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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 919 records · Page 51
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

THE MASSIVE SATELLITE POPULATION OF MILKY-WAY-SIZED GALAXIES

Several occupational distributions for satellite galaxies more massive than m{sub *} Almost-Equal-To 4 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 7} M{sub Sun} around Milky-Way (MW)-sized hosts are presented and used to predict the internal dynamics of these satellites as a function of m{sub *}. For the analysis, a large galaxy group mock catalog is constructed on the basis of (sub)halo-to-stellar mass relations fully constrained with currently available observations, namely the galaxy stellar mass function decomposed into centrals and satellites, and the two-point correlation functions at different masses. We find that 6.6% of MW-sized galaxies host two satellites in the mass range of the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC and LMC, respectively). The probabilities of the MW-sized galaxies having one satellite equal to or larger than the LMC, two satellites equal to or larger than the SMC, or three satellites equal to or larger than Sagittarius (Sgr) are Almost-Equal-To 0.26, 0.14, and 0.14, respectively. The cumulative satellite mass function of the MW, N{sub s} ({>=}m{sub *}) , down to the mass of the Fornax dwarf is within the 1{sigma} distribution of all the MW-sized galaxies. We find that MW-sized hosts with three satellites more massive than Sgr (as the MW) are among the most common cases. However, the most and second most massive satellites in these systems are smaller than the LMC and SMC by roughly 0.7 and 0.8 dex, respectively. We conclude that the distribution N{sub s} ({>=}m{sub *}) for MW-sized galaxies is quite broad, the particular case of the MW being of low frequency but not an outlier. The halo mass of MW-sized galaxies correlates only weakly with N{sub s} ({>=}m{sub *}). Then, it is not possible to accurately determine the MW halo mass by means of its N{sub s} ({>=}m{sub *}); from our catalog, we constrain a lower limit of 1.38 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 12} M{sub Sun} at the 1{sigma} level. Our analysis strongly suggests that the abundance of massive subhalos should agree with the abundance of massive satellites in all MW-sized hosts, i.e., there is not a missing (massive) satellite problem for the {Lambda}CDM cosmology. However, we confirm that the maximum circular velocity, v{sub max}, of the subhalos of satellites smaller than m{sub *} {approx} 10{sup 8} M{sub Sun} is systematically larger than the v{sub max} inferred from current observational studies of the MW bright dwarf satellites; different from previous works, this conclusion is based on an analysis of the overall population of MW-sized galaxies. Some pieces of evidence suggest that the issue could refer only to satellite dwarfs but not to central dwarfs, then environmental processes associated with dwarfs inside host halos combined with supernova-driven core expansion should be on the basis of the lowering of v{sub max}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Resolve survey photometry and volume-limited calibration of the photometric gas fractions technique

We present custom-processed ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared photometry for the REsolved Spectroscopy of a Local VolumE (RESOLVE) survey, a volume-limited census of stellar, gas, and dynamical mass within two subvolumes of the nearby universe (RESOLVE-A and RESOLVE-B). RESOLVE is complete down to baryonic mass ∼10{sup 9.1−9.3} M{sub ⊙}, probing the upper end of the dwarf galaxy regime. In contrast to standard pipeline photometry (e.g., SDSS), our photometry uses optimal background subtraction, avoids suppressing color gradients, and employs multiple flux extrapolation routines to estimate systematic errors. With these improvements, we measure brighter magnitudes, larger radii, bluer colors, and a real increase in scatter around the red sequence. Combining stellar mass estimates based on our optimized photometry with the nearly complete H i mass census for RESOLVE-A, we create new z = 0 volume-limited calibrations of the photometric gas fractions (PGF) technique, which predicts gas-to-stellar mass ratios (G/S) from galaxy colors and optional additional parameters. We analyze G/S-color residuals versus potential third parameters, finding that axial ratio is the best independent and physically meaningful third parameter. We define a “modified color” from planar fits to G/S as a function of both color and axial ratio. In the complete galaxy population, upper limits on G/S bias linear and planar fits. We therefore model the entire PGF probability density field, enabling iterative statistical modeling of upper limits and prediction of full G/S probability distributions for individual galaxies. These distributions have two-component structure in the red color regime. Finally, we use the RESOLVE-B 21 cm census to test several PGF calibrations, finding that most systematically under- or overestimate gas masses, but the full probability density method performs well.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Bose enhancement, the Liouville effective action, and the high multiplicity tail in p – A collisions

