Pronghorn and SAM, comparisons between coupled Pronghorn-Griffin and coupled SAM-Griffin models for two loss-of-forced cooling events and one control rod withdrawal event, and comparisons between SAM single-solve and domain-overlapping approaches for multi-scale thermal fluid coupling. In addition, we performed comparisons between 3-D, 2-D, and 0-D neutronic models for the two control rod withdrawal scenarios with Pronghorn-Griffin. The results show that the BlueCRAB models led to physically intuitive solutions for the scenarios examined. The changes in the various scalar and vector fields such as the neutron flux, power, temperatures, densities, pressures, and velocities are all within the expected ranges, and their distributions can be explained from the system response of the transients and the geometric and material variations. Several comparisons suggest that the porous media models in Pronghorn and SAM can lead to similar solutions, even though they are based on different methodologies. The simulations demonstrate that there are differences between the various levels of fidelity, and it is advisable to have flexible tools that can cover the breadth and depth of needs that may arise in future technical evaluations. We believe that BlueCRAB’s capabilities represent a significant asset for confirmatory analyses aimed at resolving important safety questions.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Altered excitation energy transfer between phycobilisome and photosystems in the absence of ApcG, a small linker peptide, in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, a cyanobacterium

Phycobilisome (PBS) is a large pigment-protein complex in cyanobacteria and red algae responsible for capturing sunlight and transferring its energy to photosystems (PS). Spectroscopic and structural properties of various PBSs have been widely studied, however, the nature of so-called complex-complex interactions between PBS and PSs remains much less explored. In this work, we have investigated the function of a newly identified PBS linker protein, ApcG, some domain of which, together with a loop region (PB-loop in ApcE), is possibly located near the PBS-PS interface. Using Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, we generated an ApcG deletion mutant and probed its deletion effect on the energetic coupling between PBS and photosystems. Steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic characterization of the purified ΔApcG-PBS demonstrated that ApcG removal weakly affects the photophysical properties of PBS that the spectroscopic properties of terminal energy emitters are comparable to those of PBS from wild-type. However, analysis of fluorescence decay imaging datasets reveals that ApcG deletion induces disruptions within the allophycocyanin (APC) core, resulting in the emergence (splitting) of two spectrally diverse subgroups with some short-lived APC. Profound spectroscopic changes of the whole ΔApcG mutant cell, however, emerge during state transition, a dynamic process of light scheme adaptation. The mutant cells in State I show a substantial increase in PBS-related fluorescence. On the other hand, global analysis of time-resolved fluorescence demonstrates that in general ApcG deletion does not alter or inhibit state transitions if it is interpreted only in terms of the changes of the PSII and PSI fluorescence emission intensity. Furthermore, the results revealed yet–to–be discovered mechanism of ApcG-docking induced excitation energy transfer regulation within PBS or to Photosystems.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1983

LANDSAT-4 band 6 data evaluation

The radiometric integrity of the LANDSAT-D thematic mapper (TM) thermal infrared channel (band 6) data was evaluated to develop improved radiometric preprocessing calibration techniques for removal of atmospheric effects. Primary data analysis was spent in evaluating the line to line and detector to detector variation in the thermal infrared data. The data studied was in the core area of Lake Ontario where very stable temperatures were expected. The detectors and the scan direction were taken as separate parameters and an analysis of variance was conducted. The data indicate that significant variability exists both between detectors and between scan directions.

Source record↗

DOE OSTI2022

[Presentation Slides] Code-to-Code Benchmark Study for Thermal Stress Modeling and Preliminary Analysis of the High-temperature Single Heat-Pipe Experiment

In the heat-pipe-cooled microreactor, heat pipes remove heat from the reactor core as a passive heat-transfer device, so the fluid circulation is not required for cooling, which can substantially simplify the overall reactor design. However, given the extremely high temperatures in the core region and potentially large temperature gradients across the structure materials, thermal stresses need to be well-analyzed to ensure structural integrity during normal operations and accident scenarios. This presentation slides discuss finite element method-based thermal-stress analysis for the high-temperature single heat-pipe test article in the Single Primary Heat Extraction and Removal Emulator (SPHERE) facility at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), using two commercial software packages, Abaqus and Star-CCM+. A code-to-code benchmark study was performed to crosscheck the model setup and capability of each code and to gain preliminary insights into the potential thermal stress concerns from the current experimental setup. It is observed the significant thermal stresses happen at the inner surface of the heat pipe hole surrounded by electric heaters where the largest temperature gradients appear. The temperature fields have good agreements between Abaqus and Star-CCM+, while the induced thermal stresses show modest deviations probably due to differences of meshing engines used in these two codes. It is found that the local maximum thermal stresses may reach close to the ultimate tensile strength and yield strength of structural material depending on the heater power. Ultimately, the coupled thermal-structural analysis will help guide the current experimental plan and ensure the facility safety for future experimental study.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Comparing Growth Rates of Simulated Moist and Dry Convective Thermals

The spreading rates of convective thermals are linked to their net entrainment, and previous literature has suggested differences in spreading rates between moist and dry thermals. Here, growth rates of idealized numerically simulated axisymmetric dry and moist convective thermals are directly compared. In an environment with dry-neutral stratification, the increase of thermal radius with height dR / dz is a larger by a factor of 1.7 for dry thermals relative to moist thermals. The fractional change in thermal volume ε is also greater for dry thermals within a distance of ~4 radii from the initial thermal height. Values of dR / dz are nearly constant with height for both moist and dry thermals consistent with classical theory based on dimensional analysis. The simulations are also consistent with theory relating impulse, circulation, and spreading rate for dry thermals proposed in previous papers and extended here to moist thermals, predicting they will spread less than dry thermals. Tests adding heating to dry thermals, either spread uniformly across the thermal volume or concentrated in the inner core, indicate that dR / dz and ε are smaller for moist thermals because latent heating is confined mostly to their cores. Additional axisymmetric moist simulations using modified lapse rates and large-eddy simulations support this analysis. Overall, these results indicate that slow spreading rates are a fundamental feature of moist thermals caused by latent heating that alters the spatial distribution of buoyancy within them relative to dry thermals.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1980

