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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 721 records · Page 40
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Decay studies of the 𝛽-delayed neutron emitters 87 Br and 88 Br measured by means of the Modular Total Absorption Spectrometer at ORNL HRIBF

The β decays of 87 Br, 88 Br, and 87 Kr were measured with the Modular Total Absorption Spectrometer (MTAS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility (HRIBF). Both bromine isotopes are β-delayed neutron emitters that have large cumulative fission yields and were identified as top-priority cases for total absorption study by the Nuclear Energy Agency in 2007. Our investigations corroborate that the decay schemes of 87 Br and 88 Br suffer from the so-called pandemonium effect. Unique MTAS properties enable direct neutron measurements. Here, we present MTAS-derived β-delayed neutron spectra, β-delayed neutron emission probabilities of P n ( 87 Br) = 2.36(24)%, and P n ( 88 Br) = 6.4(6)%, and the β-delayed neutron transitions intensity of 4(2)% to the first excited 87 Kr state, populated in the β-neutron decay of 88Br. Incorporating new data into calculations of the electromagnetic decay heat component emitted during thermal neutron fission of 235 U and 239 Pu improves agreement with experimental data up to approximately 80 s after fission. The estimation of the nuclear reactor $\bar{ν}_e$ flux results in changes of up to 1% in the expected $\bar{ν}_e$ interactions with the detector material for 235 U, 238 U, 239Pu, and 241 Pu.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

OmniXAS: A universal deep-learning framework for materials x-ray absorption spectra

X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is a powerful characterization technique for probing the local chemical environment of absorbing atoms. However, analyzing XAS data presents significant challenges, often requiring extensive, computationally intensive simulations, as well as significant domain expertise. These limitations hinder the development of fast, robust XAS analysis pipelines that are essential in high-throughput studies and for autonomous experimentation. Here, we address these challenges with OmniXAS, a framework that contains a suite of transfer learning approaches for XAS prediction, each uniquely contributing to improved accuracy and efficiency, as demonstrated on the K-edge spectra database covering eight 3⁢d transition metals (Ti–Cu). The OmniXAS framework is built upon three distinct strategies. First, we use M3GNet [Nat. Comput. Sci. 2, 718 (2022)] to derive latent representations of the local chemical environment of absorption sites as input for XAS prediction, achieving significant improvements over conventional featurization techniques. Second, we employ a hierarchical transfer learning strategy, training a universal multitask model across elements before fine-tuning for element-specific predictions. Models based on this cascaded approach after elementwise fine-tuning outperform element-specific models by up to 69%. Third, we implement cross-fidelity transfer learning, adapting a universal model to predict spectra generated by simulation of a different fidelity with a much higher computational cost. This approach improves prediction accuracy by up to 11% over models trained on the target fidelity alone. Our approach significantly boosts the throughput of XAS modeling by orders of magnitude as compared to first-principles simulations and is extendable to XAS prediction for a broader range of elements. The proposed transfer learning framework is generalizable to enhance deep-learning models that target other properties in materials research.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

H 2 O absorption spectroscopy via focused laser differential interferometry

A modification of focused laser differential interferometry (FLDI) is demonstrated with an infrared tunable diode laser (TDL) to achieve simultaneous absorption spectroscopy (AS) measurements. Measurements from this absorbing-FLDI (A-FLDI) are shown for a Hencken burner plume. Initial comparison measurements are recorded using TDLAS and an electrical hygrometer. Raw voltage and estimated absorbance measurements illustrate that the technique detects five distinct absorbance peaks of the methane–air flame while retaining the expected behavior of typical FLDI. This modification furthers efforts to enable FLDI to conduct analysis of the pressures, temperatures, and molecular densities of flows. It also explores the potential for reducing path-integration (PI) effects in absorption spectroscopy and potentially enabling spatially and temporally resolved local flow measurements. Reductions in PI length as high as 82%–84% are observed.

Holladay, Seth (ORCID:0009000650875421)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Photoluminescence probing of light absorption centers at silica laser damage

We use photoluminescence (PL) imaging to study damage growth precursors within laser damage sites on the surface of silica. Damage site evolution is induced by multiple shots of UV nanosecond pulsed laser at various energy densities and monitored throughout the early stages of growth. Wide-field PL imaging rapidly locates microscopic light absorption centers within the silica damage site. Our quantitative analysis shows that damage sites with strong local PL intensity show a higher probability of growth upon subsequent laser pulses. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) paired with a study of PL spectrum shows that the strong PL intensity appears from the subsurface fractures with high defect density, which provides a local light absorption center leading to significant damage growth. We believe that this result offers an efficient optical damage mitigation strategy by providing a rapid and non-destructive optical inspection approach.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Computational Analysis of the Effect of Structured Packing Design on Absorption Column Hydrodynamics for Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Applications

Solvent based post-combustion carbon capture technologies have a potential for reducing carbon emissions from fossil-fuel-fired power plants and industrial sources where CO2 emissions are inherently harder to mitigate, such as steel or cement industries. A prominent technology to achieve this is by retrofitting absorption columns to the existing infrastructure. While these systems have been among the less costly alternatives for carbon capture, they still impose a considerable energy penalty to the operation of power plants or industrial facilities. The optimization of CO2 capture rate in solvent-based absorption process is complex as it depends on several factors including CO2 solubility, solvent reaction kinetics and temperature effects on the solubility, reaction rates, surface tension, and thermophysical properties of the solvent and the flue gas. The overall heat and mass transfer also depends on the hydrodynamics, which in turn, is affected by the packing geometry. In the current work, we systematically quantify the effects the design of the structured packing has on the column hydrodynamics, by performing detailed CFD simulations for different geometrical configurations and operating conditions. We then obtain relationships between the key hydrodynamic metrics, such as liquid holdup, interfacial area, wetted area, and pressure drop to the parameters defining the packing geometries and identify new more effective packing designs for the given operating conditions.

