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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 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Phenotypic effects of changes in the FTVTxK region of an Arabidopsis secondary wall cellulose synthase compared with results from analogous mutations in other isoforms

Abstract Understanding protein structure and function relationships in cellulose synthase (CesA), including divergent isomers, is an important goal. Here, we report results from mutant complementation assays that tested the ability of sequence variants of AtCesA7, a secondary wall CesA of Arabidopsis thaliana , to rescue the collapsed vessels, short stems, and low cellulose content of the irx3‐1 AtCesA7 null mutant. We tested a catalytic null mutation and seven missense or small domain changes in and near the AtCesA7 FTVTSK motif, which lies near the catalytic domain and may, analogously to bacterial CesA, exist within a substrate “gating loop.” A low‐to‐high gradient of rescue occurred, and even inactive AtCesA7 had a small positive effect on stem cellulose content but not stem elongation. Overall, secondary wall cellulose content and stem length were moderately correlated, but the results were consistent with threshold amounts of cellulose supporting particular developmental processes. Vibrational sum frequency generation microscopy allowed tissue‐specific analysis of cellulose content in stem xylem and interfascicular fibers, revealing subtle differences between selected genotypes that correlated with the extent of rescue of the collapsing xylem phenotype. Similar tests on PpCesA5 from the moss Physcomitrium (formerly Physcomitrella ) patens helped us to synergize the AtCesA7 results with prior results on AtCesA1 and PpCesA5. The cumulative results show that the FTVTxK region is important for the function of an angiosperm secondary wall CesA as well as widely divergent primary wall CesAs, while differences in complementation results between isomers may reflect functional differences that can be explored in further work.

Burris, Jason N.↗
DOE OSTI2024

A multiphase flow model of water droplets dielectrophoretic-induced air dehumidification phenomena

Air humidity in indoor spaces plays a critical role in human comfort and health. Dehumidification systems are used for building humidity controls, but they can take significant energy consumption, especially in geographic locations with high outdoor humidity and warm climates. Consequently, there is a growing demand for innovative dehumidification processes that consume minimal energy. Dielectrophoretic air dehumidification represents one such promising approach. However, it has not garnered significant attention due to the absence of engineering models and simulation tools capable of evaluating its performance and limitations at large-scale airflows. A new numerical multiphase CFD model, which is also experimentally validated, is developed in a customized Reacting Foam solver based on OpenFOAM® version 9. The newly developed model seeks to decrease substantial energy consumption and lower costs by leveraging the dielectrophoretic phenomenon to regulate moisture levels in the air. The solver integrates a hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian framework to track the droplet's trajectory and growth rate while solving the continuum equations for the moist air. An electrospray produces electrically charged droplets, which grow during their in-flight trajectories as water vapor condenses onto their surfaces. The role of electrostatic forces in promoting vapor condensation within a high-gradient electrical field is investigated, and the dielectrophoretic vapor nucleation process on charged water droplets is discussed. The CFD model was validated against results from the literature and from proof-of-concept experiments conducted by the authors, which showed a 2 % air dehumidification with a single electrospray and airflow rate of 5 cubic feet per minute. The simulation results indicated that augmenting the number of electrically charged spray droplets increased the dehumidification of the air to 25 %. The initial mean droplet diameter, the orientation of the injector and relative humidity significantly influence the assessment of dehumidification. As a result, scaling up this approach to larger airflow volumes is identified as a potential future research direction.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Adaptive Activation Functions Accelerate Convergence in Deep and Physics-informed Neural Networks

We employ adaptive activation functions for regression in deep and physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) to approximate smooth and discontinuous functions as well as solutions of linear and nonlinear partial differential equations. In particular, we solve the nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation, which has smooth solutions, the nonlinear Burgers equation, which can admit high gradient solutions, and the Helmholtz equation. We introduce a scalable hyper-parameter in the activation function, which can be optimized to achieve best performance of the network as it changes dynamically the topology of the loss function involved in the optimization process. The adaptive activation function has better learning capabilities than the traditional one (fixed activation) as it improves greatly the convergence rate, especially at early training, as well as the solution accuracy. To better understand the learning process, we plot the neural network solution in the frequency domain to examine how the network captures successively different frequency bands present in the solution. We consider both forward problems, where the approximate solutions are obtained, as well as inverse problems, where parameters involved in the governing equation are identified. Our simulation results show that the proposed method is a very simple and effective approach to increase the efficiency, robustness and accuracy of the neural network approximation of nonlinear functions as well as solutions of partial differential equations, especially for forward problems. We theoretically prove that in the proposed method, gradient descent algorithms are not attracted to suboptimal critical points or local minima.

