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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 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Reflection and refraction of directrons at the interface

Reflection and refraction are ubiquitous phenomena with extensive applications, yet minimizing energy loss and information distortion during these processes remains a significant challenge. This study examines the behavior of structurally stable solitons, known as directrons, in nematic liquid crystals interacting with an interface where the director field orientation changes, despite identical physical properties, external potentials, and boundary anchoring in the two regions. During reflection and refraction, the directrons maintain nearly constant structure and velocity, ensuring energy conservation and information integrity. Microscopic analyses of the director field and macroscopic evaluations of effective potential are employed to elucidate the dependence of reflection and refraction probabilities on the directron’s incident angle and the orientation difference across the interface. The findings provide valuable insights into the dynamics of solitary waves in structured liquid crystal systems, offering significant implications for the development of tunable photonic devices, reconfigurable optical systems, and nanoscale material engineering.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Spatially distributed atmospheric boundary layer properties in Houston – A value-added observational dataset

Abstract In 2022, Houston, TX became a nexus for field campaigns aiming to further our understanding of the feedbacks between convective clouds, aerosols and atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) properties. Houston’s proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and Galveston Bay motivated the collection of spatially distributed observations to disentangle coastal and urban processes. This paper presents a value-added ABL dataset derived from observations collected by eight research teams over 46 days between 2 June - 18 September 2022. The dataset spans 14 sites distributed within a ~80-km radius around Houston. Measurements from three types of instruments are analyzed to objectively provide estimates of nine ABL parameters, both thermodynamic (potential temperature, and relative humidity profiles and thermodynamic ABL depth) and dynamic (horizontal wind speed and direction, mean vertical velocity, updraft and downdraft speed profiles, and dynamical ABL depth). Contextual information about cloud occurrence is also provided. The dataset is prepared on a uniform time-height grid of 1 h and 30 m resolution to facilitate its use as a benchmark for forthcoming numerical simulations and the fundamental study of atmospheric processes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Topological orders of monopoles and hedgehogs: From electronic and magnetic spin-orbit coupling to quarks

Topological states of matter are, generally, quantum liquids of conserved topological defects. We establish this by constructing and analyzing topological field theories which introduce gauge fields to describe the dynamics of singularities in the original field configurations. In this work, homotopy groups are utilized to identify topologically protected singularities, and the conservation of their protected number is captured by a topological action term that unambiguously obtains from the given set of symmetries. Stable phases of these theories include quantum liquids with emergent massless Abelian and non-Abelian gauge fields, as well as topological orders with long-range quantum entanglement, fractional excitations, boundary modes, and unconventional responses to external perturbations. This paper focuses on the derivation of topological field theories and basic phenomenological characterization of topological orders associated with homotopy groups π n (S n ), n ≥ 1 . These homotopies govern monopole and hedgehog topological defects in d = n + 1 dimensions, and enable the generalization of both weakly interacting and fractional quantum Hall liquids of vortices to d > 2 . Hedgehogs have not been in the spotlight so far, but they are particularly important defects of magnetic moments because they can be stimulated in realistic systems with spin-orbit coupling, such as chiral magnets and d = 3 topological materials. We predict topological orders in systems with U(1) × Spin(d) symmetry in which fractional electric charge attaches to hedgehogs. Monopoles, the analogous defects of charge or generic U(1) currents, may bind to hedgehogs via Zeeman effect, or effectively emerge in purely magnetic systems. The latter can lead to spin liquids with different topological orders than that of the resonant valence bond spin liquid. Charge fractionalization of quarks in atomic nuclei is also seen as possibly arising from the charge-hedgehog attachment.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Relativistic Shear Boundary Layer and the Gamma-Ray Emission of GW170817

