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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 1,045 records · Page 58
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Cooper minima of atoms in a plasma environment

Recent efforts have extended the calculations of photon ionization and associated Cooper minima to atoms in a plasma environment simulated by screening the atomic potential. Furthermore, in this paper previously unrecognized features of bound electron photon excitations in screened atomic potentials are examined. First, the Cooper minima location as a function of photon energy is shown to be weakly dependent on the screening, which is explained by stationary perturbation theory. Second, the screening transfers transition probability from high to low photon energies relative to the isolated atom result.

Cooper minima↗
DOE OSTI2025

A quasi-linear model of electromagnetic turbulent transport and its application to flux-driven transport predictions for STEP

A quasi-linear reduced transport model is developed from a database of high-β electromagnetic nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations performed with spherical tokamak for energy production (STEP) relevant parameters. The quasi-linear model is fully electromagnetic and accounts for the effect of equilibrium flow shear using a novel approach. Its flux predictions are shown to agree quantitatively with predictions from local nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations across a broad range of STEP-relevant local equilibria. This reduced transport model is implemented in the T3D transport solver that is used to perform the first flux-driven simulations for STEP to account for transport from hybrid kinetic ballooning mode turbulence, which dominates over a wide region of the core plasma. Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of the final transport steady state from T3D return turbulent fluxes that are consistent with the reduced model, indicating that the quasi-linear model may also be appropriate for describing the transport steady state. Within the assumption considered here, our simulations support the existence of a transport steady state in STEP with a fusion power comparable to that in the burning flat top of the conceptual design, but do not demonstrate how this state can be accessed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Wave-particle interactions with parallel whistler waves: Nonlinear and time-dependent effects revealed by particle-in-cell simulations

We present a self-consistent Particle-in-Cell simulation of the resonant interactions between anisotropic energetic electrons and a population of whistler waves, with parameters relevant to the Earth's radiation belt. By tracking PIC particles and comparing with test-particle simulations, we emphasize the importance of including nonlinear effects and time evolution in the modeling of wave-particle interactions, which are excluded in the resonant limit of quasi-linear theory routinely used in radiation belt studies. In particular, we show that pitch angle diffusion is enhanced during the linear growth phase, and it rapidly saturates well before a single bounce period. This calls into question the widely used bounce average performed in most radiation belt diffusion calculations. Furthermore, we discuss how the saturation is related to the fact that the domain in which the particles pitch angle diffuses is bounded, and to the well-known problem of 90° diffusion barrier.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Temperature and compression effects on electron heat capacity and electron-phonon coupling in aluminum and beryllium: Insights from ab initio simulations

Ultrafast laser experiments on metals usually induce a high electron temperature and a low ion temperature and, thus, an energy relaxation process. The electron heat capacity and electron-phonon coupling factor are crucial thermal quantities to describe this process. We perform ab initio theoretical studies to determine these thermal quantities and their dependence on density and electron temperature for the metals aluminum and beryllium. The heat capacity shows an approximately linear dependence on the temperature, similar to free electron gas, and the compression only slightly affects the capacity. The electron-phonon coupling factor increases with both temperature and density, and the change observed for beryllium is more obvious than that for aluminum. The connections between thermal quantities and electronic/atomic structures are discussed in detail, and the different behaviors of aluminum and beryllium are well explained.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Breakdown in helium in high-voltage open discharge with subnanosecond current front rise

Investigations of high-voltage open discharge in helium have shown a possibility of generation of current pulses with subnanosecond front rise, due to ultra-fast breakdown development. The open discharge is ignited between two planar cathodes with mesh anode in the middle between them. For gas pressure 6 Torr and 20 kV applied voltage, the rate of current rise reaches 500 A/(cm{sup 2} ns) for current density 200 A/cm{sup 2} and more. The time of breakdown development was measured for different helium pressures and a kinetic model of breakdown in open discharge is presented, based on elementary reactions for electrons, ions and fast atoms. The model also includes various cathode emission processes due to cathode bombardment by ions, fast atoms, electrons and photons of resonant radiation with Doppler shift of frequency. It is shown, that the dominating emission processes depend on the evolution of the discharge voltage during the breakdown. In the simulations, two cases of voltage behavior were considered: (i) the voltage is kept constant during the breakdown; (ii) the voltage is reduced with the growth of current. For the first case, the exponentially growing current is maintained due to photoemission by the resonant photons with Doppler-shifted frequency. For the second case, the dominating factor of current growth is the secondary electron emission. In both cases, the subnanosecond rise of discharge current was obtained. Also the effect of gas pressure on breakdown development was considered. It was found that for 20 Torr gas pressure the time of current rise decreases to 0.1 ns, which is in agreement with experimental data.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Characterization of thermal transport and evolution of Au plasma in ICF experiments by Thomson scattering

