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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 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Quantifying uncertainties in crystal electric field Hamiltonian fits to neutron data

We systematically examine uncertainties from fitting rare earth single-ion crystal electric field (CEF) Hamiltonians to inelastic neutron scattering data. Using pyrochlore and delafossite structures as test cases, we find that uncertainty in CEF parameters can be large despite visually excellent fits. These results show Yb ^{3+} 3 + compounds have particularly large g g -tensor uncertainty because of the few available peaks. In such cases, additional constraints are necessary for meaningful fits.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

PBX9502 PAGOSA/SURF Calibration for 100 µm Grid Size

There are two methods to calibrate the SURF reactive burn explosives model.The first is to calibrate using Pop plot data. Because there are only two main parameters in SURF, called A and B, there is just enough flexibility in SURF to determine the Pop plot line, i.e., equivalent information to a slope and a single point on the line. However, due to the linearity of the Pop plot being based on logarithmic scales, a slight deviation off the Pop plot (though the fit to the Pop plot might be very good overall) can make considerable difference when comparing with the velocity profile data. The second calibration method thusly focuses strongly on matching entire velocity profile data. This is to say that individual velocity profiles extracted from embedded gages (in the case of PBX 9502, we refer to R. Gustavsen’s experimental data) may fit poorly, while the overall fit to the Pop plot may seem reasonable. In addition, there are other factors that could produce slightly different calibrations for SURF, while leading to an overall acceptable fit to data. One of those may be the physics code used and here we use Pagosa. Another is mesh size dependence. A third one stems from fitting a reactive burn model being done in conjunction with an equation of state (EOS) of the reactants and one for the products – different EOS can result in slightly different parameterizations. Finally, there are several secondary material parameters in SURF, and the overall fit will depend on the entire parameterization. The goal of this report is to clarify some of our previously made statements about SURF calibration, as well as to redo a systematic calibration using 100 µm grid resolution.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Blunt Impact Brain Injury using Cellular Injury Criterion

The Advanced Combat Helmet (\ACH") military specification (\mil-spec") requires a helmeted magnesium (\Mg") Department of Transportation (\DOT") headform be dropped vertically, with an impact speed of 3.1 m/s (10 ft/s), onto a steel hemispherical target. The pass/fail criteria are based on translational acceleration (150 G) alone, absent of any rotational component. Without a rotational component, the specification's injury risk application is limited to skull fracture and peripheral hematomas (subdural, subarachnoid), since this translational acceleration injury risk assessment is based on the Wayne State Tolerance Curve (\WSTC"). To provide a more comprehensive view of injury for the entire brain, an alternative approach is needed. To meet this need, we worked with a larger group called PANTHER, a collaboration between national laboratories, industry, and academia. Collaborations specific to research and results presented here come from efforts led by Mr. Ron Szalkowski and Mr. Sushant Malave, Ms. Alice Fawzi, and Dr. Christian Franck. We have developed a prototypical injury risk criterion based on the neuronal response to abrupt changes in general motion (translation, rotation, or both). The cellular-based mild traumatic brain injury (\cbmTBI") criterion utilizes both the strain and strain rate of brain tissue to account for the stretch and rate of stretch that occurs throughout the brain as a result of blunt impact to the head. We conducted physical experiments of an ACH-fitted magnesium headform, which produced repeatable headform peak accelerations. Then, we developed a simulation of the experiment, and validated the simulation output with the experimental data. We then substituted the magnesium headform with a human headform, consisting of skin, muscle, bone, gray matter, white matter, cerebral-spinal fluid, membranes, vasculature, intravertebral discs, airway and sinus. We quantified brain injury risk using the cbmTBI criterion, using the current mil-spec test and a modified test. The modified mil-spec test used an inclined anvil target that was located posterior to the crown of the helmet in the axial plane. While the current mil-spec test produced brain deformation from head translation alone, the modified test produced brain deformation from head translation and rotation, which is closer to most real world and combat theater impacts (e.g., such as occur in tertiary blast exposure). Compared to the current mil-spec test, the modified test produced elevated strains in the human digital twin. These data, mapped to the cbmTBI criterion, suggest increased injury risk for blunt impacts that cause rotation and translation, rather than just translation alone. Moreover, these data may lead to a rotational performance metric, which is rooted in the biology and pathology of the brain's response to impact and blast, and which should be used to improve next-generation helmet designs.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1992