machine leaning, Bad minima, Inverse problems, Phy↗
DOE OSTI2020

Toward an effective use of laser-driven very high energy electrons for radiotherapy: Feasibility assessment of multi-field and intensity modulation irradiation schemes

Radiotherapy with very high energy electrons has been investigated for a couple of decades as an effective approach to improve dose distribution compared to conventional photon-based radiotherapy, with the recent intriguing potential of high dose-rate irradiation. Its practical application to treatment has been hindered by the lack of hospital-scale accelerators. High-gradient laser-plasma accelerators (LPA) have been proposed as a possible platform, but no experiments so far have explored the feasibility of a clinical use of this concept. We show the results of an experimental study aimed at assessing dose deposition for deep seated tumours using advanced irradiation schemes with an existing LPA source. Measurements show control of localized dose deposition and modulation, suitable to target a volume at depths in the range from 5 to 10 cm with mm resolution. The dose delivered to the target was up to 1.6 Gy, delivered with few hundreds of shots, limited by secondary components of the LPA accelerator. Measurements suggest that therapeutic doses within localized volumes can already be obtained with existing LPA technology, calling for dedicated pre-clinical studies.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Advances in physics understanding of high poloidal beta regime toward steady-state operation of CFETR

Experimental and modeling investigations of the high βp scenarios on the DIII-D and EAST tokamaks show advantages in high energy confinement, avoidance of n = 1 MHD, and core-edge integration with reduced heat flux, making this scenario an attractive option for CFETR steady-state operation. Experiments show that plasmas with high confinement and high density can be achieved with neutral beam injection on DIII-D (β p ~ 2.2, β N ~ 3.5, f BS ~ 50%, f Gw ~ 1.0, H 98y2 ~ 1.5) and pure RF power on EAST (β P ~ 2.0, β N ~ 1.6, f BS ~ 50%, f Gw ~ 0.8, H 98y2 > 1.3). By tailoring the current density profile, a q-profile with local (off-axis) negative shear is achieved that yields improved confinement and MHD stability. Transport analysis and simulation suggest that the combination of high density gradient and high Shafranov shift allows turbulence stabilization and higher confinement. Using on-axis ECH injection, tungsten accumulation is avoided on EAST, and this is reproduced in modeling. Reduced heat flux (by >40%) and maintenance of high core confinement is achieved with active feedback control of the radiated divertor, an important result for long pulse operation in tokamaks. In conclusion, the improved physics understanding and validated modeling tools are used to design a 1GW steady-state scenario for CFETR.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Laser–solid interaction studies enabled by the new capabilities of the iP2 BELLA PW beamline

The new capabilities of the short focal length, high intensity beamline, named iP2, at the BELLA Center will extend the reach of research in high energy density science, including accessing new regimes of high gradient ion acceleration and their applications. This 1 Hz system will provide an on-target peak intensity beyond 1021 W/cm2 with a temporal contrast ratio of <10−14 that will be enabled by the addition of an on-demand double plasma mirror setup. An overview of the beamline design and the main available diagnostics are presented in this paper as well as a selection of accessible research areas. As a demonstration of the iP2 beamline's capabilities, we present 3D particle-in-cell simulations of ion acceleration in the magnetic vortex acceleration regime. The simulations were performed with pure hydrogen targets and multi-species targets. Proton beams with energy up to 125 MeV and an approximately 12° full angle emission are observed as preplasma scale length and target tilt are varied. The number of accelerated protons is on the order of 109/MeV/sr for energies above 60 MeV.