We present an analysis of the radiation characteristics of kinetic shear boundary layers created by relativistic plasma jets. Using a model of electromagnetic field data based on particle-in-cell simulations of an electron–ion plasma, we solve the motion of individual test electrons and compute their instantaneous radiated power and peak frequency. By analyzing a large number of test electrons in this manner, we find two distinct electron populations present around the shear boundary layer. The most highly radiative electrons execute looping motion due to crossed electric and magnetic fields as they are accelerated along the bulk flow of the jet, and eventually cross the shear boundary interface at steep angles. Electrons that never cross the shear boundary interface radiate much less energy as a group. Summing over all of the highly radiative electrons, we compute the distribution of the total radiated energy as a function of the angle relative to the bulk flow. Furthermore, this result has important potential implications for the observed radiation output of short gamma-ray bursts viewed at large angles from the jet axis, such as the neutron star merger event GW170817/GRB 170817A.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantifying wind plant blockage under stable atmospheric conditions

Wind plant blockage reduces the wind velocity upstream undermining turbine performance for the first row of the plant. We assess how atmospheric stability modifies the induction zone of a wind plant in flat terrain. We also explore different approaches to quantifying the magnitude and extent of the induction zone from field-like observations. To investigate the influence from atmospheric stability, we compare simulations of two stable boundary layers using the Weather Research and Forecasting model in large-eddy simulation mode, representing wind turbines using the generalized actuator disk approach. We find a faster cooling rate at the surface, which produces a stronger stably stratified boundary layer, amplifies the induction zone of both an isolated turbine and of a large wind plant. A statistical analysis on the hub-height wind speed field shows wind slowdowns only extend far upstream (up to 15D) of a wind plant in strong stable boundary layers. To evaluate different ways of measuring wind plant blockage from field-like observations, we consider various ways of estimating the freestream velocity upstream of the plant. Sampling a large area upstream is the most accurate approach to estimating the freestream conditions, and thus of measuring the blockage effect. Also, the choice of sampling method may induce errors of the same order as the velocity deficit in the induction zone.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

INGRID: An interactive grid generator for 2D edge plasma modeling

A fusion boundary-plasma domain is defined by axisymmetric magnetic surfaces where the geometry is often complicated by the presence of one or more X-points; and modeling boundary plasmas usually relies on computational grids that account for the magnetic field geometry. The new grid generator INGRID (Interactive Grid Generator) presented in this work is a Python-based code for calculating grids for fusion boundary plasma modeling, for a variety of configurations with one or two X-points in the domain. INGRID first performs partitioning over the domain consisting of a small number of patches conforming to the magnetic field and wall geometry; then it generates a subgrid on each of the patches and joins them into a global grid. This domain partitioning strategy makes possible a uniform treatment of various configurations with one or two X-points in the domain. This includes single-null, double-null, and other configurations with two X-points in the domain. The INGRID design allows generating grids either interactively, via a parameter-file driven GUI, or using a non-interactive script-controlled workflow. Results of testing demonstrate that INGRID is a flexible, robust, and user-friendly grid-generation tool for fusion boundary-plasma modeling.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Impact of the Out‐Of‐Plane Flow Shear on Magnetic Reconnection at the Flanks of Earth's Magnetopause

Abstract Magnetic reconnection changes the magnetic field topology and facilitates the energy and particle exchange at magnetospheric boundaries such as the Earth's magnetopause. The flow shear perpendicular to the reconnecting plane prevails at the flank magnetopause under southward interplanetary magnetic field conditions. However, the effect of the out‐of‐plane flow shear on asymmetric reconnection is an open question. In this study, we utilize kinetic simulations to investigate the impact of the out‐of‐plane flow shear on asymmetric reconnection. By systematically varying the flow shear strength, we analyze the flow shear effects on the reconnection rate, the diffusion region structure, and the energy conversion rate. We find that the reconnection rate increases with the upstream out‐of‐plane flow shear, and for the same upstream conditions, it is higher at the dusk side than at the dawn side. The diffusion region is squeezed in the outflow direction due to magnetic pressure which is proportional to the square of the Alfvén Mach number of the shear flow. The out‐of‐plane flow shear increases the energy conversion rate , and for the same upstream conditions, the magnitude of is larger at the dusk side than at the dawn side. This study reveals that out‐of‐plane flow shear not only enhances the reconnection rate but also significantly boosts energy conversion, with more pronounced effects on the dusk‐side flank than on the dawn‐side flank. These insights pave the way for better understanding the solar wind‐magnetosphere interactions.

