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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 937 records · Page 52
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Low Thermal Gradient Czochralski growth of large CdWO{sub 4} crystals and electronic properties of (010) cleaved surface

The crystal growth of large high-quality inclusion-free CdWO4 crystals, 110 mm in diameter and mass up to 20 kg, has been carried out by the Low Thermal Gradient Czochralski (LTG Cz) technique. The high-purity CdWO{sub 4}(010) surface has been prepared by cleavage and high structural quality of the surface has been verified by RHEED, revealing a system of Kikuchi lines. The chemical state and electronic structure of the surface have been studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES). The total and partial densities of states of the CdWO{sub 4} tungstate were calculated employing the first-principles full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. The results indicate that the principal contributors to the valence band of CdWO{sub 4} are the Cd 4d, W 5d and O 2p states which contribute mainly at the bottom, in the central portion and at the top of the valence band, respectively, with also significant contributions of the mentioned states throughout the whole CdWO{sub 4} valence-band region. With respect to the occupation of the O 2p states, the results of the FP-LAPW calculations are confirmed by comparison on a common energy scale of the XPS valence-band spectrum and the XES band representing the energy distribution of the O 2p states in this compound. Additionally, the FP-LAPW data allow us to conclude that the CdWO{sub 4} tungstate is a non-direct semiconductor. - Highlights: • Large high-quality CdWO{sub 4} crystals, up to 115 mm in diameter and mass up to 20 kg, have been grown. • The high-purity cleaved CdWO{sub 4}(010) surface has been studied by the XPS and XES methods. • The principal contributors to the CdWO{sub 4} valence band are the Cd 4d, W 5d and O 2p states.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

An FFT-based micromechanical model for gradient enhanced brittle fracture

Damage models incorporated within FFT-based micromechanical methods have received much attention recently because of the need to better understand and predict brittle and ductile fracture. An important aspect of a damage model is non-local regularization, which removes the mesh dependence of the predictions that otherwise become physically unacceptable upon grid refinement. In this work, the Helmholtz-type equation for non-local gradient regularization of a damage model on a distorted grid is solved using an FFT-based approach. Further, the resulting system of equations is solved using the Jacobi iterative method. The model is applied to simulate brittle fracture of an intermetallic. The influence of the time and space discretization, the length-scale parameter, and intermetallic crystallographic orientation on crack evolution is studied.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Selective capture and recovery of uranium oxide colloids from aqueous soil suspensions using high gradient magnetic filtration

High Gradient Magnetic Filtration (HGMF) is a promising method for the selective capture and recovery of uranium oxide from surface soils. To date, however, magnetic filtration of uranium oxide has only been demonstrated at a proof-of-principle scale using relatively small filters (<5 cm 3 ) at low flowrates (<60 mL/min). Here, to explore the efficacy of magnetic filtration of uranium oxide at a larger scale, a newly designed HGMF apparatus that is more than an order of magnitude larger than our earlier filters (106 cm 3 ) was designed, fabricated, and tested at relatively high flowrates. Filtration experiments were performed using aqueous uranium oxide particle suspensions with Arizona Road Dust (ARD) as a soil simulant. At a flowrate of 125 mL/min, the apparatus’ uranium capture rate was exceptionally high (96 %), but selectivity was poor due to the high rate of capture for diamagnetic soil constituents (e.g., 77 % for silicon). All particles were captured at a lower rate when the flowrate was increased to 250 mL/min, but uranium selectivity was significantly increased due to the more substantial reduction in diamagnetic particle capture (i.e., capture rate of 77 % and 15 % for uranium and silicon, respectively). When backwashing the apparatus at the same flowrates used during filtration experiments, the rate of uranium recovery tended to be fairly low. Nevertheless, higher flowrates (1 L/min) and sonication were both shown to be highly effective methods of increasing uranium recovery. Magnetic field simulations were also performed to investigate potential optimizations to the design of the apparatus. These simulations showed that the intensity of the applied magnetic field could be increased by increasing the thickness of the steel magnetic housing. Additionally, stochastic trajectory simulations were performed to investigate the potential mechanisms of particle capture.

