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At least 1,207 records · Page 67

Evanescent operators in one-loop matching computations

Effective Field Theory calculations used in countless phenomenological analyses employ dimensional regularization, and at intermediate stages of computations, the operator bases extend beyond the four-dimensional ones. The extra pieces — the evanescent operators — can ultimately be removed with a suitable renormalization scheme, resulting in a finite shift of the physical operators. Modern Effective Field Theory matching techniques relying on the method of expansion by regions have to be extended to account for this. After illustrating the importance of these shifts in two specific examples, we compute the finite shifts required to remove all evanescent operators appearing in the one-loop matching of generic ultraviolet theories to the Standard Model Effective Field Theory and elucidate the formalism for generic Effective Field Theory calculations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Surface Impedance of Nb$_3$Sn and YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-\sigma}$ in High Magnetic Fields

New potential rf applications of superconductors emerged with the need to operate in high dc magnetic fields (up to 16 T) where vortex motion dictates the response: the beam screen coating of the Future Circular Collider (FCC) [1] and haloscopes, i.e. rf cavities for the axions detection [2]. However, very few data are available in the required regimes. We present in this work measurements of the surface impedance Z up to 12 T on bulk Nb₃Sn and YBCO thin films grown by different techniques. The measurements are performed with a dielectric loaded resonator operating at 15 GHz. We obtained the vortex motion resistivity and extracted the high frequency vortex motion parameters [3]: the depinning frequency, the flux-flow resistivity and the pinning constant, as well as their temperature and field dependences. Substantial differences are highlighted in the high frequency pinning properties of the studied materials, providing useful information on possible improvements in view of applications. A comparison with the results obtained in the microwave frequency range at lower fields (up to 1 T) is given.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Computational Aerodynamic Simulations of a 1484 ft/sec Tip Speed Quiet High-Speed Fan System Model for Acoustic Methods Assessment and Development

Computational Aerodynamic simulations of a 1484 ft/sec tip speed quiet high-speed fan system were performed at five different operating points on the fan operating line, in order to provide detailed internal flow field information for use with fan acoustic prediction methods presently being developed, assessed and validated. The fan system is a sub-scale, low-noise research fan/nacelle model that has undergone experimental testing in the 9- by 15-foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel at the NASA Glenn Research Center. Details of the fan geometry, the computational fluid dynamics methods, the computational grids, and various computational parameters relevant to the numerical simulations are discussed. Flow field results for three of the five operating points simulated are presented in order to provide a representative look at the computed solutions. Each of the five fan aerodynamic simulations involved the entire fan system, which includes a core duct and a bypass duct that merge upstream of the fan system nozzle. As a result, only fan rotational speed and the system bypass ratio, set by means of a translating nozzle plug, were adjusted in order to set the fan operating point, leading to operating points that lie on a fan operating line and making mass flow rate a fully dependent parameter. The resulting mass flow rates are in good agreement with measurement values. Computed blade row flow fields at all fan operating points are, in general, aerodynamically healthy. Rotor blade and fan exit guide vane flow characteristics are good, including incidence and deviation angles, chordwise static pressure distributions, blade surface boundary layers, secondary flow structures, and blade wakes. Examination of the computed flow fields reveals no excessive or critical boundary layer separations or related secondary-flow problems, with the exception of the hub boundary layer at the core duct entrance. At that location a significant flow separation is present. The region of local flow recirculation extends through a mixing plane, however, which for the particular mixing-plane model used is now known to exaggerate the recirculation. In any case, the flow separation has relatively little impact on the computed rotor and FEGV flow fields.

Tweedt, Daniel L.↗

Operating and service manual for the NASA Lewis automated far-field antenna range

This NASA Lewis far-field antenna range was recently upgraded and automated to meet the growing and demanding needs of the satellite communications program. Here, assistance is offered in the operation and service of this range. The procedures for configuring the test hardware and for operating the Far-Field Antenna Measurement Program (FAMP) are given. Included are the steps for getting started and for installing the proper microwave equipment.

Terry, John D.↗

Efforts to Improve Efficiency of Extraction Well Operation at the Fernald Preserve, Harrison, Ohio – 16177

