Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “liquid jets”

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 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Single and Double-Sided Jet Impingement Cooling for SiC-Based Power Modules

Efficient thermal management of power electronics systems is crucial for higher reliability. With the miniaturization of systems, high-loss-density electronics require cooling systems that can extract a large amount of heat. This study explored a liquid-jet-impingement-based direct substrate cooling system for single-sided and double-sided cooling to improve heat extraction efficiency and improve the power density by reducing the volume and mass. The cooling system was implemented for a SiC-based direct bonded copper substrate. Numerical simulations were performed to determine the effects of nozzle diameter, the number of nozzles, and nozzle array orientation on single-sided cooling and thermal performance gain over double-sided cooling. A novel manifold design was proposed that reduced the volume and mass of the manifold and still achieved the target power density. The performance of the proposed design was compared with the pin-fin-based cooling system used in the BMW I3 module, and a comparative analysis was done.

Barua, Himel↗
DOE OSTI2026

The chemRIXS Instrument for Solution-Phase Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering at the Linac Coherent Light Source

The chemRIXS instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) offers new opportunities for studying solution-phase systems with time-resolved soft X-ray spectroscopic methods such as resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) using the recently commissioned high-repetition-rate LCLS-II X-ray free electron laser. The orders-of-magnitude X-ray flux improvement provided by the superconducting accelerator, combined with corresponding advances in the optical laser system and the liquid jet recirculation system, enables studies on dilute systems with high signal-to-noise compared to what was possible with the LCLS-I copper accelerator. These capabilities open up time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy and RIXS to entirely new classes of samples, as well as enabling the development of new soft X-ray spectroscopic methods on liquid samples. An overview of the beamline components and the first LCLS-II commissioning results are presented.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

A physics-driven Σ-Y atomization model for heavy-duty engine simulations

The atomization of a liquid jet is a multi-scale and multi-physics problem of interest for many engineering applications. Particularly, it drives the fuel-oxidizer mixing and dictates the efficiency of combustion engines. High-fidelity multi-phase simulations remain challenging due to the excessive computational cost required to capture all the atomization scales. Thus, atomization models are necessary to represent sub-grid liquid structures. Here, in this work, a modified Σ-Y model in the context of Eulerian-Lagrangian Spray Atomization (ELSA) is used to transport the surface area density of the spray. The model's predictive performance is assessed under various operating conditions relevant to heavy-duty engines using the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) Spray C and Spray D research-grade injectors. The classic droplet collision formulation of the Σ-Y model alone does not replicate the response of the measured spray surface area to changes in injector, ambient pressure, and injection pressure, requiring individual tuning of the model's parameters. Instead, a transition between dense and dilute spray breakup mechanisms is proposed in terms of the average droplet spacing. The collision breakup mechanism represents the dilute spray, whereas the droplet size in the dense spray is driven by a competition between the integral scale of turbulence and the balance between the turbulent kinetic energy and the surface energy of the droplets. Such an approach minimizes the requirements for model tuning. Moreover, the role of the constants of a compressible standard k-ε RANS model is assessed in the injector's internal flow and external spray simulation framework, and an updated set is proposed. The results are validated against x-ray radiography and Ultra-Small Angle X-ray Scattering (USAXS) data and highlight the predictive capabilities of the proposed physics-driven Σ-Y model, which is compatible with engine simulation turnaround times.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2026

Numerical investigation of liquid wall ablation in inertial fusion energy chambers

This paper presents a novel approach for modeling liquid wall ablation in liquid wall-protected inertial fusion energy (IFE) chambers. These systems are promising candidates for the implementation of fusion technology, yet significant gaps remain in understanding the underlying physical processes and their implications for design. Following target ignition, a portion of the fusion energy is released as x-rays, which deposit their energy into an array of liquid jets, leading to partial vaporization. Accurately modeling this heat deposition and vaporization process remains challenging due to the complex geometries typical of (pre-conceptual) IFE chamber designs. Furthermore, the subsequent expansion of vaporized material into the chamber’s vacuum environment poses difficulties for conventional CFD methods based on continuum assumptions, which can lead to significant inaccuracies. To address some aspects of these challenges, this work introduces a ray-tracing-based methodology to map the spatial distribution of ablated material in liquid wall-protected systems. In addition, a vacuum-tracking scheme is developed to extend the applicability of an OpenFOAM-based solver to gas dynamics in rarefied environments. The proposed approach has been verified through numerical benchmarks and applied to a practical case involving the HYLIFE-II (High Yield Lithium Injection Fusion Energy) chamber. The methodology advances the modeling capabilities for liquid wall-protected IFE systems and provides valuable tools to support their design and optimization.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development of Microwave Resonant Cavity Transducer Recalibration Procedures

