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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 1,693 records · Page 94
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Thermo-Hydro-Chemical Simulation of Mid-Ocean Ridge Hydrothermal Systems: Static 2D Models and Effects of Paleo-Seawater Chemistry

Decades of research have resulted in characterization of the ocean floor manifestations of mid-ocean ridge (MOR) hydrothermal systems, yet numerical models accounting for the connections between heat transfer, hydrology and geochemistry have been slow to develop. The Thermo-hydro-chemical code ToughReact can be used to describe the coupled effects of fluid flow, heat transfer, and fluid-rock chemical interactions that occur in MOR systems. We describe the results of 2-dimensional simulations of steady state flow in fractured diabase with mineral-fluid chemical reactions. Basal heating and specified permeability yield maximum temperature of 400°C. Total fluid flux and high fracture flow velocities are in accord with observations. Fluid chemistry, mineralogical changes and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios can be compared to observations to assess and calibrate models. Simulated high temperature fracture fluids have Mg and SO 4 near zero, elevated Ca and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr of about 0.7040. Total alteration is 10%–50% for simple models of spreading. Anhydrite forms mainly near the base of the upwelling zone and results in substantial local fracture porosity reduction. A calibrated model is used to predict how Sr isotopes and other features of altered oceanic crust would be different in the Cretaceous (95 Ma) early Proterozoic (1,800 Ma) and Archean (3,800 Ma), when seawater may have had high Ca and Sr concentrations, lower pH, higher temperature, and lower Na, Mg, and SO 4 . The simulations are offered as a start on what ultimately may require a longer-term community effort to better understand the role of MOR thermo-hydro-chemical systems in Earth evolution.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Symmetry of magnetic correlations in spin-triplet superconductor UTe2

Abstract The temperature dependence of the low-energy magnetic excitations in the spin-triplet superconductor UTe 2 was measured via inelastic neutron scattering in the normal and superconducting states. These excitations have a peak instensity at 4 meV, follow the Brillouin zone edges near the crystallographic b-axis, obey the paramagnetic structural symmetry, and track the temperature evolution of the heavy fermion bulk magnetic susceptibility. Thus, the imaginary part of the dynamic susceptibility follows the behavior of interband correlations in a hybridized Kondo lattice with an appropriate characteristic energy. These excitations are a lower-dimensional analog of phenomena observed in other Kondo lattice materials, such that their presence is not necessarily due to dominance of ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic correlations. The onset of superconductivity alters the magnetic excitations noticeably on the same energy scales, suggesting that these changes originate from additional electronic structure modification.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2011

Two-dimensional plasma grating by non-collinear femtosecond filament interaction in air

We experimentally demonstrated that two-dimensional (2D) plasma gratings could be generated in air by nonlinear interaction of three femtosecond filaments. The intensity interference of non-collinearly overlapped filaments was self-projected along a relatively long distance and accompanied with a wavelength-scale periodic change of the refractive index in the encircling air due to periodic plasma density modulation. The 2D plasma gratings supported 2D diffraction of the generated third-harmonic pulses. By using in-line time-resolved holographic imaging and time-delayed diffraction, the 2D plasma gratings were evidenced to last a few tens picoseconds after the excitation pulses.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Numerical simulations used for a validity check on the laser induced photo-detachment diagnostic method in electronegative plasmas

Laser photo-detachment is used as a method to measure or determine the negative ion density and temperature in electronegative plasmas. In essence, the method consists of producing an electropositive channel (negative ion free region) via pulsed laser photo-detachment within an electronegative plasma bulk. Electrostatic probes placed in this channel measure the change in the electron density. A second pulse might be used to track the negative ion recovery. From this, the negative ion density and temperature can be determined. We study the formation and relaxation of the electropositive channel via a two-dimensional Particle-In-Cell/Mote Carlo collision model. The simulation is mainly carried out in a Hydrogen plasma with an electronegativity of α = 1, with a parametric study for α up to 20. The temporal and spatial evolution of the plasma potential and the electron densities shows the formation of a double layer (DL) confining the photo-detached electrons within the electropositive channel. This DL evolves into two fronts that move in the opposite directions inside and outside of the laser spot region. As a consequence, within the laser spot region, the background and photo-detached electron energy distribution function relaxes/thermalizes via collisionless effects such as Fermi acceleration and Landau damping. Moreover, the simulations show that collisional effects and the DL electric field strength might play a non-negligible role in the negative ion recovery within the laser spot region, leading to a two-temperature negative ion distribution. The latter result might have important effects in the determination of the negative ion density and temperature from laser photo detachment diagnostic.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

