Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “PLASMA TEMPERATURE”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 379 records · Page 21

High-Fidelity Arc-Discharge Model for Hydrogen-Plasma-Smelting-Reduction of Iron Ore

Electrification and use of renewable hydrogen is currently a necessity for decarbonizing the iron-and-steel industry. In this regard, hydrogen plasma smelting reduction (HPSR) is a novel pathway that is being explored for reduction of iron ore. HPSR provides several decarbonization merits compared to conventional blast furnaces. Firstly, the use of renewable hydrogen drastically reduces the CO2 emissions compared to the use of coke. Secondly, renewable electricity in the form of a thermal plasma for making reactive hydrogen species (radicals, ions) are more efficient at reducing iron ore compared to neutral H2. Thirdly, a molten product compatible with downstream processes is obtained from the intense heat transfer from the plasma. However, the scale-up of this technology requires fundamental exploration of hydrogen plasma dynamics and its interaction with complex solid material that include phase changing iron-ore and slag. In this work, we present a first principles continuum scale model for thermal plasmas in Ar/H2 gas mixtures typically used for HPSR. The thermal plasma governing equations for mass, momentum and energy with Lorentz force and Joule heating source terms are solved along with electromagnetic equations for electrostatic and magnetic vector potential. Our solver will be based on Pele, a suite of reacting flow solvers designed for advanced scientific computing architectures (Henry De Frahan et al., Proceedings of SIAM Parallel Processing, 13-25, 2024), and will utilize adaptive mesh generation for enhanced resolutions at locations of intense physicochemical interactions. This study will present the impact of Ar to H2 ratios on excited/dissociated hydrogen species concentrations, plasma temperature and conductivity along with the impact of outgassed species (water, metal vapor, O, OH radicals) from ore surface on gas phase chemistry. Furthermore, the heat and species flux to the surface will be quantified as a function of applied voltages in a transferred arc configuration.

hydrogen plasma↗

Antiproton powered propulsion with magnetically confined plasma engines

Matter-antimatter annihilation releases more energy per unit mass than any other method of energy production, making it an attractive energy source for spacecraft propulsion. In the magnetically confined plasma engine, antiproton beams are injected axially into a pulsed magnetic mirror system, where they annihilate with an initially neutral hydrogen gas. The resulting charged annihilation products transfer energy to the hydrogen propellant, which is then exhausted through one end of the pulsed mirror system to provide thrust. The calculated energy transfer efficiencies for a low number density (10(14)/cu cm) hydrogen propellant are insufficient to warrant operating the engine in this mode. Efficiencies are improved using moderate propellant number densities (10(16)/cu cm), but the energy transferred to the plasma in a realistic magnetic mirror system is generally limited to less than 2 percent of the initial proton-antiproton annihilation energy. The energy transfer efficiencies are highest for high number density (10(18)/cu cm) propellants, but plasma temperatures are reduced by excessive radiation losses. Low to moderate thrust over a wide range of specific impulse can be generated with moderate propellant number densities, while higher thrust but lower specific impulse may be generated using high propellant number densities. Significant mass will be required to shield the superconducting magnet coils from the high energy gamma radiation emitted by neutral pion decay. The mass of such a radiation shield may dominate the total engine mass, and could severely diminish the performance of antiproton powered engines which utilize magnetic confinement. The problem is compounded in the antiproton powered plasma engine, where lower energy plasma bremsstrahlung radiation may cause shield surface ablation and degradation.

