Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “modelling studies”

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 91 records · Page 5

Effect of the inversion symmetry breaking on the orbital Hall effect: A model study

The orbital Hall effect (OHE) is the transverse flow of orbital moment in a solid in response to an applied electric field, analogous to the flow of spin moment in the spin Hall effect (SHE). Although the effect has not been directly observed, there is ample indirect evidence for its existence in a number of experiments. Here, we show that the OHE is enhanced in solids with broken inversion symmetry, which may be more suitable to observe the effect. The mechanism of the OHE is fundamentally different in solids with inversion symmetry, where the orbital moment is quenched in the Brillouin zone (BZ), from that in a solid with broken inversion symmetry, where an intrinsic orbital moment is already present, the motion of which under the applied electric field could lead to a robust OHE. Using a tight-binding model Hamiltonian of a simple cubic lattice with two atoms in the unit cell, we study the effect of the inversion symmetry breaking on the OHE. We show that with the increase in the strength of the broken symmetry, the magnitude of the intrinsic orbital moment in the Brillouin zone increases. This, in turn, enhances the orbital Hall conductivity, in particular, the part that is directly proportional to the orbital moment in the BZ, which we call the “noncentrosymmetric contribution.” If the spin-orbit coupling is present, which couples the orbital and spin moments, the OHE leads to the SHE, which also becomes enhanced by the broken inversion symmetry. Furthermore, our work has important implications for experimenters, suggesting that noncentrosymmetric solids may be more suitable for direct observation of the OHE.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Kinetic and modeling studies of the mechanism of the dehydrogenation of Mg(BH 4 ) 2 to Mg(B 3 H 8 ) 2

Since its discovery over 15 years ago, the reversible dehydrogenation of Mg(BH 4 ) 2 to Mg(B 3 H 8 ) 2 has remained one of the more intriguing hydrogen-cycling systems. While the mechanism of this reaction has been the subject of a good deal of speculation and computational studies, prior to this work it had not been probed through kinetic studies. Previous reports of the dehydrogenation of Mg(BH 4 ) 2 to Mg(B 3 H 8 ) 2 have not included kinetic studies. The present studies have shown that the dehydrogenation of Mg(BH 4 ) 2 to Mg(B 3 H 8 ) 2 is suppressed by hydrogen pressure indicating that the rate-limiting step in this process involves hydrogen elimination. Computational modeling of kinetic data obtained from monitoring the hydrogen elimination from Mg(BH 4 ) 2 to Mg(B 3 H 8 ) 2 under static vacuum over a range of temperatures supports that the dehydrogenation occurs through a reversible three-step process in which the elimination of hydrogen from the [B 3 H 10 ] − intermediate is rate limiting. A mechanism involving the low energy transfer of neighboring BH3 groups is proposed to account for the formation of [B 3 H 8 ] − at relatively low temperatures.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Vertical Structure and Ice Production Processes of Shallow Convective Postfrontal Clouds over the Southern Ocean in MARCUS. Part II: Modeling Study

Abstract Part I of this series presented a detailed overview of postfrontal mixed-phase clouds observed during the Measurements of Aerosols, Radiation, and Clouds over the Southern Ocean (MARCUS) field campaign. In Part II, we focus on a multiday (23–26 February 2018) case with the aim of understanding ice production as well as model sensitivity to ice process parameterizations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. The control simulation with the Predicted Particle Properties (P3) microphysics scheme underestimates the ice content and overestimates the supercooled liquid water content, contrary to the bias common in global climate models. The simulations targeted at ice production processes show negligible sensitivity to cloud droplet number concentrations. Further, neither increasing ice nuclei particle (INP) concentrations to an unrealistic level nor adjusting it to MARCUS field estimations alone guarantees more ice production in the model. However, the simulated clouds are found to be highly sensitive to the implementation of immersion freezing, the thresholding of condensation/deposition freezing initiation, and the rime splintering process. By increasing immersion freezing of cloud droplets, relaxing thresholds for condensation/deposition freezing, or removing rime splintering thresholds, the model significantly improves its performance in producing ice. The relaxation of the immersion freezing temperature threshold to the observed cloud-top temperature suggests an in-cloud seeder–feeder mechanism. The results of this work call for an increase in observations of INP, especially over the remote Southern Ocean and at relatively high temperatures, and measurements of ice particle size distributions to better constrain ice nucleating processes in models.