In-situ probing of coupled atomic restructuring and metallicity of oxide heterointerfaces induced by polar adsorbates

Microscopic understanding of the surface-controlled conductivity of the two dimensional electron gas at complex oxide interfaces is crucial for developing functional interfaces. We observe conductivity and structural modification using in-situ synchrotron surface x-ray diffraction as the surface of a model LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 (001) heterostructure is changed by polar adsorbates. We find that polar adsorbate-induced interfacial metallicity reduces polar distortions in the LaAlO 3 layer. First-principles density functional theory calculations show that surface dipoles introduced by polar adsorbates lead to additional charge transfer and the reduction of polar displacements in the LaAlO 3 layer, consistent with the experimental observations. Our study supports that internal structural deformations controlling functionalities can be driven without the application of direct electrical or thermal bias and offers a route to tuning interfacial properties. Furthermore, these results also highlight the important role of in-situ x-ray scattering with atomic resolution in capturing and exploring structural distortions and charge density changes caused by external perturbations such as chemical adsorption, redox reaction, and generation and/or annihilation of surface defects.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF THE MAGNETIC RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY IN THE KIPPENHAHN-SCHLUeTER PROMINENCE MODEL. II. RECONNECTION-TRIGGERED DOWNFLOWS

The launch of the Hinode satellite has allowed high-resolution observations of supersonic bright downflows in quiescent prominences, known as prominence knots. We present observations in the Ca II H spectral line using the Solar Optical Telescope on board the Hinode satellite of a descending plasma knot of size {approx}900 km. The knot initially undergoes ballistic motion before undergoing impulsive accelerations at the same time as experiencing increases in intensity. We also present a subset of our three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations, performed to investigate the nonlinear stability of the Kippenhahn-Shlueter prominence model to the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability in which interchange reconnection occurs. The interchange reconnection in the model breaks the force balance along the field lines which initiates the downflows. The downflows propagate with a downward fluid velocity of {approx}15 km s{sup -1} and a characteristic size of {approx}700 km. We conclude that the observed plasma blob and the simulated downflow are driven by the breaking of the force balance along the magnetic field as a result of a change in magnetic topology caused by reconnection of the magnetic field.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

A SEMI-ANALYTICAL DESCRIPTION FOR THE FORMATION AND GRAVITATIONAL EVOLUTION OF PROTOPLANETARY DISKS

We investigate the formation process of self-gravitating protoplanetary disks in unmagnetized molecular clouds. The angular momentum is redistributed by the action of gravitational torques in the massive disk during its early formation. We develop a simplified one-dimensional accretion disk model that takes into account the infall of gas from the envelope onto the disk and the transfer of angular momentum in the disk with an effective viscosity. First we evaluate the gas accretion rate from the cloud core onto the disk by approximately estimating the effects of gas pressure and gravity acting on the cloud core. We formulate the effective viscosity as a function of the Toomre Q parameter that measures the local gravitational stability of the rotating thin disk. We use a function for viscosity that changes sensitively with Q when the disk is gravitationally unstable. We find a strong self-regulation mechanism in the disk evolution. During the formation stage of protoplanetary disks, the evolution of the surface density does not depend on the other details of the modeling of effective viscosity, such as the prefactor of the viscosity coefficient. Next, to verify our model, we compare the time evolution of the disk calculated with our formulation with that of three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations. The structures of the resultant disks from the one-dimensional accretion disk model agree well with those of the three-dimensional simulations. Our model is a useful tool for the further modeling of chemistry, radiative transfer, and planet formation in protoplanetary disks.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

