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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 505 records · Page 28
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DOE OSTI2014

Effect of pelleting process variables on physical properties and sugar yields of ammonia fiber expansion pretreated corn stover

Pelletization process variables including grind size (4, 6 mm), die speed (40, 50, 60 Hz), and preheating (none, 70 degrees C) were evaluated to understand their effect on pellet quality attributes and sugar yields of ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX) pretreated biomass. The bulk density of the pelletized AFEX corn stover was three to six times greater compared to untreated and AFEX-treated corn stover. Also the durability of the pelletized AFEX corn stover was >97.5% for all pelletization conditions studied except for preheated pellets. Die speed had no effect on enzymatic hydrolysis sugar yields of pellets. Pellets produced with preheating or a larger grind size (6 mm) had similar or lower sugar yields. Pellets generated with 4 mm AFEX-treated corn stover, a 60 Hz die speed, and no preheating resulted in pellets with similar or greater density, durability, and sugar yields compared to other pelletization conditions.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Effect of non-uniform void distributions on the yielding of metals

High-throughput (several thousand) calculations have been carried out to investigate the yield behavior of porous materials with randomly distributed pores, porosity levels over four orders of magnitude and up to a hundred pores per simulation box. To this end, a Galerkin based fast Fourier transform (FFT) formulation was enhanced to deal with high phase contrast materials. In addition, GPU parallelization was employed in solving the governing equation for strain fluctuations using a Krylov iterative solver. Emphasis is laid on the conditions under which percolation of plastically non-deforming zones through the porous network emerge, a regime termed unhomogeneous yielding. By way of contrast, the regime where the plastic strain fluctuations (associated with the heterogeneous void-matrix aggregate) fall below the percolation threshold is defined as homogeneous yielding. Here, we find that nonuniform pore distributions only affect unhomogeneous yielding and have a universal softening effect. The extent of this distribution softening is analyzed as a function of porosity, cell size and number of realizations. Whether the uncovered universal distribution softening has direct implications on failure resistance of porous materials is discussed.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2019

Designing and transforming yield-stress fluids

We review progress in designing and transforming multi-functional yield-stress fluids and give a perspective on the current state of knowledge that supports each step in the design process. We focus mainly on the rheological properties that make yield-stress fluids so useful and the trade-offs which need to be considered when working with these materials. Thinking in terms of "design with" and "design of' yield-stress fluids motivates how we can organize our scientific understanding of this field. "Design with" involves identification of rheological property requirements independent of the chemical formulation, e.g. for 3D direct-write printing which needs to accommodate a wide range of chemistry and material structures. "Design of includes microstructural considerations: conceptual models relating formulation to properties, quantitative models of formulation-structureproperty relations, and chemical transformation strategies for converting effective yield-stress fluids to be more useful solid engineering materials. Finally, future research directions are suggested at the intersection of chemistry, soft-matter physics, and material science in the context of our desire to design useful Theologically-complex functional materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Influence of cementation on the yield surface of rocks numerically determined from digital microstructures

Digital Rock Physics has reached a level of maturity on the characterisation of primary properties that depend on the microstructure – such as porosity, permeability or elastic moduli – by numerically solving field equations on μCT scan images of rock. After small deformations or at depth though, most rocks eventually reach their limit of elasticity and the complementary plastic properties are needed to describe the full mechanical behaviour. Currently, determination of a rock’s yield surface from its microstructure is often restricted to semi-analytical criteria derived by limit analysis or numerical simulations performed on idealised geometries. Such simplification lacks representativeness, particularly for processes that affect directly the pore-grain interface such as the cementation phenomenon, happening during diagenesis. Eventually, only direct numerical simulation of elasto-plasticity performed on digitalised microstructures can be used to assess the strength of different cemented materials and its evolution with the alteration of the microstructure. In this study, we provide a comprehensive parametric study on the impact of cementation on rock strength for real microstructures of cemented granular materials. Compared to most previous studies, the whole yield surface is determined numerically (using Finite Element Method) in order to assess the influence of cementation for different stress-paths. The previously known tendency of rock to strengthen with increasing cementation volume is verified. New results on the influence of cement property namely Young’s modulus, friction and cohesion on the rock’s yield surface are explored. The envelopes obtained are compared to the ones obtained by experimental data and existing models. Finally, the framework presented in this study showcases the wider possibility of determining any rock’s or porous material’s yield surface from its microstructure.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Airborne hyperspectral imaging of nitrogen deficiency on crop traits and yield of maize by machine learning and radiative transfer modeling

