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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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368 records · Page 21
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1997

The Stability of Radiatively Cooling Jets I. Linear Analysis

The results of a spatial stability analysis of a two-dimensional slab jet, in which optically thin radiative cooling is dynamically important, are presented. We study both magnetized and unmagnetized jets at external Mach numbers of 5 and 20. We model the cooling rate by using two different cooling curves: one appropriate to interstellar gas, and the other to photoionized gas of reduced metallicity. Thus, our results will be applicable to both protostellar (Herbig-Haro) jets and optical jets from active galactic nuclei. We present analytical solutions to the dispersion relations in useful limits and solve the dispersion relations numerically over a broad range of perturbation frequencies. We find that the growth rates and wavelengths of the unstable Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) modes are significantly different from the adiabatic limit, and that the form of the cooling function strongly affects the results. In particular, if the cooling curve is a steep function of temperature in the neighborhood of the equilibrium state, then the growth of K-H modes is reduced relative to the adiabatic jet. On the other hand, if the cooling curve is a shallow function of temperature, then the growth of K-H modes can be enhanced relative to the adiabatic jet by the increase in cooling relative to heating in overdense regions. Inclusion of a dynamically important magnetic field does not strongly modify the important differences between an adiabatic jet and a cooling jet, provided the jet is highly supermagnetosonic and not magnetic pressure-dominated. In the latter case, the unstable modes behave more like the transmagnetosonic magnetic pressure-dominated adiabatic limit. We also plot fluid displacement surfaces associated with the various waves in a cooling jet in order to predict the structures that might arise in the nonlinear regime. This analysis predicts that low-frequency surface waves and the lowest order body modes will be the most effective at producing observable features in the jet.

Hardee, Philip E.↗
NASA NTRS2002

An Experimental Investigation of Incompressible Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability

Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability occurs when two different density fluids are impulsively accelerated in the direction normal to their nearly planar interface. The instability causes small perturbations on the interface to grow and eventually become a turbulent flow. It is closely related to Rayleigh-Taylor instability, which is the instability of a planar interface undergoing constant acceleration, such as caused by the suspension of a heavy fluid over a lighter one in the earth's gravitational field. Like the well-known Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, RM instability is a fundamental hydrodynamic instability which exhibits many of the nonlinear complexities that transform simple initial conditions into a complex turbulent flow. Furthermore, the simplicity of RM instability (in that it requires very few defining parameters), and the fact that it can be generated in a closed container, makes it an excellent test bed to study nonlinear stability theory as well as turbulent transport in a heterogeneous system. However, the fact that RM instability involves fluids of unequal densities which experience negligible gravitational force, except during the impulsive acceleration, requires RM instability experiments to be carried out under conditions of microgravity. This experimental study investigates the instability of an interface between incompressible, miscible liquids with an initial sinusoidal perturbation. The impulsive acceleration is generated by bouncing a rectangular tank containing two different density liquids off a retractable vertical spring. The initial perturbation is produced prior to release by oscillating the tank in the horizontal direction to produce a standing wave. The instability evolves in microgravity as the tank travels up and then down the vertical rails of a drop tower until hitting a shock absorber at the bottom. Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) is employed to visualize the flow. PLIF images are captured by a video camera that travels with the tank. Figure 1 is as sequence of images showing the development of the instability from the initial sinusoidal disturbance far into the nonlinear regime which is characterized by the appearance of mushroom structures resulting from the coalescence of baroclinic vorticity produced by the impulsive acceleration. At later times in this sequence the vortex cores are observed to become unstable showing the beginnings of the transition to turbulence in this flow. The amplitude of the growing disturbance after the impulsive acceleration is measured and found to agree well with theoretical predictions. The effects of Reynolds number (based on circulation) on the development of the vortices and the transition to turbulence are also determined.

