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At least 1,621 records · Page 90
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Ion-scale Current Structures in Short Large-amplitude Magnetic Structures

Magnetic reconnection is an explosive phenomenon widely happen in plasma environments. Recent studies show that reconnection could occur in the shock transition region. We study thin current layers in the region in front of the shock and find evidence of reconnection. The analysis also shows the possible generation mechanism of the thin current sheet that further enables reconnection. A large-scale wave is further generated, and the thin current sheets are generated through compression or secondary waves. The thin current structures also lead to electron heating.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

The ICRP, MELODI, and ALLIANCE workshop on effects of ionizing radiation exposure in offspring and next generations: a summary of discussions

Task Group 121 – Effects of ionizing radiation exposure in offspring and next generations – is a task group under the Committee 1 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), approved by the Main Commission on 18th November 2021. The main goals of Task Group 121 are to (1) review and update the scientific literature of relevance to radiation-related effects in the offspring of parent(s) exposed to ionizing radiation in both human and non-human biota; (2) to assess preconceptional and intrauterine effects of radiation exposure and related morbidity and mortality; and, (3) to provide advice about the level of evidence and how to consider these preconceptional and postconceptional effects in the system of radiological protection for humans and non-human biota. The Task Group is reviewing relevant literature since Publication 90 ‘Biological effects after prenatal irradiation (embryo and fetus)’ (2003) and will include radiation-related effects on future generations in humans, animals, and plants. This review will be conducted to account for the health effects on offspring and subsequent generations in the current system of radiological protection. Radiation detriment calculation will also be reviewed. Finally, preliminary recommendations will be made to update the integration of health effects in offspring and next generations in the system of radiological protection. A Workshop, jointly organized by ICRP Task Group 121 and European Radiation Protection Research Platforms MELODI and ALLIANCE was held in Budapest, Hungary, from 31st May to 2nd June 2022. Participants discussed four important topics: (1) hereditary and epigenetic effects due to exposure of the germ cell line (preconceptional exposure), (2) effects arising from exposure of the embryo and fetus (intrauterine exposure), (3) transgenerational effects on biota, and (4) its potential impact on the system of radiological protection. Based on the discussions and presentations during the breakout sessions, newer publications, and gaps on the current scientific literature were identified. For instance, there are some ongoing systematic reviews and radiation epidemiology reviews of intrauterine effects. There are newer methods of Monte Carlo simulation for fetal dosimetry, and advances in radiation genetics, epigenetics, and radiobiology studies. While the current impact of hereditary effects on the global detriment was reported as small, the questions surrounding the effects of radiation exposure on offspring and the next generation are crucial, recurring, and with a major focus on exposed populations. Here, this article summarizes the workshop discussions, presentations, and conclusions of each topic and introduces the special issue of the International Journal of Radiation Biology resulting from the discussions of the meeting.

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗
DOE OSTI2015

Dynamics and structure of self-generated magnetics fields on solids following high contrast, high intensity laser irradiation

The dynamics of self-generated magnetic B-fields produced following the interaction of a high contrast, high intensity (I > 10{sup 19 }W cm{sup −2}) laser beam with thin (3 μm thick) solid (Al or Au) targets is investigated experimentally and numerically. Two main sources drive the growth of B-fields on the target surfaces. B-fields are first driven by laser-generated hot electron currents that relax over ∼10–20 ps. Over longer timescales, the hydrodynamic expansion of the bulk of the target into vacuum also generates B-field induced by non-collinear gradients of density and temperature. The laser irradiation of the target front side strongly localizes the energy deposition at the target front, in contrast to the target rear side, which is heated by fast electrons over a much larger area. This induces an asymmetry in the hydrodynamic expansion between the front and rear target surfaces, and consequently the associated B-fields are found strongly asymmetric. The sole long-lasting (>30 ps) B-fields are the ones growing on the target front surface, where they remain of extremely high strength (∼8–10 MG). These B-fields have been recently put by us in practical use for focusing laser-accelerated protons [B. Albertazzi et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 86, 043502 (2015)]; here we analyze in detail their dynamics and structure.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1981

