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Results for “Temperature Gradient”

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 757 records · Page 42
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Spin Seebeck devices using local on-chip heating

A micro-patterned spin Seebeck device is fabricated using an on-chip heater. Current is driven through a Au heater layer electrically isolated from a bilayer consisting of Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} (insulating ferrimagnet) and a spin detector layer. It is shown that through this method it is possible to measure the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (SSE) for small area magnetic devices, equivalent to traditional macroscopic SSE experiments. Using a lock-in detection technique, it is possible to more sensitively characterize both the SSE and the anomalous Nernst effect (ANE), as well as the inverse spin Hall effect in various spin detector materials. By using the spin detector layer as a thermometer, we can obtain a value for the temperature gradient across the device. These results are well matched to values obtained through electromagnetic/thermal modeling of the device structure and with large area spin Seebeck measurements.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Characterization of Flame Cut Heavy Steel: Modeling of Temperature History and Residual Stress Formation

Heavy steel plates are used in demanding applications that require both high strength and hardness. An important step in the production of such components is cutting the plates with a cost-effective thermal cutting method such as flame cutting. Flame cutting is performed with a controlled flame and oxygen jet, which burns the steel and forms a cutting edge. However, the thermal cutting of heavy steel plates causes several problems. A heat-affected zone (HAZ) is generated at the cut edge due to the steep temperature gradient. Consequently, volume changes, hardness variations, and microstructural changes occur in the HAZ. In addition, residual stresses are formed at the cut edge during the process. In the worst case, unsuitable flame cutting practices generate cracks at the cut edge. The flame cutting of thick steel plate was modeled using the commercial finite element software ABAQUS. The results of modeling were verified by X-ray diffraction-based residual stress measurements and microstructural analysis. The model provides several outcomes, such as obtaining more information related to the formation of residual stresses and the temperature history during the flame cutting process. In addition, an extensive series of flame cut samples was designed with the assistance of the model.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Thermal-Conductive Boards Based on Aluminum with an Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} Nanostructured Layer for Products of Power Electronics

The experimental results of electrical and thermal characteristics of circuit boards based on aluminum with a nanostructured layer of anodic aluminum oxide and copper conductors for assembling high-power field-effect transistors have been considered. It has been shown that the presence of a thin dielectric layer and thick aluminum base with high thermal conductivity provides a uniform distribution of heat generated by the active element over the entire volume of the board without formation of local regions with increased temperature. The experimental results have shown that the temperature gradient between the heat source and anodic aluminum oxide surface is about 17–18°C at a surface heat power of 4.4 W/cm{sup 2}.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Humidity Data for 9975 Shipping Packages with Softwood Fiberboard

The 9975 surveillance program is developing a technical basis to support extending the storage period of 9975 packages in K-Area Complex beyond the currently approved 15 years. A key element of this effort is developing a better understanding of degradation of the fiberboard assembly under storage conditions. This degradation is influenced greatly by the moisture content of the fiberboard, which is not well characterized on an individual package basis. Direct measurements of humidity and fiberboard moisture content have been made on two test packages with softwood fiberboard and varying internal heat levels from 0 up to 19W. Comparable measurements with cane fiberboard have been reported previously. With an internal heat load, a temperature gradient in the fiberboard assembly leads to varying relative humidity in the air around the fiberboard. However, the absolute humidity tends to remain approximately constant throughout the package, especially at lower heat loads.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Influence of radiation absorption by microparticles on the flame velocity and combustion regimes

Thermal radiation from hot combustion products has virtually no effect on the flame propagation in a gas medium. We consider a different situation when even a small concentration of microparticles suspended in a gas absorbs the thermal radiation and heats the gas mixture ahead of the combustion wave front by transferring it to the gas. The mixture heating ahead of the flame front can lead either to a moderate increase in the combustion wave velocity for a fast flame or to its significant increase for a slow flame, depending on the gas mixture reactivity and the normal laminar flame velocity. For a slow flame, the heat transfer by radiation from the combustion products can become the dominant mechanism compared to the ordinary molecular thermal conduction that determines the combustion wave structure and velocity. The radiative heating for a spatially nonuniform distribution of particles ahead of the flame front is shown to give rise to a temperature gradient that, in turn, can lead to the ignition of different combustion regimes, depending on the radiation absorption length. In accordance with the Zeldovich gradient mechanism, both deflagration and detonation regimes can be formed in this case. A hydrogen–oxygen flame is used as an example to illustrate the ignition of different combustion wave propagation regimes, depending on the radiation absorption length.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Cooling requirements for the vertical shear instability in protoplanetary disks

