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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 OSTI2025

Instrumentation and methods for efficient time-resolved X-ray crystallography of biomolecular systems with sub-10 ms time resolution

Time-resolved X-ray crystallography has great promise to illuminate structure–function relations and key steps of enzymatic reactions with atomic resolution. The dominant methods for chemically-initiated reactions require complex instrumentation at the X-ray beamline, significant effort to operate and maintain this instrumentation, and enormous numbers (∼10 5 –10 9 ) of crystals per time point. We describe instrumentation and methods that enable high-throughput time-resolved study of biomolecular systems using standard crystallography sample supports and mail-in X-ray data collection at standard high-throughput cryocrystallography synchrotron beamlines. The instrumentation allows rapid reaction initiation by mixing of crystals and substrate/ligand solution, rapid capture of structural states via thermal quenching with no pre-cooling perturbations, and yields time resolutions in the single-millisecond range, comparable to the best achieved by any non-photo-initiated method in both crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy. Our approach to reaction initiation has the advantages of simplicity, robustness, low cost, adaptability to diverse ligand solutions and small minimum volume requirements, making it well suited to routine laboratory use and to high-throughput screening. We report the detailed characterization of instrument performance, present structures of binding of N -acetylglucosamine to lysozyme at time points from 8 ms to 2 s determined using only one crystal per time point, and discuss additional improvements that will push time resolution toward 1 ms.

Indergaard, John A. (ORCID:000000022367699X)↗
NASA NTRS1977

Possible variations in atmospheric methane

A model coupling photochemistry and vertical transport in the troposphere has been used to investigate the magnitude of possible future perturbations to atmospheric CH4. The response of atmospheric CH4 to an increase in the concentration of CO or to a variation in stratospheric O3 is studied. Both of the above mechanisms, which could be caused by man's activities, arise because a change in the concentration of tropospheric OH will lead to a change in the CH4 abundance. The calculations imply that a perturbation of about 30-40% in atmospheric CH4 could occur if stratospheric O3 were perturbed by 10% or if man-made CO continued to increase. The possible consequences of a CH4 perturbation may entail a perturbation in stratospheric photochemistry or in the thermal balance of the atmosphere.

Chameides, W. L.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Three-dimensional simulations of cumulus congestus clouds on GATE day 261

Schlesinger's (1978) three-dimensional cumulus model is applied to showering congestus clouds on day 261 of GATE. Model results are compared with each other and with observations to analyze the effects of varying shear and altered sounding. Relationships between shear, mesovortices and dynamic entrainment are examined, as well as the model clouds' impact on the environment as a function of shear. The simulations appear to resemble reality in many important aspects. Altostratus layers observed on day 261 are found to be a by-product of convection in three-dimensional shear. Rapid erosion of cloud base to 3.6 km is related to the ambient thermal structure, with wind shear and initial perturbation playing a secondary role. Some of the apparent conflict regarding lateral versus cloud-top entrainment is clarified, as well as some factors governing convective downdraft structure and intensity.

Simpson, J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Astrophysical materials science: Theory

A method of structural expansions for use in determining the equation of state of metallic hydrogen (and indeed other metals) up to the 4th order in the perturbation theory was developed. The electrical and thermal transport properties of the planetary interior of Jupiter were calculated. The nature of the interaction between molecules at short range and the importance of multicenter terms in arriving at an adequate description of the thermodynamic functions of condensed molecular hydrogen were also investigated.

Ashcroft, N. W.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The cosmogonic shadow effect

The paper reviews the two-thirds fall-down mechanism and presents an approximate model for the dust distribution and neutralization at the '2/3' points along a given field line. The relationship between the charge on a dust particle and the ratio of dust to plasma density was obtained from the current (ions plus electrons) balance to the surface of the grain. Consideration is also given to the conditions under which rigid notation of a quasi-neutral plasma in thermal equilibrium is possible in a slightly perturbed magnetic dipole field.

