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DOE OSTI2021

Grid resolution requirement for resolving rare and high intensity wall-shear stress events in direct numerical simulations

Turbulent signals are intermittent with large instantaneous fluctuations. Such large fluctuations lead to small Kolmogorov scales that are hard to resolve in numerical simulations [P. K. Yeung, K. R. Sreenivasan, and S. B. Pope, Effects of finite spatial and temporal resolution in direct numerical simulations of incompressible isotropic turbulence, Phys. Rev. Fluids 3, 064603 (2018)]. Here, the present paper follows the above basic logic, but instead of dissipation events in isotropic turbulence, we study wall-shear stress events in plane channel flow. Wall-shear stress fluctuations are increasingly more intermittent as the Reynolds number increases. Hence, one has to employ higher grid resolutions as the Reynolds number increases in order to resolve a given percentage of wall-shear stress events. The objective of this paper is to quantify effects of the grid resolutions on the rare and high intensity wall-shear stress events. We find that the standard grid resolution resolves about 99% of the wall-shear stress events at Re τ = 180. A slightly higher grid resolution has to be employed in order to resolve 99% of the wall-shear stress events at higher Reynolds numbers, and if the standard grid resolution is used for, e.g., a Re τ = 10000 channel flow, one resolves about 90%–95% wall-shear stress events.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2025

STORM: Scrape-off layer turbulence in tokamak fusion reactors

The scrape-off layer of a tokamak fusion reactor carries the plasma exhaust from the hot core plasma to the material surfaces of the reactor vessel. The heat loads imposed by the exhaust are a critical limit on the performance of fusion power plants. Turbulent transport of the plasma regulates the width of the scrape-off layer plasma and must be modelled to understand the intensity of these heat loads. STORM is a plasma turbulence code capable of simulating three dimensional turbulence across the full scrape-off layer of a tokamak fusion reactor, using a drift reduced, collisional fluid model. STORM uses mostly finite difference schemes, with a staggered grid in the direction parallel to the magnetic field. We describe the model, geometry and initialisation options used by STORM, as well as the numerical methods, which are implemented using the BOUT++ plasma simulation framework. BOUT++ has been enhanced alongside the development of STORM, providing better support for staggered grid methods. We summarise these enhancements, including a detailed explanation of the parallel derivative methods, which underwent a major update for version 4 of BOUT++.

BOUT++↗

DOE OSTI2026

The Effect of Large-scale Magnetic Fluctuations on Energetic Particle Profiles across Interplanetary Shocks

In situ observations of energetic particles associated with interplanetary (IP) shocks, known as energetic storm particle (ESP) events, often show time-intensity profiles quite different from predictions of classical diffusive shock acceleration theory. We use numerical simulations, including test-particle simulations and hybrid simulations (with fluid electrons and kinetic protons) for shocks propagating into a turbulent magnetic field to study the ESP intensity-time profiles across a strong IP shock. We find that several types of energetic particle intensity profiles similar to in situ observations can be produced in our simulations. The peak of energetic particle count is often near, but can be shifted from, the locations of the shock front, with the peak usually being observed downstream of the shock. These findings may help understand particle acceleration at both traveling IP shocks and shocks in other heliospheric and astrophysical environments.

Lo, Ming-Yuan [New Mexico Consortium (NMC), Los Al↗

DOE OSTI2025

Tracing Magnetic Field in Super-Alfvénic Turbulence with Gradient Technique

Super-Alfvénic turbulence is important for many astrophysical objects, particularly galaxy clusters. In this paper, we explore the accuracy of synchrotron intensity gradients and X-ray intensity gradients to map magnetic fields in super-Alfvénic turbulence for a set of astrophysically relevant parameters of turbulent driving. Analyzing our synthetic observations, we report a good accuracy for both techniques. Our results are suggestive that other types of gradient technique can be successfully employed to trace magnetic fields within super-Alfvénic subsonic turbulence.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Experimental decoy-state Bennett-Brassard 1984 quantum key distribution through a turbulent channel