The vertical shear instability (VSI) offers a potential hydrodynamic mechanism for angular momentum transport in protoplanetary disks (PPDs). The VSI is driven by a weak vertical gradient in the disk’s orbital motion, but must overcome vertical buoyancy, a strongly stabilizing influence in cold disks, where heating is dominated by external irradiation. Rapid radiative cooling reduces the effective buoyancy and allows the VSI to operate. We quantify the cooling timescale t{sub c} needed for efficient VSI growth, through a linear analysis of the VSI with cooling in vertically global, radially local disk models. We find the VSI is most vigorous for rapid cooling with t{sub c}<Ω{sub K}{sup −1}h|q|/(γ−1) in terms of the Keplerian orbital frequency, Ω{sub K}, the disk’s aspect-ratio, h≪1, the radial power-law temperature gradient, q, and the adiabatic index, γ. For longer t{sub c}, the VSI is much less effective because growth slows and shifts to smaller length scales, which are more prone to viscous or turbulent decay. We apply our results to PPD models where t{sub c} is determined by the opacity of dust grains. We find that the VSI is most effective at intermediate radii, from ∼5 to ∼50 AU with a characteristic growth time of ∼30 local orbital periods. Growth is suppressed by long cooling times both in the opaque inner disk and the optically thin outer disk. Reducing the dust opacity by a factor of 10 increases cooling times enough to quench the VSI at all disk radii. Thus the formation of solid protoplanets, a sink for dust grains, can impede the VSI.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Spectral changes in the hyperluminous pulsar in NGC 5907 as a function of super-orbital phase

We present broadband, multi-epoch X-ray spectroscopy of the pulsating ultra-luminous X-ray source (ULX) in NGC 5907. Simultaneous XMM-Newton and NuSTAR data from 2014 are best described by a multicolor blackbody model with a temperature gradient as a function of accretion disk radius significantly flatter than expected for a standard thin accretion disk (T(r)∝r{sup −p}, with p=0.608{sub −0.012}{sup +0.014}). Additionally, we detect a hard power-law tail at energies above 10 keV, which we interpret as being due to Comptonization. We compare this observation to archival XMM-Newton, Chandra, and NuSTAR data from 2003, 2012, and 2013, and investigate possible spectral changes as a function of phase over the 78-day super-orbital period of this source. We find that observations taken around phases 0.3–0.4 show very similar temperature profiles, even though the observed flux varies significantly, while one observation taken around phase 0 has a significantly steeper profile. We discuss these findings in light of the recent discovery that the compact object is a neutron star and show that precession of the accretion disk or the neutron star can self-consistently explain most observed phenomena.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Continental scale structuring of forest and soil diversity via functional traits

Trait-based ecology claims to offer a mechanistic approach for explaining the drivers that structure biological diversity and predicting the responses of species, trophic interactions and ecosystems to environmental change. However, support for this claim is lacking across broad taxonomic groups. A framework for defining ecosystem processes in terms of the functional traits of their constituent taxa across large spatial scales is needed. Here, we provide a comprehensive assessment of the linkages between climate, plant traits and soil microbial traits at many sites spanning a broad latitudinal temperature gradient from tropical to subalpine forests. Our results show that temperature drives coordinated shifts in most plant and soil bacterial traits but these relationships are not observed for most fungal traits. Shifts in plant traits are mechanistically associated with soil bacterial functional traits related to carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling, indicating that microbial processes are tightly linked to variation in plant traits that influence rates of ecosystem decomposition and nutrient cycling. In conclusion, our results are consistent with hypotheses that diversity gradients reflect shifts in phenotypic optima signifying local temperature adaptation mediated by soil nutrient availability and metabolism. They underscore the importance of temperature in structuring the functional diversity of plants and soil microbes in forest ecosystems and how this is coupled to biogeochemical processes via functional traits.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Evaluation of the Microstructure and Performance of Fe-21Cr-15Ni-6Mn-Nb Nonmagnetic Stainless Steel Welded Joints

