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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Hydrogen wide area monitoring of LH2 releases

The characterization of liquid hydrogen (LH2) releases has been identified as an international research priority to expand the safe use of hydrogen as an energy carrier. The elucidation of LH2 release behavior will require the development of dispersion and other models, guided and validated by empirical field measurements such as those afforded by Hydrogen Wide Area Monitoring (HyWAM). HyWAM can be defined as the quantitative spatial and temporal three-dimensional monitoring of planned or unintentional hydrogen releases. With support provided through the FCH JU Prenormative Research for the Safe Use of Liquid Hydrogen (PRESLHY) program, HSE performed a series of LH2 releases to characterize the dispersion and pooling behavior of cold hydrogen releases. The NREL Sensor Laboratory developed a HyWAM system based upon a distributed array of point sensors that is amenable for profiling cold hydrogen plumes. The NREL Sensor Laboratory and HSE formally committed to collaborate on profiling the LH2 releases. This collaboration included the integration of the NREL HyWAM into the HSE LH2 release hardware. This was achieved through a deployment plan jointly developed by the NREL and HSE personnel. Under this plan, the NREL Sensor Laboratory provided multiple HyWAM modules that accommodated 32 sampling points for near-field hydrogen profiling during the HSE PRESLHY LH2 releases. The NREL HyWAM would be utilized throughout the LH2 release study performed under PRESLHY by HSE, including Work Package 3 (WP3—Release and Mixing--Rainout) and subsequent work packages (WP4—Ignition and WP5—Combustion). Under the auspices of the PRESLHY WP6 (Implementation), data and findings from the HSE LH2 Releases are to be made available to stakeholders in the hydrogen community. Comprehensive data analysis and dissemination is ongoing, but the integration of the NREL HyWAM into the HSE LH2 Release Apparatus and its performance as well as some key outcomes of the LH2 releases in WP3 are presented.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2015

Cs 2 Hg 3 S 4 : A Low-Dimensional Direct Bandgap Semiconductor

Cs2Hg3S4 was synthesized by slowly cooling a melted stoichiometric mixture of Hg and Cs2S4. Cs2Hg3S4 crystallizes in the Ibam spacegroup with a = 6.278(1) angstrom, b = 11.601(2) angstrom, and c = 14.431(3)angstrom; d(calc) = 6.29 g/cm(3). Its crystal structure consists of straight chains of [Hg3S4](n)(2n-) that engage in side-by-side weak bonding interactions forming layers and are charge balanced by Cs+ cations. The thermal stability of this compound was investigated with differential thermal analysis and temperature dependent in situ synchrotron powder diffraction. The thermal expansion coefficients of the a, b, and c axes were assessed at 1.56 x 10(-5), 2.79 x10(-5), and 3.04 x 10(-5) K-1, respectively. Large single-crystals up to similar to 5 cm in length and similar to 1 cm in diameter were grown using a vertical Bridgman method. Electrical conductivity and photoconductivity measurements on naturally cleaved crystals of Cs2Hg3S4 gave resistivity rho of >= 10(8) Omega.cm and carrier mobility-lifetime (mu tau) products of 4.2 x 10(-4) and 5.82 x 10(-5) cm(2) V-1 for electrons and holes, respectively. Cs2Hg3S4 is a semiconductor with a bandgap E-g similar to 2.8 eV and exhibits photoluminescence (PL) at low temperature. Electronic band structure calculations within the density functional theory (DFT) framework employing the nonlocal hybrid functional within Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof (HSE) formalism indicate a direct bandgap of 2.81 eV at Gamma. The theoretical calculations show that the conduction band minimum has a highly dispersive and relatively isotropic mercury-based s-orbital-like character while the valence band maximum features a much less dispersive and more anisotropic sulfur orbital-based band.