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences↗

Probing the antiknock effect of anisole through an ignition, speciation and modeling study of its blends with isooctane

In order to unravel the reaction pathways relevant to anisole co-oxidation within a fuel blend, a detailed study of isooctane/anisole blends was performed with the ULille RCM. Ignition delays as well as mole fraction profiles were measured during a two-stage ignition delay using sampling and GC techniques. These results are used to validate a kinetic model developed from ab initio calculations for the most relevant rate constants which included H-atom abstraction reactions from anisole, and reactions on the potential energy surfaces of methoxyphenyl + O 2 and anisyl + O 2 . Pressure dependent rate constants were computed for the methoxyphenyl + O 2 and anisyl + O 2 reactive systems using master equation code analysis. The new kinetic model shows good agreement with the experimental data. Dual brute-force sensitivity analysis was performed, on both first- and second-stages of ignition, allowing the identification of the most important reactions in the prediction of both ignition delays. It was observed that while pure anisole does not show NTC behavior, a 60/40 isooctane/anisole blend displays such behavior, as well as two-stage ignition. This suggests anisole addition may not be as beneficial to knock resistance as expected from its high octane number. The kinetic modeling results demonstrate the importance of H-abstraction reactions both from the methoxy group and from the aryl ring in ortho-position and the addition of the resultant radicals to O2, mostly leading to the formation of polar or non-aromatic products.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Preferential adsorption of noble gases in zeolitic tuff with variable saturation: A modeling study of counter-intuitive diffusive-adsorptive behavior

Noble gas transport through geologic media has important applications in the prediction and characterization of measured gas signatures related to underground nuclear explosions (UNEs). Retarding processes such as adsorption can cause significant species fractionation of radionuclide gases, which has implications for measured and predicted signatures used to distinguish radioxenon originating from civilian nuclear facilities or from UNEs. Accounting for the effects of variable water saturation in geologic media on tracer transport is one of the most challenging aspects of modeling gas transport because there is no unifying relationship for the associated tortuosity changes between different rock types, and reactive transport processes such as adsorption that are affected by the presence of water likewise behave differently between gas species. In this study, we perform numerical diffusive-adsorptive transport simulations to estimate gas transport parameters associated with bench-scale laboratory diffusion cell experiments measuring breakthrough in zeolitic and non-zeolitic rocks for a gaseous mixture of xenon, krypton, and SF 6 at varying degrees of water saturation (S w ). Counter-intuitive transport behavior was observed in the zeolitic rock experiments whereby breakthrough concentrations were significantly higher when the core was partially saturated (S w = 17 %) than under dry (S w = 0 %) conditions. Breakthrough of xenon was especially retarded in the dry core – likely due to comparatively high affinity of xenon for zeolitic adsorption sites – and estimated effective diffusion coefficients for all gases were approximately an order of magnitude lower than what is predicted by porosity-tortuosity models. We propose the counter-intuitive behavior observed is because water infiltration of zeolite nanopores reduces both the adsorptive capacity of the rock and the tortuosity of connected flow paths. We developed a two-site competitive kinetic Langmuir adsorption reaction for the porous media transport simulator in order to constrain transport parameters within zeolitic tuff, where differential adsorption to zeolite and non-zeolite pores was observed. We determined that liquid saturation-dependent diffusive-adsorptive transport is affected by subtle and at times competing processes that are specific to different gases, which have a significant overall influence on effective transport parameters.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

The relatively young and rural population may limit the spread and severity of COVID-19 in Africa: a modelling study

A novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread to all regions of the world. There is great uncertainty regarding how countries’ characteristics will affect the spread of the epidemic; to date, there are few studies that attempt to predict the spread of the epidemic in African countries. In this paper, we investigate the role of demographic patterns, urbanisation and comorbidities on the possible trajectories of COVID-19 in Ghana, Kenya and Senegal. We use an augmented deterministic Susceptible-Infected-Recovered model to predict the true spread of the disease, under the containment measures taken so far. We disaggregate the infected compartment into asymptomatic, mildly symptomatic and severely symptomatic to match observed clinical development of COVID-19. We also account for age structures, urbanisation and comorbidities (HIV, tuberculosis, anaemia). In our baseline model, we project that the peak of active cases will occur in July, subject to the effectiveness of policy measures. When accounting for the urbanisation, and factoring in comorbidities, the peak may occur between 2 June and 17 June (Ghana), 22 July and 29 August (Kenya) and, finally, 28 May and 15 June (Senegal). Successful containment policies could lead to lower rates of severe infections. While most cases will be mild, we project in the absence of policies further containing the spread, that between 0.78% and 1.03%, 0.61% and 1.22%, and 0.60% and 0.84% of individuals in Ghana, Kenya and Senegal, respectively, may develop severe symptoms at the time of the peak of the epidemic. Compared with Europe, Africa’s younger and rural population may modify the severity of the epidemic. The large youth population may lead to more infections but most of these infections will be asymptomatic or mild, and will probably go undetected. The higher prevalence of underlying conditions must be considered.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Experimental and modeling study of the effect of confinement on the thermal decomposition of organic materials

Simultaneous Thermal Analysis is widely used to study thermal decomposition of a variety of organic materials, and the choice of experimental conditions is very important to obtain reliable mass loss and heat flow curves. Here in this work we investigate the effect of confinement on the thermal decomposition of organic materials. As an example, we explore high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and one of its pyrolysis products, namely eicosane (C 20 H 42 ), through experiments and modeling in open crucibles and crucibles closed with a pierced lid. A new model is developed for evaporation and sublimation from open and pinhole thermal-analysis pans. It considers the kinetic resistance of evaporation at the liquid-vapor interface, inhibition of evaporation by buildup of vapor inside the pan, thermal expansion of vapor inside the pan, and diffusion of vapor from the pan. The model is validated using simultaneous heat-flow and mass-loss measurements of n-eicosane evaporation for various pinhole sizes, down to 50 µm. The importance of product evaporation inhibition for measuring polymer decomposition was demonstrated using HDPE. This study sheds light on the effect of confinement on the mass loss rate of organic materials.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Lake Huron Enhances Snowfall Downwind of Lake Erie: A Modeling Study of the 2010 New Year’s Lake Effect Snowfall Event

In the Northeast and Great Lakes regions of the United States, the influence of multiple lakes on the overlying air can greatly affect lake-effect snowfall over downwind communities. To assess the impact of Lake Huron on snowfall downwind of Lake Erie, we simulated a lake-effect snow event which occurred from 1 to 6 January 2010 using the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS). We found that the presence of Lake Huron enhances snowfall downwind of Lake Erie by almost 20% and leads to much heavier local snowfall totals than when Lake Huron is not present. This increase in snowfall is due to a lake-to-lake (L2L) convective band, as secondary circulations associated with lake-effect convection form over Lake Huron and persist overland between the lakes before reintensifying over Lake Erie. As these secondary circulations move over Lake Erie, lifting within the upward branch of the circulations accelerates the development of convection within the L2L band. Surface fluxes and convection over Lake Huron deepen the boundary layer, promoting deeper vertical development of this L2L band over Lake Erie. However, although this boundary layer modification strengthens the L2L band, we found that it actually reduced lake-effect snowfall produced by wind-parallel bands (WPB) in other parts of the lake. This indicates that boundary layer modification from upstream lakes may impact L2L bands differently than WPB which are not connected to upstream secondary circulations.