In the framework of dense-dilute CGC approach we study fluctuations in the multiplicity of produced particles in p-A collisions. We show that the leading effect that drives the fluctuations is the Bose enhancement of gluons in the proton wave function. We explicitly calculate the moment generating function that resums the effects of Bose enhancement. We show that it can be understood in terms of the Liouville effective action for the composite field which is identified with the fluctuating density, or saturation momentum of the proton. The resulting probability distribution turns out to be very close to the gamma-distribution. In conclusion, we also calculate the first correction to this distribution which is due to pairwise Hanbury Brown-Twiss correlations of produced gluons.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Performance of the Moving Voxel Image Reconstruction (MVIR) Method in the Fixed Site Detection System (FSDS) Prototype

We have developed a dynamic image reconstruction method called MVIR (Moving Voxel Image Reconstruction) for lane detection in multilane portal monitor systems. MVIR was evaluated for use in the Fixed Site Detection System, a prototype three-lane portal monitor system for EZ-pass toll plazas. As a baseline, we compared MVIR with a static image reconstruction method in analyzing the same real and simulated data sets. Performance was judged by the distributions of image intensities for source and no-source vehicles over many trials as a function of source strength. We found that MVIR produced significantly better results in all cases. The performance difference was greatest at low count rates, where source/no-source distributions were well separated with the MVIR method, allowing reliable source vehicle identification with a low probability of false positive identifications. Static reconstruction of the same data produced overlapping distributions that made source vehicle identification unreliable. The performance of the static method was acceptable at high count rates. Both algorithms reliably identified two strong sources passing through at nearly the same time.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2017

Error Convergence Characterization for Stochastic Transport Methods

There has been increased interest in reliably and efficiently solving engineering systems involving uncertainty in recent years. Characterization of the convergence of errors within the problem, including statistical and bias errors, increases confidence that chosen solution methods are appropriate for a particular problem and quantity of interest (QoI), that implementation errors have not been made, and can aid users or algorithms in solving problems within a tolerance efficiently. We demonstrate a method for characterizing error convergence in a simple stochastic transport problem. Though the approach is applicable to problems with more complicated physics, our simple problem enables analytic QoI solutions so that error convergence behavior and the identification of limiting errors can be presented with high precision. A one-dimensional, two-material, neutral-particle, and absorption-only transport problem involving uniformly distributed uncertain total cross sections is presented. Random sampling (RS) and stochastic collocation (SC) are used as stochastic solvers which sample from the uncertain space and Monte Carlo (MC) transport is employed to solve transport results on the resulting realizations. Probability density functions (PDFs) are created using either RS solutions or samples taken from a polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) constructed with SC solutions. The convergence of each solver is characterized with respect to the QoI against analytic solutions, convergence behavior is used to efficiently solve a QoI within a tolerance, and convergence plots are used to identify dominant solution errors.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2012

DISCLOSING THE RADIO LOUDNESS DISTRIBUTION DICHOTOMY IN QUASARS: AN UNBIASED MONTE CARLO APPROACH APPLIED TO THE SDSS-FIRST QUASAR SAMPLE

We investigate the dichotomy in the radio loudness distribution of quasars by modeling their radio emission and various selection effects using a Monte Carlo approach. The existence of two physically distinct quasar populations, the radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars, is controversial and over the last decade a bimodal distribution of radio loudness of quasars has been both affirmed and disputed. We model the quasar radio luminosity distribution with simple unimodal and bimodal distribution functions. The resulting simulated samples are compared to a fiducial sample of 8300 quasars drawn from the SDSS DR7 Quasar Catalog and combined with radio observations from the FIRST survey. Our results indicate that the SDSS-FIRST sample is best described by a radio loudness distribution which consists of two components, with (12 {+-} 1)% of sources in the radio-loud component. On the other hand, the evidence for a local minimum in the loudness distribution (bimodality) is not strong and we find that previous claims for its existence were probably affected by the incompleteness of the FIRST survey close to its faint limit. We also investigate the redshift and luminosity dependence of the radio loudness distribution and find tentative evidence that at high redshift radio-loud quasars were rarer, on average louder, and exhibited a smaller range in radio loudness. In agreement with other recent work, we conclude that the SDSS-FIRST sample strongly suggests that the radio loudness distribution of quasars is not a universal function, and that more complex models than presented here are needed to fully explain available observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

