Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “construction technology”

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.

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

At least 1,477 records · Page 82
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Analysis of thermal response of new diagnostic probe in TCV

Thermal response of the new multi-purpose diagnostic probe inside the TCV (Tokamak à Configuration Variable) tokamak is studied. The New Probe Head (NPH) was constructed at the University of Innsbruck and developed in collaboration with various European laboratories within EUROfusion program. The NPH can be used in different MST devices by applying corresponding adapters. Its design, followed by the prototype, has to go through a number of tests (numerical and experimental), before it can be used in the tokamak environment, where it has to withstand repeated exposure to the Scrape-Off-Layer (SOL) plasma. Presented numerical analyses of the NPH thermal response inside the TCV tokamak are performed by the Jožef Stefan Institute.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Proton discrimination in CLYC for fast neutron spectroscopy

The Cs 2 LiYCl 6 :Ce (CLYC) elpasolite scintillator is known for its response to fast and thermal neutrons along with good γ-ray energy resolution. While the 35 Cl(n,p) reaction has been identified as a potential means for CLYC-based fast neutron spectroscopy in the absence of time-of-flight (TOF), previous efforts to functionalize CLYC as a fast neutron spectrometer have been thwarted by the inability to isolate proton interactions from 6 Li(n,α) and 35 Cl(n,α) signals. This work introduces a new approach to particle discrimination in CLYC for fission spectrum neutrons using a multi-gate charge integration algorithm that provides excellent separation between protons and heavier charged particles. Neutron TOF data were collected using a 252 Cf source, an array of EJ-309 organic liquid scintillators, and a 6 Li-enriched CLYC scintillator outfitted with fast electronics. Modal waveforms were constructed corresponding to the different reaction channels, revealing significant differences in the pulse characteristics of protons and heavier charged particles at ultrafast, fast, and intermediate time scales. These findings informed the design of a pulse shape discrimination algorithm, which was validated using the TOF data. This study also proposes an iterative subtraction method to mitigate contributions from confounding reaction channels in proton and heavier charged particle pulse height spectra, opening the door for CLYC-based fast neutron and γ-ray spectroscopy while preserving sensitivity to thermal neutron capture signals.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development and testing of a fission-like neutron field for dosimetry and instrument calibrations based on deuterium-tritium generator

For nearly five decades 252 Cf sources have been used for testing and calibration over a wide range of neutron detection devices used for nuclear safety and radiation protection. However, the vastly increased cost of 252 Cf sources, its short half-life, and concerns about future shortage have prompted nuclear facilities and radiological calibration laboratories that rely on high-intensity neutron sources to seek alternatives. There appear to be no other radionuclide neutron sources that would match “like-to-like” 252 Cf performance characteristics. Alternatives of producing a fission-like neutron spectrum based on commercially available deuterium-tritium (D-T) generators, and without any fissionable materials or beryllium, have been explored. This paper describes efforts of designing the spectrum shaping assembly, its construction and installation. The produced neutron field was evaluated both from the perspective of the neutron fluence spectrum and the resulting dosimetric outcome. Finally, it was tested for practical application by examining response of various health physics instruments and personal monitoring devices in comparison to the response of those devices when exposed to 252 Cf. In conclusion, the response of survey-type instruments tested within the prototype, surrogate fission, reference field are acceptably close to their response in the targeted 252 Cf field.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Closure theory for high-collisionality multi-ion plasmas

A general formalism is developed to construct and solve a system of linearized moment equations for parallel and perpendicular closures in high-collisionality plasmas. It is applicable for multiple ion species with arbitrary masses, temperatures, charges, and densities. The convergence of closure coefficients is evaluated by increasing the number of moments from 2 to 32 for scalar, vector, and rank-2 tensor moments. As an example, the complete set of closure coefficients for a deuterium-carbon plasma over the entire Hall parameter range is presented. Furthermore, the closure coefficients at various temperature ratios show that the one-temperature closure coefficients can differ significantly from the two-temperature coefficients.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Coordinate transformation and construction of finite element mesh in a diverted tokamak geometry