Lapointe, Michael R.↗

Delayed Development of Cool Plasmas in X-Ray Flares from the Young Sun-like Star κ1 Ceti

The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) X-ray observatory observed two powerful X-ray flares equivalent to superflares from the nearby young solar-like star κ 1 Ceti in 2019. NICER follows each flare from the onset through the early decay, collecting over 30 counts s −1 near the peak, enabling a detailed spectral variation study of the flare rise. The flare in September varies quickly in ∼800 s, while the flare in December has a few times longer timescale. In both flares, the hard-band (2–4 keV) light curves show typical stellar X-ray flare variations with a rapid rise and slow decay, while the soft X-ray light curves, especially of the September flare, have prolonged flat peaks. The time-resolved spectra require two temperature plasma components at kT ∼0.3–1 and ∼2–4 keV. Both components vary similarly, but the cool component lags by ∼200 s with a four to six times smaller emission measure (EM) compared to the hot component. A comparison with hydrodynamic flare loop simulations indicates that the cool component originates from X-ray plasma near the magnetic loop footpoints that mainly cools via thermal conduction. The time lag represents the travel time of the evaporated gas through the entire flare loop. The cool component has a several times smaller EM than its simulated counterpart, suggesting a suppression of conductive cooling, possibly by the expansion of the loop cross-sectional area or turbulent fluctuations. The cool component's time lag and EM ratio provide important constraints on the flare loop geometry.

main sequence stars↗

Study of x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy from high-energy-density plasmas (Final Report)

The primary objective of this subcontract was to support the development of x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XFS) as a diagnostic tool for high-energy-density (HED) plasmas. Several experimental campaigns were completed to develop and benchmark XFS at various plasmas conditions of interest for inertial confinement fusion and HED science. The experimental measurements at the Omega laser facility used x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to determine the plasma temperature from the shape of the K-edge to benchmark XFS data. During the course of these experiments, it was found that XAS can also constrain ionization from bound-bound absorption features, and it became a primary diagnostic in this study. Several experimental campaigns were conducted at the Omega laser facility to refine XAS and XFS measurements of warm dense copper.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Plasma-assisted atomic layer etching of single-crystal diamond

Applications of near-surface nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are often limited by surface defects created during processing. Understanding and controlling plasma-induced surface damage is important for preserving the optical and spin properties of diamond NV centers. We report molecular dynamics simulations of a novel form of plasma-aided atomic layer etching of diamond. In this proposed scheme, the initial surface modification step consists of Ar + ion bombardment. This creates an amorphous layer at the surface, the thickness of which is controlled by the ion energy. Amorphization is known to help smooth the surface, at least locally, and would also serve to sputter clean an initially contaminated surface. A second step impacts the amorphous carbon layer with O + between about 1 and 5 eV. Simulations show that this energy range will remove the amorphous carbon but will not etch the underlying diamond. Though this energy range is not trivial to achieve in a conventional low-temperature plasma, potential methods for creating these low-energy O + ions are discussed. In addition to a-C etching, the O + impacts are predicted to remove any isolated (100) diamond terraces by selectively attacking the edges of the terraces. The proposed atomic layer etching (ALE) approach reverses the conventional ALE sequence in which the surface modification step is usually chemical modification (oxidation in this case), followed by a removal step using Ar + impacts. This plasma ALE procedure is predicted to create a diamond surface that is atomically flat and defect free.

Draney, J. S. [Princeton University, NJ (United St↗

Quasilinear theory and modelling of gyrokinetic turbulent transport in tokamaks

The theory, development, and validation of reduced quasilinear models of gyrokinetic turbulent transport in the closed flux surface core of tokamaks is reviewed. In combination with neoclassical collisional transport, these models are successful in accurately predicting core tokamak plasma temperature, density, rotation, and impurity profiles in a variety of confinement regimes. Refined experimental tests have been performed to validate the predictions of the quasilinear models, probing changes in the dominant gyrokinetic instabilities, as reflected in fluctuation measurements, cross-phases, and transport properties. These tests continue to produce a deeper understanding of the complex mix of instabilities at both electron and ion gyroradius scales.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Electron Bremsstrahlung Hard X-Ray Spectra, Electron Distributions and Energetics in the 2002 July 23 Solar Flare