We are investigating a microwave resonant cavity transducer for flow sensing in the vessel of a high temperature fluid advanced reactor (AR), such as a molten salt cooled reactor (MSCR) or a sodium fast reactor (SFR). This transducer is a hollow metallic cylindrical cavity, with one of the flat walls of the cylinder flexible enough to undergo microscopic deflection due to dynamic fluid pressure. Membrane deflection leads to a shift in the microwave resonant frequency, which can be detected with a spectrum analyzer. We have performed a preliminary proof-of-principle test of flow sensing in high temperature liquid sodium in environment. The liquid sodium setup consists of a cylindrical vessel with a center feed line, where a transducer inserted through the top cap of the vessel measures velocity of the impinging liquid jet. For this test, we have developed a cylindrical resonator, which was machined from stainless steel 316 and electroplated with silver on the interior surfaces. Inner diameter of the cylindrical cavity is 22.2 mm, and the thin wall is approximately 200µm thick. The cavity was excited through a WR-42 waveguide through a subwavelength hole on the side of the wall of the cylinder in the TE 011 mode with resonant frequency f ≈ 17.8GHz. Sodium flow rate sensing study was performed in a liquid sodium vessel at 340°C temperature and ambient pressure. The flow rate was changed by varying sodium pump power, and a frequency shift of several hundred KHz was observed. From the measurements, we observed significant scatter in high temperature liquid sodium at low flow velocity values. Our hypothesis is that this is caused by temperature drift in the liquid, which results in thermal expansion of the cavity and a drift in the resonator frequency. In this report, we investigate temperature dependence of the resonant frequency through development of analytic models and preliminary analysis of experimental data. In addition, we develop a procedure for compensation for temperature drift during flow sensing.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Demonstration of Microwave Cavity Transducer Performance in High Temperature Fluid Flow Sensing: Development of Microwave Cavity Flow Meter for Advanced Reactor High Temperature Fluids

We are investigating a microwave resonant cavity transducer for flow sensing in the vessel of a high temperature fluid advanced reactor (AR), such as a molten salt cooled reactor (MSCR) or a sodium fast reactor (SFR). This transducer is a hollow metallic cylindrical cavity, with one of the flat walls of the cylinder flexible enough to undergo microscopic deflection due to dynamic fluid pressure. Membrane deflection leads to a shift in the microwave resonant frequency, which can be detected with a spectrum analyzer. We have performed a preliminary proof-of-principle test of flow sensing in high temperature liquid sodium in environment, which is similar to that of an advanced reactor. The liquid sodium setup consists of a cylindrical vessel with a center feed line, where a transducer inserted through the top cap of the vessel measures velocity of the impinging liquid jet. For this test, we have developed a cylindrical resonator, which was machined from stainless steel 316 and electroplated with silver on the interior surfaces. Outer diameter of the cylindrical cavity is approximately 3cm, and the thin wall is approximately 200µm thick. We have also developed and insertion probe consisting of a 50cm WR-42 brass waveguide enclosed in a protective SS316 tube. The cavity was excited through a WR-42 waveguide through a subwavelength hole on the side of the wall of the cylinder in the TE 011 mode with resonant frequency f ≈ 17.8GHz. As a calibration experiment, we have assembled a water vessel with a center feed, and with dimensions similar to those of the liquid sodium setup. Frequency shift of the cavity spectral response was obtained at room temperature and ambient pressure by gradually increasing water flow rate from 0 to 25GPM (gallons per minute). Corresponding monotonic increase of resonant frequency by several hundred KHz was observed. Next, a sodium flow rate sensing study was performed in a liquid sodium vessel at 340° C temperature and ambient pressure. The flow rate was changed by varying sodium pump power, and a frequency shift of several hundred KHz was observed.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Sequence2Self: Self-supervised image sequence denoising of pixel-level spray breakup morphology