The Lyman β forest as a cosmic thermometer

We present a comprehensive analysis of high resolution hydrodynamic simulations in terms of Lyman α and Lyman β one dimensional flux power spectra P{sub αα} and P{sub ββ}). In particular, we focus on the behaviour that the flux auto-power spectra and cross-power spectra P{sub αβ}) display when the intergalactic medium (IGM) thermal history is changed in a range of values that bracket a reference model, while cosmological parameters are kept fixed to best fit the cosmic microwave background data. We present empirical fits that describe at the sub-percent level the dependence of the power spectra on the thermal parameters. At the largest scales, the power spectra show a constant bias between each other that is set by the parameters describing the IGM thermal state. The cross-power spectrum has an oscillatory pattern and crosses zero at a scale which depends on T{sub 0}, the IGM temperature at the mean density, for reasonable values of the power-law index γ of the IGM temperature-density relation T=T{sub 0}(1+δ){sup γ-1}). By performing a Fisher matrix analysis, we find that the power spectrum P{sub ββ} is more sensitive to the thermal history than P{sub αα} alone, due to the fact that it probes denser regions than Lyman α. When we combine the power and cross spectra the constraints on γ can be improved by a factor ∼ 4, while the constraints on T{sub 0} improve by a factor of ∼ 2. We address the role of signal-to-noise and resolution by mocking realistic observations and we conclude that the framework presented in this work can significantly improve the knowledge of the IGM thermal state, which will in turn guarantee better constraints on IGM-derived cosmological parameters.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Response of a quantum disordered spin system to a local periodic drive

We consider a one-dimensional spin chain system with quenched disorder and in the presence of a local periodic drive. We study the time evolution of the system in the Floquet basis and evaluate the fidelity susceptibility, which is a measure of how a given state changes under a small perturbation, of states to a weak periodic drive. In this work, we demonstrate that the statistical properties of the fidelity susceptibility over different disorder realizations can be used to identify two phases of the system: (1) the many-body localized phase, in which the susceptibility exhibits long tails while its average value decreases rapidly as disorder increases, and (2) the ergodic phase, in which the susceptibility distribution is narrow and its average value weakly depends on disorder. This distinction in the average value of the susceptibility between the two phases develops readily for systems with ten or more spins. Therefore, recently built networks of qubits subject to a local drive can simulate dynamics of a system in the many-body localization regime. We also show that the spin accumulation speed is correlated with the fidelity susceptibility and can also be used to distinguish the two phases.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Refining the detection of the zero crossing for the three-gluon vertex in symmetric and asymmetric momentum subtraction schemes

This article reports on the detailed study of the three-gluon vertex in four-dimensional $SU(3)$ Yang-Mills theory employing lattice simulations with large physical volumes and high statistics. A meticulous scrutiny of the so-called symmetric and asymmetric kinematical configurations is performed and it is shown that the associated form-factor changes sign at a given range of momenta. Here, the lattice results are compared to the model independent predictions of Schwinger-Dyson equations and a very good agreement among the two is found.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Spontaneous Valley Polarization of Itinerant Electrons

Memory or transistor devices based on an electron’s spin rather than its charge degree of freedom offer certain distinct advantages and comprise a cornerstone of spintronics. Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a new field, valleytronics, which seeks to exploit an electron’s valley index rather than its spin. An important component in this quest would be the ability to control the valley index in a convenient fashion. Here we show that the valley polarization can be switched from zero to 1 by a small reduction in density, simply tuned by a gate bias, in a two-dimensional electron system. This phenomenon, which is akin to Bloch spin ferromagnetism, arises fundamentally as a result of electron-electron interaction in an itinerant, dilute electron system. Essentially, the kinetic energy favors an equal distribution of electrons over the available valleys, whereas the interaction between electrons prefers single-valley occupancy below a critical density. The gate-bias-tuned transition we observe is accompanied by a sudden, twofold change in sample resistance, making the phenomenon of interest for potential valleytronic transistor device applications. Finally, our observation constitutes a quintessential demonstration of valleytronics in a very simple experiment.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Numerical Modeling of Atmospheric Rime Ice Accretion on an Airfoil Using an Eulerian Approach