HGMF↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-Nickel Cathodes with Mechanical and Interfacial Robustness via Tailored Concentration Gradients for Stable Li-Ion Batteries

Here, we have developed a versatile mathematical framework integrated with an automated reactor system to design and reify highly customizable full concentration gradient (FCG) in high-nickel cathodes for advanced Li-ion batteries. This method provides precise and independent control of the average composition, slope, and curvature of FCGs, enabling the optimization of structural and mechanical properties of the cathode materials. We have showcased this method with Ni 0.8 Co 0.1 Mn 0.1 (OH) 2 precursors of controlled FCGs, which unlocked an optimized cathode with excellent cycling stability without crack formation after repeated cycles. This work opens up new possibilities for the design and manufacturing of advanced cathode materials, enabling safer, high-performance batteries.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Charge collection kinetics on ferroelectric polymer surface using charge gradient microscopy

Here, a charge gradient microscopy (CGM) probe was used to collect surface screening charges on poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] thin films. These charges are naturally formed on unscreened ferroelectric domains in ambient condition. The CGM data were used to map the local electric current originating from the collected surface charges on the poled ferroelectric domains in the P(VDF-TrFE) thin films. Both the direction and amount of the collected current were controlled by changing the polarity and area of the poled domains. The endurance of charge collection by rubbing the CGM tip on the polymer film was limited to 20 scan cycles, after which the current reduced to almost zero. This degradation was attributed to the increase of the chemical bonding strength between the external screening charges and the polarization charges. Once this degradation mechanism is mitigated, the CGM technique can be applied to efficient energy harvesting devices using polymer ferroelectrics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Linear convergence of accelerated conditional gradient algorithms in spaces of measures

A class of generalized conditional gradient algorithms for the solution of optimization problem in spaces of Radon measures is presented. The method iteratively inserts additional Dirac-delta functions and optimizes the corresponding coefficients. Under general assumptions, a sub-linear [see formula in PDF] rate in the objective functional is obtained, which is sharp in most cases. To improve efficiency, one can fully resolve the finite-dimensional subproblems occurring in each iteration of the method. We provide an analysis for the resulting procedure: under a structural assumption on the optimal solution, a linear [see formula in PDF] convergence rate is obtained locally.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

A circular equilibrium model for local gyrokinetic simulations of ion temperature gradient fluctuations in reversed field pinches

A simple large-aspect-ratio (R{sub 0}/r) circular equilibrium model is developed for low-beta reversed field pinch (RFP) geometry. The model is suitable for treating small scale instability and turbulent transport driven by ion temperature gradient (ITG) and related electron drift modes in gyrokinetic simulations. The equilibrium model is an RFP generalization of the common tokamak s-{alpha} model to small safety factor (q), where the poloidal field dominates the toroidal field. The model accommodates the RFP toroidal field reversal (where q vanishes) by generalizing the cylindrical force-free Bessel function model (BFM) [J. B. Taylor, Phys. Rev. Lett. 33, 1139 (1974)] to toroidal geometry. The global equilibrium can be described in terms of the RFP field reversal and pinch parameters [F,{Theta}]. This new toroidal Bessel function model (TBFM) has been incorporated into the gyrokinetic code GYRO [J. Candy and R. E. Waltz, J.Comput. Phys. 186, 545 (2003)] and used here to explore local electrostatic ITG adiabatic electron instability rates for typical low-q RFP parameters.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Secondary instability of electromagnetic ion-temperature-gradient modes for zonal flow generation