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient that directly affects plant photosynthesis, crop yield, and biomass production for bioenergy crops, but excessive application of nitrogen fertilizers can cause environmental degradation. To achieve sustainable nitrogen fertilizer management for precision agriculture, there is an urgent need for nondestructive and high spatial resolution monitoring of crop nitrogen and its allocation to photosynthetic proteins as that changes over time. Here, we used visible to shortwave infrared (400–2400 nm) airborne hyperspectral imaging with high spatial (0.5 m) and spectral (3–5 nm) resolutions to accurately estimate critical crop traits, i.e., nitrogen, chlorophyll, and photosynthetic capacity (CO 2 -saturated photosynthesis rate, V max,27 ), at leaf and canopy scales, and to assess nitrogen deficiency on crop yield. We conducted three airborne campaigns over a maize (Zea mays L.) field during the growing season of 2019. Physically based soil-canopy Radiative Transfer Modeling (RTM) and data-driven approaches i.e. Partial-Least Squares Regression (PLSR) were used to retrieve crop traits from hyperspectral reflectance, with ground truth of leaf nitrogen, chlorophyll, V max,27 , Leaf Area Index (LAI), and harvested grain yield. To improve computational efficiency of RTMs, Random Forest (RF) was used to mimic RTM simulations to generate machine learning surrogate models RTM-RF. The results show that prior knowledge of soil background and leaf angle distribution can significantly reduce the ill-posed RTM retrieval. RTM-RF achieved a high accuracy to predict leaf chlorophyll content (R 2 = 0.73) and LAI (R 2 = 0.75). Meanwhile, PLSR exhibited better accuracy to predict leaf chlorophyll content (R 2 = 0.79), nitrogen concentration (R 2 = 0.83), nitrogen content (R 2 = 0.77), and V max,27 (R 2 = 0.69) but required measured traits for model training. We also found that canopy structure signals can enhance the use of spectral data to predict nitrogen related photosynthetic traits, as combining RTM-RF LAI and PLSR leaf traits well predicted canopy-level traits (leaf traits × LAI) including canopy chlorophyll (R 2 = 0.80), nitrogen (R 2 = 0.85) and V max,27 (R 2 = 0.82). Compared to leaf traits, we further found that canopy-level photosynthetic traits, particularly canopy V max,27 , have higher correlation with maize grain yield. This study highlights the potential for synergistic use of process-based and data-driven approaches of hyperspectral imaging to quantify crop traits that facilitate precision agricultural management to secure food and bioenergy production.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fission Yields and Other Diagnostics for Nuclear Performance

I summarize advances in our understanding of basic nuclear physics cross sections and decay properties that are needed to characterize the magnitude and energy-dependence of a neutron flux, and to determine the amount of fission burnup in plutonium fuel. The number of fissions that have occurred in a neutron environment can be deduced from measurements of the fission products created, providing that the fission product yields are known accurately. I describe how our understanding of plutonium fission product yields has improved in recent years through a meta-analysis of various measured data, and through identification of fission product yield incident-energy dependencies over the 0.2-2 MeV fast energy region. This led to the resolution of a previous discrepancy between the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in their plutonium yield assessments in the fast energy region, although more experimental work is still needed to resolve discrepancies at 14 MeV. Work is also described that has improved our understanding of (n,2n) cross sections that are used as diagnostics of the high-energy neutron spectrum – both on plutonium and americium, and on the radiochemical detectors yttrium, iridium, and thulium. Finally, some observations are made on the importance of continuing to develop our Evaluated Nuclear Data Files (ENDF) database using physics insights from differential cross section and integral laboratory experiments and from nuclear theory advances.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Methodology to predict annual yield losses and gains caused by solar module design and materials under field exposure