A coordinate transformation technique between straight magnetic field line coordinate system (Ψ, θ) and Cartesian coordinate system (R, Z) is presented employing a Solov'ev solution of the Grad-Shafranov equation. Employing the equilibrium solution, the poloidal magnetic flux Ψ(R, Z) of a diverted tokamak, magnetic field line equation is solved computationally to find curves of constant poloidal angle θ, which provides us with explicit relations R = R(Ψ, θ) and Z = Z(Ψ, θ). Correspondingly, conversion from one coordinate to the other along particle trajectories in the vicinity of separatrix is demonstrated. Based on the magnetic structure, a finite element mesh is generated in a diverted tokamak geometry to solve Poisson's equation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Solvent-free synthesis of Co single atom and nanocluster decorated N-doped carbon for efficient oxygen reduction

The advancement of efficient, cheap, and durable catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) to substitute Pt/C in metal-air batteries is of paramount importance. However, traditional solvent-based methods fall short in terms of environmental benign and scalability. Herein, a solvent-free organic-inorganic self-assembly approach is explored to construct cobalt single atom and cobalt nanocluster decorated nitrogen-doped porous carbon spheres (Co-SA/NC@NCS). The solvent-free synthesis demonstrates an impressively high yield (282 g/L) and the resultant Co-SA/NC@NCS possesses a high N content (6.9 wt%). Density functional theory calculations disclose that the Co-SAs and Co-NCs are able to optimize the surface oxygen adsorption capability and enhance the conductivity of the NCS, thereby facilitating the ORR performance. Here, the solvent-free synthesis is also feasible for the synthesis of other non-noble metal element (Fe, Ni, and Zn) decorated nitrogen-doped porous carbon spheres.

Nitrogen-doped carbon↗
DOE OSTI2021

Systematic and statistical uncertainties of the hilbert-transform based high-precision FID frequency extraction method

Pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is widely used in high-precision magnetic field measurements. The absolute value of the magnetic field is determined from the precession frequency of nuclear magnetic moments. The Hilbert transform is widely used to extract the phase function from the observed free induction decay (FID) signal and then its frequency. In this paper, a detailed implementation of a Hilbert-transform based FID frequency extraction method is described. How artifacts and noise level in the FID signal affect the extracted phase function are derived analytically. A method of mitigating the artifacts in the extracted phase function of an FID is discussed. Correlations between noises of the phase function samples are studied for different noise spectra. We discovered that the error covariance matrix for the extracted phase function is nearly singular and improper for constructing the $\chi^2$ used in the fitting routine. A down-sampling method for fixing the singular covariance matrix has been developed, so that the minimum $\chi^2$-fit yields properly the statistical uncertainty of the extracted frequency. Other practical methods of obtaining the statistical uncertainty are also discussed.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

Scintillating crystals for the Neutral Particle Spectrometer in Hall C at JLab

This report discusses the quality and performance of currently available PbWO crystals of relevance to high-resolution electromagnetic calorimetry, e.g. detectors for the Neutral Particle Spectrometer at Jefferson Lab or those planned for the Electron–Ion Collider. Since the construction of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and early PANDA (The antiProton ANnihilations at DArmstadt) electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) the worldwide availability of high quality PbWO 4 production has changed dramatically. We report on our studies of crystal samples from SICCAS/China and CRYTUR/Czech Republic that were produced between 2014 and 2019.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

A scalable and autoclavable oxygen nanosensor platform for metabolic monitoring of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a bioreactor and other in situ systems

Polymer-encapsulated dye nanoparticle sensors are a valuable approach to achieving in situ analyte measurements with luminescence; however, typical emulsion-based nanosensors are poorly suited for large-scale biological samples due to limitations of synthesis scalability and stability. Branched polyethylenimine (PEI) is a versatile polymer scaffold ideal for constructing nanoparticles with various covalently conjugated moieties due to their high density of reactive primary amines, high water solubility, and biological stability. In this work, we used branched polyethylenimine as a scaffold-based approach for making a stable and scalable ratiometric oxygen sensor. Pt (II) tetracarboxyporphine was used as an oxygen-sensing dye and coumarin 343 as a reference dye, all covalently linked to the PEI scaffold producing a product that could withstand sterilization procedures and easily be scaled. To minimize toxicity from the PEI scaffold, we conjugated it with 2000 MW PEG. The applicability of the sensors was demonstrated in a 200 mL Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast culture, using orthogonal luminescent and electrochemical oxygen measurements to validate sensor response and measure the metabolic activity of the yeast in our culture. Further, this approach was able to match the sensitivity of our electrochemical measurements while improving upon drawbacks of other luminescent methods of oxygen detection, demonstrating effective monitoring for at least 20 h. Our scaffold-based approach is a modular and easily translatable technology that could be useful in various biotechnological applications.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantum Gravity in the Lab. I. Teleportation by Size and Traversable Wormholes