Jacobs, J. W.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Degradation of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Water via High Power, Energy-Efficient Electron Beam Accelerator

The goal of the 2-year workplan was to see if electron beam (EB) could be used to break down a sub-set of the larger chemical family of per and polyfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) in an energy efficient and economical manner when compared to conventional water treatment technologies. Year one (Y1) work focused on sample EB treatment work in the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s (FNALs) Accelerator Applications Demonstration and Development (A2D2) EB accelerator. While there are reportedly thousands of types of PFAS, for the point of most of the work herein, a small subset was examined, typically perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA). PFOA and PFOS are two of the most well studied PFAS and are studied for baseline evaluations and are considered most useful. The work from Y1 provided information about the optimal operating parameters and additives to use when treating PFOS and PFOA via EB. The data were then used to see where in a water treatment system an EB accelerator would be best suited to treat PFAS. A conventional water treatment technology, GAC, was then compared to e-beam treatment technology with respect to energy and costs for treatment. In year two (Y2), several conventional e-beam accelerator designs, and FNAL’s developmental compact SRF accelerator design, were evaluated for their suitability in PFAS treatment, from an energy efficiency and cost standpoint. Several EB parameters were evaluated and optimized for the removal of PFOA and PFOS from water at normal pressure and temperature, measured as total PFAS removal. Under the optimized test conditions both PFOA showed complete destruction to inorganic fluoride, and PFOS to inorganic fluoride and sulfate, with mass balance. The effect on PFAS removal relative to solution pH, total EB dose, EB dose rate, dissolved oxygen concentration (DO), temperature, and initial PFAS concentration were evaluated. In general, PFOA was easier to destroy than PFOS. Degradation products, typically observed under less-than-optimal EB conditions, provided insight to degradation mechanisms. Products were identified to rule out possible deleterious biproduct formation. The water radiolysis radical reaction kinetics with PFOS and PFOA were not dependent on the initial concentration over 5-orders of magnitude from 2 μg/L to 20 mg/L. This is thought to be because there was an overabundance of the reactive water radiolysis radicals relative to PFAS molecules and largely attributed to aqueous electrons. The reaction rates appeared to be diffusion limited. Testing at higher concentrations (100-200 mg/L) showed a decrease in removal efficiency, suggesting alternative kinetics, possibly second order rates, at higher concentrations. In all, we successfully defined a set of optimal EB parameters to treat PFOA and PFOS at concentrations of 20 mg/L in water with destruction efficiencies near 100%. We further tested the optimized EB parameters with other types of PFAS, including shorter and longer fluorocarbon chain homologs of PFOA and PFOS, and PFAS with alternative functional groups such as sulfonamides. Based on our results EB can be optimized as an effective destructive technology for removing PFAS from water. The conditions optimized for PFOA and PFOS were less effective with ultra-short fluorocarbon compounds like TFMS, PFES, PFPS and PFBS, and likely require re-optimization of parameters to them. In all, it was determined that from a cost and energy efficiency standpoint, EB would be best applied to waste streams with relatively high concentrations of PFOS and PFOA and is not as cost effective as GAC treatment for removing low concentrations of PFAS from water. Higher concentrations of PFAS can be found in the wastewater of conventional treatment processes such as RO and IE and therefore EB may be used to supplement such treatment technologies. Some real-world IE regeneration wash water and RO reject water containing higher concentrations of PFAS and obtained from pilot scale industrial wastewater treatment system at a fluorochemical manufacturing facility, showed that EB could remove PFAS from such types of wastewaters. The IE regenerant wash water appeared to be the most efficient of the two types of wastewaters tested. However, some further optimization of the EB parameters for the specific PFAS types present in those wastewaters may be required. Also, the effects of co-present TOC and mineral salts should be considered during such optimization efforts. From the experimental Y1 results it was seen that the aqueous electron drives degradation of the PFAS. In a hypothetical water treatment skid using EB for PFAS destruction the parameters of the system should be optimized to promote aqueous electron production. Before EB treatment, the PFAS should be preconcentrated when possible, the pH should be raised to pH 10 or higher to enhance aqueous electron production, and the water should be nitrogen purged to remove dissolved oxygen to minimize aqueous electron scavenging. An excel spreadsheet was created that calculates optimal conditions based on inlet PFAS concentration and desired outlet concentration, by optimizing the accelerator power, dose rate, water treatment rate, pH and dissolved oxygen levels to reach the desired endpoint. Given this information on accelerator operating conditions five different EB accelerator systems were compared. One EB system was a continuous-wave, linear superconducting accelerator being designed at Fermilab. Three other EB systems (IMPELA at 5% and 25% duty factor and the ILU-14) were normal conducting pulsed linear accelerators. The fifth system was an IBA Rhodotron which is a normal conducting, circular, continuous-wave accelerator. The accelerator efficiency (% of the incoming power that is used in water treatment) was the dominating factor in accelerator choice. The radio frequency (RF) power supply and the accelerator design (superconducting versus warm technology) drive the accelerator efficiency. The IBA Rhodotron was seen to be the most energy efficient commercially available technology with a wall-plug (total) power efficiency of 43% at 400 kW. The Fermilab design, with a prototype for a different application currently being fabricated, was the most energy efficient at 55% when driven by a Klystron RF power supply and as high as 77% when powered by a magnetron. As the Fermilab design was the most energy efficient by approximately 10-30%, further design work was done on the accelerator and beam delivery system specific to the destruction of PFAS in water. The Fermilab design is unique from industrial accelerators in that is superconducting. Superconducting technology allows for the acceleration of electrons without losses. The accelerator must be cooled to below the point where it is superconducting and is operated around 4 degrees Kelvin. The bulk of the design work for the accelerator is on making the accelerator as energy efficient as possible so that it does not require liquid helium and can be cooled with conduction cooling via cryocoolers. Final design work resulted in an EB accelerator that would operate at minimally 200 kW and 10 MeV. Prototype construction would cost $\$ $7.8 million dollars when driven by a Klystron power supply. A second version of the same accelerator would cost $\$ $5.5 million dollars when driven by a magnetron that is still under development. The commercially available 300 kW IBA Rhodotron cost was estimated at approximately $\$ $9 million. While it is hard to directly compare, an operational GAC system used by 3M for groundwater treatment capital cost (2022 dollars) was estimated to cost $\$ $3.3 million. While the capital expense of the EB accelerator systems was higher than GAC, the accelerator EB treatment would result in destruction of the PFAS and not just sequestration of PFAS to form a new waste stream that requires further treatment or disposal. The operating cost to destroy the PFAS via 400 kw EB system was less than $\$ $1000/kg of PFAS destroyed when treating at a 20 mg/L PFAS concentration, compared to GAC with operating costs that calculated at $\$ $27,530 per kg of PFAS sequestered when treating 100 μg/L PFOA and PFOS combined concentration.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS2009