Solar cells and modules are usually optimized separately under standard test conditions (STC). However, the actual performance under field exposure depends on module design, installation and environmental conditions. This work therefore presents a methodology to predict the annual yield of crystalline silicon solar modules for varying module configurations and environments using a time step simulation approach. We define and quantify 12 effects that affect the annual module performance, starting with solar cells in air under STC to a complete module under realistic conditions. We consider the interaction of optical, thermal and electrical effects in the module and combine it with an angular, spectral and time resolved light source. The model enables understanding the impact of the module environment, such as regions with high wind speeds or high diffuse light, on the annual output of a particular module type. We validate our model with measured power and temperature data for crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cell modules and find an agreement of the annual yield within 0.7%. We quantify the annual gains and losses for this module and identify that major losses are caused by elevated operating temperatures (2.3%) and reflection losses at the front glass (2.6%). Critically, the coupling gains at the cell surface increase significantly by 1.5% when considering angular light irradiance compared to normal incidence. To conclude, we apply our Cell-to-Module-Yield method to a 72-cell mono-crystalline PERC module, where the main annual yield losses are caused by reflection at the front glass and ohmic losses in the connector ribbons.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Anaerobic co-digestion of sugarcane press mud with vinasse on methane yield

Highlights: • Press mud and vinasse co-digestion was investigated. •Methane yield during co-digestion was 64% higher to mono-digestion. • Press mud and vinasse co-digestion increased process stability. - Abstract: The conversion efficiency of high solids waste digestion as sugarcane press mud (P) may be limited due to hydrolysis step. The option of co-digestion with vinasse, main liquid waste generated from ethanol production, was investigated under batch regime at mesophilic conditions (37.5 ± 1 °C) and the best mixture was evaluated under semicontinuous regime in stirred-tank reactors. The maximum values for methane yield in batch tests were for V{sub 75}/P{sub 25} and V{sub 50}/P{sub 50} mixtures (on basis of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) percentage added in the mixture), with an average value of 246 N mL CH{sub 4} g{sup −1} COD{sub fed}, which was 13% higher than that of press mud alone. A highest methane production rate of 69.6 N mL CH{sub 4} g{sup −1} COD{sub fed}{sup −1} d{sup −1} was obtained for the mixtureV{sub 75}/P{sub 25}. During the experiment carried out in CSTR reactors, the organic loading rate (OLR) was increased from 0.5 up to 2.2 g VS L{sup −1} d{sup −1}. Methane yields of 365 L CH{sub 4} kg{sup −1} VS and biogas productivities of 1.6 L L{sup −1} were obtained in co-digestion, which was 64% higher in comparison to mono-digestion. The performance of the process in mono-digestion was less stable than in co-digestion, with a significant fall of methane yield to 1.8 kg VS m{sup −3} d{sup −1}, and a partial inhibition of the methanogenic archaeas when the OLR was increased up to 2.2 kg VS m{sup −3} d{sup −1}. The co-digestion of vinasse with press mud is a good option for the treatment of streams at the alcohol-sugar industry.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2011

Absolute calibration method for laser megajoule neutron yield measurement by activation diagnostics

The laser megajoule (LMJ) and the National Ignition Facility (NIF) plan to demonstrate thermonuclear ignition using inertial confinement fusion (ICF). The neutron yield is one of the most important parameters to characterize ICF experiment performance. For decades, the activation diagnostic was chosen as a reference at ICF facilities and is now planned to be the first nuclear diagnostic on LMJ, measuring both 2.45 MeV and 14.1 MeV neutron yields. Challenges for the activation diagnostic development are absolute calibration, accuracy, range requirement, and harsh environment. At this time, copper and zirconium material are identified for 14.1 MeV neutron yield measurement and indium material for 2.45 MeV neutrons. A series of calibrations were performed at Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA) on a Van de Graff facility to determine activation diagnostics efficiencies and to compare them with results from calculations. The CEA copper activation diagnostic was tested on the OMEGA facility during DT implosion. Experiments showed that CEA and Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) diagnostics agree to better than 1% on the neutron yield measurement, with an independent calibration for each system. Also, experimental sensitivities are in good agreement with simulations and allow us to scale activation diagnostics for the LMJ measurement range.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2011