In free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) in turbulent conditions, scattering and beam wandering cause intensity fluctuations which decrease the detected signal-to-noise ratio. This effect can be mitigated by rejecting received bits when the channel's transmittance is below a threshold. Thus, the overall error rate is reduced and the secure key rate increases despite the deletion of bits. In this work, we implement recently proposed selection methods focusing on the prefixed-threshold real-time selection (P-RTS) where a cutoff can be chosen prior to data collection and independently of the transmittance distribution. We perform finite-size decoy-state Bennett-Brassard 1984 QKD in a laboratory setting where we simulate the atmospheric turbulence using an acousto-optical modulator. We show that P-RTS can yield considerably higher secure key rates for a wide range of the atmospheric channel parameters. In addition, we evaluate the performance of the P-RTS method for a realistically finite sample size. We demonstrate that a near-optimal selection threshold can be predetermined even with imperfect knowledge of the channel transmittance distribution parameters.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2022

Pressure–strain interaction. III. Particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic reconnection

How energy is converted into thermal energy in weakly collisional and collisionless plasma processes, such as magnetic reconnection and plasma turbulence, has recently been the subject of intense scrutiny. The pressure–strain interaction has emerged as an important piece, as it describes the rate of conversion between bulk flow and thermal energy density. In two companion studies, we presented an alternate decomposition of the pressure–strain interaction to isolate the effects of converging/diverging flow and flow shear instead of compressible and incompressible flow, and we derived the pressure–strain interaction in magnetic field-aligned coordinates. Here, we use these results to study pressure–strain interaction during two-dimensional anti-parallel magnetic reconnection. We perform particle-in-cell simulations and plot the decompositions in both Cartesian and magnetic field-aligned coordinates. We identify the mechanisms contributing to positive and negative pressure–strain interaction during reconnection. Furthermore, this study provides a roadmap for interpreting numerical and observational data of the pressure–strain interaction, which should be important for studies of reconnection, turbulence, and collisionless shocks.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

An acoustic investigation of the near-surface turbulence on Mars

The Perseverance rover is carrying out an original acoustic experiment on Mars: the SuperCam microphone records the spherical acoustic waves generated by laser sparks at distances from 2 m to more than 8 m. These N-shaped acoustic waves scatter from the multiple local heterogeneities of the turbulent atmosphere. Therefore, large and random fluctuations of sound travel time and intensity develop as the waves cross the medium. The variances of the travel times and the scintillation index (normalized variance of the sound intensity) are studied within the mathematical formalism of the propagation of spherical acoustic waves through thermal turbulence to infer statistical properties of the Mars atmospheric temperature fluctuation field. The comparison with the theory is made by simplifying assumptions that do not include wind fluctuations and diffraction effects. Two Earth years (about one Martian year) of observations acquired during the maximum convective period (10:00–14:00 Mars local time) show a good agreement between the dataset and the formalism: the travel time variance diverges from the linear Chernov solution exactly where the density of occurrence of the first caustic reaches its maximum. Moreover, on average, waves travel faster than the mean speed of sound due to a fast path effect, which is also observed on Earth. To account for the distribution of turbulent eddies, several power spectra are tested and the best match to observation is obtained with a generalized von Karman spectrum with a shallower slope than the Kolmogorov cascade, φ(k)∝(1 + k 2 L 2 ) -4/3 . It is associated with an outer scale of turbulence, L, of 11 cm at 2 m above the surface and a standard deviation of 6 K over 9 s for the temperature. These near-surface atmospheric properties are consistent with a weak to moderate wave scattering regime around noon with little saturation. Overall, this study presents an innovative and promising methodology to probe the near-surface atmospheric turbulence on Mars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Quantitative Characterization of Hyper-Local Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Sources

Atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are often characterized using stationary, tower-based sensors. Ground based sensors reside in the turbulent boundary layer and are subject to intense concentration impulses from hyper-local (<100m) point sources of emissions. These high frequency spikes are often filtered out in broader emission flux studies, losing valuable information about how hyper-local sources influence receptors. In this study, we investigated how empirical atmospheric data can be used to locate and quantify a concurrently measured hyper-local point source in a dense urban setting. An eddy covariance style tower and a low-cost sensor tower were deployed in various locations around an urban, hyper-local CO2/CH4 emissions source (a continuously measured restaurant exhaust vent). A model using different processing and statistical techniques was built to examine the most effective procedures for source isolation, directional location, and emission quantification. Using excess concentrations above a minimum baseline, we identify the source using bivariate polar plots and quantify the relationship between source size, receptor distance, and statistical proxies. Furthermore, we find that varying statistical thresholds allows for identification of less influential sources which are drowned out by larger or closer sources. Finally, we show that large sources can be effectively characterized using low-cost sensors, a valuable outcome informing how networks for monitoring larger areas could be implemented. This work may provide a basis for source identification and monitoring protocols for networks that feature sensors influenced by hyper-local point sources, subject to site-specific assumptions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