The electron–hole overlap in the parabolic quantum well light emitting diode is much superior to the rectangular: even to that of a staggered quantum well

The strong piezoelectric field in the In{sub x}Ga{sub 1−x}N/GaN quantum well (QW) LEDs, separates the electrons and holes spatially, which decreases the luminescence. Various shapes and compositions of such QWs are studied to improve the performance. We have studied the transition energy (TE), overlap of electron and hole wave functions, band structures and field distributions of the parabolic QWs (PQW) through the self consistent solutions of Schrödinger and Poisson equations. The shape of the PQW is varied along with the compositions and dopings. The square of the overlap of electron and hole wave functions i.e. the transition probability (TP) is strikingly increased, compared to the rectangular QW and it is even higher than the symmetrically staggered QW. At a particular current density, for the same TE, the TP of the PQW increases more than two times that of the rectangular QWs. An important feature, desirable for the QW LEDs emerge. The change of the TE with increase in the current density is minimized. A brief theory, computational procedures and the results will be presented in details with suitable discussions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Toward a clinical application of ex situ boron neutron capture therapy for lung tumors at the RA-3 reactor in Argentina

Purpose: Many types of lung tumors have a very poor prognosis due to their spread in the whole organ volume. The fact that boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) would allow for selective targeting of all the nodules regardless of their position, prompted a preclinical feasibility study of ex situ BNCT at the thermal neutron facility of RA-3 reactor in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. (L)-4p-dihydroxy-borylphenylalanine fructose complex (BPA-F) biodistribution studies in an adult sheep model and computational dosimetry for a human explanted lung were performed to evaluate the feasibility and the therapeutic potential of ex situ BNCT. Methods: Two kinds of boron biodistribution studies were carried out in the healthy sheep: a set of pharmacokinetic studies without lung excision, and a set that consisted of evaluation of boron concentration in the explanted and perfused lung. In order to assess the feasibility of the clinical application of ex situ BNCT at RA-3, a case of multiple lung metastases was analyzed. A detailed computational representation of the geometry of the lung was built based on a real collapsed human lung. Dosimetric calculations and dose limiting considerations were based on the experimental results from the adult sheep, and on the most suitable information published in the literature. In addition, a workable treatment plan was considered to assess the clinical application in a realistic scenario. Results: Concentration-time profiles for the normal sheep showed that the boron kinetics in blood, lung, and skin would adequately represent the boron behavior and absolute uptake expected in human tissues. Results strongly suggest that the distribution of the boron compound is spatially homogeneous in the lung. A constant lung-to-blood ratio of 1.3 ± 0.1 was observed from 80 min after the end of BPA-F infusion. The fact that this ratio remains constant during time would allow the blood boron concentration to be used as a surrogate and indirect quantification of the estimated value in the explanted healthy lung. The proposed preclinical animal model allowed for the study of the explanted lung. As expected, the boron concentration values fell as a result of the application of the preservation protocol required to preserve the lung function. The distribution of the boron concentration retention factor was obtained for healthy lung, with a mean value of 0.46 ± 0.14 consistent with that reported for metastatic colon carcinoma model in rat perfused lung. Considering the human lung model and suitable tumor control probability for lung cancer, a promising average fraction of controlled lesions higher than 85% was obtained even for a low tumor-to-normal boron concentration ratio of 2. Conclusions: This work reports for the first time data supporting the validity of the ovine model as an adequate human surrogate in terms of boron kinetics and uptake in clinically relevant tissues. Collectively, the results and analysis presented would strongly suggest that ex situ whole lung BNCT irradiation is a feasible and highly promising technique that could greatly contribute to the treatment of metastatic lung disease in those patients without extrapulmonary spread, increasing not only the expected overall survival but also the resulting quality of life.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Atmospheric Drivers of Wind Turbine Blade Leading Edge Erosion: Review and Recommendations for Future Research

