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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

Stellar fibril magnetic systems. II - Two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic equations. III - Convective counterflow

The dynamics of magnetic fibrils in the convective zone of a star is investigated analytically, deriving mean-field equations for the two-dimensional transverse motion of an incompressible fluid containing numerous small widely spaced circular cylinders. The equations of Parker (1982) are extended to account for the inertial effects of local flow around the cylinders. The linear field equation for the stream function at the onset of convection is then rewritten, neglecting large-scale heat transport, and used to construct a model of convective counterflow. The Kelvin impulse and fluid momentum, convective motion initiated by a horizontal impulse, and the effects of a viscous boundary layer are considered in appendices.

Parker, E. N.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Simulations of the mean solar magnetic field during sunspot cycle 21

Regarding new bipolar magnetic regions as sources of flux, the evolution of the photospheric magnetic field during 1976-1984 was computed and the corresponding evolution of the mean line-of-sight field as seen from earth was derived. A good, but imperfect, agreement was obtained between the observed mean field and the field computed for a nominal choice of flux transport parameters. The response of the computed mean field to variations in the transport parameters and the source properties was determined. The results suggest that the mean-field evolution is a random-walk process with dissipation. New eruptions of flux produce the random walk, and together differential rotation, meridional flow, and diffusion provide the dissipation. The net effect of each new source depends on its strength and orientation and on the time elapsed before the next eruption.

Sheeley, N. R., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Adiabaticity and viscosity in deep mantle convection

A study has been conducted of steady convection with adiabatic and viscous heating for variable viscosity in the Boussinesq limit using the mean-field theory. A strong nonlinear coupling is found between the thermodynamic constants governing adiabatic heating and the rheological parameters. The range of rheological values for which adiabaticity would occur throughout the mantle has been established. Too large an activation volume, greater than 6 cu cm/mol for the cases examined, would produce unreasonably high temperature at the bottom of the mantle (greater than 6000 K) and superadiabatic gradients, especially in the lower mantle. Radiogenic heating plays a profound role in controlling dynamically mantle temperatures. Present values for the averaged mantle heat production would yield objectionably high temperatures in the lower mantle.

Quareni, F.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Deformation of the core-mantle boundary induced by spherical-shell, compressible convection

Single-mode, mean-field equations, for spherical-shell convection are derived, with variable viscosity and compressibility included. Core-mantle boundary (CMB) topography produced by whole mantle convection is computed for various rheologies and different thermal boundary conditions at CMB. Results for long-wavelength undulations show the extreme sensitivity of these signatures to rheological and equation of state parameters. In order to obtain excess ellipticity of about 1 km, the activation energy and volume in the lower mantle should be low, and the temperatures at CMB should be around 4500 K, in accord with recent experimental findings.

Zhang, Shuxia↗
NASA NTRS1988

Dynamical effects on the core-mantle boundary from depth-dependent thermodynamical properties of the lower mantle

A common assumption in modeling dynamical processes in the lower mantle is that both the thermal expansivity and thermal conductivity are reasonably constant. Recent work from seismic equation of state leads to substantially higher values for the thermal conductivity and much lower thermal expansivity values in the deep mantle. The dynamical consequences of incorporating depth-dependent thermodynamic properties on the thermal-mechanical state of the lower mantle are examined with the spherical-shell mean-field equations. It is found that the thermal structure of the seismically resolved anomalous zone at the base of the mantle is strongly influenced by these variable properties and, in particular, that the convective distortion of the core-mantle boundary (CMB) is reduced with the decreasing thermal expansivity. Such a reduction of the dynamically induced topography from pure thermal convection would suggest that some other dynamical mechanism must be operating at the CMB.

Zhang, Shuxia↗
NASA NTRS1988

Ambipolar diffusion drifts and dynamos in turbulent gases

Ambipolar drift in turbulent fluids are considered. Using mean-field electrodynamics, a two-scale theory originally used to study hydromagnetic dynamos, it is shown that magnetic fields can be advected by small-scale magnetosonic (compressional) turbulence or generated by Alfvenic (helical) turbulence. A simple dynamo theory is made and is compared with standard theories in which dissipation is caused by turbulent diffusion. The redistribution of magnetic flux in interstellar clouds is also discussed.

