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At least 73 records · Page 4

WDM-SP-25A: Development of a stopping power platform using secondary nuclear reactions in Warm Dense Matter (Director’s Post-Doc Shot Request) [Slides]

Motivation: Recent theoretical modeling at LANL has demonstrated that the ignition criteria is a strong function of the temperature of the DT ice that surrounds the hot spot [Daughton et al. PoP 2023]. Alpha heating of the DT shell can raise the ignition threshold. Critical to modeling the alpha-particle deposition in the shell is understanding charged particle stopping in warm dense matter.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

FY23 Update: Surface Sampling Activities for the Canister Deposition Field Demonstration

This report describes the results of a field demonstration of the proposed surface sampling techniques and plan for the multi-year Canister Deposition Field Demonstration (CDFD). The CDFD will evaluate salt deposition rates on three commercial 32PTH2 NUHOMS welded stainless steel storage canisters in Advanced Horizontal Storage Modules. Exposure testing is planned for up to 10 years and will incorporate periodic surface sampling campaigns. The goal of the planned dust sampling and analysis is to determine important environmental parameters that impact the potential occurrence of stress corrosion cracking on spent nuclear fuel (SNF) dry storage canisters. Specifically, measured dust deposition rates and deposited particle sizes will improve parameterization of dust deposition models employed to predict the potential occurrence and timing of stress corrosion cracks on the stainless steel SNF canisters. Previously, a preliminary sampling plan was developed, identifying possible sampling locations on the canister surfaces and sampling intervals; possible sampling methods were also described. Building from previous work, this report documents hand sampling from a spent nuclear fuel canister on a transfer skid mockup designed by Sandia National Laboratories. The sampling took place from a boom lift and salts were collected from mounted sample plates. The results of these efforts are presented in this report and compared to previous laboratory-controlled tests. The information obtained from the CDFD will be critical for ongoing efforts to develop a detailed understanding of the potential for stress corrosion cracking of SNF dry storage canisters.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Rapid Changes in Mercury's Sodium Exosphere

Sodium in the atmosphere of Mercury can be detected by sunlight scattered in the D1 and D2 resonance lines. Images of the sodium emission show that the sodium density changes from day to day and is often concentrated in regions at high or mid latitudes. Drew Potter (NASA/JSC) and Tom Morgan (SWRI) suggested that sputtering by magnetospheric particles was the origin of the sodium. A problem with this is that the magnetic field of Mercury is strong enough that it is believed to shield the surface from solar particles much of the time, although particle precipitation at the magnetospheric cusps could deposit particles to the surface at high latitudes. Ann Sprague (UA/LPL) noted that the "spots" of sodium emission tended to coincide with major geologic features, such as the Caloris Basin. She proposed that the sodium is released from sodiumrich surface rocks that are associated with these features; however, some spots have appeared where there are no obvious geologic features. Some of the difficulty in ascribing a source for the sodium arises from the effect of terrestrial atmospheric blurring of the image. It is hard to tell exactly where the sodium emission originates after the atmosphere has blurred the image. Potter, Killen (SWRI), and Morgan recently developed a technique for correcting sodium images for atmospheric blurring, using images made with a large-area image slicer. They applied this technique to a series of Mercury sodium observations made in November, 1997 at the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. Their technique for producing images from the spectroscopic data provides images of both the sodium emission and of the sunlight reflected from the surface.