DNS of a Simplified Gas Turbine Premixer: Auto-Ignition and Flame Stabilization

With the increasing need for fuel-flexibility, an understanding of auto-ignition inside gas turbine premixers is crucial. Direct numerical simulation (DNS) is a great tool to reveal the fine grain details of physics inside the premixer and guide the choice of the models to use for less expensive simulations. We present numerical simulations of a simplified and downscaled premixer, with multiple air jets in rich fuel crossflow. The simulations show intense fuel-air mixing and flame-turbulence interaction. We examine flow acceleration by the incoming jets, and the combustion within the device. We observe low-temperature and high-temperature combustion signatures, and compute the flame index to quantify local stabilization modes.

combustion↗

DOE OSTI2021

Turbulent Acceleration of Interstellar Pickup Ions at the Heliospheric Termination Shock Forms the Global ENA Spectrum

The heliospheric energetic neutral atom spectrum observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) reveals that the heliosheath proton distribution is consistent with a power law. The origin of the spectrum is likely from interstellar pickup ions (PUIs) accelerated at the heliospheric termination shock (HTS). We present an explanation of the proton spectrum origin using a test particle simulation of PUIs accelerated at the HTS. PUIs experience preferential heating by the motional electric field in the shock foot, but do not develop a power-law tail without the presence of turbulence at wavenumbers (k) close to the PUI gyroradius scale (R g ). Voyager 2 observations of the magnetic field downstream of the HTS indicate a moderate amount of turbulence at kR g ≅ 1, (δB /B 0 ) 2 @ 0.01, which we find to be sufficient for producing a downstream suprathermal PUI tail but not at intensities observed by IBEX. Within the shock ramp, however, Voyager observed the turbulence power at much smaller scales to be nearly 100 times stronger, suggesting the possibility of strong turbulence at the PUI gyroradius scale. We show that a proton distribution can develop a power law downstream of the HTS consistent with IBEX observations if (δB /B 0 ) 2 ≳ 0.1 at kR g ≅ 1 in the shock foot. Shock drift acceleration of PUIs by the motional electric field is aided by interactions with turbulence upstream of the shock overshoot. Steepening of the IBEX proton spectrum in directions farther from the heliospheric nose suggests the HTS compression ratio and/or turbulence power weakens near the heliotail.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Advancing coupled fire-atmosphere research with HIGRAD/FIRETEC (w20_firetec) (CY 2021 Institutional Computing Annual Progress Report) [Slides]

LANL’s HIGRAD and FIRETEC models were used in a multi-scale simulation framework to investigate impacts of small-scale fuel heterogeneities on large-scale Pyro-Cb formation. Forest structural diversity is found to increase canopy fire spread, and thus risk of tree mortality in FIRETEC simulations. Structural diversity is associated with an increase in ladder fuels, which facilitate fire spread into the canopy. Low-intensity fire burning in marginal conditions is highly sensitive to small perturbation in atmospheric turbulence. These results highlight predictive limitations of individual fire simulations, and emphasize the need for ensemble simulations, especially for low-intensity, prescribed fire.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Simulating Mixed‐Phase Open Cellular Clouds Observed During COMBLE: Evaluation of Parameterized Turbulence Closure