With the long-term goal of studying models of quantum gravity in the lab, we propose holographic teleportation protocols that can be readily executed in table-top experiments. These protocols exhibit similar behavior to that seen in the recent traversable-wormhole constructions of Gao et al. [J. High Energy Phys., 2017, 151 (2017)] and Maldacena et al. [Fortschr. Phys., 65, 1700034 (2017)]: information that is scrambled into one half of an entangled system will, following a weak coupling between the two halves, unscramble into the other half. We introduce the concept of teleportation by size to capture how the physics of operator-size growth naturally leads to information transmission. The transmission of a signal through a semiclassical holographic wormhole corresponds to a rather special property of the operator-size distribution that we call size winding. For more general systems (which may not have a clean emergent geometry), we argue that imperfect size winding is a generalization of the traversablewormhole phenomenon. In addition, a form of signaling continues to function at high temperature and at large times for generic chaotic systems, even though it does not correspond to a signal going through a geometrical wormhole but, rather, to an interference effect involving macroscopically different emergent geometries. Finally, we outline implementations that are feasible with current technology in two experimental platforms: Rydberg-atom arrays and trapped ions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Framework for Characterizing the Performance of High-Early Strength, High-Volume Fly Ash (HVFA) Concrete Structures

This presentation will highlight the development of a comprehensive framework to characterize the performance of high-volume fly ash (HVFA) concretes at early ages and discuss the resulting implications for concrete structures built using such materials. Achieving high-early compressive and/or flexural strength is often of particular importance for precast and/or prestressed concrete components – due to early age loading demands resulting from lifting, handling, or application of initial prestress – or other types of concrete structures that can significantly benefit from rapid strength development - such as for bridge deck repairs. The framework first includes a methodology for optimizing the strength of HVFA cementitious binders before subsequently scaling up the technology to evaluation of fresh and hardened HVFA concrete performance. A series of trial mix designs will be presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework to achieve not only the desired high-early strength targets but also satisfactory workability, often in the form of self-consolidating concrete. Mechanical performance was evaluated at several age-dependent milestones and, in conjunction with estimating concrete strength using the maturity method, was ultimately used to facilitate the development of novel strength development history curves. By way of these datasets, concrete mechanical properties were utilized in the design of prototype structural components, such as beams and wall panels, for subjection to larger-scale experimental testing. Implications for other pertinent HVFA concrete performance attributes, such as shrinkage or creep, will also be discussed. The framework also includes a comprehensive methodology for evaluating the environmental life-cycle performance of HVFA concrete structures focused on mitigating any unwarranted environmental consequences resulting from beneficial HVFA reuse in concrete. Strategies for more widespread implementation of HVFA concrete materials into construction practice will also be presented. Lastly, the role of the HVFA concrete framework towards the development of new provisions for building codes and/or design standards, and recommendations for future research needs will also be discussed.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2025

Tokamak Disruption Simulation (Final Technical Report)

The Tokamak Disruption Simulation collaboration was a SciDAC (Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing) program led by Xianzhu Tang of the Los Alamos National Laboratory but with separate grants to each institution. I was the PI for Columbia University and the only person at Columbia directly funded by this SciDAC. Disruptions are a sudden loss of confinement in tokamaks, and a reliable method of preventing disruptions must be developed before tokamak fusion power plants become feasible. A related plasma confinement concept, the stellarator, is the only way known way of preventing disruptions with the required reliability. The largest devices, both existing and under construction, for confining plasmas for fusion using magnetic fields are tokamaks, so it is important to solve their disruption issues. The sudden loss of confinement in tokamaks can be from a bit of material falling into the plasma, which causes the plasma energy to be quickly lost by radiation, or by an instability causing a breakup of the confining surfaces formed by the magnetic field. This breakup can occur more than a million times faster than one would naively think possible. The sudden breakup of surfaces is called a fast magnetic reconnection and also results in a sudden cooling of the plasma.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Intentional and Responsible Energy Transitions: Integrating Design Choices in the Pursuit of Carbon-Neutral Futures