Zweibel, Ellen G.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Structure of a fluid interface near the critical point

The structure of the liquid-liquid interface of three very different mixtures (carbon disulfide + methanol, methanol + cyclohexane + deuterated cyclohexane, and nitrobenzene + n-decane) has been studied using ellipsometry in the reduced temperature range between 0.0009 and 0.042. Although the elliptical thickness varies by an order of magnitude between these mixtures, the data from all three mixtures can be scaled to the same universal constant by a combined mean-field plus capillary-wave model of the interface. The universal constant determined experimentally is significantly less than the theoretical value.

Schmidt, James W.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Ginzburg-Landau theory for the solid-liquid interface of bcc elements. II - Application to the classical one-component plasma, the Wigner crystal, and He-4

The previously developed Ginzburg-Landau theory for calculating the crystal-melt interfacial tension of bcc elements to treat the classical one-component plasma (OCP), the charged fermion system, and the Bose crystal. For the OCP, a direct application of the theory of Shih et al. (1987) yields for the surface tension 0.0012(Z-squared e-squared/a-cubed), where Ze is the ionic charge and a is the radius of the ionic sphere. Bose crystal-melt interface is treated by a quantum extension of the classical density-functional theory, using the Feynman formalism to estimate the relevant correlation functions. The theory is applied to the metastable He-4 solid-superfluid interface at T = 0, with a resulting surface tension of 0.085 erg/sq cm, in reasonable agreement with the value extrapolated from the measured surface tension of the bcc solid in the range 1.46-1.76 K. These results suggest that the density-functional approach is a satisfactory mean-field theory for estimating the equilibrium properties of liquid-solid interfaces, given knowledge of the uniform phases.

Zeng, X. C.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The effect of random Alfven waves on the propagation of hydromagnetic waves in a finite-beta plasma

Using first-order smoothing theory, Fourier analysis and perturbation methods, the evolution equation of the wave spectrum as well as the nonlinear forces generated by random Alfven waves in a finite-beta plasma with phenomenological Landau-damping effects are obtained. The effect of microscale random Alfven waves on the propagation of large-scale hydromagnetic waves is also investigated by solving the mean-field equations. It is shown that parallel-propagating random Alfven waves are modulationally stable and that obliquely propagating random Alfven waves can be modulationally unstable when the energy of random waves is converted to slow magnetoacoustic waves that can be Landau-damped, providing a dissipation mechanism for the Alfven waves.

Hamabata, Hiromitsu↗
NASA NTRS1991

Statistical-mechanical selection of the shapes of disk galaxies

A new method is proposed for selecting steady state shapes of disk galaxies as 'most probable states' of a large number of stars, given only the total energy and total angular momentum. A partial differential equation is derived for the mean gravitational potential; it is closely related to the 'sinh-Poisson' equation for the mean-field description of a line vortex system or electrostatic guiding-center plasma. A 'water bag' approximation to the distribution function for bound stars renders the equation analytically tractable, but accurate solution of it may require numerical integration, in view of its general nonlinearity.

Montgomery, David↗
NASA NTRS1991

Ordering and phase transitions in random-field Ising systems

An exact analysis of the Ising model with infinite-range interactions in a random field and a local mean-field theory in three dimensions is carried out leading to a phase diagram with several coexistence surfaces and lines of critical points. The results show that the phase diagram depends crucially on whether the distribution of random fields is symmetric or not. Thus, Ising-like phase transitions in a porous medium (the asymmetric case) are in a different universality class from the conventional random-field model (symmetric case).