Marine cold-air outbreaks, or CAOs, are airmass transformations whereby relatively cold boundary layer (BL) air is transported over relatively warm water. To more deeply understand BL and mixed-phase cloud properties during CAO conditions, the Cold-Air Outbreaks in the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (COMBLE) took place from late 2019 into early 2020. During COMBLE, the U.S. Department of Energy's first Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility (AMF1) was deployed to Andenes, Norway, far downstream (~1,000 km) from the Arctic pack ice. This study examines the two most intense CAOs sampled at the AMF1 site. The observed BL structures are open cellular with high (~3–5 km) and cold (–30 to –50 °C) cloud tops, and they often have pockets of high liquid water paths (LWPs; up to ~1,000 g m –2 ) associated with strong updrafts and enhanced turbulence. We use a high-resolution mesoscale model to explore how well four turbulence closure methods represent open cellular clouds. After applying a radar simulator to model outputs for direct evaluation, cloud top properties agree well with AMF1 observations (within ~10%), but radar reflectivity and LWP agreement is more variable. Results suggest that the turbulent Prandtl number may play an important role for the simulated BL and cloud properties. All simulations produce enhanced precipitation rates that are well-correlated with a cloud transition. Finally, the eddy-diffusivity/mass-flux approach produces the deepest cloud layer and therefore the largest and most coherent cellular structures. Furthermore, we recommend the use of a non-local turbulence closure approach to better capture turbulent processes in intense CAOs.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Gradient Technique Theory: Tracing Magnetic Field and Obtaining Magnetic Field Strength

Abstract The gradient technique is a promising tool with theoretical foundations based on the fundamental properties of MHD turbulence and turbulent reconnection. Its various incarnations use spectroscopic, synchrotron, and intensity data to trace the magnetic field and measure the media magnetization in terms of Alfvén Mach number. We provide an analytical theory of gradient measurements and quantify the effects of averaging gradients along the line of sight and over the plane of the sky. We derive analytical expressions that relate the properties of gradient distribution with the Alfvén Mach number M A . We show that these measurements can be combined with measures of sonic Mach number or line broadening to obtain the magnetic field strength. The corresponding technique has advantages to the Davis–Chandrasekhar–Fermi way of obtaining the magnetic field strength.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Effects of canopy midstory management and fuel moisture on wildfire behavior

Abstract Increasing trends in wildfire severity can partly be attributed to fire exclusion in the past century which led to higher fuel accumulation. Mechanical thinning and prescribed burns are effective techniques to manage fuel loads and to establish a higher degree of control over future fire risk, while restoring fire prone landscapes to their natural states of succession. However, given the complexity of interactions between fine scale fuel heterogeneity and wind, it is difficult to assess the success of thinning operations and prescribed burns. The present work addresses this issue systematically by simulating a simple fire line and propagating through a vegetative environment where the midstory has been cleared in different degrees, leading to a canopy with almost no midstory, another with a sparse midstory and another with a dense midstory. The simulations are conducted for these three canopies under two different conditions, where the fuel moisture is high and where it is low. These six sets of simulations show widely different fire behavior, in terms of fire intensity, spread rate and consumption. To understand the physical mechanisms that lead to these differences, detailed analyses are conducted to look at wind patterns, mean flow and turbulent fluxes of momentum and energy. The analyses also lead to improved understanding of processes leading to high intensity crowning behavior in presence of a dense midstory. Moreover, this work highlights the importance of considering fine scale fuel heterogeneity, seasonality, wind effects and the associated fire-canopy-atmosphere interactions while considering prescribed burns and forest management operations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

Anisotropic Heating and Parallel Heat Flux in Electron-only Magnetic Reconnection with Intense Guide Fields

Electron-only reconnection (E-REC) is a process recently observed in the Earth’s magnetosheath, where magnetic reconnection occurs at electron kinetic scales, and ions do not couple to the reconnection process. Electron-only reconnection is likely to have a significant impact on the energy conversion and dissipation of turbulence cascades at kinetic scales in some settings. This paper investigates E-REC under different intensities of strong guide fields (the ratio between the guide field and the in-plane asymptotic field strength is 5, 10 and 20, respectively) via two-dimensional fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, focusing on electron heating. The simulations are initialized with a force-free current sheet equilibrium under various intensities of strong guide fields. Similarly to previous experimental studies, electron temperature anisotropy along separatrices is observed, which is found to be mainly caused by the variations of parallel temperature. Both regions of anisotropy and parallel temperature increase/decrease along separatrices become thinner with increasing guide fields. Besides, we find a transition from a quadrupolar to a hexapolar (six-polar) to an octopolar (eight-polar) structure in temperature anisotropy and parallel temperature as the guide field intensifies. Non-Maxwellian electron velocity distribution functions (EVDFs) at different locations in the three simulations are observed. Our results show that parallel electron velocity varies notably with different guide field intensities and finite parallel electron heat flux density is observed. The three simulations exhibit features of the Chew–Goldberger–Low theory, with the level of consistency increasing as the guide field strength increases. This explains the electron parallel temperature variations and the shape of the EVDFs observed along the separatrices. This work may provide insights into the understanding of electron heating and parallel heat flux density in E-REC observed in the turbulent magnetosheath.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2025