The Fernald Preserve, a former uranium processing facility that produced high-purity uranium metal products during the Cold War, is located in southwest Ohio. The facility became a US Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management (LM) site in November 2006, following completion of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act environmental remediation and site restoration (with the exception of groundwater). When the site was turned over to LM, approximately 76.5 ha of the Great Miami Aquifer remained contaminated with uranium above the final remediation level of 30 μg/L. Here, uranium contamination is being removed from groundwater in the Great Miami Aquifer through a pump-and-treat operation, which is predicted to continue until 2033. Twenty extraction wells pump about 30 million liters per day. Operation of the system is impacted by iron in the groundwater that promotes iron fouling of the well pumps, motors, and screens. The design of the well field evolved over 21 years and reflected a conservative system that could respond to a wide range of pumping conditions. For instance, some of the extraction wells were sized with pumps and motors that would allow the well to pump up to 1890 L/min (500 gpm) if warranted. The added flexibility, though, came at the cost of operational efficiency. We describe the efforts that have been taken by LM since the Fernald site was transferred to LM to mitigate the operational impacts from the iron fouling aquifer conditions and improve the efficiency of the well-field operation. Variable-frequency drives were installed at six wells to replace flow control valves. Several wells with oversized pumps and motors were changed from 24-hour per day operation to 8-hour per day operation to allow the pumps to operate closer to their design flow rates. Pumps and motors were “right-sized” at many wells to improve pumping efficiency. The process used to rehabilitate (or clean) well screens was improved, and a process was developed to clean pumps without having to pull them from the well. To reduce pressure drops, improvements were also made to the configuration of the discharge piping. A new control system was installed for each well to allow local control and local tracking of energy used. The amount of energy used daily compared to number of gallons pumped provides a method to assess pump performance and determine when action is necessary to restore well pump efficiency. Additionally, the metrics being employed to help quantify well-field efficiency improvements are described, and the benefits achieved by proactively managing the pump-and-treat operation are presented.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Efforts to Improve Efficiency of Extraction Well Operation at the Fernald Preserve, Harrison, Ohio - 16177

The Fernald Preserve, a former uranium processing facility that produced high-purity uranium metal products during the Cold War, is located in southwest Ohio. The facility became a US Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management (LM) site in November 2006, following completion of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act environmental remediation and site restoration (with the exception of groundwater). When the site was turned over to LM, approximately 76.5 ha of the Great Miami Aquifer remained contaminated with uranium above the final remediation level of 30 μg/L. Here, uranium contamination is being removed from groundwater in the Great Miami Aquifer through a pump-and-treat operation, which is predicted to continue until 2033. Twenty extraction wells pump about 30 million liters per day. Operation of the system is impacted by iron in the groundwater that promotes iron fouling of the well pumps, motors, and screens. The design of the well field evolved over 21 years and reflected a conservative system that could respond to a wide range of pumping conditions. For instance, some of the extraction wells were sized with pumps and motors that would allow the well to pump up to 1890 L/min (500 gpm) if warranted. The added flexibility, though, came at the cost of operational efficiency. We describe the efforts that have been taken by LM since the Fernald site was transferred to LM to mitigate the operational impacts from the iron fouling aquifer conditions and improve the efficiency of the well-field operation. Variable-frequency drives were installed at six wells to replace flow control valves. Several wells with oversized pumps and motors were changed from 24-hour per day operation to 8-hour per day operation to allow the pumps to operate closer to their design flow rates. Pumps and motors were 'right-sized' at many wells to improve pumping efficiency. The process used to rehabilitate (or clean) well screens was improved, and a process was developed to clean pumps without having to pull them from the well. To reduce pressure drops, improvements were also made to the configuration of the discharge piping. A new control system was installed for each well to allow local control and local tracking of energy used. The amount of energy used daily compared to number of gallons pumped provides a method to assess pump performance and determine when action is necessary to restore well pump efficiency. Additionally, the metrics being employed to help quantify well-field efficiency improvements are described, and the benefits achieved by proactively managing the pump-and-treat operation are presented. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

A Conceptual Evaluation of Sustainable Variable-Rate Agricultural Residue Removal

Agricultural residues have near-term potential as a feedstock for bioenergy production, but their removal must be managed carefully to maintain soil health and productivity. Recent studies have shown that subfield scale variability in soil properties (e.g., slope, texture, and organic matter content) that affect grain yield significantly affect the amount of residue that can be sustainably removed from different areas within a single field. This modeling study examines the concept of variable-rate residue removal equipment that would be capable of on-the-fly residue removal rate adjustments ranging from 0 to 80%. Thirteen residue removal rates (0% and 25–80% in 5% increments) were simulated using a subfield scale integrated modeling framework that evaluates residue removal sustainability considering wind erosion, water erosion, and soil carbon constraints. Three Iowa fields with diverse soil, slope, and grain yield characteristics were examined and showed sustainable, variable-rate agricultural residue removal that averaged 2.35, 7.69, and 5.62 Mg ha-1, respectively. In contrast, the projected sustainable removal rates using rake and bale removal for the entire field averaged 0.0, 6.40, and 5.06 Mg ha-1, respectively. The modeling procedure also projected that variable-rate residue harvest would result in 100% of the land area in all three fields being managed in a sustainable manner, whereas Field 1 could not be sustainably managed using rake and bale removal, and only 83 and 62% of the land area in Fields 2 and 3 would be managed sustainably using a rake and bale operation for the entire field. In addition, it was found that residue removal adjustments of 40 to 65% are sufficient to collect 90% of the sustainably available agricultural residue.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Energy Performance of Awnings in Residential Buildings

