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Technology Summary DNATRAX

DNATrax (DNA Tagged Reagents for Aerosol eXperiments) was developed to provide a safe simulant for understanding the transport and dispersion of pathogens. Specifically, it was developed as a safe surrogate for the Bacillus anthrasis spore bioagent, since most naturally occurring spores are not safe for public release. As DNA-tagged sugar particles, DNATrax aerosols are safe for public release. Scientists can add unique DNA barcode sequences to the sugar particles to produce a wide variety of test particles that can be easily differentiated, making it possible to release and test them simultaneously. The unique barcodes also eliminate the need to conduct decontamination between tests, dramatically reducing the cost and time to run experiments. Additionally, the surrogate offers a high-sensitivity detection method to understand key public health issues. We conducted both lab-based and largescale field studies using DNATrax to validate its capabilities for use as a pathogen surrogate. We have demonstrated the ability to produce DNATrax in a range of sizes, adjusting the microparticles to simulate different sized pathogens with ability to create unique sequences of DNA bases, enabling them to create a nearly unlimited variety of test particles.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Production and tests of the ADDC for the Micromegas detector of the ATLAS New Small Wheel

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will perform a series of upgrades to allow luminosity increases during the next physics runs expected from 2022 on. These will also significantly increase the trigger rates of all the detectors. As part of the ATLAS Phase-I upgrade, the current Small Wheel muon detectors will be replaced with state-of-the-art New Small Wheel (NSW) detectors to cope with the increased luminosity of the LHC. The Address in Real Time Data Driver Card (ADDC) is designed to transmit the trigger data from the resistive Micro-Mesh Gaseous Structure (Micromegas) detectors of the NSW. The ART ASIC on the ADDC is a customdesigned chip to receive theAddress in Real Time (ART) signals from theVMMfront-end ASIC and perform hit-selection processing. The processed trigger data is then sent to the Trigger Processor (TP) through optical links. A total of 512 ADDCs will be installed on the detector close to the front-end boards. Therefore, those cards must be able to work properly in a high radiation and magnetic field environment. Furthermore, after four rounds of prototyping, the ADDC production was launched in January of 2019. 600 ADDC boards have been produced and tested with an automated test stand. This test setup can simulate the front-end signals and provide "Level-1 Data Driver Card" (L1DDC) functions as well as part of the TP functions. Thus, the ADDC functionality and stability can be verified without the remaining NSW electronics. This paper describes the ADDC hardware prototype development, radiation and integration testing, and the ADDC automated production test procedure.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Bench-Scale Testing of a High Efficiency, Ultra-Compact Process for Pre-Combustion CO 2 Capture (Final Report)