State Spotlight on Resilience: The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission’s Wildfire Mitigation Plans

Wildfires present a significant risk to critical infrastructure, endangering energy systems by damaging transmission lines and imposing a variety of costs on utilities and their customers. Wildfires have increased nationally in both extent and intensity as vegetation conditions become drier and wind patterns become more turbulent. Aging infrastructure may also cause transmission lines to ignite vegetation.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2025

Large Eddy Simulation of the Diurnal Cycle of Shallow Convection in the Central Amazon

Climate models often face challenges in accurately simulating the daily precipitation cycle over tropical land areas, particularly in the Amazon. One contributing factor may be the incomplete representation of the diurnal evolution of shallow cumulus (ShCu) clouds. This study aimed to enhance the understanding of the diurnal cycles of ShCu clouds—from formation to maturation and dissipation—over the Central Amazon (CAMZ). Using observational data from the Green Ocean Amazon 2014 (GoAmazon) campaign and large eddy simulation (LES) modeling, we analyzed the diurnal cycles of six selected pure ShCu cases and their composite behavior. Our results revealed a well-defined cycle, with cloud formation occurring between 10 and 11 local time (LT), maturity from 13 to 15 LT, and dissipation by 17–18 LT. The vertical extent of the liquid water mixing ratio and the intensity of the updraft mass flux were closely associated with increases in turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), enhanced buoyancy flux within the cloud layer, and reduced large-scale subsidence. We further analyzed the diurnal cycles of the convective available potential energy (CAPE), the convective inhibition (CIN), the Bowen ratio (BR), and the vertically integrated TKE in the mixed layer (ITKE-ML), exploring their relationships with the cloud base mass flux (Mb) and cloud depth across the six ShCu cases. ITKE-ML and Mb exhibited similar diurnal trends, peaking at approximately 14–15 LT. However, no consistent relationships were found between CAPE (or BR) and Mb. Similarly, comparisons of the cloud depth with CAPE, BR, ITKE-ML, CIN, and Mb revealed no clear relationships. Smaller ShCu clouds were sometimes linked to higher CAPE and lower CIN. It is important to emphasize that these findings are preliminary and based on a limited sample of ShCu cases. Further research involving an expanded dataset and more detailed analyses of the TKE budget and synoptic conditions is necessary. Such efforts would yield a more comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing ShCu clouds’ vertical development.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Toward Interpreting the IBEX Ribbon with Mirror Diffusion in Interstellar Turbulent Magnetic Fields

We investigate the role of the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence measured by Voyager in the very local interstellar medium (VLISM) in modeling the Interstellar Boundary Explorer ribbon. We demonstrate that the mirroring by compressible modes of MHD turbulence dominates over that by the mean magnetic field. Based on the new mirror diffusion mechanism identified by Lazarian & Xu for particles with large pitch angles in MHD turbulence, we find that the mirror diffusion can both confine pickup ions and preserve their initial pitch angles, and thus it accounts for the enhanced intensity of energetic neutral atoms that return to the heliosphere. The ribbon width is determined by both the range of pitch angles for effective turbulent mirroring and the field line wandering induced by Alfvénic modes. It in turn provides a constraint on the amplitude of magnetic fluctuations of fast modes. The field line wandering also affects the coherence of the ribbon structure across the sky. By extrapolating the magnetic energy spectrum measured by Voyager, we find that the injection scale of the turbulence in the VLISM must be less than ~500 au for the ribbon structure to be coherent.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