Hakimi, Sahel (ORCID:000000022493564X)↗
DOE OSTI2023

A cryogenically cooled 200 kV DC photoemission electron gun for ultralow emittance photocathodes

Novel photocathode materials like ordered surfaces of single crystal metals, epitaxially grown high quantum efficiency thin films, and topologically non-trivial materials with dirac cones show great promise for generating brighter electron beams for various accelerator and ultrafast electron scattering applications. Despite several materials being identified as brighter photocathodes, none of them have been tested in electron guns to extract electron beams due to technical and logistical challenges. In this paper, we present the design and commissioning of a cryocooled 200 kV DC electron gun that is capable of testing a wide variety of novel photocathode materials over a broad range of temperatures from 298 to 35 K for bright electron beam generation. This gun is designed to enable easy transfer of the photocathode to various standard ultra-high-vacuum surface diagnostics and preparation techniques, allowing a full characterization of the dependence of beam brightness on the photocathode material and surface properties. We demonstrate the development of such a high-voltage, high-gradient gun using materials and equipment that are easily available in any standard university lab, making the development of such 200 kV electron guns more accessible.

Instruments & Instrumentation↗
DOE OSTI2025

Genomic insights into local adaptation and migration success in reintroduced Coho Salmon of the Wenatchee River basin

ABSTRACT Objective Reintroduction of salmonids into regions where they have been extirpated is a common conservation strategy that is often implemented through natural recolonization, translocation of natural populations, or hatchery-based programs. Locally adapting to specific environmental conditions is critical for long-term population viability, particularly for species like Coho Salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch, which face diverse selective pressures during their migration. This study focused on the mid-Columbia River Coho Salmon reintroduction program managed by Yakama Nation Fisheries, which has successfully reintroduced Coho Salmon into the Wenatchee and Methow River basins, Washington. Notably, these populations have adapted to the longer migration route than those in the founding stock, with selection favoring individuals with an earlier arrival time and that can navigate a 15-km, high-gradient canyon to reach optimal spawning grounds. The objectives of this study were to investigate whether specific genomic regions are under selection for traits associated with return location and timing in Coho Salmon. Methods Low-coverage whole-genome resequencing data were used to screen for genomic regions associated with the phenotypes of interest. Results A weak polygenic signal in female Coho Salmon was found to be associated with return group, with a subset of candidate adaptive regions occurring across eight chromosomes. Conclusions These findings provide insights into the genomic mechanisms underlying local adaptation in reintroduced salmon populations and inform broodstock selection strategies aimed at promoting natural production and long-term population sustainability.

Horn, Rebekah L.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Single shot cathode transverse momentum imaging in high brightness photoinjectors

In state of the art photoinjector electron sources, thermal emittance from photoemission dominates the final injector emittance. Therefore, low thermal emittance cathode developments and diagnostics are very important. Conventional thermal emittance measurements for the high gradient gun are time-consuming and thus thermal emittance is not measured as frequently as quantum efficiency during the lifetime of photocathodes, although both are important properties for the photoinjector optimizations. In this paper, a single shot measurement of photoemission transverse momentum, i.e., thermal emittance per rms laser spot size, is proposed for photocathode rf guns. By tuning the gun solenoid focusing, the electrons’ transverse momenta at the cathode are imaged to a downstream screen, which enables a single shot measurement of both the rms value and the detailed spectra of the photoelectrons’ transverse momenta. Both simulations and proof of principle experiments are reported.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Test Results of the First Two Full-Length Quadrupole Magnets for the LHC Hi Lumi Upgrade

The future high luminosity (Hi-Lumi) upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will include eight (plus two spares) 8.4 m-long cryostatted cold masses which will be components of the triplets for two LHC insertion regions. Each cold mass will consist of two 4.2 m long Nb 3 Sn high gradient quadrupole magnets, designated MQXFA, with aperture 150 mm and operating gradient 132.6 T/m, for a total of twenty magnets. Before assembling and testing the final cold masses at Fermilab, the twenty component quadrupoles will be tested first at the ver-tical superconducting magnet test facility of the Superconducting Magnet Division at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), in superfluid He at 1.9 K and to 18.0 kA, to meet LHC operational requirements. The first two full-length prototype quadrupole magnets, MQXFAP1 and MQXFAP2, have been tested at BNL. This paper reports on the quench test and training results of these magnets, and also the retest of the first prototype, rebuilt and designated as MQXFAP1b. We note the test results of these magnets will be important for validating the MQXFA design.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Magnetic Field Measurements of First Pre-series Full -Length 4.2 m Quadrupole MQXFA03 Using PCB Rotating Coils for the Hi Hi-Lumi LHC Project