Potter, Drew↗

Correlating dynamic microstructure to observed color in electrophoretic displays via in situ small-angle x-ray scattering

Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is an industrially relevant and scalable technique used to form particle deposits from colloidal suspensions. Highly concentrated particle suspensions generally prevent real-time in situ microscopy observations which limit the characterization of EPD films to ex situ, or postprocessed, laboratory techniques. For dynamic systems, such as tunable amorphous photonic crystals (APCs), only reversible deposits are formed during the EPD process. Since reversible deposits cannot be characterized with standard ex situ methods, the particle-particle and particle-field interactions that govern the displayed color and crystallinity of these systems are not well understood. In this paper, we present in situ small-angle x-ray scattering and UV-Vis techniques for measuring both the structural and optical response of an APC under applied electric fields. Furthermore, we also develop a computational model based on colloidal interactions to explain the observed change in the interparticle spacing of APCs due to the applied electric field which correlates to displayed color. Ultimately, this work provides a new in situ characterization method that could be expanded for other dynamic, tunable colloidal systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Prediction for Pressure Differential Across HEPA Filter Media Based on Media Characteristics and Particle Size Distribution

A new method for predicting the pressure drop across High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter media is proposed based upon mass deposited onto the filter and known physical characteristics of the filter media. Detailed are the methods used in conjunction with current filter loading models to predict the pressure drop, as well as tests conducted to validate the methods. The benefit of a prediction model for practical use lies in the manufacturing and service life of nuclear grade HEPA filters. HEPA filters for use in nuclear facilities have a prescribed expiration date and a maximum allowable operating pressure drop. Therefore, the ability to predict the pressure drop across a filter and relate it to an expected length of service time can enable a reduction in wasted filters. This will allow for more informed decisions to be made based upon the dictated life cycle of the filters. Also, understanding and predicting how the pressure drop of HEPA filter media behaves as a function of physical characteristics and loaded mass can assist in future design and manufacturing of filter media. Currently, most existing pressure drop models are either computationally based or analytical methods relying on data gathered during tests. Neither are practical for prediction; the computational methods are difficult to implement, and the current analytical methods are more useful as tools for analysis. The current analytical model developed by Bergman et al. is based upon the pressure drop from each media fiber and modeling the deposited particles as newly formed fibers. Using Bergman's model and the media properties, air properties, and known aerosol particle size distribution, a pressure drop curve as a function of loaded mass can be created. This curve implies initial loading in the depth of the filter media with a transition to pure surface loading on the filter face, and a sensitivity to an evolving particle size distribution as mass continues to load onto the filter. To implement the predictive model, knowledge of the mean filter fiber diameter and porosity of the filter media is required. Traditionally, the mean fiber diameter is calculated as an effective diameter from prior media testing, however, in this study a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) technique is used to acquire this variable. Validation of the predictive model is provided by flat sheet media tests under a controlled environment with a measured particle size distribution of the challenge aerosol and shows reasonable preliminary agreement.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

The influence of man in space observations

The paper evaluates the Skylab missions from the viewpoint of to what extent the presence of men may have been a detriment to scientific observations, either through their movements or through contamination of the spacecraft and instruments. The stability of the instrument canister within the Apollo Telescope Mount was secured by the Experiment Pointing Control System. Angular stability was specified to be within plus or minus 2.5 arc seconds, and was found to be less than 2 arc seconds during normal crew activity. No astronomical observations were reported as being degraded by crew movements. Instrumentation was installed to measure rates of contaminant particle deposition on optical surfaces. Clouds were formed from particles originating in outgassing from vehicle surface materials and from vent apertures. The Coronograph Contamination Measurement Instrument was used to measure the brightness of the induced cloud surrounding Skylab. Preliminary analysis shows no significant degradation of photographic data attributable to contamination.

Hanes, T. E.↗

Highly active thermally stable nanoporous gold catalyst

In one embodiment, a product includes a nanoporous gold structure comprising a plurality of ligaments, and a plurality of oxide particles deposited on the nanoporous gold structure; the oxide particles are characterized by a crystalline phase.