The transitions of energy systems to carbon neutrality are among is one of the most ambitious, complex, uncertain, significant, and transformative projects in human history. They will therefore demand extraordinarily thoughtful, informed, and careful leadership. In recent years, this project has reached an important turning point, with widespread agreement to decarbonize energy systems by 2050. We argue that the next step is to engage leaders in doing the work necessary to achieve that goal. Specifically, we argue that regional leaders, across sectors, should build collaborative initiatives to intentionally and responsibly design and advance regional energy transitions. These transitions will entail navigating uncertain and unknown terrain, requiring diverse organizations and communities to work together to chart and construct potential pathways, assess their implications, and collectively work to make progress. To address these challenges, we recommend adopting region-first, anticipatory, justice-oriented approaches. In such approachesthis process, regions can collaboratively identify, deliberate, design, and navigate toward endpoints along complex and shifting pathways that recognize that design will matter. Efuture energy systems will deeply shape and be shaped by the futures of both societies and economies. Transitions will therefore need to be inclusive, to provide broad public input into both how to proceed with transitions and the goals that guide their design.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

European Contributions to Fermilab Accelerator Upgrades and Facilities for the DUNE Experiment

The Proton Improvement Plan (PIP-II) to the FNAL accelerator chain and the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) will provide the world's most intense neutrino beam to the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) enabling a wide-ranging physics program. This document outlines the significant contributions made by European national laboratories and institutes towards realizing the first phase of the project with a 1.2 MW neutrino beam. Construction of this first phase is well underway. For DUNE Phase II, this will be closely followed by an upgrade of the beam power to > 2 MW, for which the European groups again have a key role and which will require the continued support of the European community for machine aspects of neutrino physics. Beyond the neutrino beam aspects, LBNF is also responsible for providing unique infrastructure to install and operate the DUNE neutrino detectors at FNAL and at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). The cryostats for the first two Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber detector modules at SURF, a contribution of CERN to LBNF, are central to the success of the ongoing execution of DUNE Phase I. Likewise, successful and timely procurement of cryostats for two additional detector modules at SURF will be critical to the success of DUNE Phase II and the overall physics program. The DUNE Collaboration is submitting four main contributions to the 2026 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics process. This paper is being submitted to the 'Accelerator technologies' and 'Projects and Large Experiments' streams. Additional inputs related to the DUNE science program, DUNE detector technologies and R&D, and DUNE software and computing, are also being submitted to other streams.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Mass spectrometric investigations into 3D printed parts to assess radiopurity as ultralow background materials for rare event physics detectors

The mass concentrations of 232 Th and 238 U in several 3D printing filaments and printed polymer parts are reported as measures of their radiopurity. In order to minimize background signals in rare event physics detectors, radiopure polymers are necessary as dielectric and structural materials in their construction. New data are reported for polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), and two forms of polyetherimide (PEI, branded ULTEM 1010 and 9085). Data for starting filaments and both simple and complex printed parts are reported. PVDF filaments and simple printed beads, were found to have values of approximately 30 and 50 pg g -1 for 232 Th and 238 U, respectively, while a more complex spring clip part had slightly elevated 232 Th levels of 65 pg g -1 , with 238 U remaining at 50 pg g -1 . PPS filament was found to have concentrations of 270 and 710 pg g -1 for 232 Th and 238 U, respectively, and were not chosen to be printed as those levels were already higher than other material options. ULTEM 1010 filaments and printed complex spring clip parts were found to have concentrations of around 5 and 7 pg g -1 for 232 Th and 238 U, respectively, illustrating no significant contamination from the printing process. ULTEM 9085 filaments were found to have concentrations of around 9 and 5 pg g -1 for 232 Th and 238 U, respectively, while the printed complex spring clip part was found to have slightly elevated concentrations of 25 and 7 pg g -1 for 232 Th and 238 U, respectively. All these results were obtained using a novel dry ashing method in crucibles constructed of ultralow background electroformed copper or, when applicable, microwave assisted wet ashing digestion. Samples and process blanks were spiked with 229 Th and 233 U as internal standards prior to dry/wet ashing and determinations were made by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). In order to maintain high radiopurity levels, pre-cleaning the filaments before printing and post-cleaning the parts is recommended, although the printing process itself has shown to contribute very minute amounts of radiocontaminants.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