Islam, Saiful M.↗
DOE OSTI2013

Time-dependent density functional theory quantum transport simulation in non-orthogonal basis

Basing on the earlier works on the hierarchical equations of motion for quantum transport, we present in this paper a first principles scheme for time-dependent quantum transport by combining time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) and Keldysh's non-equilibrium Green's function formalism. This scheme is beyond the wide band limit approximation and is directly applicable to the case of non-orthogonal basis without the need of basis transformation. The overlap between the basis in the lead and the device region is treated properly by including it in the self-energy and it can be shown that this approach is equivalent to a lead-device orthogonalization. This scheme has been implemented at both TDDFT and density functional tight-binding level. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate our method and comparison with wide band limit approximation is made. Finally, the sparsity of the matrices and computational complexity of this method are analyzed.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Trojan horse particle invariance: The impact on nuclear astrophysics

In the current picture of nuclear astrophysics indirect methods and, in particular, the Trojan Horse Method cover a crucial role for the measurement of charged particle induced reactions cross sections of astrophysical interest, in the energy range required by the astrophysical scenarios. To better understand its cornerstones and its applications to physical cases many tests were performed to verify all its properties and the possible future perspectives. The key to the method is the quasi-free break-up and some of its properties will be investigated in the present work. In particular, the Trojan Horse nucleus invariance will be studied and previous studies will be extended to the cases of the binary d(d, p)t and {sup 6}Li(d,α){sup 4}He reactions, which were tested using different quasi-free break-up's, namely {sup 6}Li and {sup 3}He. The astrophysical S(E)-factor were then extracted with the Trojan Horse formalism applied to the two different break-up schemes and compared with direct data as well as with previous indirect investigations. The very good agreement confirms the independence of binary indirect cross section on the chosen spectator particle also for these reactions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Dose homogeneity specification for reference dosimetry of nonstandard fields

Purpose: To investigate the sensitivity of the plan-class specific correction factor to dose distributions in composite nonstandard field dosimetry. Methods: A cylindrical water-filled PMMA phantom was constructed at the center of which reference absorbed dose could be measured. Ten different TomoTherapy-based IMRT fields were created on the CT images of the phantom. The dose distribution for each IMRT field was estimated at the position of a radiation detector or ionization chamber. The dose in each IMRT field normalized to that in a reference 10 x 10 cm{sup 2} field was measured using a PTW micro liquid ion chamber. Based on the new dosimetry formalism, a plan-class specific correction factor k{sub Q{sub p{sub c{sub s{sub r,Q}{sup f{sub p}{sub c}{sub s}{sub r},f{sub r}{sub e}{sub f}}}}}} for each field was measured for two Farmer-type chambers, Exradin A12 and NE2571, as well as for a smaller Exradin A1SL chamber. The dependence of the measured correction factor on parameters characterizing dose distribution was analyzed. Results: Uncertainty on the plan-class specific correction factor measurement was in the range of 0.3%-0.5% and 0.3%-0.8% for the Farmer-type chambers and the Exradin A1SL, respectively. When the heterogeneity of the central region of the target volume was less than 5%, the correction factor did not differ from unity by more than 0.7% for the three air-filled ionization chambers. For more heterogeneous dose deliveries, the correction factor differed from unity by up to 2.4% for the Farmer-type chambers. For the Exradin A1SL, the correction factor was closer to unity due to the reduced effect of dose gradients, while it was highly variable in different IMRT fields because of a more significant impact of positioning uncertainties on the response of this chamber. Conclusions: The authors have shown that a plan-class specific correction factor can be specified as a function of plan evaluation parameters especially for Farmer-type chambers. This work provides a recipe based on quantifying dose distribution to accurately select air-filled ionization chamber correction factors for nonstandard fields.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Understanding the transient large amplitude oscillatory shear behavior of yield stress fluids

A full understanding of the sequence of processes exhibited by yield stress fluids under large amplitude oscillatory shearing is developed using multiple experimental and analytical approaches. A novel component rate Lissajous curve, where the rates at which strain is acquired unrecoverably and recoverably are plotted against each other, is introduced and its utility is demonstrated by application to the analytical responses of four simple viscoelastic models. Using the component rate space, yielding and unyielding are identified by changes in the way strain is acquired, from recoverably to unrecoverably and back again. The behaviors are investigated by comparing the experimental results with predictions from the elastic Bingham model that is constructed using the Oldroyd–Prager formalism and the recently proposed continuous model by Kamani, Donley, and Rogers in which yielding is enhanced by rapid acquisition of elastic strain. The physical interpretation gained from the transient large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) data is compared to the results from the analytical sequence of physical processes framework and a novel time-resolved Pipkin space. The component rate figures, therefore, provide an independent test of the interpretations of the sequence of physical processes analysis that can also be applied to other LAOS analysis frameworks. Each of these methods, the component rates, the sequence of physical processes analysis, and the time-resolved Pipkin diagrams, unambigiously identifies the same material physics, showing that yield stress fluids go through a sequence of physical processes that includes elastic deformation, gradual yielding, plastic flow, and gradual unyielding.