The U.S. Hi-Lumi LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project (AUP) and CERN have joined efforts to develop high field quad-rupoles for the Hi-Lumi LHC upgrade. The US national laborato-ries in the AUP project will deliver 10 magnets and each cryostat has two 4.2 m high gradient quadrupoles in it. These magnets are made of Nb3Sn conductors, with large aperture (150 mm) and in-tegrated gradient of 556.9 T. This paper reports on magnetic measurements performed during the vertical test at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in 2019-2020. A warm measurement Z-Scan (+/- 15 A) with 42 Z-positions before cool-down was per-formed at BNL. The results were directly compared to field data measured at LBNL during magnet assembly. Measured harmonics and magnetic center offsets (ΔX and ΔY) have provided timely and informative diagnostics on the magnet structure’s shape at both warm and cold temperatures. A new centering fixture was de-signed and added to better center the warm bore tube which con-tains the rotating coil probe. After the quench training to 16.47 kA was achieved, a complete set of cold measurements (Z-Scan at 16.47 kA and I-Scan from 960 A to 16.47 kA and back to 960 A) was made. Periodic axial variation of allowed and nonallowed harmonics was observed which is related to the coil radial and/or mid-plane variations along the magnet axis. Overall, the average harmonics in the straight section are within the required field boundaries.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Test Results of the First Pre-Series Quadrupole Magnets for the LHC Hi-Lumi Upgrade

The future high luminosity (Hi-Lumi) upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will include eight (plus two spares) 10.2 m-long Cryo-assemblies which will be components of the triplets for two LHC insertion regions. Each cold mass in the Cryo-assemblies will consist of two 4.2 m-long Nb 3 Sn high gradient quadrupole magnets, designated MQXFA, with aperture 150 mm and operating gradient 132.2 T/m, for a total of twenty magnets. Before assembling and testing the final cold masses at Fermilab, the component quadrupoles are being tested first at the vertical superconducting magnet test facility of the Superconducting Magnet Division (SMD) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), in superfluid He at 1.9 K and up to 18.0 kA, in accordance with operational requirements of the LHC. The tests of the first two full-length prototype quadrupole magnets MQXFAP1 and MQXFAP2 at BNL have been reported previously. The first two pre-series magnets, the first two that will be used in the LHC, have also now been tested. This paper reports on the quench test and training results of these two magnets. The test results of these magnets will be important for validating the final MQXFA design for operational magnets.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Study on Conduction Cooling of Superconducting Magnets for the ILC Main Linac

In the main linac of the International Linear Collider (ILC), superconducting magnets for beam focusing and steering will be located periodically in superconducting RF (SRF) cavity string for beam acceleration in common cryomodules. A concept of conduction cooling of the combined-functioned, splittable superconducting magnets has been proposed and investigated to adapt much different features and to meet different requirements for the superconducting magnet and SRF cavity in fabrication, assembly, and operation. It is required to integrate the superconducting magnet after the SRF cavity string assembly which completed under an ultra-clean environment. The magnet must be conductively cooled down through thermal links to a liquid helium supply pipe. According to this concept, a model magnet development was carried out in cooperation with Fermilab and KEK, and has been demonstrated in KEK superconducting RF test facility (STF). In addition, an important issue has been recently identified. High gradient SRF cavities naturally emit field emission electron flux from the inner surface, so-called dark current. It may pass through the subsequent SRF cavity string and penetrate into the superconducting magnets placed downstream. It may heat up the superconducting coils, and may cause a quench. Therefore, further study on reliable conduction cooling and to secure the superconducting magnet operation with a keeping sufficient safety margin is quite essential. In this paper, we report the installation, the improvement achieved in STF, and the R&D progress in the study on the conduction cooling of the superconducting magnet for the ILC main linac.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Exploring the Basic Physical Mechanisms of Cathode- and Anode-Initiated High-Voltage Surface Flashover