Direct electric field heating and acceleration of electrons in solar flares

We show that the observed properties of solar flare X-ray and microwave emission can be explained through the Joule heating and electric field acceleration of runaway electrons in current channels. The global properties of the flaring region required for this are presented. We have fit a hybrid thermal/nonthermal electron distribution, consisting of hot, isothermal electrons with a nonthermal tail of runaway electrons, to high-resolution hard X-ray and microwave spectra and have obtained excellent fits to both. The hybrid model relaxes the electron number and energy flux requirements for the hard X-ray emission over those of a purely nonthermal model. The model also provides explanations for several previously unexplained aspects of the high-resolution microwave spectra. The fit parameters can be related to physical properties (such as the electric field strength in the current channels) of the acceleration region.

Holman, Gordon D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Using FU Orionis outbursts to constrain self-regulated protostellar disk models

One-dimensional, convective, vertical structure models and one dimensional time-dependent, radial diffusion models are combined to create a self-consistent picture in which FU Orionis outbursts occur in young stellar objects (YSOs) as the result of a large-scale, self-regulated, thermal ionization instability in the surrounding protostellar accretion disk. Although active accretion disks have long been postulated to be ubiqitous among low-mass YSOs, few constraints have until now been imposed on physical conditions in these disks. By fitting the results of time-dependent disk models to observed timescales of FU Orionis events, we estimate the magnitude of the effective viscous stress in the inner disk (r approximately less than 1 AU) to be, in accordance with an ad hoc 'alpha' prescription, the product of the local sound speed, pressure scale height, and an efficiency factor alpha of 10(exp -4) where hydrogen is neutral and 10(exp 3) where hydrogen is ionized. We hypothesize that all YSOs receive infall onto their outer disks which is steady (or slowly declining with time) and that FU Orionis outbursts are self-regulated, disk outbursts which occur only in systems which transport matter inward at a rate sufficiently high to cause hydrogen to be ionized in the inner disk. We estimate a critical mass flux of dm(sub crit)/dt = 5 x 10(exp 7) solar mass/yr independent of the magnitude of alpha for systems with one solar mass, three solar radius central objects. Infall accretion rates in the range of dm(sub in)/dt = 1-10) x 10(exp -6) solar mass/yr produce observed FU Orionis timescales consistent with estimates of spherical molecular cloud core collapse rates. Modeled ionization fronts are typically initiated near the inner edge of the disk and propogate out to a distance of several tens of stellar radii. Beyond this region, the disk transports mass steadily inward at the supplied constant infall rate. Mass flowing through the innermost disk annulus is equal to dm(sub in)/dt only in a time-averaged sense and is regulated by the ionization of hydrogen in the inner disk such that long intervals (approximately 1000 yr) of low-mass flux: (1-30) x 10(exp -8) solar mass/yr are punctuated by short intervals (approximately 100 yr) of high-mass flux: (1-30) x 10(exp -5) solar mass/yr. Timescales and mass fluxes derived for quiescent and outburst stages are consistent with estimates from observations of T Tauri and FU Orionis systems, respectively.

Bell, K. R.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Measurements and Modeling of Soot Formation and Radiation in Microgravity Jet Diffusion Flames

This is a computational and experimental study for soot formation and radiative heat transfer in jet diffusion flames under normal gravity (1-g) and microgravity (0-g) conditions. Instantaneous soot volume fraction maps are measured using a full-field imaging absorption technique developed by the authors. A compact, self-contained drop rig is used for microgravity experiments in the 2.2-second drop tower facility at NASA Lewis Research Center. On modeling, we have coupled flame structure and soot formation models with detailed radiation transfer calculations. Favre-averaged boundary layer equations with a k-e-g turbulence model are used to predict the flow field, and a conserved scalar approach with an assumed Beta-pdf are used to predict gaseous species mole fraction. Scalar transport equations are used to describe soot volume fraction and number density distributions, with formation and oxidation terms modeled by one-step rate equations and thermophoretic effects included. An energy equation is included to couple flame structure and radiation analyses through iterations, neglecting turbulence-radiation interactions. The YIX solution for a finite cylindrical enclosure is used for radiative heat transfer calculations. The spectral absorption coefficient for soot aggregates is calculated from the Rayleigh solution using complex refractive index data from a Drude- Lorentz model. The exponential-wide-band model is used to calculate the spectral absorption coefficient for H20 and C02. It is shown that when compared to results from true spectral integration, the Rosseland mean absorption coefficient can provide reasonably accurate predictions for the type of flames studied. The soot formation model proposed by Moss, Syed, and Stewart seems to produce better fits to experimental data and more physically sound than the simpler model by Khan et al. Predicted soot volume fraction and temperature results agree well with published data for a normal gravity co-flow laminar flames and turbulent jet flames. Predicted soot volume fraction results also agree with our data for 1-g and 0-g laminar jet names as well as 1-g turbulent jet flames.