Kamani, Krutarth M. (ORCID:0000000338975420)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Stress intensity factor models using mechanics-guided decomposition and symbolic regression

The finite element method can be used to compute accurate stress intensity factors (SIFs) for cracks with complex geometries and boundary conditions. In contrast, handbook solutions act as surrogate SIF models that provide significantly faster evaluation times. However, the development of conventional surrogate SIF models relies on manual development based on low-order parameterizations. This limits surrogate model accuracy and generalizability. Here, in this paper, we develop a framework for the automated development of mechanics-guided handbook SIF solutions by using interpretable machine learning via genetic programming for symbolic regression (GPSR). Formalizing the mechanics-based approach of Raju and Newman, SIF training data is decomposed into multiple subsets. This decomposition enables parallel GPSR model development of subfunctions, each of which accounts for specific geometrical corrections with respect to a known analytical model. Using this mechanics-based approach with GPSR allows for equations to be learned with improved accuracy and reduced complexity relative to the Raju Newman equations while maintaining the inherent interpretability of mathematical expressions. In this paper, we present equations that match the complexity of the Raju Newman equations while having reduced error, as well as equations with similar errors and reduced complexity.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Neural chaos: A spectral stochastic neural operator

Building surrogate models for operators with uncertainty quantification capabilities is essential for many engineering applications where randomness–such as variability in material properties, boundary conditions, and initial conditions–is unavoidable. Polynomial Chaos Expansion (PCE) is widely recognized as a go-to method for constructing stochastic surrogates in both intrusive and non-intrusive ways, and it has recently been used in the context of operator learning. However, its application becomes challenging for complex or high-dimensional processes, as achieving accuracy requires higher-order polynomials, which can increase computational demand and/or the risk of overfitting. Furthermore, PCE requires specialized treatments to manage random variables that are not independent, and these treatments may be problem-dependent or may fail with increasing complexity. Here, in this work, we adopt the same formalism as the spectral expansion used in PCE; however, we replace the classical polynomial basis functions with neural network (NN) basis functions to leverage their expressivity. To achieve this, we propose an algorithm that identifies NN-parameterized basis functions in a purely data-driven manner, without any prior assumptions about the joint distribution of the random variables involved, whether independent or dependent, or about their marginal distributions. The proposed algorithm identifies each NN-parameterized basis function sequentially, ensuring they are orthogonal with respect to the data distribution. The basis functions are constructed directly on the joint stochastic variables without requiring a tensor product structure or assuming independence of the random variables. This approach may offer greater flexibility for complex stochastic models, while simplifying implementation compared to the tensor product structures typically used in PCE to handle random vectors. This is particularly advantageous given the current state of open-source packages, where building and training neural networks can be done with just a few lines of code and extensive community support. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme through several numerical examples of varying complexity and provide comparisons with classical PCE.

Polynomial chaos expansion↗
DOE OSTI2012

Determination of Resonance Parameters and their Covariances from Neutron Induced Reaction Cross Section Data

Cross section data in the resolved and unresolved resonance region are represented by nuclear reaction formalisms using parameters which are determined by fitting them to experimental data. Therefore, the quality of evaluated cross sections in the resonance region strongly depends on the experimental data used in the adjustment process and an assessment of the experimental covariance data is of primary importance in determining the accuracy of evaluated cross section data. In this contribution, uncertainty components of experimental observables resulting from total and reaction cross section experiments are quantified by identifying the metrological parameters involved in the measurement, data reduction and analysis process. In addition, different methods that can be applied to propagate the covariance of the experimental observables (i.e. transmission and reaction yields) to the covariance of the resonance parameters are discussed and compared. The methods being discussed are: conventional uncertainty propagation, Monte Carlo sampling and marginalization. It is demonstrated that the final covariance matrix of the resonance parameters not only strongly depends on the type of experimental observables used in the adjustment process, the experimental conditions and the characteristics of the resonance structure, but also on the method that is used to propagate the covariances. Finally, a special data reduction concept and format is presented, which offers the possibility to store the full covariance information of experimental data in the EXFOR library and provides the information required to perform a full covariance evaluation.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

LiMo 8 O 10 : Polar Crystal Structure with Infinite Edge-Sharing Molybdenum Octahedra