Lake effects↗

Permeate fluxes from desalination of brines and produced waters: A reactive transport modeling study

The increasing interest in the use of membrane systems to desalinate inland brackish water, agricultural drainage, and industrially produced wastewater demands improved means of predicting desalination system performance under variable feedwater compositions. The interaction among water flow, solute transport, and chemical composition in these systems impacts permeate flux evolution. Here, an established multicomponent reactive transport simulator that accounts for these coupled processes is applied to compute osmotic pressure and permeate fluxes in reverse osmosis (RO) systems. The model is first validated by predicting permeate fluxes for a set of benchtop crossflow experiments subject to a range of feed flow rates and compositions, under fouling and non-fouling conditions. Results compare favorably with measured data that show that solutions with similar total dissolved solids concentrations but different compositions result in different permeate fluxes. The model is then applied to predict permeate fluxes from the desalination of produced waters using a commercial spiral wound RO module. For NaCl-dominant brines, at total dissolved salt concentrations (TDS) below about 70 g/L, permeate fluxes are inversely proportional to water mole fraction as the latter is a reasonable approximation of water activity (i.e. ideal mixing). In the case of Ca–Cl-, Na–CO3- and Na–SO4-dominant brines below about 70 g/L TDS, this relationship does not hold as well and tends to overpredict osmotic pressure and thus underpredict permeate fluxes. However, the opposite becomes true at higher TDS values for typical produced waters. The scaling potential of these waters is also computed by allowing the precipitation of minerals above their saturation limit on the RO membrane. This work demonstrates how reactive transport models developed for the analysis of waters from geological systems can be extended to improve process design, optimization, and control in desalination systems from produced waters and beyond.

Molins, Sergi↗

Shell-model studies of the astrophysical r p -process reactions S 34 ( p , γ ) Cl 35 and Cl 34 g , m ( p , γ ) Ar 35

Background: Dust grains condensed in the outflows of presolar classical novae should have been present in the protosolar nebula. Candidates for such presolar nova grains have been found in primitive meteorites and can in principle be identified by their isotopic ratios, but the ratios predicted by state-of-the-art one-dimensional hydrodynamic models are uncertain due to nuclear-physics uncertainties. Purpose: To theoretically calculate the thermonuclear rates and uncertainties of the S 34 ( p , γ ) Cl 35 and Cl 34 g , m ( p , γ ) Ar 35 reactions and investigate their impacts on the predicted 34 S/ 32 S isotopic ratio for presolar nova grains. Method: A shell-model approach in a (0 +1 ) ℏ ω model space was used to calculate the properties of resonances in the 34 S(p ,γ ) 35 Cl and 34 g,m Cl (p ,γ ) 35 Ar reactions and their thermonuclear rates. Uncertainties were estimated using a Monte Carlo method. The implications of these rates and their uncertainties on sulfur isotopic nova yields were investigated using a postprocessing nucleosynthesis code. The rates for transitions from the ground state of 34 Cl as well as from the isomeric first excited state of 34 Cl were explicitly calculated. Results: At energies in the resonance region near the proton-emission threshold, many negative-parity states appear. Energies, spectroscopic factors, and proton-decay widths are reported. The resulting thermonuclear rates are compared with previous determinations. Conclusions: The shell-model calculations alone are sufficient to constrain the variation of the 34 S/ 32 S ratios to within about 30%. Uncertainties associated with other reactions must also be considered, but in general we find that the 34 S/ 32 S ratios are not a robust diagnostic to clearly identify presolar grains made from nova ejecta.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

A new method for inferring city emissions and lifetimes of nitrogen oxides from high-resolution nitrogen dioxide observations: a model study