The overarching objective of this bench-scale study is to field-validate the technical feasibility of a membrane- and adsorption-enhanced water gas shift (WGS) reaction process that employs a carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membrane reactor (MR) followed by an adsorption reactor (AR) for pre-combustion CO 2 capture while demonstrating progress towards achievement of the overall performance goals of CO 2 capture with 95% CO 2 purity at a cost of electricity (COE) of 30% less than the baseline capture approaches. The main goal of this bench-scale project is to advance the proposed MR-AR transformative CO 2 capture technology to a sufficient maturity level so that our present industrial partners (M&PT and Worley) can potentially adapt the technology for further small pilot-scale testing. The project began at TRL 4, as the system prototype had already been validated in the laboratory on simulated syngas (as part of project DE-FE0026423). The project ended at TRL 5, via scaling-up of the prototype system and testing it on actual syngas at a host site (CAER at the University of Kentucky (UKy)). The project was carried-out in two different phases: In Phase I (during BP1 of the project), the team designed, constructed, and assembled the bench-scale experimental MR-AR system, prepared the membranes, adsorbents, and catalysts, tested the bench-scale unit with simulated syngas to validate functionality, and prepared a preliminary TEA of the technology. In Phase II (during BP2 of the project), the team installed the unit at the test site at the UKy site and completed all utility connections and hookups, field-tested the novel MR-AR process in the bench-scale system using real syngas, collected and analyzed experimental data, and completed a detailed TEA of the technology. A key aim of the project was to identify and address the technical and process risks and to generate information to advance the technology to the next stage of development. All project milestones and success criteria were met. Specifically, the team: (i) designed, constructed and assembled a bench scale system that handled 1 – 5 scfm syngas and tested its functionality with simulated syngas; (ii) prepared high performance CMS membrane tubes (ID: 3.5 mm, OD: 5.7 mm, 30” long) that meet the target H 2 permeance ( > 1 m 3 /(m 2 .hr.bar) or (> 370.3 GPU)) and a target H 2 /CO selectivity >80 at the relevant temperature (up to 300oC) and pressure conditions (up to 25 bar) with a <10% decline in performance over each 250 hr. testing period (iii) procured commercial sour-shift catalyst in sufficient quantity and prepared up to 10 kg of pelletized adsorbent for use at relevant conditions (250oC 2.5wt.% and target sorbent attrition rate < 0.2; (iv) installed the bench-scale unit at the test site (UKy) and tested the MR-AR technology using real syngas for over 250 hr. for both static and flow experiments; (v) updated the TEA analysis based on bench-scale data and met CO 2 capture goals of 95% CO 2 purity at a cost of electricity 30% less than baseline capture approaches. The CMS membranes, HTC adsorbents and catalysts employed all exhibited very robust and stable performance during the long-term run (over a >250 hr live syngas run). Furthermore, the proposed MR-AR IGCC system achieved a LCOE with a N 2 sale price of $\$$ 30/ton, with N 2 compression (no N 2 compression) of 101.2 $\$$/MWh (95.3 $\$$/MWh), which represents a 29.8% (33.9%) LCOE reduction in the baseline IGCC with carbon capture of 144.2 $\$$/MWh. The proposed MR-AR IGCC delivers a CO 2 capture cost of 44.8 $\$$/tonne (39.9 $\$$/tonne) vs 98.1 $\$$/tonne of the baseline capture case and a net power production of 586 MWe (623 MWe) vs 556 MWe of the baseline capture case.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Impact of electron transport models on capillary discharge plasmas

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) can be used to model capillary discharge waveguides in laser-wakefield accelerators. However, the predictive capability of MHD can suffer due to poor microscopic closure models. Here, we study the impact of electron heating and thermal conduction on the capillary waveguide performance as part of an effort to understand and quantify uncertainties in modeling and designing next-generation plasma accelerators. To do so, we perform two-dimensional high-resolution MHD simulations using an argon-filled capillary discharge waveguide with three different electron transport coefficients models. The models tested include (i) Davies et al., (ii) Spitzer, and (iii) Epperlein–Haines (EH). We found that the EH model overestimates the electron temperature inside the channel by over 20% while predicting a lower azimuthal magnetic field. Furthermore, the Spitzer model, often used in MHD simulations for plasma-based accelerators, predicts a significantly higher electron temperature than the other models suggest.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Subsurface Characterization and Machine Learning Predictions at Brady Hot Springs: Preprint

Subsurface data analysis, reservoir modeling, and machine learning (ML) techniques have been applied to the Brady Hot Springs (BHS) geothermal field in Nevada, USA to further characterize the subsurface and assist with optimizing reservoir management. Hundreds of reservoir simulations have been conducted in TETRAD-G and CMG STARS to explore different injection and production fluid flow rates and allocations and to develop a training data set for ML. This process included simulating the historical injection and production since 1979 and prediction of future performance through 2040. ML networks were created and trained using TensorFlow based on multilayer perceptron (MLP), long short-term memory (LSTM), and convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures. These networks took as input selected flow rates, injection temperatures, and historical field operation data and produced estimates of future production temperatures. This approach was first successfully tested on a simplified single fracture doublet system, followed by the application to the BHS reservoir. Using an initial BHS dataset with 37 simulated scenarios, the trained and validated network predicted the production temperature for 6 production wells with the mean absolute percentage error of less than 8%. In a complementary analysis effort, the principal component analysis applied to 13 BHS geological parameters revealed that vertical fracture permeability shows the strongest correlation with fault density and fault intersection density. A new BHS reservoir model was developed considering the fault intersection density as proxy for permeability. This new reservoir model helps to explore under-exploited zones in the reservoir. A data gathering plan to obtain additional subsurface data was developed; it includes temperature surveying for three idle injection wells, at which the reservoir simulations indicate high bottom-hole temperatures. The collected data assist with calibrating the reservoir model and may lead to converting these wells to producers to access under-exploited zones in the reservoir. Data gathering activities are planned for the first quarter of 2021.