Biener, Juergen↗

Aerodynamic effects on outer ash deposition rates in second generation atmospheric pressure oxy-coal combustion systems

Recent measurements in scenarios representative of second generation atmospheric pressure oxy-coal combustion systems have shown a significant increase in ash deposition rates in comparison to combustion in air. However, the causative mechanisms behind this increase have not been well understood. To fill this void, well-characterized experiments including fuel and deposit particle size distributions (PSDs) were coupled with highly resolved numerical simulations to isolate the aerodynamic effects impacting the deposition process such that mechanisms could be hypothesized. Three combustion scenarios (AIR, OXY27, OXY70) spanning a factor of three variation in flue gas volumetric flow rates were simulated and the deposition characteristics (impaction rates, deposit PSD, temperature, residence times, capture rates) tracked/predicted using a customized deposition module. The measured deposit PSD was significantly different from the PSD of the parent fuel indicating significant physio-chemical transformations (coalescence and particle growth in particular) at play. The use of simplistic modeling approaches (swelling parameter variations) to model particle growth led to inaccurate deposit ash PSD and rate predictions. A more satisfactory agreement between the measurements and simulations was obtained when the functional form of the parent fuel PSD (spread parameter) was modified to conform closely to the deposit PSD while still ensuring the fidelity of temperature and velocity predictions. Based on the measured ash compositions, identical capture criteria were employed across all three scenarios. Here this study further supports the theory that the ash deposition rates in these systems are dominated by aerodynamic effects with the ash PSD playing a dominant role.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Contamination measurements on experiment M0003

The contamination monitors on the M0003 experiment consisted of passive sample collectors to measure molecular and particulate deposition. The collectors were placed in the leading and trailing edge trays of M0003. The objective was to quantify the contaminants and determine how contamination affected the other materials in the trays. Duplicate collectors were placed inside the vacuum canisters that provided protection from the launch, ascent, deployment, and recovery environments. Analyses of the samples show small quantities of molecular deposition on both the leading and trailing edge trays. Silicone deposits are negligible. The aluminized fused silica, second surface mirrors showed small changes in solar absorptances. This is consistent with the small quantities of molecular deposits deduced from the FTIR measurements. The results of particle deposition, light scatter, and a micrometeoroid (or debris) impact are presented.

Borson, Eugene N.↗

Comparing the MELCOR Aerosol Deposition Model with Exact Analytical Solutions

Exact analytical solutions are presented for the evolution of the aerosol particle mass density function in a control volume for particle deposition due to gravitational settling, thermophoresis, and diffusion. The solutions are for arbitrary initial mass density functions and are applied for an initial lognormal density function. Integration of these solutions provides the suspended mass in the control volume as a function of time. These solutions serve as an exact benchmark to assess the accuracy of numerical methods. For the numerical algorithm used in MELCOR, excellent agreement is obtained for gravitational settling, diffusive deposition, and thermophoretic deposition for the suspended aerosol mass. In all cases, the default number of discrete particle size bins of 10 is shown to converge, with hardly any advantage to using 20 size bins.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Methods and systems for evaluating a target using pulsed, energetic particle beams

A method for evaluating a target, the target having a surface, includes pulsing a defined, energetic particle beam through the surface and into the target such that particle energy deposition from the particle beam is concentrated in a subsurface target volume within a target medium of the target. The deposited particle energy induces a thermoelastic expansion of the target medium in the target volume that generates a corresponding acoustic wave. The method further includes detecting the acoustic wave from the target medium.

Hunt, Sean Matthew↗

Aerosols from anthropogenic and biogenic sources and their interactions – modeling aerosol formation, optical properties, and impacts over the central Amazon basin

