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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 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Behavior of Tidally Triggered Earthquakes Depends on Fluid Conditions

Seismicity at The Geysers geothermal field and in Oklahoma is heavily influenced by industrial activities related to energy production, though the mechanism in which earthquakes are induced or triggered is different. At The Geysers, much of the seismicity is linked to thermoelastic stresses caused by injecting cold water into hot rocks, whereas in Oklahoma, the seismicity is linked to a reduction of confining stress on faults due to increasing pore pressure resulting from wastewater injections. Here, in this study, we show that these contrasting conditions are also evident in tidally triggered earthquakes. At The Geysers, earthquakes preferentially occur during maximum extensional stress, which does not occur at the same time as maximum shear stress on optimally oriented faults in the regional stress field. In Oklahoma, earthquakes preferentially occur during maximum shear stress on optimally oriented faults rather than maximum extensional stress. The magnitude of tidal extensional stress is naturally much greater than tidal shear stress. However, in a fluid-saturated environment, pore pressure responds to changes in volume, which can counteract or reduce the effect of the applied stress. The difference in behavior at these two sites is indicative of the level of coupling between applied stress and pore pressure, corresponding to unsaturated conditions at The Geysers and high pore pressure in Oklahoma.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

“Transition from dissipative fluid dynamics to particles in heavy ion collisions”(Final Technical Report)

This report summarizes research activities and achievements made under Award No. DE-SC00016524. We advanced the following areas: i) self-consistent bulk viscous and baryon number diffusion corrections from kinetic theory, ii) hadron gas bulk viscosity determination, and iii) discovery of novel mechanisms of elliptic flow generation and suppression in heavy-ion collisions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Intermediate Temperature Proton‐Conducting Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells with Improved Performance and Durability

Technical understanding: A high-performance and stable intermediate temperature proton-conducting solid oxide electrolysis cell (PCEC) will add significantly to the hydrogen roadmap of EERE. However, the low electrocatalytic activity of the air electrode and the instability of the electrolyte are technical barriers. In this research, we utilized computational fluid dynamic modeling and materials/microstructure engineering to investigate the complex reaction chain and to improve the performance and reliability of the protonic ceramic electrochemical cells. An active and stable Pr 1.8 Ba 0.2 NiO 4+δ -BaZr 0.1 Ce 0.7 Y 0.1 Yb 0.1 O 3-δ (BZCYYb) scaffold conformal coating electrode was rationally designed where the robust Pr 1.8 Ba 0.2 NiO 4+δ functions both as a catalytic active and a protective layer. The PCECs with porosity-optimized scaffold conformal coating electrodes demonstrate 1.46 Acm -2 under 1.3 V at 600°C, which is among the highest in recent years. The final optimization by computational fluid dynamic modeling and conformal coating technique was applied to evolve the PCEC air electrode from Pr 2 NiO 4+δ to Pr 1.8 Ba 0.2 NiO 4+δ -BaZr 0.1 Ce 0.7 Y 0.1 Yb 0.1 O 3-δ scaffold conformal coating. The electrolysis current was boosted from 0.445A/cm 2 to 1.46A/cm 2 at 600°C and 1.3V. A superior low degradation rate of 1mV/kh was achieved in a 5000-hour of operation. Technical effectiveness and economic feasibility: The effectiveness of this TCO conformal coating on electrolyte backbone as air electrode has been proven by long-term demonstration. Based on the highly conductive BZCYYb electrolyte and the TCO steam electrode PNO, this project rationally took advantage of the existent materials to structure a PCEC device with high TRL and low risk. The solution infiltration method used to structure the conformal coating is a standard method used by the solid oxide cell community. Very minimal adoption is needed in the current SOC fabrication process. It is a cost-effective, scalable method for manufacturing, and brings up remarkable impact on the current technical status of PCEC. Benefit to the public: The findings in the research showed the industry that the severe challenge in PCEC can be overcome in a practical way. A various energy-hydrogen ecosystem is not beyond reach. The success of this technology provides sustainable and affordable H 2 to society. It will stimulate investment from the governmental and private sectors in response to the device manufacture and deployment, and the related infrastructure construction. It will generate high-pay domestic jobs and environmental benefits to the general public in the United States.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2023