In the present study, double-sided gas shield welding (GSW), in a single pass, was applied to Fe-21Cr-15Ni-6Mn-Nb nonmagnetic stainless steel plate. The microstructure and performance of the welded joint were investigated via microstructural and phase analysis, mechanical testing and magnetic analysis. The results showed a satisfactory micrographic appearance with full penetration, and no solidification defects observed in the welded joint, which showed typical epitaxial growth characteristics in the welding solidification. Slight grain growth, with an average size of ~ 18.9 μm, occurred in the heat-affected zone (HAZ). The primary dendrite arms, on both sides of welding joint, grew along the direction of the temperature gradient and met at the centerline of the weld with no parting microstructure in evidence. The secondary dendrite arm spacing was stable in all parts of the weld zone (WZ). The hardness of the weld zone was higher than that of the HAZ and the base metal (BM), with the lowest hardness occurring in the HAZ. The results of tensile testing showed a higher strength of the welded metal (WM) compared to the BM, and a good strength-ductility balance of the welded joint. The impact energy of the HAZ was higher than that of the WZ, corresponding to 60.5 J at room temperature and 52.7 J at − 196 °C. Microvoid coalescence, concurrent with crack propagation along the direction of the long axis of the dendritic sub-grains, was observed during plastic deformation in the WZ. Additionally, the excellent paramagnetic characteristics of the welded specimens were revealed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Single Crystal Casting with Fluidized Carbon Bed Cooling: A Process Innovation for Quality Improvement and Cost Reduction

Superalloy gas turbine blades are being produced by investment casting and directional solidification. A new process, Fluidized Carbon Bed Cooling (FCBC), has been developed and is now being optimized in a prototype casting unit with 10 kg pouring weight. In early test runs with still rather simple mold cluster geometries, a reduction of the primary dendrite arm spacing of around 40 pct compared to the standard radiation cooling process (HRS) could be demonstrated. The improvement is mainly attributed to higher temperature gradients driving solidification, made possible by a functioning Dynamic Baffle. Compared to earlier development efforts in the literature, contamination of the melt and damage to the equipment are avoided using carbon-based fluidized bed materials and the so-called “counter pressure concept.”.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Finite-volume scheme for anisotropic diffusion

In this paper, we apply a special finite-volume scheme, limited to smooth temperature distributions and Cartesian grids, to test the importance of connectivity of the finite volumes. The area of application is nuclear fusion plasma with field line aligned temperature gradients and extreme anisotropy. We apply the scheme to the anisotropic heat-conduction equation, and compare its results with those of existing finite-volume schemes for anisotropic diffusion. Also, we introduce a general model adaptation of the steady diffusion equation for extremely anisotropic diffusion problems with closed field lines.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Suppression of collisionless magnetic reconnection in asymmetric current sheets

Using fully kinetic simulations, we study the suppression of asymmetric reconnection in the limit where the diamagnetic drift speed ≫ Alfvén speed and the magnetic shear angle is moderate. We demonstrate that the slippage between electrons and the magnetic flux mitigates the suppression and can even result in fast reconnection that lacks one of the outflow jets. Through comparing a case where the diamagnetic drift is supported by the temperature gradient with a companion case that has a density gradient instead, we identify a robust suppression mechanism. The drift of the x-line is slowed down locally by the asymmetric nature of the x-line, and then the x-line is run over and swallowed by the faster-moving following flux.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Atomic-scale thermocapillary flow in focused ion beam milling

Focused ion beams provide a means of nanometer-scale manufacturing and material processing, which is used for applications such as forming nanometer-scale pores in thin films for DNA sequencing. We investigate such a configuration with Ga{sup +} bombardment of a Si thin-film target using molecular dynamics simulation. For a range of ion intensities in a realistic configuration, a recirculating melt region develops, which is seen to flow with a symmetrical pattern, counter to how it would flow were it driven by the ion momentum flux. Such flow is potentially important for the shape and composition of the formed structures. Relevant stress scales and estimated physical properties of silicon under these extreme conditions support the importance thermocapillary effects. A flow model with Marangoni forcing, based upon the temperature gradient and geometry from the atomistic simulation, indeed reproduces the flow and thus could be used to anticipate such flows and their influence in applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Neutron Spin Rotation at Laue Diffraction in a Weakly Deformed Transparent Crystal with No Center of Symmetry

The effect of neutron spin rotation at Laue diffraction in a weakly deformed neutron-transparent noncentrosymmetric crystal has been described theoretically and studied experimentally. The effect is due to the bending of a Kato trajectory of the neutron in the deformed crystal. At a certain type of deformation, one of two neutron waves excited at Laue diffraction, which propagate in opposite crystal fields in the crystal with no center of symmetry, leaves the crystal. As a result, the spin of the remaining neutron wave is rotated by a certain angle with respect to initial direction due to the interaction of the magnetic moment of a moving neutron with the crystalline electric field. This effect is absent in an undeformed perfect crystal, where only the depolarization of a beam occurs because both waves in opposite electric fields have the same amplitude. A method has been developed for controlled deforming the perfect single crystal by creating a temperature gradient in it. Thereby, a new possibility of measuring electric fields acting on a neutron in noncentrosymmetric crystals, as well as a method of controlling these fields in experiments on studying the fundamental properties of the neutron, has been implemented.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