Azar, Michel↗
NASA NTRS1992

An optical VLA on the Moon

Optical observations on the Earth must cope with the refractive disturbances of the atmosphere, perturbations by the day-to-night thermal cycle, vibrations induced by the wind, and the bending of the telescope by gravity. These all conspire to limit telescope performance. In particular, in trying to improve angular resolution, there seems to be a practical limit of the order of a few tenths of an arc-second for the realizable angular resolution of single-aperture telescopes, largely imposed by the atmosphere, although other structural limitations would appear as limits at one-tenth of an arc-second or so.

Burke, Bernard F.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Transient thermal stress problem for a circumferentially cracked hollow cylinder

The paper is concerned with the transient thermal stress problem for a long hollow circular cylinder containing an internal axisymmetric circumferential edge crack that is suddenly cooled from inside. It is assumed that the transient thermal stress problem is quasi-static, i.e., the inertial effects are negligible. Also, all thermoelastic coupling effects and the possible temperature dependence of the thermoelastic constants are neglected. The problem is considered in two parts. The first part is the evaluation of transient thermal stresses in an uncracked cylinder; the second part is the isothermal perturbation problem for the cracked cylinder in which the crack surface tractions, equal and opposite to the thermal stresses obtained from the first problem, are the only external loads. The superposition of the two solutions gives results for the cracked cylinder.

Nied, H. F.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Ponderable soliton stars and cosmic background radiation

A theory is developed to describe the possible perturbations of the cosmic background radiation (CBR) by radiation from ponderable soliton stars in the early universe. Since the temperature of such stars is in the range of 10 to the 6th K, thermalization of their emitted radiation is possible. Two models are considered: one in which thermalization is ignored and one in which decoupling from thermalization is considered as a sudden process. The expected perturbation of the CBR is probably less than 1 percent and is largely around the short-wavelength end, in the form of point radio sources. This result is consistent with the most recent COBE measurements.

Chiu, Hong-Yee↗
NASA NTRS2023

Importance of Atmospheric Feedbacks in Simulating the Seasonal Cycle of the Antarctic Sea Ice and Its Response to Perturbations

The seasonal cycle of the Antarctic sea ice extent is largely controlled by the evolution of the insolation received at the top of the atmosphere. However, sea ice processes and feedbacks with the ocean and the atmosphere can modulate this seasonal cycle. Here, the atmospheric feedbacks are quantified in a series of idealized sensitivity experiments performed with an eddy-permitting (1/4°) NEMO-LIM3 Southern Ocean configuration, including a representation of ice shelf cavities, in which the model was either driven by an atmospheric reanalysis or coupled to the COSMO-CLM 2 regional atmospheric model. In these experiments, sea ice thermodynamics and dynamics as well as the exchanges with the ocean and atmosphere are strongly perturbed. This perturbation is achieved by modifying snow and ice thermal conductivities, the vertical mixing in the ocean top layers, the effect of freshwater uptake/release upon sea ice growth/melt, ice dynamics and surface albedo. We show that the changes in surface heat fluxes are very different between the configurations driven by the reanalysis and those coupled to the atmosphere. Atmospheric feedbacks enhance the response of the modelled winter ice extent to any of the perturbed processes, and the enhancement is strongest when the albedo is modified. The response of sea ice volume and extent to changes in entrainment of subsurface warm waters to the ocean surface is also greatly amplified by the coupling with the atmosphere. By contrast, the atmospheric feedbacks can damp the impact of the perturbations affecting the heat conductivity through sea ice.