The Atmospheric Dynamics of Jupiter, Saturn, and Titan

Comparative studies of Jupiter and Saturn often emphasize their similarities, but recent observations have highlighted important differences. The stratospheres of both planets exhibit an equatorial oscillation reminiscent of that in Earth's middle atmosphere. Jupiter's oscillation has a 4-5 year period, not linked to its season, and it has been modeled as an analog to the terrestrial quasi-biennial oscillation, driven by the stresses associated with vertically propagating waves. Saturn's equatorial oscillation is nearly semiannual, but wave activity may still be a driver. Jupiter's internal rotation rate is inferred from its steady modulated radio emission. Saturn's internal rotation is more enigmatic. It has been inferred from the modulation of the body's kilometric radio emission, but this period has varied by 1% over the last 25 years. Saturn's equatorial winds are also puzzling, as those inferred from cloud tracking by Cassini and more recent HST observations are weaker than those from Voyager. Whether this is attributable to a difference in altitudes of the tracked clouds in winds with vertical shear or a real temporal change in the winds is not known. Both winter and summer poles of Saturn exhibit very compact circumpolar vortices with warm cores, indicating subsidence. Titan's middle atmosphere is characterized by global cyclostrophic winds, particularly the strong circumpolar vortex in the winter hemisphere. In many ways, the spatial distribution of temperature, gaseous constituents, and condensates is reminiscent of conditions in terrestrial winter vortices, albeit with different chemistry. The meridional contrast in Titan's tropospheric temperatures is small, only a few kelvins.