40 EE - Geothermal Technologies Office (EE-4G)↗

CMS Full Simulation for Run 3

We report the status of the CMS full simulation for Run 3. During the long shutdown of the LHC a significant update has been introduced to the CMS code for simulation. The CMS geometry description is reviewed. Several important modifications were needed. CMS detector description software is migrated to the DD4Hep community developed tool. We will report on our experience obtained during the process of this migration. Geant4 10.7 is the CMS choice for Run 3 simulation productions. We will discuss arguments for this choice, the strategy of adaptation of a new Geant4 version, and will report on the physics performance of the CMS simulation. A special Geant4 Physics List configuration FTFP_BERT_EMM will be described, which provides a compromise between simulation accuracy and CPU performance. A significant fraction of time for simulation of CMS events is spent on tracking of charged particles in a magnetic field. In the CMS simulation a dynamic choice of Geant4 parameters for tracking in field is implemented. A new method is introduced into simulation of electromagnetic components of hadronic showers in the electromagnetic calorimeter of CMS. For low-energy electrons and positrons a parametrization of GFlash type is applied. Results of tests of this method will be discussed. In summary, we expect about 25% speedup of the CMS simulation production for Run 3 compared to the Run 2 simulations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Sand Migration Simulation during Gas Production from Gas Hydrate Reservoir at Kuparuk 7–11–12 site in the Prodhoe Bay Unit, Alaska

Uncontrolled sand production impedes continuous gas production from a hydrate reservoir as observed in the past field-scale gas production tests. Sand mobilization is strongly linked with sediment deformation and high pressure gradient. Sand production occurs when the mobilized sands reach the well. Throughout gas production from a hydrate reservoir, because of hydrate dissociation, deformation and pressure gradient change both in time and space. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the entire process to identify where sand is likely mobilized and how much mobilized sand could reach the well. Here, this study utilizes a coupled thermal, hydrological, chemical, and mechanical (thermo-hydro-chemo-mechanical) sand migration model to simulate a year long gas production from the hydrate reservoir at the Kuparuk 7–11–12 site in the Prodhoe Bay Unit, Alaska. It is found that sand would mainly come from the lower portion of the production zone where faster hydrate dissociation occurs. The relatively faster hydrate dissociation coupled with the fact that hydrate-bearing sediments and hydrate-free sediments have similar stiffness but different strengths causes complex stress transfer, which results in excessive shear deformation when the upper portion of the production zone starts to dissociate. This is evident not only near the well but also away from the well, leading to a large amount of sand mobilization. Another focus of the modeling study is evaluation of the effect of sand migration on gas production. The comparison of two extreme cases–with sandscreen and without sandscreen–suggests that migrated and settled solids around a sand control device can prevent pressure drop across the near-wellbore zone and lead to reduction of the gas production rate.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Advanced wind turbine control development using field test analysis for generator overspeed mitigation

Abstract Turbulent and gusty wind conditions can cause generator overspeed peaks to exceed a threshold that then lead to wind turbine shutdowns, which then decrease the energy production of the wind turbines. We derive so‐called “gust measures” that predict when generator overspeed peaks may occur. These gust measures are then used to develop advanced controllers to mitigate generator overspeed peaks so that wind turbines can operate more robustly in difficult wind conditions without exceeding generator overspeed thresholds that would lead to turbine shutdown events. The advanced controllers are demonstrated in nonlinear aeroelastic simulations using the open‐source wind turbine simulation tool OpenFAST. To increase the realism of the simulations, they are run using field‐replicated wind conditions and a wind turbine model based on data from an experimental field campaign on a downscaled demonstrator of a novel extreme‐scale, two‐bladed, downwind rotor design.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Design and simulation of a muon detector to characterize geological overburden

This study presents the design, construction, and simulation of a mobile muon detector tailored for geological overburden characterization. The detector employs plastic scintillator paddles with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and a QuarkNet data acquisition system, offering a portable solution suitable for remote field deployment. The simulator’s modular aluminum frame allows for adjustable geometry and directional sensitivity, while its battery system supports over a week of autonomous operation. Preliminary experimental tests confirmed that its muon flux measurements were consistent with theoretical expectations. A comprehensive simulation framework using Geant4 and CORSIKA was developed to model detector response and overburden effects. Analytical and Monte Carlo methods were used to assess quadrant resolution and infer muon directionality. This work lays the foundation for future overburden mapping and supports the development of reconstruction algorithms for geological applications.