We present and analyze the first high-resolution hard X-ray spectra from a solar flare observed in both X-ray/gamma-ray continuum and gamma-ray lines. The 2002 July 23 flare was observed by the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). The spatially integrated photon flux spectra are well fitted between 10 and 300 keV by the combination of an isothermal component and a double power law. The flare plasma temperature peaks at 40 MK around the time of peak hard X-ray emission and remains above 20 MK 37 min later. We derive the evolution of the nonthermal mean electron flux distribution by directly fitting the RHESSI X-ray spectra with the thin-target bremsstrahlung from a double power-law electron distribution with a low-energy cutoff. We also derive the evolution of the electron flux distribution on the assumption that the emission is thick-target bremsstrahlung. We find that the injected nonthermal electrons are well described throughout the flare by this double power-law distribution with a low-energy cutoff that is typically between 20 - 40 keV. Using our thick-target results, we compare the energy contained in the nonthermal electrons with the energy content of the thermal flare plasma observed by RHESSI and GOES. We find that the minimum total energy deposited into the flare plasma by nonthermal electrons, 2.6 x 10(exp 31) erg, is on the order of and possibly less than the energy in the thermal plasma. However, these fits do not rule out the possibility that the energy in nonthermal electrons exceeds the energy in the thermal plasma. This work was supported in part by the RHESSI Project and the NASA Sun-Earth Connection program.

Holman, G. D.↗

Electron Bremsstrahlung Hard X-Ray Spectra, Electron Distributions and Energetics in the 2002 July 23 Solar Flare

We present and analyze the first high-resolution hard X-ray spectra from a solar flare observed in both X-ray/gamma-ray continuum and gamma-ray lines. The 2002 July 23 flare was observed by the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). The spatially integrated photon flux spectra are well fitted between 10 and 300 keV by the combination of an isothermal component and a double power law. The flare plasma temperature peaks at 40 MK around the time of peak hard X-ray emission and remains above 20 MK 37 min later. We derive the evolution of the nonthermal mean electron flux distribution by directly fitting the RHESSI X-ray spectra with the thin-target bremsstrahlung from a double power-law electron distribution with a low-energy cutoff. We also derive the evolution of the electron flux distribution on the assumption that the emission is thick-target bremsstrahlung. We find that the injected nonthermal electrons are well described throughout the flare by this double power-law distribution with a low-energy cutoff that is typically between 20-40 keV. Using our thick-target results, we compare the energy contained in the nonthermal electrons with the energy content of the thermal flare plasma observed by RHESSI and GOES. We find that the minimum total energy deposited into the flare plasma by nonthermal electrons, 2.6 x 10(exp 31)erg, is on the order of and possibly less than the energy in the thermal plasma. However, these fits do not rule out the possibility that the energy in nonthermal electrons exceeds the energy in the thermal plasma.

Holman, Gordon D.↗

Large-database cross-verification and validation of tokamak transport models using baselines for comparison

State-of-the-art 1D transport solvers ASTRA and TRANSP are verified, then validated across a large database of semi-randomly selected, time-dependent DIII-D discharges. Various empirical models are provided as baselines to contextualize the validation figures of merit using statistical hypothesis tests. For predicting plasma temperature profiles, no statistically significant advantage is found for the ASTRA and TRANSP simulators over a baseline empirical (two-parameter) model. For predicting stored energy, a significant advantage is found for the simulators over a baseline empirical model based on confinement time scaling. Uncertainty in the results due to diagnostic and profile fitting uncertainties is approximated and determined to be insignificant due in part to the large quantity of discharges employed in the study. Advantages are discussed for validation methodologies like this one that employ (1) large databases and (2) baselines for comparison that are specific to the intended use-case of the model.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Excitation of whistler and slow-X waves by runaway electrons in a collisional plasma