Leading edge erosion (LEE) of wind turbine blades causes decreased aerodynamic performance leading to lower power production and revenue and increased operations and maintenance costs. LEE is caused primarily by materials stresses when hydrometeors (rain and hail) impact on rotating blades. The kinetic energy transferred by these impacts is a function of the precipitation intensity, droplet size distributions (DSD), hydrometeor phase and the wind turbine rotational speed which in turn depends on the wind speed at hub-height. Hence, there is a need to better understand the hydrometeor properties and the joint probability distributions of precipitation and wind speeds at prospective and operating wind farms in order to quantify the potential for LEE and the financial efficacy of LEE mitigation measures. However, there are relatively few observational datasets of hydrometeor DSD available for such locations. Here, we analyze six observational datasets from spatially dispersed locations and compare them with existing literature and assumed DSD used in laboratory experiments of material fatigue. We show that the so-called Best DSD being recommended for use in whirling arm experiments does not represent the observational data. Neither does the Marshall Palmer approximation. We also use these data to derive and compare joint probability distributions of drivers of LEE; precipitation intensity (and phase) and wind speed. We further review and summarize observational metrologies for hydrometeor DSD, provide information regarding measurement uncertainty in the parameters of critical importance to kinetic energy transfer and closure of data sets from different instruments. A series of recommendations are made about research needed to evolve towards the required fidelity for a priori estimates of LEE potential.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

ESTIMATED SIL LEVELS AND RISK COMPARISONS FOR RELIEF VALVES AS A FUNCTION OF TIME-IN-SERVICE

Risk-based inspection methods enable estimation of the probability of spring-operated relief valves failing on demand at the United States Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, South Carolina. The paper illustrates an approach based on application of the Frechet and Weibull distributions to SRS and Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) Process Equipment Reliability Database (PERD) proof test results. The methodology enables the estimation of ANSI/ISA-84.00.01 Safety Integrity Levels (SILs) as well as the potential change in SIL level due to modification of the maintenance schedule. Current SRS practices are reviewed and recommendations are made for extending inspection intervals. The paper compares risk-based inspection with specific SILs as maintenance intervals are adjusted. Groups of valves are identified in which maintenance times can be extended as well as different groups in which an increased safety margin may be needed.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2015

The creation of a comprehensive metocean data set for offshore wind turbine simulations: Comprehensive metocean data set

A database of meteorological and ocean conditions is presented for use in offshore wind energy research and design. The original data are from 23 ocean sites around the USA and were obtained from the National Data Buoy Center run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The data are presented in a processed form that includes the variables of interest for offshore wind energy design: wind speed, significant wave height, wave peak-spectral period, wind direction and wave direction. For each site, a binning process is conducted to create conditional probability functions for each of these variables. The sites are then grouped according to geographic location and combined to create three representative sites, including a West Coast site, an East Coast site and a Gulf of Mexico site. Both the processed data and the probability distribution parameters for the individual and representative sites are being hosted on a publicly available domain by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with the intent of providing a standard basis of comparison for meteorological and ocean conditions for offshore wind energy research worldwide.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Angular momentum eigenstates of the isotropic 3-D harmonic oscillator: Phase-space distributions and coalescence probabilities

The isotropic 3-dimensional harmonic oscillator potential can serve as an approximate description of many systems in atomic, solid state, nuclear, and particle physics. In particular, the question of 2 particles binding (or coalescing) into angular momentum eigenstates in such a potential has interesting applications. Here we compute the probabilities for coalescence of two distinguishable, non-relativistic particles into such a bound state, where the initial particles are represented by generic wave packets of given average positions and momenta. We use a phase-space formulation and hence need the Wigner distribution functions of angular momentum eigenstates in isotropic 3-dimensional harmonic oscillators. These distribution functions have been discussed in the literature before but we utilize an alternative approach to obtain these functions. Along the way, we derive a general formula that expands angular momentum eigenstates in terms of products of 1-dimensional harmonic oscillator eigenstates.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Hardware functional obfuscation with ferroelectric active interconnects

Existing circuit camouflaging techniques to prevent reverse engineering increase circuit-complexity with significant area, energy, and delay penalty. In this paper, we propose an efficient hardware encryption technique with minimal complexity and overheads based on ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET) active interconnects. By utilizing the threshold voltage programmability of the FeFETs, run-time reconfigurable inverter-buffer logic, utilizing two FeFETs and an inverter, is enabled. Judicious placement of the proposed logic makes it act as a hardware encryption key and enable encoding and decoding of the functional output without affecting the critical path timing delay. Additionally, a peripheral programming scheme for reconfigurable logic by reusing the existing scan chain logic is proposed, obviating the need for specialized programming logic and circuitry for keybit distribution. Our analysis shows an average encryption probability of 97.43% with an increase of 2.24%/ 3.67% delay for the most critical path/ sum of 100 critical paths delay for ISCAS85 benchmarks.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2018