72 - PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Constructing field-aligned coordinate systems for gyrokinetic simulations of tokamaks in X-point geometries

Structures in tokamak plasmas are elongated along the direction of the magnetic field and short in the directions perpendicular to the magnetic field. Many tokamak simulation codes take advantage of this by using a field-aligned coordinate system. However, field-aligned coordinate systems have a coordinate singularity at magnetic X-points where the poloidal magnetic field vanishes, which makes it difficult to use field-aligned coordinate systems when simulating the core and scrape-off layer simultaneously. Here, we present an algorithm for grid generation and computing geometric quantities in a standard field-aligned coordinate system that avoids the singularity and allows one to conduct two-dimensional gyrokinetic axisymmetric simulations in X-point geometries. Convergence tests of advection, boundary value problems and geometric quantities all show greater than first-order convergence even in the vicinity of the X-point. We also demonstrate the geometric consistency of our algorithm with an example simulation of the spherical tokamak for energy production, which shows machine-precision particle conservation.

fusion plasma↗

Portable Industrial Control Systems Simulator (Final Report)

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are more integrated than they have ever been before, but also the division between IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) is becoming a grey area. As the integration of IT and OT occurs more often, cyber attack will also increase. Cyber attacks on Critical Infrastructure can be highly detrimental to society, notably via compromised Industrial Control Systems (ICS). Virtual and physical simulation has been used in medical fields, mathematics, architecture, aeronautics, space, and many more. Virtualization & Simulation in a lab environment is ideal because there is a need for the ability to test theories and designs is a safe and cost-effective way without risking equipment damage or, more importantly, human life. Furthermore, OT and ICS are some of the most difficult systems to use for research and development. They are either committed to operations or widely expensive to set up in a life-like environment. Virtualization and simulation will allow these otherwise accessible systems to be a test bed for the training, development, and research of SRNL customers or engineers and scientists at SRNL. This will allow the testbed to fit into a small form factor and interact with a simulator with minimum hardware components for easy transports and replication effort within the environment.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Experimental Validation of a Modular All-Electric Power Take-Off Topology for Wave Energy Converter Enabling Marine Renewable Energy Interconnection

Power electronic converters are an enabling technology for the emerging marine energy applications, such as using ocean waves to produce electricity. This paper outlines the power take-off system and its key components used in a wave energy converter offering modularity and scalability to generate power efficiently. The proposed power take-off system was implemented based on a modular multilevel converter and could be deployed to convert any alternating current electrical energy to a different alternating current for interconnection to grid or non-grid applications. Examples of widespread deployment are supplying electricity to coastal communities or producing clean drinking water. The analysis using both the simulation tests and laboratory experiments verified the design objectives and basic functionality of the developed power take-off system. An acceptable response using a field programmable gate array-based controlled laboratory testbench was achieved, complying with guidelines specified in the prevalent industry standards. Seamless operation during steady-state and transients for the studied wave energy converter was achieved as supported by the obtained results. The key findings of this work were experimentally examined under different load conditions, direct current bus voltage fluctuations, and generator speed–torque regulation. The ability of the power take-off system to generate high-power quality of the waveforms, e.g., against adhering to the IEEE 519-2022 standard for total harmonic distortion limits, is also confirmed.

Engineering↗

Modeling and Characterization of Surface Discharges in Insulating Material for Spacers: Electrode Shape, Discharge Mode, and Revision of the Creepage Concept