Liang, Haoming↗
DOE OSTI2020

Landau diagrams in AdS and S-matrices from conformal correlators

Quantum field theories in AdS generate conformal correlation functions on the boundary, and in the limit where AdS is nearly flat one should be able to extract an S-matrix from such correlators. We discuss a particularly simple position-space procedure to do so. It features a direct map from boundary positions to (on-shell) momenta and thereby relates cross ratios to Mandelstam invariants. This recipe succeeds in several examples, includes the momentum-conserving delta functions, and can be shown to imply the two proposals in based on Mellin space and on the OPE data. Interestingly the procedure does not always work: the Landau singularities of a Feynman diagram are shown to be part of larger regions, to be called ‘bad regions’, where the flat-space limit of the Witten diagram diverges. To capture these divergences we introduce the notion of Landau diagrams in AdS. As in flat space, these describe on-shell particles propagating over large distances in a complexified space, with a form of momentum conservation holding at each bulk vertex. As an application we recover the anomalous threshold of the four-point triangle diagram at the boundary of a bad region.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Variations of Stress Parameters in the Southern California Plate Boundary Around the South Central Transverse Ranges

We examine the stress field in Southern California with a focus on the region near the South Central Transverse Ranges (SCTR), using a refined stress inversion methodology. We independently invert declustered and aftershocks focal mechanisms from the years 1981 to 2017. Comparisons between the stress field orientations and the stress ratios from these inversions provide information on local sources of the stress field. Regionally, the SHmax tends to be toward NNE and the stress ratios vary from transtensional stress regime near the Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ), to strike-slip faulting near the SCTR, and toward transpression near the Western Transverse Ranges. Detailed analysis of stress parameters near the SCTR indicates deviations from the regional strike-slip faulting including the following: (1) The San Bernardino Mountain area shows S Hmax direction toward NNW and transpressional stress components likely associated with the motions of the San Andreas Fault and ECSZ; (2) the Cajon Pass and San Gorgonio Pass show transpressional stress regime near the bottom of the seismogenic zone likely associated with the elevated topography; and (3) in Crafton Hills, rotation of the principal stress plunges and SHmax direction and transtensional stress regime below ~10 km, along with lower estimated apparent friction coefficient, suggest a weak fault possibly associated with deep creep. The performed multiscale analysis resolves effects of regional and local loadings. The average stress parameters in the analyzed 37 years do not show significant temporal variations of stress field near the SCTR region.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Imposition of local boundary conditions in peridynamics without a fictitious layer and unphysical stress concentrations

Here, this study introduces a general approach for the imposition of local boundary conditions in non- ordinary state-based peridynamics (NOSB PD) to eliminate the displacement kinks near the boundary without a fictitious layer under quasi-static loading conditions. It identifies the underlying reason for the unphysical displacement kinks. Under an imposed linear displacement field, the NOSB PD equilibrium equation is not satisfied near the boundary due to the unsymmetric horizon of material points. However, the equilibrium equation derived by using the PD differential operator is satisfied at such material points. Therefore, the material body is divided into three regions to satisfy the equilibrium equations and to impose displacement and tractions boundary conditions. This approach does not deviate from the original NOSB PD; however, it provides a simple solution to eliminate the displacement kink near the boundary, which leads to unphysical stress concentrations. Its efficacy is demonstrated by considering elastic rectangular and square plates subjected to various types of boundary conditions leading to homogeneous as well as nonhomogeneous deformations. The creep response of a rectangular plate further proves the robustness of the present approach. Also, a quasi-static crack propagation from a pre-existing crack in a square plate under mode-I, mode-II and mixed-mode loading conditions demonstrates its capability for failure prediction based on the critical stretch criteria. Finally, its applicability for 3D analysis is demonstrated by considering a rectangular prism under applied stretch and normal stress.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2026