Pattern formation and transport for externally driven active matter on periodic substrates (a)

Abstract We investigate the transport of interacting active run-and-tumble particles moving under an external drift force through a periodic array of obstacles for increasing drive amplitudes. For high activity where the system forms a motility-induced phase-separated state, there are several distinct dynamic phases including a low drive pinned cluster phase, an intermediate uniform fluid, and a higher drive stripe crystal state. The transitions between the phases are correlated with signatures in the transport curves, differential mobility, and power spectra of the velocity fluctuations. In contrast, in the low activity regime the transport curves and power spectra undergo little change as a function of drive. We argue that in the high activity limit, the behavior is similar to that of driven solids on periodic substrates, while in the low activity limit the system behaves like a driven fluid.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development and Porting of Nuclear Reactor Computational Models for the NRIC Virtual Test Bed in FY23

The U.S. DOE’s National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) hosts an open-source website and associated GitHub repository called the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) on which computational models for advanced reactors are documented and shared with the reactor community. In FY23 under the NRIC program, computational models for nuclear reactor analysis were developed and contributed to the VTB Github repository during FY23 by contributors at Argonne National Laboratory. Other models developed outside of NRIC were also ported to the VTB as part of this work, serving a broader mission to make computational reactor analysis models more widely available to the reactor community. The model development activities focused on demonstration of gas-cooled microreactor models including computational fluid dynamics simulations of flow through an industry-inspired air jacket design, and simulation of multiphysics transients for a gas-cooled microreactor assembly. Additionally, development of a molten salt reactor (led at Idaho National Laboratory) was supported through Argonne’s expertise in multigroup cross sections generation. Models for these two reactor types were targeted due to their relevancy to NRIC’s Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) and Laboratory for Operation and Testing in the U.S. (LOTUS) physical test beds, which are slated to host microreactor and molten salt reactor experiments. The model porting activities consisted of developing detailed documentation for several physics models which originate from the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. We include only contributions from Argonne National Laboratory in this report.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Modeling Nanoconfinement Effects Using Active Learning

Predicting the spatial configuration of gas in nanopores of is relevant in applications such as fluid flow forecasting and hydrocarbon reserves estimation. For example, shale reservoirs have suffered from computationally intractable multiscale problems, since fluid properties such as viscosity, density, and adsorption must be calculated by using expensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations within each nanopore, whereas flow through these connected nanopores must be simulated at the micrometer scale. We utilize machine learning techniques to quickly and accurately model nanoscale confinement effects as an important step toward bridging the nano and micro scales. Our workflow is based on building and training physics-based deep-neural-networks models by learning from a database of MD calculations. The model accounts for the adsorption phenomenon by predicting the statistical distribution of gas inside nanopores. Because large databases of MD calculations are expensive to create, we investigate active learning (AL) as a data set construction strategy. In this workflow, new data are selected based on the model uncertainty via the query-by-committee approach. We show that our workflow obtains accurate models that generalize to real scanning electron microscopy geometries with 1/10th of the number of MD calculations required vs random data set generation. Our method enables the possibility of modeling nanoconfinement effects at the mesoscale, where complex connected sets of nanopores affect flow.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Global patterns of diversity and metabolism of microbial communities in deep-sea hydrothermal vent deposits