A computationally efficient approach for calculating galaxytwo-point correlations

We developed a modification to the calculation of the two-point correlation function commonly used in the analysis of large-scale structure in cosmology. An estimator of the two-point correlation function is constructed by contrasting the observed distribution of galaxies with that of a uniformly populated random catalogue. The assumption that the distribution of random galaxies in redshift is independent of angular position allows us to replace pair-wise combinatorics with fast integration over probability maps. The new method significantly reduces the computation time while simultaneously increasing the precision of the calculation. Also, it only requires cosmological parameters at the last and least computationally expensive stage, which allows for faster exploration of the parameter space.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

A Game-Theoretic Approach to Modeling Attacks and Defenses of Smart Grids at Three Levels

As optimization, user capabilities, and data-taking abilities are incorporated into next-generation power grids, or smart grids, they face cyber threats. The traditional electrical grid could only be damaged by physical attacks; however thesmart grid can suffer remote/cyber attacks, which have not been studied extensively in the literature. The electrical grid forms the backbone of the modern society and its security has significant implications in military settings. This paper applies game theory to model three-levels (power plants, transmission, and distribution networks) of defenses and attacks in smart grid network security. We characterize both the attacker and the defender (who interact at three network levels: distribution, transmission, and power plants) best responses and equilibrium strategies. We find that the defender's best response is not only a function of direct attacks but also of the spread from connected networks. Sensitivity analyses of the equilibrium strategies show that when success probability of an attack against power plantsreaches a threshold, the defender increases defending efforts for power plants. In contrast, the attack eort at all levels is not affected by this probability. This paper provides some novel insights to modeling and analyzing the emerging threats to the growing smart grid networks.

Rao, Nageswara S.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Perpendicular Diffusion of Solar Energetic Particles: Model Results and Implications for Electrons

The processes responsible for the effective longitudinal transport of solar energetic particles (SEPs) are still not completely understood. We address this issue by simulating SEP electron propagation using a spatially 2D transport model that includes perpendicular diffusion. By implementing, as far as possible, the most reasonable estimates of the transport (diffusion) coefficients, we compare our results, in a qualitative manner, to recent observations at energies of 55–105 keV, focusing on the longitudinal distribution of the peak intensity, the maximum anisotropy, and the onset time. By using transport coefficients that are derived from first principles, we limit the number of free parameters in the model to (i) the probability of SEPs following diffusing magnetic field lines, quantified by a∈[0,1], and (ii) the broadness of the Gaussian injection function. It is found that the model solutions are extremely sensitive to the magnitude of the perpendicular diffusion coefficient and relatively insensitive to the form of the injection function as long as a reasonable value of a = 0.2 is used. We illustrate the effects of perpendicular diffusion on the model solutions and discuss the viability of this process as a dominant mechanism by which SEPs are transported in longitude. Lastly, we try to quantity the effectiveness of perpendicular diffusion as an interplay between the magnitude of the relevant diffusion coefficient and the SEP intensity gradient driving the diffusion process. It follows that perpendicular diffusion is extremely effective early in an SEP event when large intensity gradients are present, while the effectiveness quickly decreases with time thereafter.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Thermal Overloading Risk Mitigation With a Semi-Analytical Probabilistic Model on Branch Current

A semi-analytical formulation is presented in this paper for the probability computation of branch current in multiphase systems. The developed formula is derived based on the linear power flow model in rectangular coordinates. The system uncertainty injections can be renewable energy resources or loads and are modeled using a Gaussian mixture model (GMM). The developed formula can be used to compute the line current violation probability as well as integrate into optimal power flow problem as chance-constraint relaxation. Here, the proposed formula is first compared with the Matlab embedded numerical integration function to show its performance. Besides, the semi-analytical formula is validated and compared with the Monte Carlo simulation method using the IEEE 123-bus system, EPRI Ckt5, and Ckt7 systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