Surface flashover in vacuum imposes a substantial physical limit on modern, large-scale pulsed power. One of the ramifications is a minimum size requirement for new machines, which in itself becomes a hard barrier to the modernization and improvement of existing infrastructure. Pulsed power topologies require the physical mechanisms of both anode- and cathode-initiated flashover to be considered. Originally, the geometrical implications of field emission at the cathode triple junction (CTJ) motivated the usage of configurations that avoid electrons impinging on the insulating material. This will largely suppress the cathode-initiated flashover, which is best described by the secondary electron avalanche mechanism, gas desorption, and final breakdown in the desorbed gas. It depends on the cascade growth of a conducting plasma along the length of the insulator from the cathode. Mitigating the cathode-initiated flashover typically comes at the cost of a significant field enhancement at the anode triple junction (ATJ). In a typical implementation, the anode field may be three times higher than the cathode field for a given voltage, making the corresponding anode-initiated flashover much more common than otherwise. In the case of pulsed, anode-initiated flashover, experimental evidence suggests that charge is directly extracted from the insulator resulting in the insulator taking on a net positive charge advancing the anode potential. Furthermore, along with accompanying gas desorption from the surface, the potential will then propagate from the anode toward the cathode until the effective length of the gap is sufficiently reduced to support flashover. The underlying physical mechanisms of cathode- and anode-directed flashover are discussed in light of previously gathered experimental data and recent experiments with pulsed, high-gradient, anode-initiated flashover.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Probabilistic Data-Driven Sampling via Multi-Criteria Importance Analysis

Although supercomputers are becoming increasingly powerful, their components have thus far not scaled proportionately. Compute power is growing enormously and is enabling finely resolved simulations that produce never-before-seen features. However, I/O capabilities lag by orders of magnitude, which means only a fraction of the simulation data can be stored for post hoc analysis. Prespecified plans for saving features and quantities of interest do not work for features that have not been seen before. Data-driven intelligent sampling schemes are needed to detect and save important parts of the simulation while it is running. Here, we propose a novel sampling scheme that reduces the size of the data by orders-of-magnitude while still preserving important regions. The approach we develop selects points with unusual data values and high gradients. Finally, we demonstrate that our approach outperforms traditional sampling schemes on a number of tasks.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

SurFE-XD (Surface curvature-driven Finite Elements model for Diffusion under eXtreme conditions)

SurFE-XD is a mesoscale finite element framework to model surface diffusion under mutliphysics environments. The code uses legacy C++ library dolphin wrapped with python in a FEniCS driven unified form language and just-in-time (JIT) compilation setting. The purpose of the release is to attract wide-ranging usage of the code along with publication supplementation to support reproducibility of scientific data. SurFE-XD has been originally conceived under the LDRD-DR funding for “High-Gradient (C-BAND) Breakdown tolerant accelerator materials project. Currently SrFE-XD support electrostatics and Thermo-elasticity driven surface diffusion kernels. Releasing the code will also enable to include contributions from other physical regimes e.g., plasticity and electrodynamics etc as well portability to GPU-based platforms.

Bagchi, Soumendu↗
DOE OSTI2025

Control of microphonics for a superconducting radio-frequency photo-injector cryomodule

A superconducting radio-frequency photo-injector cryomodule is being developed for the high-energy upgrade of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS-II-HE). This effort is a collaboration between the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University (MSU), Argonne National Laboratory, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The cryomodule features a 185.7 MHz superconducting quarter-wave resonator (QWR) designed to operate with an RF electric field of 30 MV/m at the photo-cathode. Mechanical vibrations must be controlled for operation with stable amplitude and phase. The first prototype cryomodule was cold-tested at MSU with a QWR, fundamental power coupler, tuner, and cathode stalk. In the cold test, we observed microphonics that made it difficult to control the RF phase at high gradient. The cryogenic circuit was identified as a likely culprit. This paper presents our studies of microphonics during the cryomodule cold test and follow-up investigations at room temperature. Our findings provided valuable feedback for modifications to the cryogenic circuit and a successful second cold test of the cryomodule.

Accelerator Physics↗
DOE OSTI2022

DEMONSTRATION OF TWICE REDUCED LORENTZ FORCE DETUNING IN SRF CAVITY BY COPPER COLD SPRAYING

Superconducting RF (SRF) cavities usually are made of thin-wall high RRR Niobium that is susceptible to Lorentz Force Detuning (LFD) ? cavity deformation phenomena caused by high magnitude RF fields. This type of deformation can be mitigated by using an additional copper layer deposited on the outer surface of the cavity. In this paper, we present both modeling results and experimental data of high gradient test of an SRF cavity at cryogenic temperatures. It was demonstrated that LFD can be significantly reduced (factor of two) by the copper cold spray reinforcement without sacrificing cavity flexibility for tuning. We also present a finite-element model that allows us to confirm our experimental results and optimize the cavity geometry for LFD reduction with incorporated coupled RF, structural and thermal modules.

Kostin, R.↗