A simple mechanism for blocking

Numerical experiments show that blocking in a barotropic atmosphere can occur as a resonant enhancement of Rossby lee waves forced by two stationary sources of potential vorticity. In particular, if an upstream source of stationary forcing enhances the northerly flow over orography, then blocking occurs downstream of the mountain. In an analytical study, we show that, in the presence of friction, Rossby lee waves generate a rectified current downstream of the mountain, which does not vanish in the limit of zero friction. The relevance of this study to observed generation of blocking in the Atlantic Ocean and immediately upstream of the Rockies is discussed.

Kalnay-Rivas, E.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Power-Conserving Stepping-Motor Drive Circuits

Two improved drive circuits for sinusoidally commutated stepping motor include feedback loops reducing unnecessary consumption of power by reducing drive-current amplitude, I, when motor operates under light load. Basic design strategy attempts to supply only little more current than minimum needed to overcome friction in lightly loaded condition. In this sinusoidally commutated two-phase stepping motor, magnetic field generated by drive currents in phase-A and phase-B stator windings urges rotor toward commanded angle x.

Nola, Frank J.↗
NASA NTRS2017

High Current Lanthanum Hexaboride Hollow Cathode for 20-200 kW Hall Thrusters

The demand for higher power Hall and ion thrusters continues for providing high thrust and long life for deep space mission. The X3 nested Hall thruster is capable of power levels in the 20 to 200-kW range, and is being developed by the University of Michigan and Aerojet for future cargo and manned-missions. The cathode for this thruster is required to produce discharge currents of 50 to 350 A with lifetimes in excess of 10 khrs. A high-current lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) hollow cathode was previously developed at JPL for these applications, and was successfully operated at over 250 A of discharge current. An updated version of this cathode has been designed, built and tested at JPL, and then used to run the X3 nested Hall thruster at currents of up to 250 A. The new version is designed to reduced orifice plate overheating at high currents, and is capable of injecting auxiliary gas directly into the near-cathode plume from two locations to minimize energetic ion generation at high current. The cathode is predicted to be capable of producing over 350 A of discharge current, and has been tested to date at JPL at steady-state discharge currents from 25 A to 300 A.

Goebel, Dan M.↗
DOE OSTI2016

High Brightness OLED Lighting

In this work we describe the technology developments behind our current and future generations of high brightness OLED lighting panels. We have developed white and amber OLEDs with excellent performance based on the stacking approach. Current products achieve 40-60 lm/W, while future developments focus on achieving 80 lm/W or higher.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2017

System Modeling and Simulation of In-Stream Hydrokinetic Turbines for Power Management and Control

Electricity generation from moving currents without using dams (i.e., in-stream hydrokinetic electricity) has the potential to introduce multiple GW of renewable power to U.S. grids. Here this study evaluates a control system designed to regulate the generator rotor rate (rpm) to improve power production from in-stream hydrokinetic turbines. The control algorithm is evaluated using numerical models of both a rigidly mounted tidal turbine (TT) and a moored ocean current turbine (OCT) coupled to an induction electric machine model. The moored simulation utilizes an innovative approach for coupling a multiple degrees-of-freedom (DOF) nonlinear hydrodynamic/mechanical turbine model with a nonlinear electromechanical generator model. Based on the turbine torque-speed characteristic, as well as the asynchronous machine features, a proportional–integral (PI) controller is used to generate a correction term for the frequency of the three-phase sinusoidal voltages that are supplied to the asynchronous generator. The speed control of the induction generator through the supply frequency is accomplished by a simplified voltage source inverter (VSI). The simplified VSI consists of control voltage sources (CVSs), while the comparison with a real VSI using diodes and transistors, which are controlled by pulse width modulation (PWM) technique, is also presented. Simulations are used to evaluate the developed algorithms showing that rpm fluctuations are around 0.02 for a tidal turbine operating in a wave field with a 6 m significant wave height and around 0.005 for a moored ocean current turbine operating in a wave field with a 2 m significant wave height.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2014