Maritan, Amos↗
NASA NTRS1991

Incoherent vs. coherent behavior in the normal state of copper oxide superconductors

The self-consistent quantum fluctuations around the mean-field Hartree-Fock state of the Hubbard model provide a very good description of the ground state and low temperature properties of a 2-D itinerant antiferromagnet. Very good agreement with numerical calculations and experimental data is obtained by including the one- and two-loop spin wave corrections to various physical quantities. In particular, the destruction of the long-range order above the Neel temperature can be understood as a spontaneous generation of a length-scale epsilon(T), which should be identified as the spin correlation length. For finite doping, the question of the Hartree-Fock starting point becomes a more complex one since an extra hole tends to self-trap in antiferromagnetic background. Such quantum defects in an underlying antiferromagnetic state can be spin-bags or vortex-like structures and tend to suppress the long-range order. If motion of the holes occurs on a time-scale shorter than the one associated with the motion of these quantum defects of a spin background, one obtains several important empirical features of the normal state of CuO superconductors like linear T-dependence of resistivity, the cusp in the tunneling density of states, etc. As opposed to a familiar Fermi-liquid behavior, the phenomenology of the above system is dominated by a large incoherent piece of a single hole propagator, resulting in many unusual normal state properties.

Tesanovic, Zlatko↗
NASA NTRS1991

Competitive neural architecture for hardware solution to the assignment problem

The architecture for competitive assignment is described with attention given to the VLSI design and critical circuits fabricated in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor. The local application of association costs to processing units reduces the connectivity to the number of VLSI-compatible processing units. 'Hysteretic annealing' is discussed and when compared to mean-field annealing is found to enhance processing-unit gain and provide near-optimal solutions in about 150 microsec.

Eberhardt, S. P.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Random-anisotropy Blume-Emery-Griffiths model

The results are described of studies of a random-anisotropy Blume-Emery-Griffiths spin-1 Ising model using mean-field theory, transfer-matrix calculations, and position-space renormalization-group calculations. The interplay between the quenched randomness of the anisotropy and the annealed disorder introduced by the spin-1 model leads to a rich phase diagram with a variety of phase transitions and reentrant behavior. The results may be relevant to the study of the phase separation of He-3 - He-4 mixtures in porous media in the vicinity of the superfluid transition.

Maritan, Amos↗
NASA NTRS1993

Specific heats and thermodynamic critical fields in Zn-doped YBa2Cu3O(7-x) according to an induced-pairing model

Electronic specific heats and thermodynamic critical fields are calculated in a mean-field version of an induced-pairing model for superconductivity, and compared with results of Loram et al. (1990) on YBa2(Cu(1-y)Zn(y))3O(7-x). This model involves induction of pairing of holes in a wideband by strongly bound electronlike pairs. It is assumed that the planar hole concentration for no Zn addition is close to, but slightly higher than, that for the maximum Tc, and that it increases by 0.015 per planar Cu ion for each increase of y by 0.01. Parameters of the model are taken to be the same as in a previous publication in which energy gaps were discussed, except that an effective hybridization parameter is adjusted for each Zn concentration to give agreement with the observed Tc. Results are presented for y = 0.0, 0.01, and 0.03. The agreement with experiment is good for thermodynamic critical fields, and is fair for specific heats. For specimens with larger y, with relatively low T(c)s, it is argued that the model should be supplemented to include effects of a BCS-type interaction amongst the wideband carriers.

Eagles, D. M.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Shining a Light on the Nucleus: Photonuclear Measurements from Correlations to Charmonium