When deep-sea hydrothermal fluids mix with cold oxygenated fluids, minerals precipitate out of solution and form hydrothermal deposits. These actively venting deep-sea hydrothermal deposits support a rich diversity of thermophilic microorganisms which are involved in a range of carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and hydrogen metabolisms. Global patterns of thermophilic microbial diversity in deep-sea hydrothermal ecosystems have illustrated the strong connectivity between geological processes and microbial colonization, but little is known about the genomic diversity and physiological potential of these novel taxa. Here we explore this genomic diversity in 42 metagenomes from four deep-sea hydrothermal vent fields and a deep-sea volcano collected from 2004 to 2018 and document their potential implications in biogeochemical cycles. Our dataset represents 3635 metagenome-assembled genomes encompassing 511 novel and recently identified genera from deep-sea hydrothermal settings. Some of the novel bacterial (107) and archaeal genera (30) that were recently reported from the deep-sea Brothers volcano were also detected at the deep-sea hydrothermal vent fields, while 99 bacterial and 54 archaeal genera were endemic to the deep-sea Brothers volcano deposits. We report some of the first examples of medium- (≥ 50% complete, ≤ 10% contaminated) to high-quality (> 90% complete, < 5% contaminated) MAGs from phyla and families never previously identified, or poorly sampled, from deep-sea hydrothermal environments. We greatly expand the novel diversity of Thermoproteia, Patescibacteria (Candidate Phyla Radiation, CPR), and Chloroflexota found at deep-sea hydrothermal vents and identify a small sampling of two potentially novel phyla, designated JALSQH01 and JALWCF01. Metabolic pathway analysis of metagenomes provides insights into the prevalent carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and hydrogen metabolic processes across all sites and illustrates sulfur and nitrogen metabolic “handoffs” in community interactions. We confirm that Campylobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria occupy similar ecological guilds but their prevalence in a particular site is driven by shifts in the geochemical environment. Our study of globally distributed hydrothermal vent deposits provides a significant expansion of microbial genomic diversity associated with hydrothermal vent deposits and highlights the metabolic adaptation of taxonomic guilds. Collectively, our results illustrate the importance of comparative biodiversity studies in establishing patterns of shared phylogenetic diversity and physiological ecology, while providing many targets for enrichment and cultivation of novel and endemic taxa.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Programmable chiral states in flocks of active magnetic rollers

Inspired by nature, active matter exemplified by self-organization of motile units into macroscopic structures holds great promise for advanced tunable materials capable of flocking, shape-shifting, and self-healing. Active particles driven by external fields have repeatedly demonstrated potential for complex self-organization and collective behavior, yet how to guide the direction of their collective motion largely remains unexplored. Here, we report a system of microscopic ferromagnetic rollers driven by an alternating magnetic field that demonstrates programmable control of the direction of a self-organized coherent vortical motion (i.e., chirality). Facilitated by a droplet confinement, the rollers get synchronized and display either right- or left-handed spontaneous vortical motion, such that their moving direction determines the vortex chirality. Here, we reveal that one can remotely command a flock of magnetic rollers to switch or maintain its chiral state by modulating a phase shift of the sinusoidal magnetic field powering the active rollers. Building on our findings, we realize a self-assembled remotely controlled micro-pump architecture capable of switching the fluid transport direction on demand. Our studies may stimulate new design strategies for directed transport and flocking robotics at the microscale based on active colloids.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Systematic observations of enhanced oil recovery and associated changes at carbonate-brine and carbonate-petroleum interfaces

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) from carbonates is obtained by injection of controlled ionic strength brines containing “active ions” (e.g., SO 4 2- , Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ ). It is generally believed that this occurs through the interaction of the active ions at the carbonate-brine interface (e.g., within a thin brine layer separating the petroleum and the carbonate phases). Here, in-situ observations show how one active ion, SO 4 2- , alters behavior at the carbonate-petroleum interface. Displacement of petroleum from initially oil-wet carbonate rocks using brines with variable SO 4 concentrations systematically changes oil recovery, in situ contact angles, and connectivity of the oil phase, confirming that the active ion alters interactions at the oil/brine/carbonate interface, as expected. Measurements of model calcite-fluid interfaces show that there is no measurable sorption of SO 4 to carbonate-brine interfaces but reveals that the carbonate-petroleum interface is altered by previous exposure to SO 4 -containing brines. These results suggest that EOR in carbonates is controlled indirectly by active ions. We propose that this may be due to a reduced oleophilicity of the carbonate caused by chemical complexation between the active ion and petroleum’s acidic and basic functional groups. This mechanism explains how both anions and cations act as active ions for EOR in carbonates.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Development of Conceptual Lead Cartridge Design to Perform Irradiation Experiments in VTR