Novel Multiple-Gigahertz Electron Beams for Advanced X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Light Sources

Current and future generations of advanced light sources largely depend on high brightness electron beams. LLNL has spent the past decade developing Mono-Energetic Gamma-ray (MEGa-ray) sources by scattering laser light off an electron beam for nuclear physics applications. At the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is generating extraordinarily high peak brightness x-ray beams useful for biological, chemical, and physics studies by passing a 13.6 GeV electron beam through a series of magnetic undulators to form a Free-Electron Laser (FEL). Los Alamos is in the process developing the “MaRIE” (Matter-Radiation Interactions in Extremes) concept, which will also rely on FELs. All these light sources would benefit from improved average brightness by increasing the repetition rate of the electron beam source. Since the undulators are based on permanent magnets, they will generate x-rays from as many electron bunches as can be delivered. Similarly, for MEGa-ray sources very little laser light is scattered from each individual electron bunch. If there are additional electron bunches to see the laser, they will also scatter photons, generating more gamma-rays. Modeling has shown that using trains of hundreds of electron bunches allows high gamma-ray fluxes to be generated using ns-long scattering laser pulses. This means that chirped pulse amplification would not be needed for the interaction laser, considerably simplifying the architecture. This would also allow for lower laser bandwidth at the interaction point, along with a larger focal spot size, eliminating the laser contribution to the scattered gamma-ray bandwidth. Additionally, lower charge per bunch allows more flexibility in the transport, simplifying efforts to mitigate noise-inducing dark current. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to develop and demonstrate the required technology to generate multi-GHz rep-rate electron beams at pC-scale bunch charges to allow 100x increases in the average beam current. To achieve this, the project consisted of two major efforts: 1. Demonstration of a photocathode drive laser capable of generating the electron beam. 2. Commissioning of an x-band accelerator to enable studies of inter-bunch electromagnetic field interactions. Excellent results were achieved in both areas.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS2008

Medical Grade Water Generation for Intravenous Fluid Production on Exploration Missions

This document describes the intravenous (IV) fluids requirements for medical care during NASA s future Exploration class missions. It further discusses potential methods for generating such fluids and the challenges associated with different fluid generation technologies. The current Exploration baseline mission profiles are introduced, potential medical conditions described and evaluated for fluidic needs, and operational issues assessed. Conclusions on the fluid volume requirements are presented, and the feasibility of various fluid generation options are discussed. A separate report will document a more complete trade study on the options to provide the required fluids.At the time this document was developed, NASA had not yet determined requirements for medical care during Exploration missions. As a result, this study was based on the current requirements for care onboard the International Space Station (ISS). While we expect that medical requirements will be different for Exploration missions, this document will provide a useful baseline for not only developing hardware to generate medical water for injection (WFI), but as a foundation for meeting future requirements. As a final note, we expect WFI requirements for Exploration will be higher than for ISS care, and system capacity may well need to be higher than currently specified.

Niederhaus, Charles E.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Plasma Radiation Source on the Basis of the Gas Puff with Outer Plasma Shell in the Circuit of a Mega-Ampere Load Current Doubler

Characteristics of Z-pinch plasma radiation in the form of a double shell neon gas puff with outer plasma shell are investigated in the microsecond implosion mode. Experiments are performed using a GIT-12 mega-joule generator with load current doubler having a ferromagnetic core at implosion currents up to 5 MA. Conditions for matching of the nonlinear load with the mega-ampere current multiplier circuit are determined. The load parameters (plasma shell characteristics and mass and geometry of gas puff shells) are optimized on the energy supplied to the gas puff and n energy characteristics of radiation. It is established that the best modes of K-shell radiation in neon are realized for such radial distribution of the gas-puff material at which the compression velocity of the shell is close to a constant and amounts to 27–30 cm/μs. In these modes, up to 40% of energy supplied to the gas puff is converted into K-shell radiation. The reasons limiting the efficiency of the radiation source with increasing implosion current are analyzed. A modernized version of the energy supply from the current doubler to the Z-pinch is proposed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Versatile D-T Neutron-Generation System for Fast-Neutron Research and Education