Constraints on long-range forces in de Sitter space

The representation theory of de Sitter space admits partially massless (PM) particles, but whether such particles can participate in consistent interacting theories remains unclear. We investigate the consistency of theories containing PM fields, particularly when these fields are coupled to gravity. Our strategy exploits the fact that PM fields correspond to partially conserved currents on the spacetime boundary, which generate symmetries. These symmetries place stringent constraints on correlation functions of charged operators, allowing us to test the consistency of a proposed bulk spectrum. When the assumed operator content violates these constraints, the corresponding bulk theory is ruled out. Applying this framework, we show that, in four-dimensional de Sitter space, PM fields of spin 2 or 3 (at depth 0) cannot couple consistently to gravity: such couplings necessitate additional massive fields, which are inevitably non-unitary. In higher dimensions, however, the constraints can be satisfied without violating unitarity if further PM fields are included. The resulting structure leads to additional charge conservation laws, which suggests that consistency may ultimately require an infinite tower of higher-spin PM fields, akin to the situation for ordinary higher-spin symmetries. The methods developed here provide powerful constraints on possible long-range interactions in de Sitter space and delineate the landscape of consistent quantum field theories in cosmological spacetimes.

AdS-CFT Correspondence↗
DOE OSTI2024

Analysis of thermal grooving effects on vortex penetration in vapor-diffused Nb 3 Sn

While Nb 3 Sn theoretically offers better superconducting radio-frequency (RF) cavity performance (Q 0 and E acc ) to Nb at any given temperature, peak RF magnetic fields consistently fall short of the ~400 mT prediction. The relatively rough topography of vapor-diffused Nb 3 Sn is widely conjectured to be one of the factors that limit the attainable performance of Nb 3 Sn-coated Nb cavities prepared via Sn vapor diffusion. Here we investigate the effect of coating duration on the topography of vapor-diffused Nb 3 Sn on Nb and calculate the associated magnetic field enhancement and superheating field suppression factors using atomic force microscopy topographies. It is shown that the thermally grooved grain boundaries are major defects which may contribute to a substantial decrease in the achievable accelerating field. Further, the severity of these grooves increases with total coating duration due to the deepening of thermal grooves during the coating process.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Role of Local Conductivities in the Plasmon Reflections at the Edges and Stacking Domain Boundaries of Trilayer Graphene

Here, we employed infrared scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (IR-sSNOM) to study surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in trilayer graphene (TLG). Our study reveals systematic differences in near-field IR spectra and SPP wavelengths between Bernal (ABA) and rhombohedral (ABC) TLG domains on SiO 2 , which can be explained by stacking-dependent intraband conductivities. We also observed that the SPP reflection profiles at ABA-ABC boundaries could be mostly accounted for by an idealized domain boundary defined by the conductivity discontinuity. However, we identified distinct shapes in the SPP profiles at the edges of the ABA and ABC TLG, which cannot be solely attributed to idealized edges with stacking-dependent conductivities. Instead, this can be explained by the presence of various edge structures with local conductivities differing from those of bulk TLGs. Our findings unveil a new structural element that can control SPP and provide insights into the structures and electronic states of the edges of few-layer graphene.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Heat Transfer Problems