Here, polycrystalline LiMo 8 O 10 was prepared in a sealed Mo crucible at 1380 °C for 48 h using the conventional high-temperature solid-state method. The polar tetragonal crystal structure (space group I4 1 md) is confirmed based on the Rietveld refinement of powder neutron diffraction and 7 Li/ 6 Li solid-state NMR. The crystal structure features infinite chains of Mo 4 O 5 (i.e., Mo 2 Mo 4/2 O 6/2 O 6/3 ) as a repeat unit containing edge-sharing Mo 6 octahedra with strong Mo–Mo metal bonding along the chain. X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy of the Mo-L 3 edge is consistent with the formal Mo valence/configuration. Magnetic measurements reveal that LiMo 8 O 10 is paramagnetic down to 1.8 K. Temperature-dependent resistivity [ρ(T)] measurement indicates a semiconducting behavior that can be fitted with Mott’s variable range hopping conduction mechanism in the temperature range of 215 and 45 K. The ρ(T) curve exhibits an exponential increase below 5 K with a large ratio of ρ 1.8 /ρ 300 = 435. LiMo 8 O 10 shows a negative field-dependent magnetoresistance between 2 and 25 K. Heat capacity measurement fitted with the modified Debye model yields the Debye temperature of 365 K.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Integral elastic, electronic-state, ionization, and total cross sections for electron scattering with furfural

We report absolute experimental integral cross sections (ICSs) for electron impact excitation of bands of electronic-states in furfural, for incident electron energies in the range 20–250 eV. Wherever possible, those results are compared to corresponding excitation cross sections in the structurally similar species furan, as previously reported by da Costa et al. [Phys. Rev. A 85, 062706 (2012)] and Regeta and Allan [Phys. Rev. A 91, 012707 (2015)]. Generally, very good agreement is found. In addition, ICSs calculated with our independent atom model (IAM) with screening corrected additivity rule (SCAR) formalism, extended to account for interference (I) terms that arise due to the multi-centre nature of the scattering problem, are also reported. The sum of those ICSs gives the IAM-SCAR+I total cross section for electron–furfural scattering. Where possible, those calculated IAM-SCAR+I ICS results are compared against corresponding results from the present measurements with an acceptable level of accord being obtained. Similarly, but only for the band I and band II excited electronic states, we also present results from our Schwinger multichannel method with pseudopotentials calculations. Those results are found to be in good qualitative accord with the present experimental ICSs. Finally, with a view to assembling a complete cross section data base for furfural, some binary-encounter-Bethe-level total ionization cross sections for this collision system are presented.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

Gravitational wave formation from the collapse of dark energy field configurations

Dark energy is the dominant component of the energy density in the Universe. In a previous paper, we have shown that the collapse of dark energy fields leads to the formation of supermassive black holes with masses comparable to the masses of black holes at the centers of galaxies. Thus, it becomes a pressing issue to investigate the other physical consequences of the collapse of dark energy fields. Given that the primary interactions of dark energy fields with the rest of the Universe are gravitational, it is particularly interesting to investigate the gravitational wave signals emitted during the collapse of dark energy fields. This is the focus of the current work described in this paper. We describe and use the 3+1 BSSN formalism to follow the evolution of the dark energy fields coupled with gravity and to extract the gravitational wave signals. Finally, we describe the results of our numerical computations and the gravitational wave signals produced by the collapse of dark energy fields.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

A NEW METHOD TO DIRECTLY MEASURE THE JEANS SCALE OF THE INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM USING CLOSE QUASAR PAIRS