In the design of MV AC and DC spacers, the predominant factors are surface and interface conditions. Design is generally carried out on specifications and standards which are based on long-term experience and lab testing. However, the diffusion of power electronics with a trend to increase electric field, switching frequency, and rise time to achieve higher power density calls for an innovative, global approach to optimized insulation system design. A new methodology, based on field simulation, discharge modeling, and partial discharge inception measurements, called the three-leg approach, can form the basis to optimize insulation design for any type of supply voltage waveform. This paper focuses on the influence of the type of electrode on the inception and phenomenology of surface discharges and, as a consequence, on the interpretation of the results used for application of the three-leg approach. It is demonstrated that a typical electrode system used for insulating material testing can generate both gas and surface discharges at the triple point, when the electrodes have a smooth profile that is used to avoid corona or flashover. Hence, testing partial discharge may not provide a straightforward indication of the surface discharge inception and, thus, be partially misleading for insulation design. Another takeover is that such analysis must benefit from PD testing tools endowed with analytics able to provide automatic identification of the type of defect generating PD, i.e., internal, surface, and corona, since design and remedy actions can be taken, and adequate insulating materials developed, only knowing the type of source generating PD. Hence, testing partial discharge may not provide a straightforward indication of surface discharge inception and, thus, be partially misleading for insulation design. In addition to the importance of the three-leg approach to favor reliable and optimized design of insulation systems, there is a clear need to have a PD testing tool endowed with analytics. It should preferably be able to provide automatic identification of the type of defect generating PD, i.e., internal, surface, and corona.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A round bobbin critical current measurement and thermal runaway simulation of REBCO coated conductors

A round bobbin test has been widely used to measure critical current Ic of practical superconductors including Nb–Ti, Nb3Sn, and Bi-2212 round strands at 4.2 K and in high magnetic fields but rarely used for rare earth-barium-copper-oxide (REBCO) coated conductor tapes. Here, we applies this method to REBCO tapes and test their Ic at 77 K, self-field, and 4.2 K with a magnetic field of 14 T applied parallel to the tape. The sample carries very high current densities; it is 1.3 m long and has a dense array of voltage taps that allows probing localized thermal runaways and correlation with Ic variations along the length. At 77 K, the Ic values of all sections were measured and found to be rather uniform. However, at 4.2 K, we found that a 3 cm section has 90% of the overall voltage drop and it went into thermal runaways upon further increasing current. Thus, at 4.2 K, we were prevented by localized thermal runaways and unable to determine Ic of most of the REBCO conductor sections; this behavior is different from Bi-2212 and Bi-2223 for which Ic of all turns of a round barrel sample can be determined. We simulate REBCO tapes during current ramping to a thermal runaway and analyze impacts of various factors including cooling, conductor n-values, and thickness of stabilizer on the thermal runaway current Iq. The combined experiments and simulations identify n-value as a crucial factor that leads to the observed differences between Bi-2212 and REBCO. Together with cooling and the standard deviation of Ic variations along the length, the n-value determines whether Iq is above or below the average Ic of a long piece of conductor and their ratio Iq/Ic,ave, greatly affecting quench detection and thermal runaway prevention strategies of Bi-2212 and REBCO magnets.

Mosat, Marek↗

Magnetic Field Strength from Turbulence Theory. I. Using Differential Measure Approach

The mean plane-of-sky magnetic field strength is traditionally obtained from the combination of polarization and spectroscopic data using the Davis–Chandrasekhar–Fermi (DCF) technique. However, we identify the major problem of the DCF technique to be its disregard of the anisotropic character of MHD turbulence. On the basis of the modern MHD turbulence theory we introduce a new way of obtaining magnetic field strength from observations. Unlike the DCF technique, the new technique uses not the dispersion of the polarization angle and line-of-sight velocities, but increments of these quantities given by the structure functions. To address the variety of astrophysical conditions for which our technique can be applied, we consider turbulence in both media with magnetic pressure higher than the gas pressure, corresponding, e.g., to molecular clouds, and media with gas pressure higher than the magnetic pressure, corresponding to the warm neutral medium. We provide general expressions for arbitrary admixtures of Alfvén, slow, and fast modes in these media and consider in detail particular cases relevant to diffuse media and molecular clouds. We successfully test our results using synthetic observations obtained from MHD turbulence simulations. We demonstrate that our differential measure approach, unlike the DCF technique, can be used to measure the distribution of magnetic field strengths, can provide magnetic field measurements with limited data, and is much more stable in the presence of induced large-scale variations of nonturbulent nature. Furthermore, our study uncovers the deficiencies of earlier DCF research.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Towards testing the theory of gravity with DESI: summary statistics, model predictions and future simulation requirements