Abstract Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) have gained popularity across different engineering fields due to their effectiveness in solving realistic problems with noisy data and often partially missing physics. In PINNs, automatic differentiation is leveraged to evaluate differential operators without discretization errors, and a multitask learning problem is defined in order to simultaneously fit observed data while respecting the underlying governing laws of physics. Here, we present applications of PINNs to various prototype heat transfer problems, targeting in particular realistic conditions not readily tackled with traditional computational methods. To this end, we first consider forced and mixed convection with unknown thermal boundary conditions on the heated surfaces and aim to obtain the temperature and velocity fields everywhere in the domain, including the boundaries, given some sparse temperature measurements. We also consider the prototype Stefan problem for two-phase flow, aiming to infer the moving interface, the velocity and temperature fields everywhere as well as the different conductivities of a solid and a liquid phase, given a few temperature measurements inside the domain. Finally, we present some realistic industrial applications related to power electronics to highlight the practicality of PINNs as well as the effective use of neural networks in solving general heat transfer problems of industrial complexity. Taken together, the results presented herein demonstrate that PINNs not only can solve ill-posed problems, which are beyond the reach of traditional computational methods, but they can also bridge the gap between computational and experimental heat transfer.

Engineering↗
DOE OSTI2022

Anomalous symmetry breaking in the Weyl semimetal CeAlGe

CeAlGe, a proposed type-II Weyl semimetal, orders antiferromagnetically below 5 K. At 2 K, spin-flop and spin-flip transitions to less than 1 μ B /Ce are observed in the M ⁡(H) data below 30 kOe, H∥a and b, and 4.3 kOe, H∥ $\langle$110$\rangle$, respectively, indicating a fourfold symmetry of the M ⁡(H) data along the principal directions in the tetragonal ab plane with $\langle$110$\rangle$ set of easy directions. However, anomalously robust and complex twofold symmetry is observed in the angular dependence of resistivity and magnetic torque data in the magnetically ordered state once the field is swept in the ab plane. This twofold symmetry is independent of temperature and field hystereses and suggests a magnetic phase transition that separates two different magnetic structures in the ab plane. Further, the boundary of this magnetic phase transition and possibly the type of low-field magnetic structure can be tuned by an Al deficiency.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Peridynamic elastic waves in two-dimensional unbounded domains: Construction of nonlocal Dirichlet-type absorbing boundary conditions

The focus of this paper is on application of peridynamics (PD) to propagation of elastic waves in unbounded domains. We construct absorbing boundary conditions (ABCs) derived from a semi-analytical solution of the PD governing equation at the exterior region. This solution is made up of a finite series of plane waves, as fundamental solutions (modes), which satisfy the PD dispersion relations. The modes are adjusted to transmit the energy from the interior region (near field) to the exterior region (far field). The corresponding unknown coefficients of the series are found in terms of the displacement field at a layer of points adjacent to the absorbing boundary. This is accomplished through a collocation procedure at subregions (clouds) around each absorbing point. The proposed ABCs offer appealing advantages, which facilitate their application to PD. They are of Dirichlet-type, hence their implementation is relatively simple as no derivatives of the field variables are required. They are constructed in the time and space domains and thus application of Fourier and Laplace transforms, cumbersome for nonlocal models, is not required. At the discrete level, the modes satisfy the same numerical dispersion relations of the near field, which makes the far-field solution compatible with that of the near field. We scrutinize the performance of the proposed ABCs through several examples. So our investigation shows that the proposed ABCs perform stably in time with an appropriate level of accuracy even in problems characterized by highly-dispersive propagating waves, including crack propagation in semi-unbounded brittle solids.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Verification of the Shafranov shift in free-boundary VMEC, DESC, and SPEC calculations with elliptical geometry

Here, given a set of current-carrying filaments that create a magnetic field with rotating elliptical flux surfaces, we present verification calculations using the VMEC, DESC, and SPEC free-boundary magnetohydrostatic equilibrium codes for both the “vacuum” equilibrium, for which there is no plasma pressure and no plasma currents, and for a non-zero pressure, zero toroidal current equilibrium. For the vacuum case, these codes are quantitatively compared to the magnetic field produced by the coils. For the non-zero pressure case, they are compared to each other. As the stepped pressure profile used in SPEC approaches the continuous profile used in VMEC and DESC, the SPEC magnetic axis approaches the VMEC and DESC axes. To within an error given by the difference between the pressure profiles, the VMEC, DESC, and SPEC calculations give the same pressure-induced geometric shift of the magnetic axis, known as the Shafranov shift.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