This paper seeks to introduce the latest design of the Extended Length Test Assembly–Cartridge Lead (ELTA-CL) with associated thermal-hydraulic (TH) assessment and related experiment activities to support the critical component development performed by the ELTA-CL team (Los Alamos National Laboratory, Westinghouse Electric Company, and the University of New Mexico). The goal of the ELTA-CL program is to develop and validate an experimental capability to perform irradiation experiments in the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) addressing Lead Fast Reactor (LFR) technology gaps, in support of the commercial development of advanced lead-cooled fast reactor concepts. Through a design maturation process and parametric study, a conceptual design is proposed to meet the requirements for material and corrosion testing. Thermal-hydraulic characteristics for the conceptual design at desired operating conditions are assessed with systems-level (one-dimensional) and computational fluid dynamics (three-dimensional) simulations. Along with the conceptual design work, experimental activities for the development of critical components such as the pump and flowmeter are undertaken. From both the modeling study and the experimental results, the design requirements of the Phase 1 ELTA-CL (e.g., 500°C and 2 m/s) are achievable with the current conceptual design. Additional design improvements and safety assessments at both steady-state and transient conditions for the final ELTA-CL design will be pursued.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Reinforcement learning for bluff body active flow control in experiments and simulations

Significance Reinforcement learning (RL) has been applied effectively in games and robotic manipulation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of RL in experimental fluid mechanics by applying it to reduce the drag of circular cylinders in turbulent flow, a canonical fluid–structure interaction problem. Although physics agnostic, RL managed to reduce the drag by 30 % or reach another specified optimum point very quickly. Following this discovery, we used high-fidelity simulations to probe the underlying physical mechanisms so that the discovered control techniques can be generalized to other similar flow problems. More broadly, RL-guided active control can lead to efficient exploration of additional flow-control strategies in experimental fluid mechanics, potentially paving the way for accelerating scientific discovery and different designs in flow-related engineering problems.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Solutal-buoyancy-driven intertwining and rotation of patterned elastic sheets

Abstract The intertwining of strands into 3D spirals is ubiquitous in biology, enabling functions from information storage to maintenance of cell structure and directed locomotion. In synthetic systems, entwined fibers can provide superior mechanical properties and act as artificial muscle or structural reinforcements. Unlike structures in nature, the entwinement of synthetic materials typically requires application of an external stimulus, such as mechanical actuation, light, or a magnetic field. Herein, we use computational modeling to design microscale sheets that mimic biology by transducing chemical energy into mechanical action, and thereby self-organize and interlink into 3D spirals, which spontaneously rotate. These flexible sheets are immersed in a fluid-filled microchamber that encompasses an immobilized patch of catalysts on the bottom wall. The sheets themselves can be passive or active (coated with catalyst). Catalytic reactions in the solution generate products that occupy different volumes than the reactants. The resulting density variations exert a force on the fluid (solutal buoyancy force) that causes motion, which in turn drives the interlinking and collective swirling of the sheets. The individual sheets do not rotate; rotation only occurs when the sheets are interlinked. This level of autonomous, coordinated 3D structural organization, intertwining, and rotation is unexpected in synthetic materials systems operating without external controls. Using physical arguments, we identify dimensionless ratios that are useful in scaling these ideas to other systems. These findings are valuable for creating materials that act as “machines”, and directing soft matter to undergo self-sustained, multistep assembly that is governed by intrinsic chemical reactions.