Although the baryons in the intergalactic medium (IGM) trace dark matter fluctuations on megaparsec scales, on smaller scales ∼100 kpc, fluctuations are suppressed because the finite temperature gas is pressure supported against gravity, analogous to the classical Jeans argument. This Jeans filtering scale, which quantifies the small-scale structure of the IGM, has fundamental cosmological implications. First, it provides a thermal record of heat injected by ultraviolet photons during cosmic reionization events, and thus constrains the thermal and reionization history of the universe. Second, the Jeans scale determines the clumpiness of the IGM, a critical ingredient in models of cosmic reionization. Third, it sets the minimum mass scale for gravitational collapse from the IGM, and hence plays a pivotal role in galaxy formation. Unfortunately, it is extremely challenging to measure the Jeans scale via the standard technique of analyzing purely longitudinal Lyα forest spectra, because the thermal Doppler broadening of absorption lines along the line-of-sight, is highly degenerate with Jeans smoothing. In this work, we show that the Jeans filtering scale can be directly measured by characterizing the coherence of correlated Lyα forest absorption in close quasar pairs, with separations small enough ∼100 kpc to resolve it. We present a novel technique for this purpose, based on the probability density function (PDF) of phase angle differences of homologous longitudinal Fourier modes in close quasar pair spectra. A Bayesian formalism is introduced based on the phase angle PDF, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques are used to characterize the precision of a hypothetical Jeans scale measurement, and explore degeneracies with other thermal parameters governing the IGM. A semi-analytical model of the Lyα forest is used to generate a large grid (500) of thermal models from a dark matter only simulation. Our full parameter study indicates that a realistic sample of only 20 close quasar pair spectra can pinpoint the Jeans scale to ≅ 5% precision, independent of the amplitude T{sub 0} and slope γ of the temperature-density relation of the IGM T=T{sub 0}(ρ/ ρ-bar ){sup γ-1}. This exquisite sensitivity arises because even long-wavelength one-dimensional Fourier modes ∼10 Mpc, i.e., two orders of magnitude larger than the Jeans scale, are nevertheless dominated by projected small-scale three-dimensional (3D) power. Hence phase angle differences between all modes of quasar pair spectra actually probe the shape of the 3D power spectrum on scales comparable to the pair separation. We show that this new method for measuring the Jeans scale is unbiased and is insensitive to a battery of systematics that typically plague Lyα forest measurements, such as continuum fitting errors, imprecise knowledge of the noise level and/or spectral resolution, and metal-line absorption.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-T-58: Dosimetric Evaluation of Breast Tissue Composition for Electronic Brachytherapy (BET) Source In High Dose Rate Accelerated Partial Breast (APBI) Irradiation

Purpose: To quantitatively evaluate the dosimetric impact of differing breast tissue compositions for electronic brachytherapy source for high dose rate accelerated partial breast irradiation. Methods: A series of Monte Carlo Simulation were created using the GEANT4 toolkit (version 10.0). The breast phantom was modeled as a semi-circle with a radius of 5.0 cm. A water balloon with a radius of 1.5 cm was located in the phantom with the Xoft AxxentTM EBT source placed at center as a point source. A mixed of two tissue types (adipose and glandular tissue) was assigned as the materials for the breast phantom with different weight ratios. The proportionality of glandular and adipose tissue was simulated in four different fashions, 80/20, 70/30, 50/50 and 30/70 respectively. The custom energy spectrum for the 50 kVp XOFT source was provided via the manufacturer and used to generate incident photons. The dose distributions were recorded using a parallel three dimensional mesh with a size of 30 × 30 × 30 cm3 with 1 × 1 × 1 mm3 voxels. The simulated doses absorbed along the transverse axis were normalized at the distance of 1 cm and then compared with the calculations using standard TG-43 formalism. Results: All simulations showed underestimation of dose beyond balloon surface compared to standard TG-43 calculations. The maximum percentage differences within 2 cm distance from balloon surface were found to be 18%, 11%, 10% and 8% for the fat breast (30/70), standard breast (50/50), dense breast (70/30 and 80/20), respectively. Conclusion: The accuracy of dose calculations for low energy EBT source was limited when considering tissue heterogeneous composition. The impact of atomic number on photo-electric effect for lower energy Brachytherapy source is not accounted for and resulting in significant errors in dose calculation.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Treating electrostatics with Wolf summation in combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical simulations