Atmospheric feedbacks↗
NASA NTRS1994

Patterns of brittle deformation under extension on Venus

The development of fractures at regular length scales is a widespread feature of Venusian tectonics. Models of lithospheric deformation under extension based on non-Newtonian viscous flow and brittle-plastic flow develop localized failure at preferred wavelengths that depend on lithospheric thickness and stratification. The characteristic wavelengths seen in rift zones and tessera can therefore provide constraints on crustal and thermal structure. Analytic solutions were obtained for growth rates in infinitesimal perturbations imposed on a one-dimensional, layered rheology. Brittle layers were approximated by perfectly-plastic, uniform strength, overlying ductile layers exhibiting thermally-activated power-law creep. This study investigates the formation of faults under finite amounts of extension, employing a finite-element approach. Our model incorporates non-linear viscous rheology and a Coulomb failure envelope. An initial perturbation in crustal thickness gives rise to necking instabilities. A small amount of velocity weakening serves to localize deformation into planar regions of high strain rate. Such planes are analogous to normal faults seen in terrestrial rift zones. These 'faults' evolve to low angle under finite extension. Fault spacing, orientation and location, and the depth to the brittle-ductile transition, depend in a complex way on lateral variations in crustal thickness. In general, we find that multiple wavelengths of deformation can arise from the interaction of crustal and mantle lithosphere.

Neumann, G. A.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Interacting Dirac magnons in the van der Waals ferromagnet CrBr 3

We study the effects of magnon-magnon interactions in the two-dimensional van der Waals ferromagnet CrBr 3 focusing on its honeycomb lattice structure. Motivated by earlier theoretical predictions of temperature-induced spectral shifts and van Hove singularities in the magnon dispersion [S. S. Pershoguba et al., Phys. Rev. X 8, 011010 (2018)], we go beyond the commonly used thermal magnon approximation by applying second-order perturbation theory in a fully numerical framework. Our analysis uncovers significant deviations from previous analysis: in particular, the predicted singularities are absent, consistent with recent inelastic neutron scattering measurements [S. E. Nikitin et al ., Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 127201 (2022)]. Moreover, we find that the temperature dependence of the renormalized magnon spectrum exhibits a distinct 𝑇 3 behavior for the optical magnon branch, while retaining 𝑇 2 behavior for the acoustic or down magnon band. This feature sheds light on the collective dynamics of Dirac magnons and their interactions. We further compare the honeycomb case with a triangular Bravais lattice, relevant for ferromagnetic monolayer MnBi 2 ⁢Te 4 , and show that both systems lack singular features while displaying quite distinct thermal trends.

Holstein-Primakoff method↗
DOE OSTI2025

Warm Hawking relics from primordial black hole domination

We study the cosmological impact of warm, dark-sector relic particles produced as Hawkingradiation in a primordial-black-hole-dominated universe before big bang nucleosynthesis. If thesedark-sector particles are stable, they would survive to the present day as Hawking relicsand modify the growth of cosmological structure. We show that such relics are producedwith much larger momenta, but in smaller quantities than the familiar thermal relics considered instandard cosmology. Consequently, Hawking relics with keV–MeV masses affect the growth oflarge-scale structure in a similar way to eV-scale thermal relics like massive neutrinos. Wemodel their production and evolution, and show that their momentum distributions are broader thancomparable relics with thermal distributions. Warm Hawking relics affect the growth ofcosmological perturbations and we constrain their abundance to be less than 2% of the darkmatter over a broad range of their viable parameter space. Finally, we examine how futuremeasurements of the matter power spectrum can distinguish Hawking relics from thermal particles.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1974

The interaction of interstellar gas with stellar density wave packets

We have numerically studied the interaction between interstellar gas and a gravitational perturbation produced by a fluctuation in the stellar mass distribution. For a simple equation of state, shock waves develop even if the gravitational perturbation is aperiodic and transient. In a medium which can change thermal phase, shocks do not form and the gas makes a transition directly to the cold, dense phase. The cold material has an anomalous velocity imparted to it by the gravitational perturbation and it becomes an accretion front moving through the hot gas and capturing it. The accretion fronts trigger thermal phase change on a large scale and can reproduce the extent of observed cold clouds. Furthermore their high mass is favorable to gravitational instability and subsequent star formation.