Ku, Jerry C.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Improving Photometry and Stellar Signal Preservation with Pixel-Level Systematic Error Correction

The Kepler Mission has demonstrated that excellent stellar photometric performance can be achieved using apertures constructed from optimally selected CCD pixels. The clever methods used to correct for systematic errors, while very successful, still have some limitations in their ability to extract long-term trends in stellar flux. They also leave poorly correlated bias sources, such as drifting moiré pattern, uncorrected. We will illustrate several approaches where applying systematic error correction algorithms to the pixel time series, rather than the co-added raw flux time series, provide significant advantages. Examples include, spatially localized determination of time varying moiré pattern biases, greater sensitivity to radiation-induced pixel sensitivity drops (SPSDs), improved precision of co-trending basis vectors (CBV), and a means of distinguishing the stellar variability from co-trending terms even when they are correlated. For the last item, the approach enables physical interpretation of appropriately scaled coefficients derived in the fit of pixel time series to the CBV as linear combinations of various spatial derivatives of the pixel response function (PRF). We demonstrate that the residuals of a fit of soderived pixel coefficients to various PRF-related components can be deterministically interpreted in terms of physically meaningful quantities, such as the component of the stellar flux time series which is correlated with the CBV, as well as, relative pixel gain, proper motion and parallax. The approach also enables us to parameterize and assess the limiting factors in the uncertainties in these quantities.

Kolodzijczak, Jeffrey J.↗
DOE OSTI2020

CheKiPEUQ Intro 1: Bayesian Parameter Estimation Considering Uncertainty or Error from both Experiments and Theory**

A common goal is extraction of physico-chemical parameter values such as pre-exponentials and activation energies from experiment. Ever increasing knowledge from experiments and computations is enabling semi-quantitative prior predictions of such values. When prior knowledge of physically realistic ranges is available, a method named Bayesian parameter estimation (BPE) enables more physically realistic parameter estimation relative to unsophisticated fitting by seeking the most probable value when considering together the uncertainties from prior knowledge, experimental data, and approximations in the model. An impediment to widespread use of BPE is a lack of understanding, training, and user-friendly software. Along with this invited publication, a general software package for BPE is being released that is user-friendly and that does not require understanding of the math behind the methodology. Overall, two previously unpublished catalysis science examples are provided along with considerations and guidelines for successful application of BPE. Following this work, BPE can become more widespread to enable extraction of physically meaningful parameter values.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1985

JMOSFET: A MOSFET parameter extractor with geometry-dependent terms

The parameters from metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) that are included on the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) test chips need to be extracted to have a simple but comprehensive method that can be used in wafer acceptance, and to have a method that is sufficiently accurate that it can be used in integrated circuits. A set of MOSFET parameter extraction procedures that are directly linked to the MOSFET model equations and that facilitate the use of simple, direct curve-fitting techniques are developed. In addition, the major physical effects that affect MOSFET operation in the linear and saturation regions of operation for devices fabricated in 1.2 to 3.0 mm CMOS technology are included. The fitting procedures were designed to establish single values for such parameters as threshold voltage and transconductance and to provide for slope matching between the linear and saturation regions of the MOSFET output current-voltage curves. Four different sizes of transistors that cover a rectangular-shaped region of the channel length-width plane are analyzed.