Residential buildings consume approximately 20% of the total primary energy in the United States. More than 50% of this energy is spent in heating, cooling, and lighting these buildings. Solar heat gain is one of the largest and most variable sources of cooling load in these buildings, while it can also provide passive heating during the heating season. Shading devices can be used to control the amount of solar heat gain in buildings. Various studies have considered how different shading devices and their applications affect energy and occupant comfort in buildings. However, most of these studies were limited to planar shading devices such as roller shades, cellular shades, and blinds. Although some theoretical studies have been performed for awnings, the energy performance of awnings has rarely been studied via either energy simulation or field measurement. In this study, the authors evaluated the energy performance of typical operable awnings by using field data, aided by simulation. Awnings were installed on a real house, and measurements were performed to evaluate the thermal performance of the awning. The measured data were then used to develop a calibrated energy model and evaluate the awning’s energy performance. The annual simulation of the building model used showed that awnings left in the closed position from April to September can reduce annual HVAC energy consumption by 15% compared with a building without any shades. The validated model was used in US Department of Energy prototype buildings to evaluate awning energy performance in climate zones 1A through 4B via energy simulation. For these prototype buildings, energy savings of up to 1,034 kWh were achieved for a building with a conditioned floor area of 2,377 ft 2 .

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Droplet microactuator system

The present invention relates to a droplet microactuator system. According to one embodiment, the droplet microactuator system includes: (a) a droplet microactuator configured to conduct droplet operations; (b) a magnetic field source arranged to immobilize magnetically responsive beads in a droplet during droplet operations; (c) a sensor configured in a sensing relationship with the droplet microactuator, such that the sensor is capable of sensing a signal from and/or a property of one or more droplets on the droplet microactuator; and (d) one or more processors electronically coupled to the droplet microactuator and programmed to control electrowetting-mediated droplet operations on the droplet actuator and process electronic signals from the sensor.

Pamula, Vamsee K.↗

Lessons Learned in Science Operations for Planetary Surface Exploration

The six Apollo lunar surface missions represent the only occasions where we have conducted scientific operations on another planetary surface. While these six missions were successful in bringing back valuable geologic samples, technology advances in the subsequent forty years have enabled much higher resolution scientific activity in situ. Regardless of where astronauts next visit (whether it be back to the Moon or to Mars or a Near Earth Object), the science operations procedures completed during this mission will need to be refined and updated to reflect these advances. We have undertaken a series of operational tests in relevant field environments to understand how best to develop the new generation of science operations procedures for planetary surface exploration.

Young, K. E.↗

Design and Testing of an Unlimited Field-of-regard Synthetic Vision Head-worn Display for Commercial Aircraft Surface Operations

Experiments and flight tests have shown that a Head-Up Display (HUD) and a head-down, electronic moving map (EMM) can be enhanced with Synthetic Vision for airport surface operations. While great success in ground operations was demonstrated with a HUD, the research noted that two major HUD limitations during ground operations were their monochrome form and limited, fixed field of regard. A potential solution to these limitations found with HUDs may be emerging Head Worn Displays (HWDs). HWDs are small, lightweight full color display devices that may be worn without significant encumbrance to the user. By coupling the HWD with a head tracker, unlimited field-of-regard may be realized for commercial aviation applications. In the proposed paper, the results of two ground simulation experiments conducted at NASA Langley are summarized. The experiments evaluated the efficacy of head-worn display applications of Synthetic Vision and Enhanced Vision technology to enhance transport aircraft surface operations. The two studies tested a combined six display concepts: (1) paper charts with existing cockpit displays, (2) baseline consisting of existing cockpit displays including a Class III electronic flight bag display of the airport surface; (3) an advanced baseline that also included displayed traffic and routing information, (4) a modified version of a HUD and EMM display demonstrated in previous research; (5) an unlimited field-of-regard, full color, head-tracked HWD with a conformal 3-D synthetic vision surface view; and (6) a fully integrated HWD concept. The fully integrated HWD concept is a head-tracked, color, unlimited field-of-regard concept that provides a 3-D conformal synthetic view of the airport surface integrated with advanced taxi route clearance, taxi precision guidance, and data-link capability. The results of the experiments showed that the fully integrated HWD provided greater path performance compared to using paper charts alone. Further, when comparing the HWD with the HUD concept, there were no differences in path performance. In addition, the HWD and HUD concepts were rated via paired-comparisons the same in terms of situational awareness and workload. However, there were over twice as many taxi incursion events with the HUD than the HWD.