Baker, P. L.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Photochemical-radiative damping and instability in the stratosphere. II Numerical results

In a paper by Strobel (1977), opacity effects on the joint photochemical-radiative relaxation in the stratosphere were evaluated by a linear perturbation analysis. Significant reductions in the photochemical acceleration of the thermal relaxation rate and the ozone photochemical relaxation rate were obtained in the upper stratosphere as a result of opacity changes. For very large vertical scale height ozone density perturbations, amplifying solutions were generated by large opacity changes in the O3 dissociation and heating rates. Such solutions could indicate that the stratosphere does not possess an equilibrium ozone concentration. In the present paper, some illustrative numerical calculations are presented to demonstrate the properties of the amplifying solutions. The results indicate that ungeophysically large disturbances are required and that they cease growth before attainment of geophysically interesting amplitudes, and decay to the unperturbed state.

Strobel, D. F.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Effects of the pressure perturbation field in numerical models of unidirectionally sheared thunderstorm convection - Two versus three dimensions

The physical roles of 'buoyant' and 'dynamic' pressure components, and the distinction between buoyant and hydrostatic pressure perturbations, are aspects of the pressure perturbation field in strongly sheared convective storms studied by means of two- and three-dimensional anelastic numerical modeling experiments with common environmental profiles. The pressure analysis clarifies the differences between two- and three-dimensional storms. In the main updraft, strong midlevel thermal buoyancy is partly opposed by a downward-perturbed vertical pressure gradient force. This, however, occurs to a much greater extent in two dimensions than in three, contributing to smaller net upward accelerations. While the buoyant and hydrostatic fields are intimately related to the total buoyancy distribution, the buoyant pressure perturbation is smoother and of lower amplitude than its hydrostatic counterpart. For the model experiments, this distinction is far greater in three dimensions than in two, in association with the smaller scale of the active convection in three dimensions.

Schlesinger, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Thermoelastic stress in oceanic lithosphere due to hotspot reheating

The effect of hotspot reheating on the intraplate stress field is investigated by modeling the three-dimensional thermal stress field produced by nonuniform temperature changes in an elastic plate. Temperature perturbations are calculated assuming that the lithosphere is heated by a source in the lower part of the thermal lithosphere. A thermal stress model for the elastic lithosphere is calculated by superposing the stress fields resulting from temperature changes in small individual elements. The stress in an elastic plate resulting from a temperature change in each small element is expressed as an infinite series, wherein each term is a source or an image modified from a closed-from half-space solution. The thermal stress solution is applied to midplate swells in oceanic lithosphere with various thermal structures and plate velocities. The results predict a stress field with a maximum deviatoric stress on the order of 100 MPa covering a broad area around the hotspot plume. The predicted principal stress orientations show a complicated geographical pattern, with horizontal extension perpendicular to the hotspot track at shallow depths and compression along the track near the bottom of the elastic lithosphere.

Zhu, Anning↗
NASA NTRS1989

The growth of density perturbations in radiative shocks

The paper presents a new investigation of the growth of thermal instabilities behind radiative shocks. The analytic and numerical results disagree with McCray, Stein, and Kafatos, who were attempting to explain the filamentary structure commonly seen in supernova remnants, and proposed that the growth of density perturbations would lead to gross condensations in the postshock cooling region. Hydrodynamical simulations are generated which corroborate arguments in favor of no growth in the long-wavelength limit. These simulations also agree with a renewed analytic approach in the short-wavelength limit, and show that the region of rapid growth will remain inconspicuous in the overall density rise toward the back of the shock. It is noted that these calculations are in accord with some recent observations of supernova remnants where the observed filaments do not seem to have been produced by any local thermal instability process.

Blondin, John M.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Evaluation of surface sensible heat flux effects on the generation and modification of mesoscale circulations

Mesoscale thermal-induced circulations generated by horizontal gradients in surface characteristics as well as significant perturbations on land and sea breezes and mountain-valley winds due to substantial modifications in the thermal forcing are introduced. It is suggested that these types of mesoscale situations are generally ignored in forecasting but that they may have important implications in very short range predictions.

Segal, M.↗