Manna, Raj Kumar (ORCID:0000000322729487)↗
DOE OSTI2020

Neutronic impact of Autonomous Reactivity Control system inclusion in a breed-and-burn core

This work examines the impacts induced in a large breed-and-burn core through the inclusion of Autonomous Reactivity Control (ARC) systems from the neutronics perspective. A combination of numerical and analytical techniques are used to conservatively quantify the reactivity penalty, amount of additional tritium production, and depletion of the system absorber fluid. The reactivity penalty is found to be negligibly small, with the largest impact resulting from the removal of fuel material to make room for the ARC system tubes. Similarly, the depletion of the absorber fluid is found to be negligible compared to the amount of fluid present. It is found that the production of tritium within the active core is also small in comparison to that which is nominally produced, while tritium production within the lower ARC system reservoir may be of concern if not adequately considered during the assembly design phase. This issue is explored and a mitigation technique is proposed. Ultimately this study concludes that there are no issues from the steady-state neutronics perspective preventing incorporation of ARC systems into typical breed-and-burn cores.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Transfer and Flushing Evaluation for Potential Precipitated Solids in the 241-AP-106 to EMF Transfer Pipeline for DFLAW

Waste transfer pipeline flushing is necessary to maintain pipeline performance, but added flush fluid increases the nuclear waste inventory. During the Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) mission, waste transfer lines from the Interim Low-Activity Waste Storage Tank (i.e., 241-AP-106) to the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility must have the capability of being flushed to prevent accumulation of solids and to mitigate corrosion concerns. Operational experience at Hanford has shown that the solids precipitation occurs during processing operations from dilute Hanford liquids. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was requested to evaluate the potential precipitated solid particle transport and flushing operational capabilities of the AP-106 through the Effluent Management Facility (EMF) low-point drain LAW feed pipeline. The evaluation results do not provide operational requirements, but rather provide a scoping basis for understanding the potential operational significance of solids precipitation in the pipeline. The salt and aluminum phase solids most likely to precipitate from the LAW feeds during cooling, evaporation, or mixing have particle densities that are estimated to range from 1.62 to 2.78 g/mL and a spherical particle size range of 8 to 2100 μm, depending on the solid phase considered. Application of the method to calculate the critical deposition velocity required by TFC-ENG-STD-26 at conservatively bounding estimates for the solids concentrations demonstrates that potentially precipitated solids may deposit on the bottom of the transfer pipe invert at the lower LAW feed pipeline flow rate, but the upper LAW feed pipeline flow rate will likely prevent deposition. The system pressure limit for the AP-106 through the EMF low-point drain LAW feed pipeline likely exceeds any pressure loss at a calculated critical deposition velocity even for the most adverse potential precipitated solid. However, should solids settle as a result of no-flow conditions, the flow capabilities of the AP-106 through the EMF low-point drain LAW feed pipeline are shown, based on the available literature, to be potentially inadequate for effective flushing operations to remove solids, even at solids concentrations below the maximum specified for LAW feed. Thus, stepwise solids accumulations over multiple transfers may be an issue, and eventual line plugging may occur. Further inadequacies may potentially be realized should the cohesive nature of certain precipitates be accounted for.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2023

Formation of turing patterns in strongly magnetized electric discharges

Abstract Pattern formation and self-organization in many biological and non-biological systems can be explained through Turing’s activator-inhibitor model. Here we show how this model can be employed to describe the formation of filamentary structures in a low-pressure electric discharge exposed to a strong magnetic field. Theoretical investigation reveals that the fluid equations describing a magnetized plasma can be rearranged to take the mathematical form of Turing’s activator-inhibitor model. Numerical simulations based on the equations derived from this approach could reproduce the various patterns observed in the experiments. Also, it is shown that a density imbalance between electrons and ions exists in the bulk of the magnetized plasma that generates an electric field structure transverse to the applied magnetic field. This electric field is responsible for the stability of the filamentary patterns in the magnetized plasma over time scales much longer than the characteristic time scales of the electric discharge.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Heat transfer and transport property contrast effects on the compressible Rayleigh-Taylor instability