We present a new method to infer emissions and lifetimes of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) based on tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) observations together with reanalysis wind fields for cities located in polluted backgrounds. Since the accuracy of the method is difficult to assess due to lack of “true values” that can be used as a benchmark, we apply the method to synthetic NO 2 observations derived from the NASA-Unified Weather Research and Forecasting (NU-WRF) model at a high horizontal spatial resolution of 4 km × 4 km for cities over the continental United States. We compare the inferred emissions and lifetimes with the values given by the NU-WRF model to evaluate the method. The method is applicable to 26 US cities. The derived results are generally in good agreement with the values given by the model, with the relative differences of 2 % ± 17 % (mean ± standard deviation) and 15 % ± 25 % for lifetimes and emissions, respectively. Our investigation suggests that the use of wind data prior to the satellite overpass time improves the performance of the method. The correlation coefficients between inferred and NU-WRF lifetimes increase from 0.56 to 0.79 and for emissions increase from 0.88 to 0.96 when comparing results based on wind fields sampled simultaneously with satellite observations and averaged over 9 h data prior to satellite observations, respectively. We estimate that uncertainties in NO x lifetime and emissions arising from the method are approximately 15 % and 20 %, respectively, for typical (US) cities. The total uncertainties reach up to 43% (lifetimes) and 45% (emissions) by considering the additional uncertainties associated with satellite NO 2 observations and wind data. We expect this new method to be applicable to NO 2 observations from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and geostationary satellites, such as Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) or the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO) instrument, to estimate urban NO x emissions and lifetimes globally.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Wigner time delay in photoionization: a 1D model study

Abstract In scattering theory, the Wigner–Smith time delay, calculated through a phaseshift derivative or its multichannel generalization, has been demonstrated to measure the amount of delay or advance experienced by colliding particles during their interaction with the scattering potential. Fetic, Becker, and Milosevic argue that this concept cannot be extended to include photoionization, viewed as a half-scattering experiment. Their argument is based on the lack of information about scattering phaseshifts in the part of the wavefunction (satisfying the ingoing-wave boundary condition) going to the detector. This article aims to test this claim by examining a photodetachment process in a simple 1D model with a short-range symmetrical potential. Using time-dependent perturbation theory with a dipole interaction, the relevant wavepacket of the outgoing particle is analyzed and compared to the free wavepacket as a reference. Our findings confirm that, indeed, a time delay arises in the liberated fragmentation wavepacket, which is expressed as an energy derivative of the scattering phaseshift. Our study highlights that the source of the phaseshift content in the wavepacket arriving at the detector is the dipole matrix element, which is a direct consequence of imposing the ingoing-wave boundary condition. We illustrate our results through numerical simulations of both the non-free and free wavepackets. The amount of the observed time delay is found to be half of that appearing in a typical scattering experiment.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Occurrence of Warm Freezing Rain: Observation and Modeling Study

Freezing rain has been normally considered to be composed of supercooled raindrops when the 2 m air temperature (hereafter T as ) is below freezing. However, according to a statistical survey of freezing rain observations in China from 2000 to 2019, we find that there were 656 events that occurred at T as greater than 0°C (hereafter warm freezing rain and denoted by WFR), which account for 7% of the total freezing rain observations. Additionally, nearly 3% (266 observations) of freezing rain events occurred when the near-surface wet-bulb temperature was greater than 0°C. The modeling and sensitivity experiments on the nonequilibrium raindrop temperature (hereafter T r ) how that the temperature difference between raindrops and the atmosphere is the main cause of WFR. The magnitudes of the Δ T ar (difference between raindrop temperature T r and air temperature T a ) and Δ T ur (difference between T r and wet-bulb temperature T w ) are determined by the raindrop diameter D, temperature lapse rate $\Gamma$, and relative humidity RH. Increases of D and $\Gamma$, and a decrease of RH enhance Δ T ar and Δ T ur and thus the occurrence of WFR. Further simulations of 4 idealized and 370 real sounding profiles reveal that either the T a or the T w cannot properly distinguish the WFR events. When considering the temperature difference between raindrops and the atmosphere, the WFR can form by the “melting of solid hydrometeors” or “supercooled warm rain process.” This study can also deepen our understanding of the conditions of WFR and freezing rain formation at different altitudes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Role of Hydrogen-bonded Bimolecular Formic Acid–Formate Complexes for Formic Acid Decomposition on Copper: A Combined First-Principles and Microkinetic Modeling Study