Shortly after its discovery, General Relativity (GR) was applied to predict the behavior of our Universe on the largest scales, and later became the foundation of modern cosmology. Its validity has been verified on a range of scales and environments from the Solar system to merging black holes. However, experimental confirmations of GR on cosmological scales have so far lacked the accuracy one would hope for — its applications on those scales being largely based on extrapolation and its validity there sometimes questioned in the shadow of the discovery of the unexpected cosmic acceleration. Future astronomical instruments surveying the distribution and evolution of galaxies over substantial portions of the observable Universe, such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), will be able to measure the fingerprints of gravity and their statistical power will allow strong constraints on alternatives to GR. In this paper, based on a set of N-body simulations and mock galaxy catalogs, we study the predictions of a number of traditional and novel summary statistics beyond linear redshift distortions in two well-studied modified gravity models — chameleon f(R) gravity and a braneworld model — and the potential of testing these deviations from GR using DESI. These summary statistics employ a wide array of statistical properties of the galaxy and the underlying dark matter field, including two-point and higher-order statistics, environmental dependence, redshift space distortions and weak lensing. We find that they hold promising power for testing GR to unprecedented precision. The major future challenge is to make realistic, simulation-based mock galaxy catalogs for both GR and alternative models to fully exploit the statistic power of the DESI survey (by matching the volumes and galaxy number densities of the mocks to those in the real survey) and to better understand the impact of key systematic effects. Using these, we identify future simulation and analysis needs for gravity tests using DESI.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Edge-localized-mode simulation in CFETR steady-state scenario

We report the EPED1 model and self-consistent core-pedestal coupling in integrated modeling are used to design the pedestal structure of the China Fusion Engineering Testing Reactor (CFETR) steady-state scenario. The key parameters, such as β p and q 95 , are based on the grassy edge-localized-mode (ELM) experimental database. In this work, we use the BOUT++ six-field two-fluid code to simulate the onset of the ELM in the CFETR steady-state scenario. The ELM size is around 0.2% in nonlinear simulations, which is in the experimental range of the grassy ELM discharges, 0.1%–1% observed in multiple tokamak devices. Linear and nonlinear simulations show that the dominant high-n ballooning modes peak around n = 40. Compared to type-I ELM crashing dynamics, grassy ELM crashing has a smaller initial crash and is then followed by three phases of turbulence spreading, which are dominated by multi-modes, a high-n mode of n = 45 and low-n mode of n = 5, respectively. In contras to type-I ELM, the perturbation of the high-n mode has a narrow width around ψ = 0.95, and magnetic island formation and reconnection occur only beyond ψ = 0.95, leading to a small initial crash. Mode–mode interaction in the multi-mode coexistence stage stops the growth of individual modes and reduces the transport of particles and heat, and these are the two reasons why the ELM size is small. In–out asymmetry of transient heat flux with a ratio of E out /E in = 3.5 is found during grassy ELM crash. The rise and delay times of the heat flux match the calculation from the free-streaming model. To evaluate the erosion of the divertor target, the energy fluence at the outer divertor target is calculated, which is 0.029 MJ m -2 , 5.5 times smaller than the tungsten melting limit 0.16 MJ m -2 . The calculated energy fluency still follows the experimental scaling law from type-I ELM experiments. The fluctuation eddies in the toroidal direction show a filament structure at the outer mid-plane. Parallel heat flux patterns with a toroidal mode number n = 10 are found at the outer divertor with an amplitude of 680 MW m -2 .

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Performance of Michigan sMDT prototype chambers for the HL-LHC ATLAS muon detector upgrade

A new small-diameter Monitored Drift Tube (sMDT) chamber has been developed for the muon spectrometer of the ATLAS experiment to handle the higher collision rates expected at the CERN High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). This paper presents measurements of the tracking resolution and hit efficiency of two prototype sMDT chambers constructed at the University of Michigan. Using cosmic-ray muons the sMDT tracking resolution of 103.7 ± 8.1 μm was measured for one chamber and 101.8 ± 7.8 μm for the other, compared with a design resolution of 106 μm. A further tracking resolution improvement to 83.4 ± 7.8 μm was obtained by using new high-gain readout electronics which will be added for HL-LHC. An average tracking efficiency of (98.5 ± 0.2)% was found for both chambers. The methodology used to determine the detector tracking resolution and efficiency, including reconstruction of sMDT data and a Geant4 simulation of the test chamber, is presented in detail.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