Computationally Predicted High-Throughput Free-Energy Phase Diagrams for the Discovery of Solid-State Hydrogen Storage Reactions

The design of multinary solid-state material systems that undergo reversible phase changes via changes in temperature and pressure provides a potential means of safely storing hydrogen. However, fully mapping the stabilities of known or newly targeted compounds relative to competing phases at reaction conditions has previously required many stringent experiments or computationally demanding calculations of each compound’s change in Gibbs energy with respect to temperature, G(T). Here, we have extended the approach of constructing chemical potential phase diagrams based on ΔG f (T) to enable the analysis of phase stability at non-zero temperatures. We first performed density functional theory calculations to compute the formation enthalpies of binary, ternary, and quaternary compounds within several compositional spaces of current interest for solid-state hydrogen storage. Temperature effects on solid compound stability were then accounted for using our recently introduced machine learned descriptor for the temperature-dependent contribution G δ (T) to the Gibbs energy G(T). From these Gibbs energies, we evaluated each compound’s stability relative to competing compounds over a wide range of conditions and show using chemical potential and composition phase diagrams that the predicted stable phases and H2 release reactions are consistent with experimental observations. This demonstrates that our approach rapidly computes the thermochemistry of hydrogen release reactions for compounds at sufficiently high accuracy relative to experiment to provide a powerful framework for analyzing hydrogen storage materials. This framework based on G(T) enables the accelerated discovery of active materials for a variety of technologies that rely on solid-state reactions involving these materials.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2024

Amortized simulation-based frequentist inference for tractable and intractable likelihoods

Abstract High-fidelity simulators that connect theoretical models with observations are indispensable tools in many sciences. If the likelihood is known, inference can proceed using standard techniques. However, when the likelihood is intractable or unknown, a simulator makes it possible to infer the parameters of a theoretical model directly from real and simulated observations when coupled with machine learning. We introduce an extension of the recently proposed likelihood-free frequentist inference ( LF2I ) approach that makes it possible to construct confidence sets with the p -value function and to use the same function to check the coverage explicitly at any given parameter point. Like LF2I , this extension yields provably valid confidence sets in parameter inference problems for which a high-fidelity simulator is available. The utility of our algorithm is illustrated by applying it to three pedagogically interesting examples: the first is from cosmology, the second from high-energy physics and astronomy, both with tractable likelihoods, while the third, with an intractable likelihood, is from epidemiology 3 3 Code to reproduce all of our results is available on https://github.com/AliAlkadhim/ALFFI . .

Computer Science↗
DOE OSTI2024

Programming liquid crystal elastomers for multistep ambidirectional deformability

Ambidirectionality, which is the ability of structural elements to move beyond a reference state in two opposite directions, is common in nature. However, conventional soft materials are typically limited to a single, unidirectional deformation unless complex hybrid constructs are used. We exploited the combination of mesogen self-assembly, polymer chain elasticity, and polymerization-induced stress to design liquid crystalline elastomers that exhibit two mesophases: chevron smectic C (cSmC) and smectic A (SmA). Inducing the cSmC-SmA–isotropic phase transition led to an unusual inversion of the strain field in the microstructure, resulting in opposite deformation modes (e.g., consecutive shrinkage or expansion and right-handed or left-handed twisting and tilting in opposite directions) and high-frequency nonmonotonic oscillations. Further, this ambidirectional movement is scalable and can be used to generate Gaussian transformations at the macroscale.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