An analytical model for zonal flow generation by toroidal ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) modes, including finite {beta} electromagnetic effects, is derived. The derivation is based on a fluid model for ions and electrons and takes into account both linear and nonlinear {beta} effects. The influence of finite plasma {beta} on the zonal flow growth rate ({gamma}{sub ZF}) scaling is investigated for typical tokamak plasma parameters. The results show the importance of the zonal flows close to marginal stability where {gamma}{sub ZF}/{gamma}{sub ITG} >> 1 is obtained. In this region the parameter {gamma}{sub ZF}/{gamma}{sub ITG} increases with {beta}, indicating that the ITG turbulence and associated transport would decrease with {beta} at a faster rate than expected from a purely linear or quasi-linear analysis.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Laser-Doppler acoustic probing of granular media with in-depth property gradient and varying pore pressures

Non-contacting ultrasonic techniques recently proved to be efficient in the physical modeling of seismic-wave propagation at various application scales, as for instance in the context of geological analogue and seismic modeling. An innovative experimental set-up is proposed here to perform laser-Doppler acoustic probing of unconsolidated granular media with varying pore pressures. The preliminary experiments presented here provide reproducible results and exploitable data, thus validating both the proposed medium preparation and pressure gradient generation procedure.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2012

Electron geodesic acoustic modes in electron temperature gradient mode turbulence

In this work, the first demonstration of an electron branch of the geodesic acoustic mode (el-GAM) driven by electron temperature gradient (ETG) modes is presented. The work is based on a fluid description of the ETG mode retaining non-adiabatic ions and the dispersion relation for el-GAMs driven nonlinearly by ETG modes is derived. A new saturation mechanism for ETG turbulence through the interaction with el-GAMs is found, resulting in a significantly enhanced ETG turbulence saturation level compared to the mixing length estimate.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Non-linear saturation mechanism of electron temperature gradient modes

The electron temperature gradient (ETG) mode is a very plausible candidate to explain the large electron particle transport and thermal conduction. Production and identification of slab ETG modes and measurement electron transport have been already reported [X. Wei, V. Sokolov, and A. K. Sen, Phys. Plasmas 17, 042108 (2010); V. Sokolov and A. K. Sen, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2011)]. Now, we develop a theoretical model of non-linear saturation mechanism of ETG mode based on the three wave coupling of an unstable high frequency ETG mode with a damped ETG radial harmonic and a damped ion acoustic (IA) mode. Bicoherence analysis of Columbia linear machine (CLM) data show coupling between ETG modes ({approx}2.4 MHz) and a low frequency mode ({approx}50 kHz). The large damping drive of the ETG radial harmonic accompanied by the smaller but finite damping of the IA mode presents an energy sink for the unstable ETG mode, thus causing saturation. This model predicts a saturation level of {approx}10% and agrees with the observed levels of ETG modes in the CLM.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Kinetic water-bag model of global collisional drift waves and ion temperature gradient instabilities in cylindrical geometry

Collisional drift waves and ion temperature gradient (ITG) instabilities are studied using a linear water-bag kinetic model [P. Morel et al., Phys. Plasmas 14, 112109 (2007)]. An efficient spectral method, already validated in the case of drift waves instabilities [E. Gravier et al., Eur. Phys. J. D 67, 7 (2013)], allows a fast solving of the global linear problem in cylindrical geometry. The comparison between the linear ITG instability properties thus computed and the ones given by the COLUMBIA experiment [R. G. Greaves et al., Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 34, 1253 (1992)] shows a qualitative agreement. Moreover, the transition between collisional drift waves and ITG instabilities is studied theoretically as a function of the ion temperature profile.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Linear and nonlinear dynamics of electron temperature gradient mode in non-Maxwellian plasmas

The effect of non-Maxwellian distributed ions on electron temperature gradient mode is investigated. The linear dispersion relation of η{sub e}−mode is obtained which shows that the behavior of this mode changes in the presence of superthermal ions. The growth rate of η{sub e}−mode driven linear instability is found and is observed to modify due to nonthermal ions. However, it is found that this leaves the electron energy transport coefficient unchanged. In the nonlinear regime, a dipolar vortex solution is derived which indicates that the dynamic behavior of the vortices changes with the inclusion of kappa distributed ions. The importance of present study with respect to space and laboratory plasmas is also pointed out.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Multi-water-bag models of ion temperature gradient instability in cylindrical geometry