Study of nonproportionality in the light yield of inorganic scintillators

Using a phenomenological approach, the light yield is derived for inorganic scintillators as a function of the rates of linear, bimolecular, and Auger processes occurring in the electron track initiated by an x ray or a {gamma}-ray photon. A relation between the track length and incident energy is also derived. It is found that the nonproportionality in the light yield can be eliminated if either nonlinear processes of interaction among the excited electrons, holes, and excitons can be eliminated from occurring or the high density situation can be relieved by diffusion of carriers from the track at a faster rate than the rate of activation of nonlinear processes. The influence of the track length and radius on the yield nonproportionality is discussed in view of the known experimental results. Inventing new inorganic scintillating materials with high carrier mobility can lead to a class of proportional inorganic scintillators. Results agree qualitatively with experimental results for the dependence of light yield on the incident energy.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Calculation of K-shell fluorescence yields for low-Z elements

The analytical methods based on X-ray fluorescence are advantageous for practical applications in a variety of fields including atomic physics, X-ray fluorescence surface chemical analysis and medical research and so the accurate fluorescence yields (ω{sub K}) are required for these applications. In this contribution we report a new parameters for calculation of K-shell fluorescence yields (ω{sub K}) of elements in the range of 11≤Z≤30. The experimental data are interpolated by using the famous analytical function (ω{sub k}/(1−ω{sub k})){sup 1/q} (were q=3, 3.5 and 4) vs Z to deduce the empirical K-shell fluorescence yields. A comparison is made between the results of the procedures followed here and those theoretical and other semi-empirical fluorescence yield values. Reasonable agreement was typically obtained between our result and other works.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Neutron yield enhancement in laser-induced deuterium-deuterium fusion using a novel shaped target

Neutron yields have direct correlation with the energy of incident deuterons in experiments of laser deuterated target interaction [Roth et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 044802 (2013) and Higginson et al., Phys. Plasmas 18, 100703 (2011)], while deuterated plasma density is also an important parameter. Experiments at the Shenguang II laser facility have produced neutrons with energy of 2.45 MeV using d (d, n) He reaction. Deuterated foil target and K-shaped target were employed to study the influence of plasma density on neutron yields. Neutron yield generated by K-shaped target (nearly 10{sup 6}) was two times higher than by foil target because the K-shaped target results in higher density plasma. Interferometry and multi hydro-dynamics simulation confirmed the importance of plasma density for enhancement of neutron yields.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Control of the external photoluminescent quantum yield of emitters coupled to nanoantenna phased arrays

Optical losses in metals represent the largest limitation to the external quantum yield of emitters coupled to plasmonic antennas. These losses can be at the emission wavelength, but they can be more important at shorter wavelengths, i.e., at the excitation wavelength of the emitters, where the conductivity of metals is usually lower. We present accurate measurements of the absolute external photoluminescent quantum yield of a thin layer of emitting material deposited over a periodic nanoantenna phased array. Emission and absorptance measurements of the sample are performed using a custom-made setup including an integrating sphere and variable angle excitation. The measurements reveal a strong dependence of the external quantum yield on the angle at which the optical field excites the sample. Such behavior is attributed to the coupling between far-field illumination and near-field excitation mediated by the collective resonances supported by the array. Numerical simulations confirm that the inherent losses associated with the metal can be greatly reduced by selecting an optimum angle of illumination, which boosts the light conversion efficiency in the emitting layer. This combined experimental and numerical characterization of the emission from plasmonic arrays reveals the need to carefully design the illumination to achieve the maximum external quantum yield.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Production yield of rare-earth ions implanted into an optical crystal

Rare-earth (RE) ions doped into desired locations of optical crystals might enable a range of novel integrated photonic devices for quantum applications. With this aim, we have investigated the production yield of cerium and praseodymium by means of ion implantation. As a measure, the collected fluorescence intensity from both implanted samples and single centers was used. With a tailored annealing procedure for cerium, a yield up to 53% was estimated. Praseodymium yield amounts up to 91%. Such high implantation yield indicates a feasibility of creation of nanopatterned rare-earth doping and suggests strong potential of RE species for on-chip photonic devices.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Plastic scintillators relative gamma-ray light yield measurement