This paper presents an approach to numerically simulate the inherently unsteady rime ice accretion problem on a two-dimensional airfoil and elucidate the associated variations under different icing conditions. The airflow field and the water impingement on the airfoil are obtained based on an Eulerian two-phase model. A dynamic mesh strategy is employed to unsteadily account for the changes in the ice profile and its impact on the air and droplet flow by continuously reconstructing the computational grid at each time-step through smoothing and layering mechanisms. All main icing modules including the airflow field, droplet trajectory, icing thickness profile, and mesh management are fully coupled within the same computational framework without resorting to any external tools. Classical icing theory is employed to model the rime ice roughness, and it is assumed that the ice accretes in a direction normal to the airfoil surface. The governing Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) conservation equations along with the energy and continuity equations are solved to produce the velocity and temperature fields. A convective film heat transfer coefficient is computed based on the surface heat flux and a recovery temperature which takes into account the dissipative heat release in the boundary layer in the vicinity of the airfoil surface. With the implemented strategy and calculating the convective heat transfer coefficient, the water film thickness is also calculated along with the ice shape. Furthermore, the model is validated by comparing the local collection efficiency distribution and ice shape with experimental data, and the results show that the implemented approach provides acceptable predictions of ice accretion profiles and rates.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Multiscale X-ray phase contrast imaging of human cartilage for investigating osteoarthritis formation

The evolution of cartilage degeneration is still not fully understood, partly due to its thinness, low radio-opacity and therefore lack of adequately resolving imaging techniques. X-ray phase-contrast imaging (X-PCI) offers increased sensitivity with respect to standard radiography and CT allowing an enhanced visibility of adjoining, low density structures with an almost histological image resolution. This study examined the feasibility of X-PCI for high-resolution (sub-) micrometer analysis of different stages in tissue degeneration of human cartilage samples and compare it to histology and transmission electron microscopy. Ten 10%-formalin preserved healthy and moderately degenerated osteochondral samples, post-mortem extracted from human knee joints, were examined using four different X-PCI tomographic set-ups using synchrotron radiation the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (France) and the Swiss Light Source (Switzerland). Volumetric datasets were acquired with voxel sizes between 0.7 × 0.7 × 0.7 and 0.1 × 0.1 × 0.1 µm 3 . Data were reconstructed by a filtered back-projection algorithm, post-processed by ImageJ, the WEKA machine learning pixel classification tool and VGStudio max. For correlation, osteochondral samples were processed for histology and transmission electron microscopy. X-PCI provides a three-dimensional visualization of healthy and moderately degenerated cartilage samples down to a (sub-)cellular level with good correlation to histologic and transmission electron microscopy images. X-PCI is able to resolve the three layers and the architectural organization of cartilage including changes in chondrocyte cell morphology, chondrocyte subgroup distribution and (re-)organization as well as its subtle matrix structures. X-PCI captures comprehensive cartilage tissue transformation in its environment and might serve as a tissue-preserving, staining-free and volumetric virtual histology tool for examining and chronicling cartilage behavior in basic research/laboratory experiments of cartilage disease evolution.

3D analysis↗
DOE OSTI2016

SPECTRAL LINE DE-CONFUSION IN AN INTENSITY MAPPING SURVEY

Spectral line intensity mapping (LIM) has been proposed as a promising tool to efficiently probe the cosmic reionization and the large-scale structure. Without detecting individual sources, LIM makes use of all available photons and measures the integrated light in the source confusion limit to efficiently map the three-dimensional matter distribution on large scales as traced by a given emission line. One particular challenge is the separation of desired signals from astrophysical continuum foregrounds and line interlopers. Here we present a technique to extract large-scale structure information traced by emission lines from different redshifts, embedded in a three-dimensional intensity mapping data cube. The line redshifts are distinguished by the anisotropic shape of the power spectra when projected onto a common coordinate frame. We consider the case where high-redshift [C ii] lines are confused with multiple low-redshift CO rotational lines. We present a semi-analytic model for [C ii] and CO line estimates based on the cosmic infrared background measurements, and show that with a modest instrumental noise level and survey geometry, the large-scale [C ii] and CO power spectrum amplitudes can be successfully extracted from a confusion-limited data set, without external information. We discuss the implications and limits of this technique for possible LIM experiments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