Buehler, M. G.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Spurious Point Source Signals in the Galactic Center Excess

We reexamine evidence that the Galactic Center Excess (GCE) originates primarily from point sources (PSs). Here, we show that in our region of interest, non-Poissonian template fitting evidence for GCE PSs is an artifact of unmodeled north-south asymmetry of the GCE. This asymmetry is strongly favored by the fit (although it is unclear if this is physical), and when it is allowed, the preference for PSs becomes insignificant. We reproduce this behavior in simulations, including detailed properties of the spurious PS population. We conclude that the non-Poissonian template fitting evidence for GCE PSs is highly susceptible to certain systematic errors and should not at present be taken to robustly disfavor a dominantly smooth GCE.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Observations of a plectonemic configuration in a stable magnetized plasma jet

Astrophysical jets are collimated high-speed outflows emerging from spinning and accreting matter around celestial objects and may spontaneously result from self-organized processes. Magnetic self-organization is commonly observed in laboratory plasma physics experiments; however, they require close-fitting flux conservers to constrain and stabilize the toroidal or cylindrical structures. Here we report the first observations of a long, stable, free-boundary plasma jet far from chamber walls, embedding a double-helix magnetic structure resembling a force-free plectonemic Taylor state. The jets arise from an experimental setup that mimics an accretion disk and has no close-fitting solid flux conserver. The results support the hypothesis that self-organization could be a universal, intrinsic explanation for jet formation, collimation, and stability and may help explain double-helix features in celestial observations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1985

The physical implications of an isothermal model for the hot intracluster medium

HEAO-1 A-2 and Einstein Observatory IPC observations of 15 clusters of galaxies have been used to measure the isothermal beta-model parameters, and the parameters are compared with those derived from model fits to the X-ray images. The physical constraints imposed on this model by existing optical data, the implied gas mass, and the gas contribution to the binding cluster mass are addressed. Values of beta less than unity are obtained, consistent with results from X-ray imaging data. This is interpreted to imply that the gas extends out to 8-10 core radii, about 2-3 Mpc. The isothermal gas mass can be as large as 60 percent of the virial mass for some clusters. This contradicts the fundamental assumption that the cluster potential is determined by an unseen mass which is given by the King approximation to an isothermal sphere, and it is concluded that the isothermal model is a nonphysical model.

Henriksen, M. J.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Precise Modeling of a Complex Solenoidal Magnetic Field Using a Combination of Analytic Functions and a PINN

We demonstrate an iterative approach to modeling a sparsely measured magnetic field in a large-bore solenoid. This approach uses a hybrid of traditional and machine learning techniques. The traditional technique is a linear least-squares fit using a series solution to Laplace's equation, while the machine learning technique involves the training of a physics-informed neural network (PINN) on the least-squares fit residuals. We use a newly defined activation function "DELTAsnake," a modification to the snake activation function proposed by Ziyin et al. that allows for stronger curvature and non-monotonicity. The combined model approximately obeys Maxwell's equations to a level sufficient for producing high quality physics simulations and analysis. Our approach is applied to a highly realistic calculation of the expected magnetic field in the Mu2e experiment's Detector Solenoid which includes a simple model for the expected statistical measurement uncertainties. Using ten toy measurement simulations, we demonstrate the capabilities of our model in comparison to the least-squares method alone; the least-squares method alone results in a reduced chi-squared statistic of ${2.15 \pm 0.01}$, while our approach improves the reduced chi-square to ${1.034 \pm 0.005}$. Furthermore, for an average toy simulation, we show that the range of the RMS of the three field component residuals reduces from ${0.07-0.37}$ Gauss to ${0.05-0.07}$ Gauss. We find that this novel method is robust against a realistic systematic uncertainty deriving from Hall probe calibration bias and can be used to significantly reduce the number of measurements required to achieve an accurate model.

Kampa, Cole [Caltech] (ORCID:0000000192972920)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Data-driven modeling of dislocation mobility from atomistics using physics-informed machine learning

Dislocation mobility, which dictates the response of dislocations to an applied stress, is a fundamental property of crystalline materials that governs the evolution of plastic deformation. Traditional approaches for deriving mobility laws rely on phenomenological models of the underlying physics, whose free parameters are in turn fitted to a small number of intuition-driven atomic scale simulations under varying conditions of temperature and stress. This tedious and time-consuming approach becomes particularly cumbersome for materials with complex dependencies on stress, temperature, and local environment, such as body-centered cubic crystals (BCC) metals and alloys. In this paper, we present a novel, uncertainty quantification-driven active learning paradigm for learning dislocation mobility laws from automated high-throughput large-scale molecular dynamics simulations, using Graph Neural Networks (GNN) with a physics-informed architecture. We demonstrate that this Physics-informed Graph Neural Network (PI-GNN) framework captures the underlying physics more accurately compared to existing phenomenological mobility laws in BCC metals.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Fluid-Structure Interaction Simulations Of Supersonic Parachute Inflation: Model Sensitivities