Shah, Yash Girish↗
DOE OSTI2024

Solid State Quantum Refrigeration Superconducting, Absorption and Measurement Based (Final Technical Report)

During this DOE grant, DE-SC0017890, in place for the past six years, all proposed research was carried out and published in peer-reviewed papers, as well as other projects that emerged during the research. In that effort the research team accomplished all proposed research, as well as many closely related research projects discovered and conceived of during the grant. These works included “Efficient Quantum Measurement Engines”, a work published in Physical Review Letters, giving a theory of quantum measurement-based engines, which uses quantum measurement as a resource. These engines are designed to efficiently convert energy from the stochastic quantum measurement process into useful work. Further publications include “Experimental Realization of a Quantum Dot Energy Harvester”, a joint theory and experimental work in collaboration with the group of Charles Smith in Cambridge, UK, as well as long time theoretical collaborators, Rafael Sánchez and Björn Sothmann. This work, featured as an Editor’s Suggestion in Physical Review Letters, realized an earlier theoretical proposal of ours, whereby two resonant tunneling quantum dots are connected to a central electronic cavity that is heated by a hot energy source. We also published “Superconducting Quantum Refrigerator: Breaking and Rejoining Cooper Pairs with Magnetic Field Cycles” a work done in collaboration with experimentalist Francesco Giazotto from ENS Pisa, Italy, which also resulted in a patent. This paper, published in Phys. Rev. Applied, advanced the concept of a cyclic fridge based on the normal/superconducting phase transition together with layered materials separated by tunnel junctions. We also completed the proposed research on a heat transistor, publishing “Thermal transistor and thermometer based on Coulomb-coupled conductors”, carried out as a collaboration between my group and theorists Splettstoesser (Lund U., Sweden), Sothmann (U. Duisburg-Essen, Germany), and Sánchez (U. Autónoma de Madrid, Spain). We carried out an analysis of a quantum coupled to a quantum point contact as a sensitive thermometer and heat transistor. We found the optimal statistical estimator for the temperature and compared it with experiments on the same type of devices. We also investigated autonomous quantum absorption refrigerators using quantum dots to cool by using a very hot thermal reservoir to drive heat between two other reservoirs. In the article “Quantifying the quantum heat contribution from a driven superconducting circuit”, we demonstrated that for a driven superconducting circuit, we showed heat flow provided by a hot source to the qubit can be switched on and off by varying external parameters, the frequency and the intensity of the driving. In the work “Stochastic thermodynamic cycles of a mesoscopic thermoelectric engine”, we reconsidered the autonomous thermoelectric heat engine in terms of underlying cycles. Rather than periodic behavior, the cycles were stochastic in nature. Nevertheless, by undertaking a graph theoretical analysis of the elementary transport processed, great quantitative and qualitative insight could be found. We also considered the quantum measurement process and showed that a quantum version of Maxwell’s demon could be related to the work extraction of a quantum system, closely related to arrow-of-time measures for quantum measurement, as described in our article “Thermodynamics of quantum measurement and Maxwell's demon's arrow of time”. This work was selected in Phys. Rev. A as an Editor’s Suggestion. A recent preprint titled “Cyclic Superconducting Quantum Refrigerators Using Guided Fluxon Propagation” accomplished an important piece of this grant: to propose a new kind of quantum refrigerator using the dynamics of fluxons in a type II superconductor. This invention envisioned a race-track type geometry where fluxons are confined. By applying a gradient of magnetic field together with electric current in a Corbino geometry, the circulating fluxons can actively cool a cold reservoir, realizing a new type of cyclic superconducting refrigerator. We also investigated the possibility of thermal control from different points of view. The application of quantum measurement to the system gives a new kind of control on the system of interest – we have pioneered this approach and shown that measurement can boost the thermal power of quantum engines as described in “Continuous measurement boosted adiabatic quantum thermal machines”. The ability to have heat flows on demand is an outstanding challenge, and we have provided new solutions to this problem in Thermal control across a chain of electronic nanocavities” for a chain of electron cavities using gating voltage control. The control methods using qubit/qubit coupling to create absorption fridges at their most fundamental level have also been developed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
NASA NTRS1971

Estimation of microwave absorption in the Jupiter atmosphere

A procedure for estimating the microwave absorption loss of the Jupiter atmosphere is presented. Estimation of microwave absorption by planetary atmospheres involves two different investigative disciplines (1) the determination of an acceptable model of the atmosphere itself and (2) the determination of the microwave attenuation rate applicable to each different volume sample of the atmosphere, and the integration of this loss over the varying radio propagation path for any given entry trajectory to obtain the total loss.

Coombs, W. C.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Measurement of temperature profiles in flames by emission-absorption spectroscopy

An investigation was conducted to explore the use of infrared and ultraviolet emission-absorption spectroscopy for determination of temperature profiles in flames. Spectral radiances and absorptances were measured in the 2.7-micron H2O band and the 3064-A OH band in H2/O2 flames for several temperature profiles which were directly measured by a sodium line-reversal technique. The temperature profiles, determined by inversion of the infrared and ultraviolet spectra, showed an average disagreement with line-reversal measurements of 50 K for the infrared and 200 K for the ultraviolet at a temperature of 2600 K. The reasons for these discrepancies are discussed in some detail.

Simmons, F. S.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Radioastronomical measurement of absorption

Diurnal and seasonal absorption curves measured by a radio astronomical method at Alma-Ata during the IQSY (1964-1965) are submitted. The apparatus is described. The dependence of absorption on solar flares is also indicated.

Yakovets, T. K.↗