Ion temperature gradient instabilities play a major role in the understanding of anomalous transport in core fusion plasmas. In the considered cylindrical geometry, ion dynamics is described using a drift-kinetic multi-water-bag model for the parallel velocity dependency of the ion distribution function. In a first stage, global linear stability analysis is performed. From the obtained normal modes, parametric dependencies of the main spectral characteristics of the instability are then examined. Comparison of the multi-water-bag results with a reference continuous Maxwellian case allows us to evaluate the effects of discrete parallel velocity sampling induced by the Multi-Water-Bag model. Differences between the global model and local models considered in previous works are discussed. Using results from linear, quasilinear, and nonlinear numerical simulations, an analysis of the first stage saturation dynamics of the instability is proposed, where the divergence between the three models is examined.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

A reduced model for ion temperature gradient turbulent transport in helical plasmas

A novel reduced model for ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulent transport in helical plasmas is presented. The model enables one to predict nonlinear gyrokinetic simulation results from linear gyrokinetic analyses. It is shown from nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of the ITG turbulence in helical plasmas that the transport coefficient can be expressed as a function of the turbulent fluctuation level and the averaged zonal flow amplitude. Then, the reduced model for the turbulent ion heat diffusivity is derived by representing the nonlinear turbulent fluctuations and zonal flow amplitude in terms of the linear growth rate of the ITG instability and the linear response of the zonal flow potentials. It is confirmed that the reduced transport model is in a good agreement with nonlinear gyrokinetic simulation results for high ion temperature plasmas in the large helical device.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Turbulent electron transport in edge pedestal by electron temperature gradient turbulence

We present a model for turbulent electron thermal transport at the edge pedestal in high (H)-mode plasmas based on electron temperature gradient (ETG) turbulence. A quasi-linear analysis of electrostatic toroidal ETG modes shows that both turbulent electron thermal diffusivity and hyper-resistivity exhibits the Ohkawa scaling in which the radial correlation length of turbulence becomes the order of electron skin depth. Combination of the Ohkawa scales and the plasma current dependence results in a novel confinement scaling inside the pedestal region. It is also shown that ETG turbulence induces a thermoelectric pinch, which may accelerate the density pedestal formation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Momentum transport in the vicinity of q{sub min} in reverse shear tokamaks due to ion temperature gradient turbulence

We present an analytic study of momentum transport of tokamak plasmas in the vicinity of minimum safety factor (q) position in reversed magnetic shear configuration. Slab ion temperature gradient modes with an equilibrium flow profile are considered in this study. Quasi-linear calculations of momentum flux clearly show the novel effects of q-curvature on the generation of intrinsic rotation and mean poloidal flow without invoking reflectional symmetry breaking of parallel wavenumber (k{sub ∥}). This q-curvature effect originates from the inherent asymmetry in k{sub ∥} populations with respect to a rational surface due to the quadratic proportionality of k{sub ∥} when q-curvature is taken into account. Discussions are made of possible implications of q-curvature induced plasma flows on internal transport barrier formation in reversed shear tokamaks.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Opacity and gradients in aluminum wire array z-pinch implosions on the Z pulsed power facility

Aluminum wire array z pinches imploded on the Z generator are an extremely bright source of 1–2 keV radiation, with close to 400 kJ radiated at photon energies >1 keV and more than 50 kJ radiated in a single line (Al Ly-α). Opacity plays a critical role in the dynamics and K-shell radiation efficiency of these pinches. Where significant structure is present in the stagnated pinch this acts to reduce the effective opacity of the system as demonstrated by direct analysis of spectra. Analysis of time-integrated broadband spectra (0.8–25 keV) indicates electron temperatures ranging from a few 100 eV to a few keV are present, indicative of substantial temperature gradients.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