Optical imaging of fast and transient phenomena such as the turbulent breakup of liquid sprays exhibit low signal-to-noise ratios due to the limited illumination intensity relative to the short exposure time. Image denoising is required to facilitate physical studies over these data but is challenging due to the absence of clean ground-truths and the stringency of the denoising task (e.g., strong and complex noise, limited resolution, preserving physical fidelity), preventing supervised and existing un-/self-supervised deep learning methods. To this end, Sequence2Self (Seq2S) is proposed, an extension of Self2Self (S2S) to image sequences that leverages both the signal’s spatial and temporal correlation. Seq2S is demonstrated on time-resolved x-ray phase contrast imaging of liquid jet fuel sprays in a gas turbine combustor, which possesses all of challenges detailed above. Experiments are conducted across four fuels with different breakup morphology using various state-of-the-art methods. Overall, many of the methods failed and Seq2S was most successful: (1) Accurate spray structures were reconstructed with consistent evolution across frames void of artifacts. (2) The performance was robust, invariant to the hyperparameter choice. (3) Computational time is short and can be made eligible for real-time denoising. In particular, the images denoised by Seq2S showed spray droplet diameter distributions with near-zero Kullback–Leibler divergence (0.01 ± 0.01) to a cleaner reference, whereas the second best method yielded 0.06 ± 0.03. In conclusion, this suggests that Seq2S can be reliably used prior to subsequent quantitative spray analyses as it retains (if not, improves) the statistical physical properties of the data.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

A Flat Analyzer Polycapillary Spectrometer for X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy of Dilute Transition Metals at X-ray-Free Electron Lasers

X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) coupled with highly intense pulses from an X-ray-free electron laser (XFEL) can be used to track ultrafast chemical dynamics. Nonetheless, measurements for dilute samples (≤1 mM) have been exceptionally challenging, as scattering background signals dominate over the sample’s X-ray fluorescence. We show that femtosecond time-resolved XAS measurements of sub-millimolar transition metal solutions are now possible at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) using a high-throughput polycapillary XAS spectrometer, designed, developed, and commissioned at LCLS and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL). The instrument integrates three polycapillary optics that collect and collimate X-ray fluorescence emitted from the interaction point with a high solid angle. X-ray collimated fluorescence is then selectively diffracted by coupled graphite analyzer crystals. As a result, the contribution of scattered photons is suppressed. Experiments at the Pt L 3 -edge on 0.1 mM aqueous K 2 PtCl 6 (delivered via a 100 μm liquid jet) were successfully performed in the laser pump X-ray probe configuration at the LCLS XCS and XPP instruments. We report the transient spectra of hexachloroplatinate within the first 10 ps after a 266 nm photoexcitation. We observed a short-lived reduced intermediate (≈2 ps). The polycapillary X-ray spectrometer at LCLS now enables the efficient study of the dynamics of ultradilute transition metals in solution. This capability opens the door to investigating plasmonic systems, photocatalysts, enzymes, and other scarce and dilute samples.

LCLS↗
DOE OSTI2021

A self-referenced in-situ arrival time monitor for X-ray free-electron lasers

We present a novel, highly versatile, and self-referenced arrival time monitor for measuring the femtosecond time delay between a hard X-ray pulse from a free-electron laser and an optical laser pulse, measured directly on the same sample used for pump-probe experiments. Two chirped and picosecond long optical supercontinuum pulses traverse the sample with a mutually fixed time delay of 970 fs, while a femtosecond X-ray pulse arrives at an instant in between both pulses. Behind the sample the supercontinuum pulses are temporally overlapped to yield near-perfect destructive interference in the absence of the X-ray pulse. Stimulation of the sample with an X-ray pulse delivers non-zero contributions at certain optical wavelengths, which serve as a measure of the relative arrival time of the X-ray pulse with an accuracy of better than 25 fs. We find an excellent agreement of our monitor with the existing timing diagnostics at the SACLA XFEL with a Pearson correlation value of 0.98. We demonstrate a high sensitivity to measure X-ray pulses with pulse energies as low as 30 μJ. Using a free-flowing liquid jet as interaction sample ensures the full replacement of the sample volume for each X-ray/optical event, thus enabling its utility even at MHz repetition rate XFEL sources.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Advanced manufacturing provides tailor-made solutions for crystallography with x-ray free-electron lasers