The atomic nucleus is comprised of a collection of nucleons (protons and neutrons), which are bound together by the nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction that originates from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). While most nucleons experience the force from the rest of the nu- cleus as a single net “mean-field” interaction that binds them relatively weakly, a small but impactful fraction are in configurations called “Short-Range Correlations” (SRCs), in which they pair with another nucleon at very short distance to experience strong interactions, sig- nificant binding, and high momentum. Hard, high-energy scattering reactions in which an SRC pair is broken apart, knocking both nucleons out of the nucleus, provide the ability to probe the details of these SRC configurations in the nucleus. Previous measurements have had limited statistics and kinematic reach, and the theoretical tools available were in- sufficient to draw quantitative conclusions regarding the ground-state properties of SRCs. The studies described in this thesis represent the first global analysis of SRC breakup mea- surements in order to present a unified picture of SRCs within light- to medium-size nuclei. This includes the use of a novel theoretical framework, the Generalized Contact Formalism, which connects scattering cross-section measurements and the ground-state properties of the SRC pair, to quantitatively interpret a variety of electron-scattering measurements. This is brought to culmination by a report on the first measurement of SRC pairs via the use of hard meson photoproduction reactions, which, despite differing significantly from the me- chanics of electron-scattering, is well-described under a common framework, pointing to a consistent and universal picture of SRCs across reaction channels. I also report on the first measurement of J/¿ photoproduction in the near- and below-threshold kinematic region, giving the first insights to the gluonic structure of bound nucleons in the large-x “valence” region and providing constraints on a gluonic “EMC effect”. In addition to these studies, I provide details on the search for Primakoff production of axion-like particles using the pho- toproduction data taken for this experiment, and I conclude by describing studies of nucleon spin structure measurements that will be performed at the forthcoming U.S. Electron-Ion Collider.

Pybus, Jackson↗
DOE OSTI2025

Towards a multiscale approach for understanding irradiation induced swelling and creep in 316 stainless steels - A coupled cluster dynamics and crystal plasticity approach

Structural materials undergo mechanical degradation, in part due to irradiation-induced swelling and creep, under nuclear reactor conditions. While swelling results from the migration and clustering of irradiation-induced atomic-scale mobile defects, the interaction of mesoscale dislocations with these defects causes creep deformation. A coupled crystal plasticity (CP) and mean-field cluster dynamics (CD) approach is presented to investigate the effect of irradiation on the long-term mechanical behavior of 316 stainless steel, which are under consideration for use in nuclear reactors. The temporal evolution of Frenkel pairs and extended defect population, under a chosen irradiation flux and temperature, is predicted using the CD model. The impact of the irradiation defects on the stress state, and the resulting dislocation-mediated inelastic deformation, is modeled concurrently with the CP model. The inelastic deformation is irradiation flux dependent, and early-stage defect evolution determines the later-stage mechanical behavior in 316 stainless steel.

36 - MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Across the Scales of the Nucleus: Understanding Short Range Correlations from Medium Modification to Probe Independence

The atomic nucleus presents an intricate system due to the non-linear forces described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) that govern its structure. The range of scales involved is remarkable; the most massive nuclei weigh approximately five orders of magnitude more than the quarks that compose them. The nucleus can be analyzed at various levels, from quarks to hadrons to the nucleus as a whole. Short-Range Correlations (SRCs) within the nucleus play a significant role that spans these diverse scales. At the most fundamental level, SRCs influence the interaction between nucleons. The nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction, arising from QCD, is crucial in determining nuclear properties. SRCs serve as valuable probes for measuring this NN interaction, as the nucleons within SRCs become effectively decoupled from the rest of the nucleus. Multiple experimental techniques, including electron scattering, have been employed to investigate the NN interaction through SRCs. However, our first project demonstrates that inclusive measurements alone are inadequate to constrain this interaction fully. Moving to the scale of the nucleus, SRCs contribute to the high-momentum tail of the nuclear spectral function. While the low-momentum region is characterized by nucleons exhibiting bulk properties, nucleons begin to pair into SRCs at higher momenta. Our research aims to bridge the understanding between the mean-field portion of the nucleus and its high-momentum SRC components. Additionally, SRCs affect the quark structure of protons, as evidenced by the EMC effect, which indicates that quarks behave differently when protons are embedded within a nucleus—an effect referred to as medium modification. This thesis explores the correlation between SRCs and medium modification across various experimental setups. Finally, we seek to establish an interpretation of the nuclear ground state. Accomplishing this requires demonstrating that our SRC observables are independent of the probe’s scale and scheme. The concluding project of this thesis illustrates how we utilize triple coincidence quasi-elastic scattering across a range of (Q2) values to develop a model-dependent framework for understanding SRC distributions within the nucleus’s ground-state wavefunction.

Denniston, A. W. Denniston [University of Tel Aviv↗