AlInPSbAs/InAs Heterostructures for Thermophotoelectric Converters

Using the method of floating-zone recrystallization with a temperature gradient, AlInPSbAs/InAs heterostructures for thermophotoelectric converters operating in the wavelength range of 500–3200 nm are obtained. The use of the AlInPSbAs quinary solid solutions as an active region thermophotoconverters allows one to increase the external quantum yield up to 0.9 in the spectral range of 520–2800 nm.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Transport and Dynamics in Toroidal Fusion Systems

The study entitled, "Transport and Dynamics in Toroidal Fusion Systems," (TDTFS) applied analytical theory and numerical computation to investigate topics of importance to confining plasma, the fourth state of matter, with magnetic fields. A central focus of the work is how non-thermal components of the ion particle distribution affect the "sawtooth" collective oscillation in the core of the tokamak magnetic configuration. Previous experimental and analytical research had shown and described how the oscillation frequency decreases and amplitude increases, leading to "monster" or "giant" sawteeth, when the non-thermal component is increased by injecting particle beams or by exciting ions with imposed electromagnetic waves. The TDTFS study applied numerical computation to self-consistently simulate the interaction between macroscopic collective plasma dynamics and the non-thermal particles. The modeling used the NIMROD code [Sovinec, Glasser, Gianakon, et al., J. Comput. Phys. 195, 355 (2004)] with the energetic component represented by simulation particles [Kim, Parker, Sovinec, and the NIMROD Team, Comput. Phys. Commun. 164, 448 (2004)]. The computations found decreasing growth rates for the instability that drives the oscillations, but they were ultimately limited from achieving experimentally relevant parameters due to computational practicalities. Nonetheless, this effort provided valuable lessons for integrated simulation of macroscopic plasma dynamics. It also motivated an investigation of the applicability of fluid-based modeling to the ion temperature gradient instability, leading to the journal publication [Schnack, Cheng, Barnes, and Parker, Phys. Plasmas 20, 062106 (2013)]. Apart from the tokamak-specific topics, the TDTFS study also addressed topics in the basic physics of magnetized plasma and in the dynamics of the reversed-field pinch (RFP) configuration. The basic physics work contributed to a study of two-fluid effects on interchange dynamics, where "two-fluid" refers to modeling independent dynamics of electron and ion species without full kinetic effects. In collaboration with scientist Ping Zhu, who received separate support, it was found that the rule-of-thumb criteria on stabilizing interchange has caveats that depend on the plasma density and temperature profiles. This work was published in [Zhu, Schnack, Ebrahimi, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 085005 (2008)]. An investigation of general nonlinear relaxation with fluid models was partially supported by the TDTFS study and led to the publication [Khalzov, Ebrahimi, Schnack, and Mirnov, Phys. Plasmas 19, 012111 (2012)]. Work specific to the RFP included an investigation of interchange at large plasma pressure and support for applications [for example, Scheffel, Schnack, and Mirza, Nucl. Fusion 53, 113007 (2013)] of the DEBS code [Schnack, Barnes, Mikic, Harned, and Caramana, J. Comput. Phys. 70, 330 (1987)]. Finally, the principal investigator over most of the award period, Dalton Schnack, supervised a numerical study of modeling magnetic island suppression [Jenkins, Kruger, Hegna, Schnack, and Sovinec, Phys. Plasmas 17, 12502 (2010)].

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

On a Technique of Studying the Interface Kinetics and Anisotropy of Specific Interfacial Energy Based on Experiments on Migration of Liquid Cylindrical Inclusions in a Crystal under Stationary Thermal Conditions

A method for processing experimental data on the migration of liquid cylindrical inclusions in a crystal under a temperature gradient has been considered on the assumption that the experimental thermal conditions are stationary. Formulas are derived to calculate the degree of interfacial energy anisotropy and relative hindrance of the crystallization and dissolution processes at atomically smooth interface areas based on the shapes of cross sections of cylindrical inclusions migrated perpendicular to the close-packed crystal planes.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Mathematical simulation of heat and mass transfer in a cylindrical channel versus the tangential momentum accommodation coefficient

The process of heat and mass transfer in a long cylindrical channel has been considered in terms of the mirror–diffuse model of the Maxwell boundary condition. The Hazen–Williams equation is used as a basic equation of the process kinetics. A constant temperature gradient is maintained in the channel. The heat and mass fluxes through the cross section of the channel versus the tangential momentum accommodation coefficient have been calculated in a wide range of the Knudsen number. The heat flux profiles have been constructed. A comparison with relevant published data has been carried out.

42 ENGINEERING↗