Serial crystallography at large facilities, such as x-ray free-electron lasers and synchrotrons, evolved as a powerful method for the high-resolution structural investigation of proteins that are critical for human health, thus advancing drug discovery and novel therapies. However, a critical barrier to successful serial crystallography experiments lies in the efficient handling of the protein microcrystals and solutions at microscales. Microfluidics are the obvious approach for any high-throughput, nano-to-microliter sample handling, that also requires design flexibility and rapid prototyping to deal with the variable shapes, sizes, and density of crystals. Here, we discuss recent advances in polymer 3D printing for microfluidics-based serial crystallography research and present a demonstration of emerging, large-scale, nano-3D printing approaches leading into the future of 3D sample environment and delivery device fabrication from liquid jet gas-dynamic virtual nozzles devices to fixed-target sample environment technology.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nonuniform Flow Dynamics Probed by Nanosecond X-Ray Speckle Visibility Spectroscopy

We report observations of nanosecond nonuniform colloidal dynamics in a free flowing liquid jet using ultrafast x-ray speckle visibility spectroscopy. Utilizing a nanosecond double-bunch mode, the Linac Coherent Light Source free electron laser produced pairs of femtosecond coherent hard x-ray pulses. By exploring anisotropy in the visibility of summed speckle patterns which relates to the correlation functions, we evaluate not only the average particle flow rate in a colloidal nanoparticle jet, but also the nonuniform flow field within. The methodology presented here establishes the foundation for the study of nano- and atomic-scale inhomogeneous fluctuations in complex matter using x-ray free electron laser sources.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Fragmentation of faceted crystalline wires

The reduction of surface energy is a well-known driving force for the fragmentation of nanowires. Fragmentation can limit the service life of those small low-dimensional building blocks or can be controlled to induce beneficial shape changes. For isotropic surface energy, fragmentation is analogous to the classic Rayleigh-Plateau instability of liquid jets. However, commonly synthesized crystalline nanowires have strongly anisotropic surface energies and exhibit facets coinciding with cusps in the Wulff plot. Depending on growth orientation, different fragmentation behaviors have been seen in nanowires. Using phase-field simulations, we show that fragmentation of faceted nanowires with cubic crystal symmetry may occur by a finite-amplitude nonlinear instability, as opposed to a Rayleigh-Plateau-like linear instability, depending on nanowire growth orientation. Here, we carry out a weakly nonlinear analysis based on sharp interface theory to characterize the faceted nanowire shape corresponding to a surface-energy saddle point. The analysis predicts that the minimum amplitude of a periodic shape perturbation to trigger fragmentation increases with cusp strength but decreases inversely proportionally to the perturbation wavelength for long wavelengths, in good quantitative agreement with phase-field predictions. The results provide the theoretical foundation to predict nanowire stability as a function of length and surface energy in diverse applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Speed of sound in methane under conditions of planetary interiors

We present direct observations of acoustic waves in warm dense matter. We analyze wave-number- and energy-resolved x-ray spectra taken from warm dense methane created by laser heating a cryogenic liquid jet. X-ray diffraction and inelastic free-electron scattering yield sample conditions of 0.3 ± 0.1 eV and 0.8 ± 0.1 g/ cm − 3 , corresponding to a pressure of ∼ 13 GPa. Inelastic x-ray scattering was used to observe the collective oscillations of the ions. With a highly improved energy resolution of ∼ 50 meV, we could clearly distinguish the Brillouin peaks from the quasielastic Rayleigh feature. Data at different wave numbers were utilized to derive a sound speed of 5.9 ± 0.5 km/s, marking a high-temperature data point for methane and demonstrating consistency with Birch's law in this parameter regime. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

The ePix10k 2-megapixel hard X-ray detector at LCLS

The ePix10ka2M (ePix10k) is a new large area detector specifically developed for X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) applications. The hybrid pixel detector was developed at SLAC to provide a hard X-ray area detector with a high dynamic range, running at the 120 Hz repetition rate of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). The ePix10k consists of 16 modules, each with 352 × 384 pixels of 100 µm × 100 µm distributed on four ASICs, resulting in a 2.16 megapixel detector, with a 16.5 cm × 16.5 cm active area and ∼80% coverage. The high dynamic range is achieved with three distinct gain settings (low, medium, high) as well as two auto-ranging modes (high-to-low and medium-to-low). Here the three fixed gain modes are evaluated. The resulting dynamic range (from single photon counting to 10000 photons pixel −1 pulse −1 at 8 keV) makes it suitable for a large number of different XFEL experiments. The ePix10k replaces the large CSPAD in operation since 2011. The dimensions of the two detectors are similar, making the upgrade from CSPAD to ePix10k straightforward for most setups, with the ePix10k improving on experimental performance. The SLAC-developed ePix cameras all utilize a similar platform, are tailored to target different experimental conditions and are designed to provide an upgrade path for future high-repetition-rate XFELs. Here the first measurements on this new ePix10k detector are presented and the performance under typical XFEL conditions evaluated during an LCLS X-ray diffuse scattering experiment measuring the 9.5 keV X-ray photons scattered from a thin liquid jet.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