The Green Ocean Amazon experiment – GoAmazon 2014–2015 – explored the interactions between natural biogenic forest emissions from central Amazonia and urban air pollution from Manaus. Previous GoAmazon 2014–2015 studies showed that nitrogen oxide (NO x = NO + NO 2 ) and sulfur oxide (SO x ) emissions from Manaus strongly interact with biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), affecting secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. In previous studies, ground-based and aircraft measurements provided evidence of SOA formation and strong changes in aerosol composition and properties. Aerosol optical properties also evolve, and their impacts on the Amazonian ecosystem can be significant. As particles age, some processes, such as SOA production, black carbon (BC) deposition, particle growth and the BC lensing effect change the aerosol optical properties, affecting the solar radiation flux at the surface. This study analyzes data and models SOA formation using the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model to assess the spatial variability in aerosol optical properties as the Manaus plumes interact with the natural atmosphere. The following aerosol optical properties are investigated: single scattering albedo (SSA), asymmetry parameter (g aer ), absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) and scattering Ångström exponent (SAE). These simulations were validated using ground-based measurements at three experimental sites, namely the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory – ATTO (T0a), downtown Manaus (T1), Tiwa Hotel (T2) and Manacapuru (T3), as well as the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Gulfstream 1 (G-1) aircraft flights. WRF-Chem simulations were performed over 7 d during March 2014. Results show a mean biogenic SOA (BSOA) mass enrichment of 512 % at the T1 site, 450 % in regions downwind of Manaus, such as the T3 site, and 850 % in areas north of the T3 site in simulations with anthropogenic emissions. The SOA formation is rather fast, with about 80 % of the SOA mass produced in 3–4 h. Comparing the plume from simulations with and without anthropogenic emissions, SSA shows a downwind reduction of approximately 10 %, 11 % and 6 % at the T1, T2 and T3 sites, respectively. Other regions, such as those further downwind of the T3 site, are also affected. The g aer values increased from 0.62 to 0.74 at the T1 site and from 0.67 to 0.72 at the T3 site when anthropogenic emissions are active. During the Manaus plume-aging process, a plume tracking analysis shows an increase in SSA from 0.91 close to Manaus to 0.98 160 km downwind of Manaus as a result of SOA production and BC deposition.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Preparation and analysis of particulate metal deposits

Small particles and clusters of palladium were grown by deposition from the vapor phase under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. Amorphous and crystalline support films of Al2O3 and ultrathin amorphous carbon films were used as substrate materials. The growth of the metal deposit was monitored in situ by scanning transmission diffraction of energy-filtered 100 kV electrons and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis was performed in a separate instrument. It was established by in situ TEM, however, that the transfer of specimens in this case did not unduly affect the size and distribution of deposit particles. It was found that the cleanness, stoichiometry, crystallinity and structural perfection of the support surface play an essential role in determining the crystalline perfection and structure of the particles. The smallest palladium clusters reproducibly prepared contained not more than six atoms but size determinations below 1 nm average particle diameter are very problematic with conventional TEM. Palladium particles grown on carbon supports feature an impurity-stabilized mosaic structure.

Poppa, H.↗

Thermophoretically enhanced mass transport rates to solid and transpiration-cooled walls across turbulent (law-of-the-wall) boundary layers

Convective-diffusion mass transfer rate predictions are made for both solid wall and transpiration-cooled 'law-of-the-wall' nonisothermal turbulent boundary layers (TBLs), including the mechanism of thermophoresis, i.e., small particle mass transport 'down a temperature gradient'. The present calculations are confined to low mass-loading situations but span the entire particle size range from vapor molecules to particles near the onset of inertial ('eddy') impaction. It is shown that, when Sc is much greater than 1, thermophoresis greatly increases particle deposition rates to internally cooled solid walls, but only partially offsets the appreciable reduction in deposition rates associated with dust-free gas-transpiration-cooled surfaces. Thus, efficient particle sampling from hot dusty gases can be carried out using transpiration 'shielded' probe surfaces.