Fluid-structure interaction simulations have the potential to accelerate the certification process of parachute systems for interplanetary robotic exploration missions while helping to mitigate risks by covering a wider range of scenarios than can be flight tested. The Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics team is working toward actualizing this potential by further developing the capability to perform such fluid-structure interaction simulations and validating it with the best supersonic parachute flight test data available. We perform several simulations of the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiments’ third flight test (SR03) where we independently vary several parameters to determine their sensitivity on the predicted drag. We investigate sensitivity of the drag to the added mass of the confluence fitting, to the effective porosity, to how the gore seams are modeled, to viscous effects, and to deceleration. Modeling the added mass of the confluence fitting has virtually no impact on the drag, but is worthwhile to include to better match the overall system’s mass, which is important for the simulations with deceleration. Parachute drag is only marginally sensitive to porosity and viscous effects. Maximum parachute drag is most sensitive to how the gore seams are modeled, causing a nearly 20% drop when they are modeled as stiffer radials, and to deceleration, causing an additional 10% reduction. Results show improved agreement with flight test measurements when the FSI model is closest to the as-built configuration and physics experienced in flight: with the confluence fitting, viscous effects, the gore seams modeled as stiff radials, and including deceleration.

ESM↗
DOE OSTI2023

Fitting a deep generative hadronization model

Hadronization is a critical step in the simulation of high-energy particle and nuclear physics experiments. As there is no first principles understanding of this process, physically-inspired hadronization models have a large number of parameters that are fit to data. Deep generative models are a natural replacement for classical techniques, since they are more flexible and may be able to improve the overall precision. Proof of principle studies have shown how to use neural networks to emulate specific hadronization when trained using the inputs and outputs of classical methods. However, these approaches will not work with data, where we do not have a matching between observed hadrons and partons. In this paper, we develop a protocol for fitting a deep generative hadronization model in a realistic setting, where we only have access to a set of hadrons in data. Our approach uses a variation of a Generative Adversarial Network with a permutation invariant discriminator. We find that this setup is able to match the hadronization model in Herwig with multiple sets of parameters. This work represents a significant step forward in a longer term program to develop, train, and integrate machine learning-based hadronization models into parton shower Monte Carlo programs.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Direct cosmological inference from three-dimensional correlations of the Lyman α forest

ABSTRACT When performing cosmological inference, standard analyses of the Lyman α (Ly α) three-dimensional correlation functions only consider the information carried by the distinct peak produced by baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). In this work, we address whether this compression is sufficient to capture all the relevant cosmological information carried by these functions. We do this by performing a direct fit to the full shape, including all physical scales without compression, of synthetic Ly α autocorrelation functions and cross-correlations with quasars at effective redshift zeff = 2.3, assuming a DESI-like survey, and providing a comparison to the classic method applied to the same data set. Our approach leads to a $3.5{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ constraint on the matter density ΩM, which is about three to four times better than what BAO alone can probe. The growth term fσ8(zeff) is constrained to the $10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ level, and the spectral index ns to $\sim 3-4{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. We demonstrate that the extra information resulting from our ‘direct fit’ approach, except for the ns constraint, can be traced back to the Alcock–Paczynski effect and redshift space distortion information.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1984

The 3000 A bump in quasars

New observations of the 3000 A bump in quasars are presented and some simple considerations regarding its physical origin are addressed. Absolute spectrophotometry of 30 quasars with redshifts between 0.53 and 0.70 was obtained with the multichannel spectrometer on the 5 m Hale telescope with a rest wavelength coverage of 2000-5000 A. The continuum observations are well represented by a single power law plus a smooth, broad bump and superposed Fe II multiplets. The strength of the bump correlates fairly well with that of H-beta but poorly with those of the Mg II and Fe II lines. Models consisting of a power law and optically thick hydrogen continua with temperatures of about 12,000 K, and Balmer-edge optical depths equal to three fit the observed energy distributions well. The physical conditions and continuum emission of a dense slab of hydrogen heated by gamma rays are analyzed.

Oke, J. B.↗