The Wolf summation approach [D. Wolf et al., J. Chem. Phys. 110, 8254 (1999)], in the damped shifted force (DSF) formalism [C. J. Fennell and J. D. Gezelter, J. Chem. Phys. 124, 234104 (2006)], is extended for treating electrostatics in combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical (QM/MM) molecular dynamics simulations. In this development, we split the QM/MM electrostatic potential energy function into the conventional Coulomb r{sup −1} term and a term that contains the DSF contribution. The former is handled by the standard machinery of cutoff-based QM/MM simulations whereas the latter is incorporated into the QM/MM interaction Hamiltonian as a Fock matrix correction. We tested the resulting QM/MM-DSF method for two solution-phase reactions, i.e., the association of ammonium and chloride ions and a symmetric SN{sub 2} reaction in which a methyl group is exchanged between two chloride ions. The performance of the QM/MM-DSF method was assessed by comparing the potential of mean force (PMF) profiles with those from the QM/MM-Ewald and QM/MM-isotropic periodic sum (IPS) methods, both of which include long-range electrostatics explicitly. For ion association, the QM/MM-DSF method successfully eliminates the artificial free energy drift observed in the QM/MM-Cutoff simulations, in a remarkable agreement with the two long-range-containing methods. For the SN{sub 2} reaction, the free energy of activation obtained by the QM/MM-DSF method agrees well with both the QM/MM-Ewald and QM/MM-IPS results. The latter, however, requires a greater cutoff distance than QM/MM-DSF for a proper convergence of the PMF. Avoiding time-consuming lattice summation, the QM/MM-DSF method yields a 55% reduction in computational cost compared with the QM/MM-Ewald method. These results suggest that, in addition to QM/MM-IPS, the QM/MM-DSF method may serve as another efficient and accurate alternative to QM/MM-Ewald for treating electrostatics in condensed-phase simulations of chemical reactions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-T-149: Brachytherapy Patient Specific Quality Assurance for a HDR Vaginal Cylinder Case

Purpose: Commonly Ir-192 HDR treatment planning system commissioning is only based on a single absolute measurement of source activity supplemented by tabulated parameters for multiple factors without independent verification that the planned distribution corresponds to the actual delivered dose. The purpose on this work is to present a methodology using Gafchromic film with a statistically valid calibration curve that can be used to validate clinical HDR vaginal cylinder cases by comparing the calculated plan dose distribution in a plane with the corresponding measured planar dose. Methods: A vaginal cylinder plan was created with Oncentra treatment planning system. The 3D dose matrix was exported to a Varian Eclipse work station for convenient extraction of a 2D coronal dose plane corresponding to the film position. The plan was delivered with a sheet of Gafchromic EBT3 film positioned 1mm from the catheter using an Ir-192 Nucletron HDR source. The film was then digitized with an Epson 10000 XL color scanner. Film analysis is performed with MatLab imaging toolbox. A density to dose calibration curve was created using TG43 formalism for a single dwell position exposure at over 100 points for statistical accuracy. The plan and measured film dose planes were registered using a known dwell position relative to four film marks. The plan delivered 500 cGy to points 2 cm from the sources. Results: The distance to agreement of the 500 cGy isodose between the plan and film measurement laterally was 0.5 mm but can be as much as 1.5 mm superior and inferior. The difference between the computed plan dose and film measurement was calculated per pixel. The greatest errors up to 50 cGy are near the apex. Conclusion: The methodology presented will be useful to implement more comprehensive quality assurance to verify patient-specific dose distributions.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Sci-Sat AM: Radiation Dosimetry and Practical Therapy Solutions - 06: Investigation of an absorbed dose to water formalism for a miniature low-energy x-ray source

Purpose: We present a formalism for calculating the absorbed dose to water from a miniature x-ray source (The INTRABEAM system, Carl Zeiss), using a parallel-plate ionization chamber calibrated in terms of air-kerma. Monte Carlo calculations were performed to derive a chamber conversion factor (C{sub Q}) from reference air-kerma to dose to water for the INTRABEAM. C{sub Q} was investigated as a function of depth in water, and compared with the manufacturer’s reported value. The effect of chamber air cavity dimension tolerance was also investigated. Methods: Air-kerma (A{sub k}) from a reference beam was calculated using the EGSnrc user code cavity. Using egs-chamber, a model of a PTW 34013 parallel-plate ionization chamber was created according to manufacturer specifications. The dose to the chamber air cavity (D{sub gas}) was simulated both in-air (with reference beam) and in-water (with INTRABEAM source). Dose to a small water voxel (D{sub w}) was also calculated. C{sub Q} was derived from these quantities. Results: C{sub Q} was found to vary by up to 15% (1.30 vs 1.11) between chamber dimension extremes. The agreement between chamber C{sub Q} was found to improve with increasing depth in water. However, in all cases investigated, C{sub Q} was larger than the manufacturer reported value of 1.054. Conclusions: Our results show that cavity dimension tolerance has a significant effect on C{sub Q}, with differences as large as 15%. In all cases considered, C{sub Q} was found to be larger than the reported value of 1.054. This suggests that the recommended calculation underestimates the dose to water.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