Observation of the core of the Perseus cluster with the Einstein solid state spectrometer: Cooling gas and elemental abundances

Solid State Spectrometer observations of the core of the Perseus cluster have resulted in the detection of X-ray emission lines due to Si, S, and Fe. Analysis of the spectrum indicates that the X-ray emission has at least two characteristic temperatures. This is interpreted in the framework of radiative accretion in the core of the cluster. The derived parameters are a cooling time tc less than 2 x 109 yrs for the low temperature gas, a mass accretion rate of approximately 300 Mo/yr and a characteristic size of 10 to 20 Kpc for the cool gas. The Fe abundance in the core, approximately 0.4, is similar to the Fe abundance averaged over the whole cluster indicating that Fe emission is not strongly concentrated about NGC 1275. The Si and S abundances are consistent with solar values.

Mushotzky, R. F.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Observation of the core of the Perseus cluster with the Einstein solid state spectrometer - Cooling gas and elemental abundances

Solid State Spectrometer observations of the core of the Perseus cluster have resulted in the detection of X-ray emission lines due to Si, S, and Fe. Analysis of the spectrum indicates that the X-ray emission has at least two characteristic temperatures. This is interpreted in the framework of radiative accretion in the core of the cluster. The derived parameters are a cooling time less than or approximately equal to 2 x 10 to the ninth years for the low-temperature gas, a mass accretion rate of approximately 300 solar masses per year, and a characteristic size of 10-20 kpc for the cool gas. The Fe abundance in the core (approximately 0.4) is similar to the Fe abundance averaged over the whole cluster, indicating that Fe emission is not strongly concentrated about NGC 1275. The Si and S abundances are consistent with solar values.

Mushotzky, R. F.↗

DOE OSTI2022

Modeling of a Generic Pebble Bed High-temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (PB-HTGR) with SAM

This report presents the modeling of the core of a generic pebble-bed reactor (PBR) at the system level using the System Analysis Module (SAM) code. This work is an extension of a previous work by the authors (Ooi et al. (2021)) that used the so-called 2-D ring model approach to model the PBMR-400. With the new approach, the pebble bed of the reactor is modeled with multiple PBCoreChannel components with spherical heat structures which allows the code to calculate thermal fluid parameters with built-in closure relations. The new core-channel approach is an improvement to the 2-D ring model approach as it does not introduce geometric distortions to the model and thus reduces the uncertainties of the predictions. In addition to thermal fluid simulations, point kinetics (PKE) are included to the model. Simulations are performed under a steady-state normal operation condition and a load-following transient scenario. This particular transient scenario is chosen as it tests both the thermal fluid and neutronics aspects of the model. The predicted results from both the steady-state and transient scenarios are compared with the results by Stew- art et al. (2021) who performed similar simulations with a Griffin-Pronghorn coupled tool. Despite the differences between the codes, with SAM being a system-analysis code and Pronghorn being a porous-medium code, both sets of results compare favorably. The over- all profiles and trends of the predicted temperatures and reactivities from the SAM and Griffin/Pronghorn simulations are similar, with some differences in their predicted values. The first part of the report covers the significance of a relatively fast-running approach that is capable of modeling the pebble bed reactor at the system-level while simultaneously capturing the radial thermal behavior of the core. Then, the modeling approach used in this work is discussed in details. Lastly, the results and comparisons with the Griffin/Pronghorn simulation are presented.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Accelerating science: The usage of commercial clouds in ATLAS Distributed Computing

The ATLAS experiment at CERN is one of the largest scientific machines built to date and will have ever growing computing needs as the Large Hadron Collider collects an increasingly larger volume of data over the next 20 years. ATLAS is conducting R&D projects on Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud as complementary resources for distributed computing, focusing on some of the key features of commercial clouds: lightweight operation, elasticity and availability of multiple chip architectures. The proof of concept phases have concluded with the cloud-native, vendoragnostic integration with the experiment’s data and workload management frameworks. Google Cloud has been used to evaluate elastic batch computing, ramping up ephemeral clusters of up to O(100k) cores to process tasks requiring quick turnaround. Amazon Web Services has been exploited for the successful physics validation of the Athena simulation software on ARM processors. We have also set up an interactive facility for physics analysis allowing endusers to spin up private, on-demand clusters for parallel computing with up to 4 000 cores, or run GPU enabled notebooks and jobs for machine learning applications. The success of the proof of concept phases has led to the extension of the Google Cloud project, where ATLAS will study the total cost of ownership of a production cloud site during 15 months with 10k cores on average, fully integrated with distributed grid computing resources and continue the R&D projects.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

NASA NTRS2019

The GPM GV Program

We present a detailed overview of the structure and activities associated with the NASA-led ground validation component of the NASA-JAXA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. The overarching philosophy and approaches for NASA’s GV program are presented with primary focus placed on aspects of direct validation and a summary of physical validation campaigns and results. We describe a spectrum of key instruments, methods, field campaigns and data products developed and used by NASA’s GV team to verify GPM level-2 precipitation products in rain and snow. We describe the tools and analysis framework used to confirm that NASA’s Level-1 science requirements for GPM are met by the GPM Core Observatory. Examples of routine validation activities related to verification of Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) products for two different regions of the globe (Korea and the U.S.) are provided, and a brief analysis related to IMERG performance in the extreme rainfall event associated with Hurricane Florence is discussed.

Radar↗