Here we are investigating the inclusion of organotin compounds in polystyrene material to improve plastic scintillators full gamma-ray energy sensitivity with the ultimate goal of achieving spectroscopy. Accurate evaluation of the relative light yield from the newly developed scintillators is crucial to assess merits of compounds and chemical processes used in the scintillators development and assess the scintillation efficiencies of the newly produced scintillators. Full gamma-ray energy peak in the measured gamma-ray spectrum, resulting from total absorption of gamma-ray energy, would be ideal in assessing the relative light yield. However, the significant number of new samples we are producing for investigation lead us to the possibility of using the Compton edge as an alternate spectral feature that can be exploited for expeditious characterization of the relative light yield in plastic scintillators. In this study we present a spectra gain matching approach, using a spectrum rebinning, for accurate relative light yield measurement using the Compton edge.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Quantifying uncertainties on fission fragment mass yields with mixture density networks

Probabilistic machine learning techniques can learn both complex relations between input features and output quantities of interest as well as take into account stochasticity or uncertainty within a data set. In this initial work, we explore the use of one such probabilistic network, the mixture density network (MDN), to reproduce fission yields and their uncertainties. In this paper, we study mass yields for the spontaneous fission of 252 Cf, exploring the number of training samples needed for converged predictions, how different levels of uncertainty propagate from the training set to the MDN predictions, and how well physical constraints of the yields—such as normalization and symmetry—are upheld by the algorithm. Finally, we test the ability of the MDN to interpolate between and extrapolate beyond samples in the training set using energy-dependent mass yields for the neutron-induced fission on 235 U. The MDN provides a reliable way to include and predict uncertainties and is a promising path forward for supplementing sparse sets of nuclear data.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

CO 2 fertilization of crops offsets yield losses due to future surface ozone damage and climate change

Tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) is harmful to plant productivity and negatively impacts crop yields. O3 concentrations are projected to decrease globally in the optimistic Representative Concentration Pathway of 2.6 W m –2 (RCP2.6) but increase globally following the high-emission scenario under the RCP8.5, with substantial implications for global food security. The damaging effect of O 3 on future crop yield is affected by CO 2 fertilization and climate change, and their interactions for RCP scenarios have yet to be quantified. In this study, we used the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator modified to include crops (JULES-crop) to quantify the impacts, and relative importance of present-day and future O3, CO 2 concentration and meteorology on crop production at the regional scale until 2100 following RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios. We focus on eight major crop-producing regions that cover the production of wheat, soybean, maize, and rice. Our results show that CO 2 alone has the largest effect on regional yields, followed by climate and O 3 . However, the CO 2 fertilization effect is offset by the negative impact of tropospheric O 3 in regions with high O 3 concentrations, such as South Asia and China. Simulated crop yields in 2050 were compared with Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) statistics to investigate the differences between a socioeconomic and a biophysical process-based approach. Results showed that FAO estimates are closer to our JULES-crop RCP8.5 scenario. This study demonstrates that air pollution could be the biggest threat to future food production and highlights an urgent policy need to mitigate the threat of climate change and O 3 pollution on food security.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2011

Measurements of the mass and isotopic yields of the {sup 233}U(n{sub th},f) reaction at the Lohengrin spectrometer

Over the last 10 years, a vast campaign of measurements has been initiated to improve the precision of neutron data for the involved key nuclei ({sup 232}Th, {sup 233}Pa and {sup 233}U) of the innovative Th -{sup 233}U cycle. This latter might indeed provide cleaner nuclear energy than the present U-Pu one. New measurements of charge and mass distributions of the fission products have been achieved at the Lohengrin spectrometer of the Inst. Laue-Langevin (ILL) during fall 2010 to complete the experimental data of {sup 233}U(n,f) that exist mainly for light fission fragments. That is why we performed measurements of mass and isotopic yields with a special focus on the heavy fission fragment part. Mass yields were measured by ion counting with an ionization chamber after separation by the Lohengrin spectrometer. Isotopic yields were derived from gamma spectrometry of mass-separated beams using HPGe clover detectors. This paper will present the results of these fission yield measurements along with details on the experimental set-up and the chosen analysis method. (authors)

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