Flasar, F. M.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Clarifying the definition of ‘transonic’ screw dislocations

We report a number of recent Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations have demonstrated that screw dislocations in face centred cubic (fcc) metals can achieve stable steady state motion above the lowest shear wave speed (v shear ) which is parallel to their direction of motion (often referred to as transonic motion). This is in direct contrast to classical continuum analyses which predict a divergence in the elastic energy of the host material at a crystal geometry dependent ‘critical’ velocity v crit . Within this work, we first demonstrate through analytic analyses that the elastic energy of the host material diverges at a dislocation velocity (v crit ) which is greater than v shear , i.e. v crit >v shear . We argue that it is this latter derived velocity (v crit ) which separates ‘subsonic’ and ‘supersonic’ regimes of dislocation motion in the analytic solution. In addition to our analyses, we also present a comprehensive suite of MD simulation results of steady state screw dislocation motion for a range of stresses and several cubic metals at both cryogenic and room temperatures. At room temperature, both our independent MD simulations and the earlier works find stable screw dislocation motion only below our derived v crit . Nonetheless, in real-world polycrystalline materials v crit cannot be interpreted as a hard limit for subsonic dislocation motion. In fact, at very low temperatures our MD simulations of Cu at 10 Kelvin confirm a recent claim in the literature that true ‘supersonic’ screw dislocations with dislocation velocities v>v crit are possible at very low temperatures.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

GR-Athena++: General-relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics Simulations of Neutron Star Spacetimes

We present the extension of GR-Athena++ to general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) for applications to neutron star spacetimes. The new solver couples the constrained transport implementation of Athena++ to the Z4c formulation of the Einstein equations to simulate dynamical spacetimes with GRMHD using oct-tree adaptive mesh refinement. We consider benchmark problems for isolated and binary neutron star spacetimes demonstrating stable and convergent results at relatively low resolutions and without grid symmetries imposed. The code correctly captures magnetic field instabilities in nonrotating stars with total relative violation of the divergence-free constraint of 10 –16 . It handles evolutions with a microphysical equation of state and black hole formation in the gravitational collapse of a rapidly rotating star. For binaries, we demonstrate correctness of the evolution under the gravitational radiation reaction and show convergence of gravitational waveforms. We showcase the use of adaptive mesh refinement to resolve the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability at the collisional interface in a merger of magnetised binary neutron stars. GR-Athena++ shows strong scaling efficiencies above 80% in excess of 10 5 CPU cores and excellent weak scaling is shown up to ~5 × 10 5 CPU cores in a realistic production setup. GR-Athena++ allows for the robust simulation of GRMHD flows in strong and dynamical gravity with exa-scale computers.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Vortex-sheet modeling of hydrodynamic instabilities produced by an oblique shock interacting with a perturbed interface in the HED regime

In this work, we consider hydrodynamic instabilities produced by the interaction of an oblique shock with a perturbed material interface under high-energy-density (HED) conditions. During this interaction, a baroclinic torque is generated along the interface due to the misalignment between the density and pressure gradients, thus leading to perturbation growth. Our objective is to understand the competition between the impulsive acceleration due to the normal component of the shock velocity, which drives the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability, and the shear flow across the interface due to the tangential component of the shock velocity, which drives the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability, as well as its relation to perturbation growth. Since the vorticity resulting from the shock-interface interaction is confined to the interface, we describe the perturbation growth using a two-dimensional vortex-sheet model. We demonstrate the ability of the vortex-sheet model to reproduce roll-up dynamics for non-zero Atwood numbers by comparing to past laser-driven HED experiments. We determine the dependence of the interface dynamics on the tilt angle and propose a time scaling for the perturbation growth at early time. Eventually, this scaling will serve as a platform for the design of future experiments. This study is the first attempt to incorporate into a vortex-sheet model the time-dependent interface decompression and the deceleration (as well as the corresponding Rayleigh–Taylor instability) arising from laser turn-off.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS2022

Observation of a Magnetic Switchback in the Solar Corona

Switchbacks are sudden, large radial deflections of the solar wind magnetic field, widely revealed in interplanetary space by the Parker Solar Probe. The switchbacks’ formation mechanism and sources are still unresolved, although candidate mechanisms include Alfvénic turbulence, shear-driven Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities, interchange reconnection, and geometrical effects related to the Parker spiral. This Letter presents observations from the Metis coronagraph on board a Solar Orbiter of a single large propagating S-shaped vortex, interpreted as the first evidence of a switchback in the solar corona. It originated above an active region with the related loop system bounded by open-field regions to the east and west. Observations, modeling, and theory provide strong arguments in favor of the interchange reconnection origin of switchbacks. Metis measurements suggest that the initiation of the switchback may also be an indicator of the origin of slow solar wind.

Solar corona↗