Hydrogen bonding interactions alter the nanoscale reaction mechanisms of many chemistries. Yet, it remains unclear how they affect heterogeneously catalyzed decomposition of formic acid (FA), a reaction of intense interest since FA is a promising hydrogen carrier. In this work, we elucidate how hydrogen bonding affects the reaction mechanisms for FA decomposition on Cu(111) by combining first-principles density functional theory calculations to calculate reaction energetics, Latin-hypercube sampling to elucidate stable high-coverage adsorbate configurations, and coverage self-consistent mean-field microkinetic models to predict reaction kinetics. We demonstrate that hydrogen-bonded complexes of FA with formate (bimolecular FA–HCOO complexes) can play a dominant role in FA decomposition. Specifically, our first-principles calculations show that hydrogen bonding of FA with HCOO may stabilize the crucial monodentate HCOO intermediate and the transition states for HCOO decomposition, especially at low coverages. We predict that, depending on the reaction conditions, 40–80% of the reaction flux goes through pathways involving the bimolecular FA–HCOO complexes. Additionally, the active site for FA decomposition on Cu(111) involves a high coverage (~0.4 monolayers (ML)) of these complexes, which unexpectedly stabilize intermediates and transition states via van der Waals interactions. Our work provides molecular insights consistent with previous experimental observations on supported Cu/Al 2 O 3 catalysts. This paves the way toward the development of novel catalysts for FA decomposition as well as for other industrially important chemistries with intermediates capable of hydrogen bonding, such as ammonia electrooxidation and CO 2 hydrogenation.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Experimental and modeling study of the autoignition behavior of a saturated heterocycle: Pyrrolidine

Experiments are conducted in both rapid compression machine (RCM) and shock tube (ST) to better quantify autoignition behavior (e.g., ignition delay, heat release) and understand heteroatomic effects in heterocyclic compounds, which are important reference components for the combustion of biomass-derived liquid fuels. These tests focus on the nitrogen-containing, five-membered saturated ring, pyrrolidine, at diluted conditions covering pressures of 20 and 50 bar, temperatures of 720–1450 K and a range of stoichiometries (ϕ = 0.5–2). A chemical kinetic model is developed and coupled to an existing combustion kinetics framework describing key nitrogen containing intermediates (e.g. pyrrole, ammonia and NOx). H-abstraction reactions by OH, H, CH 3 and HO 2 , are determined using ab-initio transition state theory methods, while analogies to cyclopentane are adopted for many other reactions, such as ring-opening. Here, the autoignition measurements reveal the lack of negative temperature coefficient (NTC) behavior and low-temperature chemistry for pyrrolidine, as opposed to its saturated hydrocarbon analogue, cyclopentane. Interestingly, at the lowest temperatures (T < 750 K), the reactivity of cyclopentane is greater than pyrrolidine, while at higher temperatures, pyrrolidine becomes more reactive. Agreement between the experimental measurements and the model is good, and it is found that H-abstraction reactions by HO 2 and ensuing chemistry play key roles in controlling the reactivity of this cyclic amine. Most of the fluxes, i.e., >70 %, are predicted to move through 1- or 2-pyrroline (C 4 H 7 N) and then the cyclic C 4 H 6 N radical, at both lower and higher temperatures, to form either CH 2 CHCHCHNH via ring-opening or pyrrole via β-scission. It appears that the ring opens more easily at lower temperature whereas the C–H β-scission dominates at higher temperature and lower pressure, such that the reaction of the fuel radical intermediate carrying an unpaired electron on the nitrogen atom with HO 2 is the next most notable in promoting oxidation. When comparing pyrrolidine and cyclopentane, which exhibits distinct pathways in different temperature regimes, the pyrrolidine pathways and sensitivity analysis align more closely to the high temperature case of cyclopentane where the important role of HO 2 radicals is seen to provide chain branching through HO 2 reaction with the fuel, accompanied by H 2 O 2 formation and decomposition to OH. The formation of 5-membered diene rings and ring opening reactions are also found to be highly relevant. Of particular note, it is found that there is little influence of small molecule nitrogen-chemistry, e.g., NH 2 , HCN, NO/NO 2 on the reactivity of the pyrrolidine mixtures investigated here where no recirculated combustion gases are included.

Autoignition↗