Runaway electrons are known to provide robust ideal or collisionless kinetic drive for plasma wave instabilities in both the whistler and slow-X branches, via the anomalous Doppler-shifted cyclotron resonances. In a cold and dense post-thermal-quench plasma, collisional damping of the plasma waves can compete with the collisionless drive. Previous studies have found that, due to their higher wavelength and frequency, slow-X waves suffer stronger collisional damping than the whistlers, while the ideal growth rate of slow-X modes is higher. Here, we study runaway avalanche distributions that maintain the same eigen distribution and increase only in magnitude over time. The distributions are computed from the relativistic Fokker–Planck–Boltzmann solver, upon which a linear dispersion analysis is performed to search for the most unstable or least damped slow-X and whistler modes. Taking into account the effect of plasma density, plasma temperature, and effective charge number, we find that the slow-X modes tend to be excited before the whistlers in a runaway current ramp-up. Furthermore, even when the runaway current density is sufficiently high that both branches are excited, the most unstable slow-X mode has a much higher growth rate than the most unstable whistler mode. The qualitative and quantitative trends uncovered in the current study indicate that even though past experiments and modeling efforts have concentrated on whistler modes, there is a compelling case that slow-X modes should also be a key area of focus in the runaway self-mediation through wave instabilities.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Initial Development of Fusion Magnet Simulation Capabilities for Performance and Safety Evaluation Using the MOOSE Framework

Fusion energy holds the promise of being a transformative technology as a carbon-neutral, sustainable source of energy. Whole device modeling and the development of fusion digital twins will be increasingly important for emerging fusion device concepts at both national laboratories and within the commercial fusion industry. However, meeting the challenge of whole device modeling of fusion energy devices requires robust, multiphysics, multiscale modeling and simulation technologies capable of running on large-scale supercomputers. Detailed analysis of individual systems at-scale is also required to ensure safe and efficient operation as well as provide the safety basis for future device designs and licensing activities. In a tokamak, toroidal and poloidal magnets confine and shape the fusion plasma to promote the fusion reaction. High plasma temperatures and high magnetic field requirements in modern design concepts (leading to high amounts of energy stored within each magnet) impose electrical, thermal, and mechanical loads on the magnet components, which in turn impacts the safety considerations of the magnet and their supporting systems. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has a history of working in this space, including development and benchmarking of the Magnetic System Circuitry Analysis Program (MSCAP) and Magnet Arcing (MAGARC) codes to study magnet quench events; notably, MAGARC was used to study quenching during the ITER Engineering Design Activity. However, these legacy codes and capabilities are not parallel and scalable, and new tools are required for future advances in this area, which leads to the INL-developed Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework. Developed originally for fission reactor systems under United States Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy modeling and simulation programs, the MOOSE framework has been well-suited to multiscale, multiphysics modeling and simulation needs for nuclear systems. The framework is open-source, well-tested, under continuous development and deployment, and developed to a Nuclear Quality Assurance, Level 1 software quality standard. MOOSE has also been used in the fusion space previously in several projects: INL’s Tritium Migration Analysis Program, Version 8 (TMAP8) for tritium migration, UK Atomic Energy Authority’s A Unified Resource for OpenMC (fusion) Reactor Applications (AURORA) code for fusion thermo-mechanical and neutronics analysis, and Argonne National Laboratory’s Cardinal for high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics and neutronics. However, to model superconducting magnets, several MOOSE enhancements are required: additions to the current MOOSE electromagnetic capabilities, new material libraries for superconductors of interest (such as YBCO), as well as fusion-specific models for thermo-mechanics. This talk will discuss initial development activities to build these capabilities in MOOSE, focusing on initial validation and benchmarking activities. Proposed coupling workflows and future work to support the simulation of fusion magnets and magnet structural assemblies for performance and safety evaluation in MOOSE will also be discussed.

70 - PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Machine learning for fundamental spectroscopic and thermodynamic data of actinides and lanthanides

Accurately modeling optical spectra with absolute radiometric intensities is vital for nuclear forensics applications that depend on characterizing optical emissions from energetic nuclear phenomena. This requires precise knowledge of the individual atomic transition probabilities, known as Einstein A-coefficients, for each emission line. Obtaining these values theoretically or experimentally is often impractical due to the complex electronic structures and the number of transitions involved in atoms relevant to nuclear applications. In this study, we explore the use of machine learning to predict the Einstein A coefficients for atomic transitions. Seven models were evaluated that ranged from deep learning to decision tree algorithms, and found that gradient boosting performed best, specifically the Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) architecture, achieving a precision of 86% across transitions of 36 elements. Furthermore, the model was cross-validated using published transition probabilities reported in the literature and applied to estimate Pu plasma temperatures from a previous experiment conducted at Savannah River National Laboratory.