Arthur, Jarvis J., III↗

Nuclear axial currents in chiral effective field theory

Two-nucleon axial charge and current operators are derived in chiral effective field theory up to one loop. The derivation is based on time-ordered perturbation theory and accounts for cancellations between the contributions of irreducible diagrams and the contributions owing to nonstatic corrections from energy denominators of reducible diagrams. Ultraviolet divergencies associated with the loop corrections are isolated in dimensional regularization. The resulting axial current is finite and conserved in the chiral limit, while the axial charge requires renormalization. As a result, a complete set of contact terms for the axial charge up to the relevant order in the power counting is constructed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Spacelab operations planning

The paper reviews NASA planning in the fields of ground, launch and flight operations and experiment integration to effectively operate Spacelab. Payload mission planning is discussed taking consideration of orbital analysis and the mission of a multiuser payload which may be either single or multidiscipline. Payload analytical integration - as active process of analyses to ensure that the experiment payload is compatible to the mission objectives and profile ground and flight operations and that the resource demands upon Spacelab can be satisfied - is considered. Software integration is touched upon and the major integration levels in ground operational processing of Spacelab and its experimental payloads are examined. Flight operations, encompassing the operation of the Space Transportation System and the payload, are discussed as are the initial Spacelab missions. Charts and diagrams are presented illustrating the various planning areas.

Lee, T. J.↗

The Naples University 3 MV tandem accelerator

The 3 MV tandem accelerator of the Naples University is used for research activities and applications in many fields. At the beginning of operation (1977) the main utilization was in the field of nuclear physics. Later, the realization of new beam lines allowed the development of applied activities as radiocarbon dating, ion beam analysis, biophysics, ion implantation etc. At present, the availability of different ion sources and many improvements on the accelerator allow to run experiments in a wide range of subjects. An overview of the characteristics and major activities of the laboratory is presented.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

A 350 mK, 9 T scanning tunneling microscope for the study of superconducting thin films on insulating substrates and single crystals

We report the construction and performance of a low temperature, high field scanning tunneling microscope (STM) operating down to 350 mK and in magnetic fields up to 9 T, with thin film deposition and in situ single crystal cleaving capabilities. The main focus lies on the simple design of STM head and a sample holder design that allows us to get spectroscopic data on superconducting thin films grown in situ on insulating substrates. Other design details on sample transport, sample preparation chamber, and vibration isolation schemes are also described. We demonstrate the capability of our instrument through the atomic resolution imaging and spectroscopy on NbSe{sub 2} single crystal and spectroscopic maps obtained on homogeneously disordered NbN thin film.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Video systems for real-time oil-spill detection

Three airborne television systems are being developed to evaluate techniques for oil-spill surveillance. These include a conventional TV camera, two cameras operating in a subtractive mode, and a field-sequential camera. False-color enhancement and wavelength and polarization filtering are also employed. The first of a series of flight tests indicates that an appropriately filtered conventional TV camera is a relatively inexpensive method of improving contrast between oil and water. False-color enhancement improves the contrast, but the problem caused by sun glint now limits the application to overcast days. Future effort will be aimed toward a one-camera system. Solving the sun-glint problem and developing the field-sequential camera into an operable system offers potential for color 'flagging' oil on water.

Millard, J. P.↗

Measurements of Magnetic Field Penetration of Materials for Superconducting Radiofrequency Cavities

Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) cavities used in particle accelerators are typically formed from or coated with superconducting materials. Currently high purity niobium is the material of choice for SRF cavities which have been optimized to operate near their theoretical field limits. This brings about the need for significant R&D efforts to develop next generation superconducting materials which could outperform Nb and keep up with the demands of new accelerator facilities. To achieve high quality factors and accelerating gradients, the cavity material should be able to remain in the superconducting Meissner state under high RF magnetic field without penetration of quantized magnetic vortices through the cavity wall. Therefore, the magnetic field at which vortices penetrate in a supercon- ductor is one of the key parameters of merit of SRF cavities. Techniques to measure the onset of magnetic field penetration on thin film samples need to be developed to mitigate the issues with the conventional magnetometry measurements which are strongly influenced by the film orientation and shape and edge effects. The applied magnetic field is also needed to be parallel to the one side of the superconductor to resemble the magnetic field profile at the surface of the SRF cavities operating at fundamental accelerating mode. In this work we report the development of an experimental setup called Magnetic Field Penetration (MFP) magnetometer to measure the field of full flux penetration through bulk, thin films and multilayered superconductors. Our system combines a small superconducting solenoid which can generate the magnetic field up to 500 mT at the sample surface and three Hall probes to detect the full flux penetration through the planner superconductor with 2 inch diameter. This setup was used to study alternative materials which could potentially outperform niobium, as well as SIS multilayer coatings on niobium.

Senevirathne, Iresha↗