Gokoglu, Suleyman A.↗

Forecasting Space Weather Events for a Neighboring World

Shortly after NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission (MAVEN) spacecraft entered Mars' orbit on 21 September 2014, scientists glimpsed the Martian atmosphere's response to a front of solar energetic particles (SEPs) and an associated coronal mass ejection (CME). In response to some solar flares and CMEs, streams of SEPs burst from the solar atmosphere and are further accelerated in the interplanetary medium between the Sun and the planets. These particles deposit their energy and momentum into anything in their path, including the Martian atmosphere and MAVEN particle detectors. MAVEN scientists had been alerted to the likely CME-Mars encounter by a space weather prediction system that had its origins in space weather forecasting for Earth but now forecasts space weather for Earth's neighboring planets. The two Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft and Solar Heliospheric Observatory observed a CME on 26 September, with a trajectory that suggested a Mars intercept. A computer model developed for solar wind prediction, the Wang-Sheeley-Arge-Enlil cone model [e.g., Zheng et al., 2013; Parsons et al., 2011], running in real time at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) located at NASA Goddard since 2006, showed the CME propagating in the direction of Mars (Figure 1). According to MAVEN particle detectors, the disturbance and accompanying SEP enhancement at the leading edge of the CME reached Mars at approximately 17 hours Universal Time on 29 September 2014. Such SEPs may have a profound effect on atmospheric escape - they are believed to be a possible means for driving atmospheric loss. SEPs can cause loss of Mars' upper atmosphere through several loss mechanisms including sputtering of the atmosphere. Sputtering occurs when atoms are ejected from the atmosphere due to impacts with energetic particles.

space weather↗

Assessing the release, transport, and retention of radioactive aerosols from hypothetical breaches in spent fuel storage canisters

Interim dry storage of spent nuclear fuel involves storing the fuel in welded stainless-steel canisters. Under certain conditions, the canisters could be subjected to environments that may promote stress corrosion cracking leading to a risk of breach and release of aerosol-sized particulate from the interior of the canister to the external environment through the crack. Research is currently under way by several laboratories to better understand the formation and propagation of stress corrosion cracks, however little work has been done to quantitatively assess the potential aerosol release. The purpose of the present work is to introduce a reliable generic numerical model for prediction of aerosol transport, deposition, and plugging in leak paths similar to stress corrosion cracks, while accounting for potential plugging from particle deposition. The model is dynamic (changing leak path geometry due to plugging) and it relies on the numerical solution of the aerosol transport equation in one dimension using finite differences. The model’s capabilities were also incorporated into a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that was developed to enhance user accessibility. Model validation efforts presented in this paper compare the model’s predictions with recent experimental data from Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and results available in literature. We expect this model to improve the accuracy of consequence assessments and reduce the uncertainty of radiological consequence estimations in the remote event of a through-wall breach in dry cask storage systems.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Computer Program for the Calculation of Multicomponent Convective Diffusion Deposition Rates from Chemically Frozen Boundary Layer Theory

The computer program based on multicomponent chemically frozen boundary layer (CFBL) theory for calculating vapor and/or small particle deposition rates is documented. A specific application to perimter-averaged Na2SO4 deposition rate calculations on a cylindrical collector is demonstrated. The manual includes a typical program input and output for users.

Gokoglu, S. A.↗

Volcanic resurfacing rates and implications for volatiles on Io

The rates of volcanic resurfacing on Io are estimated on the basis of two separate observations and the implications of these rates for the volatile history of Io and the supply of material to the Jovian torus are discussed. Rates of resurfacing based on the lack of observable impact craters and assuming a Jovian cratering rate similar to those of the moon and Mars are found to be on the order of 0.1 cm/year. Estimated deposition rates of volcanic matter are found to be in general agreement with cratering rate determinations, if large particle deposition, undetected volcanic activity, volcanic flows and gas condensation are taken into account. Escape rates from Io estimated for sulfur, oxygen and sodium, based on their concentrations around Io, indicate that only a fraction of the present volcanic material can escape. Thermal and nonthermal escape mechanisms are suggested to account for the current loss of sulfur and oxygen from Io's upper atmosphere, while sputtering of atoms from the surface by impacting magnetospheric ions is suggested as the mechanism of sodium supply.

Johnson, T. V.↗