In order to stimulate new cutting-edge research and create novel educational tools at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU), the PIs of the project acquired a versatile 14-MeV D-T neutron-generation system. Relatively recent advancements at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have led to the development of high-neutron-output D-T neutron generators. The resulting technology was subsequently licensed to Adelphi Technology, Inc. and 14-MeV D-T neutron-generation systems are currently available with neutron yields up to 10 10 n/sec. Such neutron output has been available previously; however, the existing D-T generators were traditionally million-dollar systems (an example is D711 from Thermo Scientific), thus beyond reach for many users. The Adelphi neutron generators, on the other hand, now provide access to high neutron outputs for a reasonable price. More importantly, the expected lifetime of the D-T system’s tubes is at least 2,000 hours; a factor of two better when compared to D711, with comparable generator-tube replacement cost. Adelphi Technology, the manufacturer of the dual D-T neutron generation system, delivered one 10 8 neutrons/second and one 10 10 neutrons/second D-T generator with two separate control units to PSU.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS1994

The effect of parallel currents on auroral micropulsations

Field aligned currents play an important role in the global coupling between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere and in their relationship to the auroral phenomena. Moreover, there exists evidence that resonant oscillations are related to large-scale Birkeland currents. The spatial confinement of the field-aligned currents forms an inhomogeneous system susceptible to low-frequency oscillations, which can be excited due to periodic variations in the solar wind pressure or to the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability. In this paper we present a study of ultralow-frequency (ULF) oscillations in an inhomogeneous magnetic field formed by a large-scale current. We investigate the effects of the field-aligned currents on the generation of localized Alfven waves. The field oscillations are described by an eigenvalue wave equation which includes the effects of the field aligned currents and which produces a discrete spectrum of Alfven waves. These waves are observed mainly in three regions of the magnetosphere: in the magnetosheath, in the polar cusp, and in the plasmasphere. In the present study we limit our investigation to the auroral region.

Tavares, M.↗
DOE OSTI2016

Towards High Performance Oxide-Dispersion-Strengthened Alloys

The current first-generation candidate swelling-resistant alloys envisioned to replace austenitics are ferritic and ferritic-martensitic steels, with second-generation alloys being yttria dispersion-hardened variants of these steels. In ferritic-martensitic alloys, ferrite grains always swell earlier than martensite. Currently, most oxide dispersion-strengthened (ODS) alloys have only a ferrite matrix, thus giving up the first line of defense against swelling provided by tempered martensite. Towards development of better swelling-resistant ODS alloys, dual phase (ferrite + martensite) ODS alloys with oxide particles uniformly distributed in both ferrite and martensite phases is needed. Furthermore, fundamental understanding on mechanisms governing dispersoid stability and its correlation with void swelling is greatly needed. We reported here further alloy improvement by exploring new 9Cr ODS alloy with majority of oxide dispersoids uniformly distributed in tempered martensite grains. The alloy was irradiated by 3.5 MeV Fe self ions up to 600 dpa (displacements per atom) and at temperatures ranging from 325 to 625 deg. C. According to SRIM code, the dpa profile peaks at about 1000 nm. First of all, ion irradiation reduces the dispersoid sizes. The dispersoid sizes begin to increase beyond ∼1000 nm. Second, higher irradiation temperatures result in larger dispersoids on average. Third, there is no significant dispersoid size difference between 100 and 200 dpa irradiation. The equilibrium sizes are quickly saturated. Size and coherency of a dispersoid is closely related. In martensite grains, fine dispersoids tend to be coherent while coarse dispersoids tend to incoherent. We found that at a low irradiation temperature, coherent small dispersoids become smaller and their interface coherency remains. In a comparison, incoherent large dispersoids disappear after irradiation. At an intermediate irradiation temperature, the final equilibrium dispersoid sizes increase. At a high irradiation temperature, the final dispersoid sizes further increase and some large semi-coherent dispersoids survive. In ferrite grains, as-received dispersoids are relatively smaller in comparison with martensite grains. Their equilibrium size changes after irradiation follow a similar trend but large dispersoids completely disappear even under high temperature ion irradiation. We propose a model to explain the above dispersoid size changes under various irradiation conditions. The model considers the competing effects between ballistic-collision- assisted dispersoid dissolution into matrix and thermally driven back-diffusion for recovery. When the competing reaches a balance, an equilibrium size distribution curve is determined. For dispersoids smaller than the equilibrium size, they grow upon ion irradiation. Large dispersoids may shrink and reach the equilibrium size but ultra-large ones will completely disappear if they shrinkage paths are far away from the curve. The model further considers the complexity from the dpa rates, and damage cascade morphology.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