Atomic spectroscopy↗

CH 3 Radical Generation in Microplasmas for Up-Conversion of Methane

The conversion of methane, CH 4 , into higher value chemicals using low temperature plasmas is challenged by both improving efficiency and selectivity. One path towards selectivity is capturing plasma produced methyl radicals, CH 3 , in a solvent for aqueous processing. Due to the rapid reactions of methyl radicals in the gas phase, the transport distance from production of the CH 3 to its solvation should be short, which then motivates the use of microplasmas. The generation of CH 3 in Ar/CH 4 /H 2 O plasmas produced in nanosecond pulsed dielectric barrier discharge microplasmas is discussed using results from a computational investigation. The microplasma is sustained in the channel of a microfluidic chip in which the solvent flows along one wall or in droplets. CH 3 is primarily produced by electron-impact of and dissociative excitation transfer to CH 4 , as well as CH 2 reacting with CH 4 . CH 3 is rapidly consumed to form C 2 H 6 which, in spite of being subject to these same dissociative processes, accumulates over time, as do other stable products including C 3 H 8 and CH 3 OH. The gas mixture and electrical properties were varied to assess their effects on CH 3 production. CH 3 production is largest with 5% CH 4 in the Ar/CH 4 /H 2 O mixture due to an optimal balance of electron-impact dissociation, which increases with CH 4 percentage, and dissociative excitation transfer and CH 2 reacting with CH 4 , which decrease with CH 4 percentage. Design parameters of the microchannels were also investigated. Increasing the permittivity of the dielectrics in contact with the plasma increased the ionization wave intensity which increased CH 3 production. Increased energy deposition per pulse generally increased CH 3 production as does lengthening pulse length up to a certain point. The arrangement of the solvent flow in the microchannel can also affect the CH 3 density and fluence to the solvent. The fluence of CH 3 to the liquid solvent is increased if the liquid is immersed in the plasma as a droplet or is a layer on the wall where the ionization wave terminates. The solvation dynamics of CH 3 with varying numbers of droplets was also examined. Here, the maximum density of solvated methyl radicals CH 3aq occurs with a large number of droplets in the plasma. However, the solvated CH 3aq density can rapidly decrease due to desolvation, emphasizing the need to quickly react the solvated species in the solvent.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

High-n Rydberg transition spectroscopy for heavy impurity transport studies in W7-X (invited)

Here, we present a novel spectroscopy approach to investigate impurity transport by analyzing line-radiation following high-n Rydberg transitions. While high-n Rydberg states of impurity ions are unlikely to be populated via impact excitation, they can be accessed by charge exchange (CX) reactions along the neutral beams in high-temperature plasmas. Hence, localized radiation of highly ionized impurities, free of passive contributions, can be observed at multiple wavelengths in the visible range. For the analysis and modeling of the observed Rydberg transitions, a technique for calculating effective emission coefficients is presented that can well reproduce the energy dependence seen in datasets available on the OPEN-ADAS database. By using the rate coefficients and comparing modeling results with the new high-n Rydberg CX measurements, impurity transport coefficients are determined with well-documented 2σ confidence intervals for the first time. This demonstrates that high-n Rydberg spectroscopy provides important constraints on the determination of impurity transport coefficients. By additionally considering Bolometer measurements, which provide constraints on the overall impurity emissivity and, therefore, impurity densities, error bars can be reduced even further.