LDRD Abbreviated report: High-Order General-Discrete-Ordinates Method Enabling Efficient Deterministic Transport in Hydrodynamic Simulations

Deterministic transport simulations for national-security and energy applications often operate in high-dimensional phase-space, where accuracy and cost both become major challenges. A common numerical artifact in such problems is the “ray-effect,” which appears as unphysical streaks. Beyond misinterpretation, these artifacts can contaminate tightly coupled physics, such as fluid dynamics, radiation-hydrodynamics, and laser-plasma interactions, eroding the predictive capability of entire multiphysics workflows. Our objective was to make high-dimension studies practical on modern hardware while mitigating the ray-effect without relying on prohibitively expensive sampling approaches such as Monte Carlo methods. We developed the Generic Discretization Library (GenDiL), a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-first framework that uses high-order Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods and matrix-free algorithms to reduce memory usage and improve computational efficiency, critical for phase-space simulations. GenDiL supports phase-space adaptivity in both mesh size and polynomial order (hp-adaptivity) to place resolution only where it is needed. A central capability is Local Dimensional Refinement (LDR), which couples lower-dimension continuum models to higher-dimension kinetic models through stable and conservative interfaces, so that high-fidelity physics is applied only in regions where it is essential. Building on the GenDiL framework, we developed the General SN (GSN) family of algorithms as a true generalization of the polar SN approach (discrete ordinates, often denoted SN). Rather than tying discrete ordinates to a specific polar change of coordinates, GSN formulates transport on an arbitrary change of coordinates chosen to reduce ray-effect. We studied two complementary variants: an analytic variant, where the coordinate map is prescribed in advance by a closed-form function; and a data-driven variant, where a quantity of interest, such as the net flux, guides the coordinate system. GenDiL provides the library infrastructure for efficient GPU execution, but the GSN concept is algorithmic and independent of any one library. Across representative high-dimension tests, including non-symmetric solutions, both variants delivered strong ray-effect mitigation at practical cost, moving four- to six-dimensional analysis toward repeatable, routine studies.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Strongly-coupled quantum critical point in an all-in-all-out antiferromagnet

Dimensionality and symmetry play deterministic roles in the laws of Nature. They are important tools to characterize and understand quantum phase transitions, especially in the limit of strong correlations between spin, orbit, charge, and structural degrees of freedom. Using newly-developed, high-pressure resonant x-ray magnetic and charge diffraction techniques, we have discovered a quantum critical point in Cd 2 Os 2 O 7 as the all-in-all-out antiferromagnetic order is continuously suppressed to zero temperature and, concomitantly, the cubic lattice structure continuously changes from space group Fd-3m to F-43m. Surrounded by three phases of different time reversal and spatial inversion symmetries, the quantum critical region anchors two phase lines of opposite curvature, with striking departures from a mean-field form at high pressure. As spin fluctuations, lattice breathing modes, and quasiparticle excitations interact in the quantum critical region, we argue that they present the necessary components for strongly-coupled quantum criticality in this three-dimensional compound.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Enhancement of piezoelectric constants induced by cation-substitution and two-dimensional strain effects on ZnO predicted by density functional perturbation theory

Using density functional perturbation theory, we investigated the effect of various substitutional dopant elements and in-plane strain on the piezoelectric properties of ZnO. The piezoelectric stress constant e{sub 33} of doped ZnO was found to depend on the formal charge of the substitutional dopant. By decomposing the piezoelectric stress constant e{sub 33} into the individual atomic contributions, the change in the piezoelectric properties was found to originate from a change in the coupling between the atomic displacement and the strain. Furthermore, we found that in-plane tensile strain along the a axis, which is specific to the thin film, can enhance the piezoelectric constant of ZnO. A phase transition from wurtzite to h-BN-type structure was found to occur with increasing in-plane tensile. The piezoelectric strain constant d{sub 33} was predicted to reach ∼200 pC/N for 2.78 at. % V-substituted ZnO at 5.5% in-plane strain, just before the phase transition. These theoretical results suggest that the piezoelectric constant of ZnO can be enhanced by controlling the in-plane strain via selection of the substrate material and dopant element.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