A design of resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) spectrometer for spatial- and time-resolved spectroscopy

The optical design of a Hettrick–Underwood-style soft X-ray spectrometer with Wolter type 1 mirrors is presented. The spectrometer with a nominal length of 3.1 m can achieve a high resolving power (resolving power higher than 10000) in the soft X-ray regime when a small source beam (<3 µm in the grating dispersion direction) and small pixel detector (5 µm effective pixel size) are used. Adding Wolter mirrors to the spectrometer before its dispersive elements can realize the spatial imaging capability, which finds applications in the spectroscopic studies of spatially dependent electronic structures in tandem catalysts, heterostructures, etc . In the pump–probe experiments where the pump beam perturbs the materials followed by the time-delayed probe beam to reveal the transient evolution of electronic structures, the imaging capability of the Wolter mirrors can offer the pixel-equivalent femtosecond time delay between the pump and probe beams when their wavefronts are not collinear. In combination with some special sample handing systems, such as liquid jets and droplets, the imaging capability can also be used to study the time-dependent electronic structure of chemical transformation spanning multiple time domains from microseconds to nanoseconds. The proposed Wolter mirrors can also be adopted to the existing soft X-ray spectrometers that use the Hettrick–Underwood optical scheme, expanding their capabilities in materials research.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

X-ray Pump-Probe Measurements using a Laser-Plasma Accelerator (Final Report)

This project funded one graduate student, Mario Balcazar, to perform experiments on high power laser facilities to study the application of X-rays generated by laser wakefield accelerated electrons for advanced radiography, in particular X-ray phase contrast imaging of hydrodynamic shocks/instabilities. The work made use of the DOE’s LaserNetUS facilities. We performed dynamic phase-contrast X-ray imaging of the shock generated by a 200 ps duration laser pulse (E = 1 J, I = 10 15 Wcm –2 ) with a 30 µm diameter liquid target, with unprecedented spatio-temporal resolution. This includes multi-shock generation within the liquid jet and plasma instability formation. Innovative electron-beam radiography was used to probe the laser-plasma interplay finding evidence of bilateral heating of the water followed by strong electric field generation. These measurements help explain some of the discrepancies between simulation and experiment and pave the way to better plasma diagnostic systems in HED and ICF physics experiments. This work was performed in collaboration with researchers from Michigan, LLNL, LBL and Sandia National Laboratories, Queen’s University Belfast and Imperial College.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

System and method for rapid, high throughput, high pressure synthesis of materials from a liquid precursor

The present disclosure relates to a system and method for synthesis of condensed nano-materials to at least one of create nanoparticles or modify existing nanoparticles. In one embodiment the system may have a source of liquid precursor, with the liquid precursor including a compound therein. A flow control element and a compression wave generating subsystem are also included. The flow control element is in communication with the source of the liquid precursor and creates a jet of liquid precursor. The compression wave generating subsystem drives a compression wave through at least a substantial portion of a thickness of the jet of liquid precursor to sufficiently compress the jet of liquid precursor, and to increase pressure and temperature of the jet of liquid precursor, to at least one of create nanoparticles or modify existing nanoparticles.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

System and method for rapid, high throughput, high pressure synthesis of materials from a liquid precursor

The present disclosure relates to a system and method for synthesis of condensed, nano-carbon materials to create nanoparticles. In one embodiment the system may have a source of liquid precursor, a flow control element and a shock wave generating subsystem. The flow control element is in communication with the source of the liquid precursor and creates a jet of liquid precursor. The shock wave generating subsystem drives a shock wave through at least a substantial portion of a thickness of the jet of liquid precursor to sufficiently compress the jet of liquid precursor, and to increase a pressure and a temperature of the jet of liquid precursor, to create solid state nanoparticles.

Armstrong, Mike↗