In extreme environments, the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) may occur under large variations in density and temperature and with fluid transport properties strongly dependent on temperature. Direct numerical simulations of the 3D fully compressible RTI are conducted, examining the idealized configuration of a hotter, less dense fluid pushing against a colder, denser fluid. Various temperature ratios and transport property configurations are explored to examine how heat conduction, large variations in transport properties, and sudden changes in transport properties can affect the evolution of the mixing layer. Nonuniform fluid expansion and contraction induced by heat transfer can significantly affect local density differences and overall instability growth, causing profile asymmetries about the initial interface for flow and mixing statistics. The departures from classical self-similar development of the instability along with misalignment between regions of mixing and regions of most intense turbulent activity caused by both heat transfer and transport property contrasts are examined. After sudden changes in fluid transport properties, which may occur as a result of rapid heating (e.g., in inertial confinement fusion), the flow quickly responds and begins to relax towards quasi-self-similar late-time evolution. For many dynamical quantities such as vorticity and dissipation, this late-time evolution resembles that of the configuration that already started with the final transport property magnitudes, suggesting that these quantities depend only on the transport properties and not on past flow history, provided that the density field distributions for the flows remain similar. On the other hand, the mixing evolution after the transport property change is unique, implying that both property magnitudes and previous history are impactful on the mixing. In conclusion, these simulations demonstrate how various temperature-related effects are extremely important to consider in compressible RTI flows with large temperature variations.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Shape-driven, emergent behavior in active particle mixtures

Abstract Active particle systems can vary greatly from one-component systems of spheres to mixtures of particle shapes at different composition ratios. We investigate computationally the combined effect of anisotropy and stoichiometry on the collective behavior of two-dimensional active colloidal mixtures of polygons. We uncover three emergent phenomena not yet reported in active Brownian particle systems. First, we find that mixtures containing hexagons exhibit micro-phase separation with large grains of hexagonal symmetry. We quantify a measurable, implicit ‘steric attraction’ between the active particles as a result of shape anisotropy and activity. This calculation provides further evidence that implicit interactions in active systems, even without explicit attraction, can lead to an effective preferential attraction between particles. Next, we report stable fluid clusters in mixtures containing one triangle or square component. We attribute the fluidization of the dense cluster to the interplay of cluster destabilizing particles, which introduce grain boundaries and slip planes into the system, causing solid-like clusters to break up into fluid clusters. Third, we show that fluid clusters can coexist with solid clusters within a sparse gas of particles in a steady state of three coexisting phases. Our results highlight the potential for a wide variety of behavior to be accessible to active matter systems and establish a route to control active colloidal systems through simple parameter designs.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Analysis of the HAE activity in the TJ-II stellarator using a Landau closure model

The aim of this study is to analyze the stability of helical Alfvén eigenmodes (HAEs) in TJ-II discharges and the stabilizing effect of the energetic particles generated by the neutral beam injector (NBI) on pressure gradient-driven modes (PGDMs). HAE and PGDM stability is studied using the linear version of the gyro-fluid code FAR3d and the continuous structure by the STELLGAP code. First, Alfvén eigenmode (AE) and PGDM activity observed in the experiments is reproduced by the simulations, identifying unstable m/n = 4/7 − 2/3 and 7/12 − 5/8 HAEs triggered around ρ = 0.66 showing a frequency of 209 and 204 kHz, respectively, as well as 5/3 PGDM. Next, a parametric study is performed with respect to the thermal ion density and iota profile in the middle-outer plasma region to verify the robustness of the simulation results with respect to the uncertainty of experimental profiles. The analysis confirms that experimental uncertainty does not cause large deviations in the simulation results, showing the destabilization of the same HAEs for all the configurations tested. The simulations also indicate the decay of the 5/3 PGDM growth rate as the energetic particle (EP) population in the plasma increases, consistent with the experiment. Stability analysis of the n = 3, 7, 11, n = 5, 9, 13, n = 6, 10, 14, and n = 8, 12 helical families is performed with respect to the NBI operational regime for different EP energies, β as well as deposition profiles. The most unstable configuration is the radially localized on-axis NBI operation (stiff EP density profile gradients nearby the magnetic axis). Using the simulation model that reproduces the observed Alfvén activity, we extend the study to analyze NBI performance within a theoretical framework. It shows that increasing NBI voltage (which raises EP energy) leads to a degradation in NBI performance for a given power (related to EP β and their density). To achieve better NBI operation, higher voltage must be balanced with lower injection power, ensuring stable AEs while keeping the same EP β.

Plasma confinement↗