pyflowline: a mesh-independent river network generator for hydrologic models

River networks are crucial in hydrologic and Earth system models. Accurately representing river networks in spatially distributed hydrologic models requires considering the model's spatial discretization and computational mesh. However, current methods of generating river networks for hydrologic models do not typically support unstructured meshes. Unstructured meshes offer numerous advantages over traditional, structured meshes. To overcome this limitation, we developed PyFlowline, a Python package that generates mesh-independent river networks. With PyFlowline, hydrologic modelers can generate conceptual river networks and their topological relationships for both structured and unstructured meshes.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2016

Enhancement of output power in spin torque nano-oscillator using heterogeneous layer

The article mainly focuses on the enrichment of the output power obtained from Spin torque nano-oscillator by introducing the heterogeneous structure in multilayer nanopillar device. Here we devised two homogeneous and two heterogeneous devices having NiFe and Co materials. The dynamics of the devices are governed by a famous Landu- Lifshitz -Gilbert-Solencskwei (LLGS) equation which can be solved numerically using embedded RK-4 procedure. The current density and the external magnetic field for four devices are taken as 5×l0{sup 11}A/m{sup 2} and 6×l0{sup −3} A/m respectively. The applied dc current is converted into spin polarized dc current while it passes through pinned layer. The generated spin polarized dc currents produces spin transfer torque with the free layer magnetization via spacer. Thus the magnetization of the free layer gets a sustained oscillation. The results obtained from the heterogeneous STNOs are really fascinating. The frequency of the NiFe/ Cu/NiFe and Co/Cu/NiFe devices have the same frequency but there is a tremendous change in the output power which is exactly twice that the NiFe/Cu/NiFe device. The similar behaviour is also obtained from Co/Cu/Co and NiFe/Cu/Co devices. The line width and the Q-factor of the output microwave signal are also computed. Among the four devices, the NiFe/Cu/Co heterogeneous device has low linewidth (408 MHz) and high Q-factor (4.77).

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Overview of the recent experimental research on the J-TEXT tokamak

The J-TEXT capability is enhanced compared to two years ago with several upgrades of its diagnostics and the increase of electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) power to 1 MW. With the application of electron cyclotron wave (ECW), the ECW assisted plasma startup is achieved; the tearing mode is suppressed; the toroidal injection of 300 kW ECW drives around 24 kA current; fast electrons are generated with toroidal injected ECW and the runaway current conversion efficiency increases with ECRH power. The mode coupling between 2/1 and 3/1 modes are extensively studied. The coupled 2/1 and 3/1 modes usually lead to major disruption. Their coupling can be either suppressed or avoided by external resonant magnetic perturbation fields and hence avoids the major disruption. It is also found that the 2/1 threshold of external field is significantly reduced by a pre-excited 3/1 mode, which can be either a locked island or an external kink mode. The disruption control is studied by developing prediction methods capable of cross tokamak application and by new mitigation methods, such as the biased electrode or electromagnetic pellet injector. The high-density operation and related disruptions are studied from various aspects. Approaching the density limit, the collapse of the edge shear layer is observed and such collapse can be prevented by applying edge biasing, leading to an increased density limit. The density limit is also observed to increase, if the plasma is operated in the poloidal divertor configuration or the plasma purity is increased by increasing the pre-filled gas pressure or ECRH power during the start-up phase.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