Instruments & Instrumentation↗

Detection of atomic oxygen and its electronic coherence decays using time-resolved ultrafast coherent Raman scattering

We report the detection of atomic oxygen and quantitative measurements of its electronic Raman coherence decays in flames and low-temperature plasmas using time-resolved hybrid femtosecond/picosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS). Atomic oxygen was detected using the Raman transitions between the spin–orbit coupled triplet ground states. Atomic oxygen was generated in an H 2 /O 2 /Ar diffusion flame and an O 2 /Ar pulsed plasma discharge. Single exponential decays were observed for the O( 3 P 2 )–O( 3 P 1 ) Raman transition at 158.3 cm −1 and the O( 3 P 2 )–O( 3 P 0 ) Raman transition at 227 cm −1 . From the decay measurements, the atomic O Raman linewidths were obtained from 25 to 150 Torr in non-equilibrium plasma and at 760 Torr in a flame. Enhanced signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of atomic oxygen and atomic to molecular oxygen signal contrasts were obtained by taking advantage of electronic triplet coherence beating. Enhancement of up to seven times in the atomic O SNR was observed. Furthermore, we also found that the dephasing rates of O 2 (v = 0–3, N = 37) were similar, which provides evidence for the assumption that vibrational excitation does not influence the dephasing of diatomic molecular rotational CARS transitions.

Atomic and molecular spectroscopy↗

Laser-assisted radiative recombination in a cold hydrogen plasma

Abstract We study the process of laser-assisted radiative recombination of an electron with a proton in a cold hydrogen plasma employing the semiclassical Kramers’ approach which involves calculation of classical trajectories in combined laser and Coulomb fields and the use of the correspondence principle. Due to the Coulomb focusing effect, recombination is the most effective when the initial electron momentum is parallel to the laser polarization. Orders of magnitude enhancement of the cross section, as compared to the laser-free case, is observed in this case. With increasing angle between the electron momentum and polarization, the recombination cross section drops. However, even after averaging over Maxwellian velocity distribution we obtain a substantial enhancement of the recombination rate constant, as compared to the zero-field case. For the field intensities in the range 30–350 MW cm −2 , the enhancement occurs in the region of the radiation wavelength from 5 to 20 µ m and for the plasma temperature from 20 to 300 K.

Fabrikant, I. I. (ORCID:0000000293849454)↗

Neutron star cooling with lepton-flavor-violating axions

The cores of dense stars are a powerful laboratory for studying feebly coupled particles such as axions. Some of the strongest constraints on axionlike particles and their couplings to ordinary matter derive from considerations of stellar axion emission. In this work we study the radiation of axionlike particles from degenerate neutron star matter via a lepton-flavor-violating coupling that leads to muon-electron conversion when an axion is emitted. We calculate the axion emission rate per unit volume (emissivity) and by comparing with the rate of neutrino emission, we infer upper limits on the lepton-flavor-violating coupling that are at the level of | g a e μ | ≲ 10 − 6 . For the hotter environment of a supernova, such as SN 1987A, the axion emission rate is enhanced and the limit is stronger, at the level of | g a e μ | ≲ 10 − 11 , competitive with laboratory limits. Interestingly, our derivation of the axion emissivity reveals that axion emission via the lepton-flavor-violating coupling is suppressed relative to the familiar lepton-flavor-preserving channels by the square of the plasma temperature to muon mass ratio, which is responsible for the relatively weaker limits. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Uniform Whole Wafer Anisotropic Etching of Structural Ta Thin Films

Tantalum (Ta) has promise as a structural material for micromechanical sensors and actuators. Anisotropic etching of alpha (α) phase Ta is required for micromachining applications. Uniform thickness and etch across a full wafer are desirable features. An experimental investigation is conducted to study plasma etching rate and anisotropy in etching α -Ta in relation to pressure and gas flow ratio. A comparatively low toxicity gas, carbon tetrafluoride (CF4), and argon (Ar) are used. Spectrometry by optical emission spectrometry (OES) and residual gas analysis (RGA) are employed to characterize the plasma to gain insight into the etch mechanisms. At low flow, the etch rate is slow due to an inadequate supply of the etching gas, CF4. The etch rate is also slowed at high flow due to a reduced CF4 residence time. Flow and pressure conditions to achieve a good etch rate and vertical sidewalls are identified and explained by means of a full factorial experiment coupled with emission spectra. Finally, with these conditions, uniform etching of 2.5 μm thick α-Ta across a 4-inch wafer is demonstrated.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