Here, this paper demonstrates the capability of optical Thomson scattering (OTS) to measure thermal transport, and provides support to radiation hydrodynamic and kinetic simulations of electron thermal transport and plasma evolution. OTS theory and plasma simulations are applied to the interpretation of experimental measurements of laser-produced plasma from spherical gold targets on the OMEGA laser facility. The dynamical form factor, S($\vec{k}$, ω), of electron density fluctuations that is used in the fitting of Thomson scattering spectra includes ion–ion collisions and effects of non-Maxwellian distribution functions. OTS measurements and their interpretation are consistent with the nonlocal transport model in radiation hydrodynamic simulations as well as with kinetic simulations in the second half of the probe pulse duration. In particular, the reversal of heat transport during cooling is observed to be consistent with simulations, while some discrepancies are noted during the initial heating of the Au targets.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

A hybrid model for simulation of secondary electron emission in plasma immersion ion implantation under different pulse rise time

A hybrid fluid Particle in Cell–Monte Carlo Collision (PiC–MCC) model is presented to study the effect of secondary electron emission on the plasma immersion ion implantation process under different pulse rise time. The model describes the temporal evolution of various parameters of plasma such as ion density, ion velocity, secondary electron density, and secondary electron current for different rise times. A 3D–3 V PiC–MCC model is developed to simulate the secondary electrons which are emitted from the sample surface while the plasma ions and electrons are treated using a 1D fluid model. The simulation results indicate that the secondary electron density and secondary electron current increase as the rise time decreases. The main differences between the results for different rise times are found during the initial phase of the pulse. The results are explained through studying the fundamental parameters of plasma.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Apex Dips of Experimental Flux Ropes: Helix or Cusp?

We present a new theory for the presence of apex dips in certain experimental flux ropes. Previously such dips were thought to be projections of a helical loop axis generated by the kink instability. However, new evidence from experiments and simulations suggest that the feature is a 2D cusp rather than a 3D helix. The proposed mechanism for cusp formation is a density pileup region generated by nonlinear interaction of neutral gas cones emitted from fast-gas nozzles. The results indicate that density perturbations can result in large distortions of an erupting flux rope, even in the absence of significant pressure or gravitational forces. The density pileup at the apex also suppresses the m = 1 kink mode by acting as a stationary node. Consequently, more accurate density profiles should be considered when attempting to model the stability and shape of solar and astrophysical flux ropes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Two-dimensional electromagnetic quantum-hydrodynamic simulations of isochoric heating of a solid target by proton beams

Isochoric heating of an aluminum target by proton beams has been studied with a two-dimensional self-consistent electromagnetic quantum-hydrodynamic model, including the nonlinear quantum effects. It is shown that most protons deposit their energy within several micrometers near the surface, and the aluminum metal target is heated up to several electron volts in tens of Mbar pressure regime within one picosecond. Comparison between electrostatic and electromagnetic cases shows that the strength of electromagnetic field is much smaller than that of the electrostatic field at initial stage but increases more rapidly and becomes larger at later time. The results show that the time evolution of electric field has a significant influence on the interaction of intense beams with a solid target, while the effect of the self-magnetic field is small for non-relativistic beams considered here.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Structure of wave-particle resonances and Alfvén mode saturation

The dynamics of beta-induced Alfvén eigenmodes driven by anisotropic co-passing or counter-passing fast ions, in a low-shear magnetic equilibrium, is investigated by self-consistent hybrid MHD-particle simulations with the XHMGC code. Though the modes exhibit similar structure and frequency in both cases and the linear growth rate is 10% larger for counter-passing ions than for co-passing ions, the nonlinear saturation amplitude is much larger in co-passing case. Moreover, different scalings for the saturation amplitude with increasing growth rates are observed in the two cases. It is shown that these differences are caused by the different radial dependence of resonance frequencies of co-passing and counter-passing fast ions: flat in the former case, steep in the latter case, so that the resonance width is, respectively, larger (in the former case) or smaller (in the latter case) than the mode width.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Energy dynamics and current sheet structure in fluid and kinetic simulations of decaying magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Simulations of decaying magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are performed with a fluid and a kinetic code. The initial condition is an ensemble of long-wavelength, counter-propagating, shear-Alfvén waves, which interact and rapidly generate strong MHD turbulence. The total energy is conserved and the rate of turbulent energy decay is very similar in both codes, although the fluid code has numerical dissipation, whereas the kinetic code has kinetic dissipation. The inertial range power spectrum index is similar in both the codes. The fluid code shows a perpendicular wavenumber spectral slope of k{sub ⊥}{sup −1.3}. The kinetic code shows a spectral slope of k{sub ⊥}{sup −1.5} for smaller simulation domain, and k{sub ⊥}{sup −1.3} for larger domain. We estimate that collisionless damping mechanisms in the kinetic code can account for the dissipation of the observed nonlinear energy cascade. Current sheets are geometrically characterized. Their lengths and widths are in good agreement between the two codes. The length scales linearly with the driving scale of the turbulence. In the fluid code, their thickness is determined by the grid resolution as there is no explicit diffusivity. In the kinetic code, their thickness is very close to the skin-depth, irrespective of the grid resolution. This work shows that kinetic codes can reproduce the MHD inertial range dynamics at large scales, while at the same time capturing important kinetic physics at small scales.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Pink-beam focusing with a one-dimensional compound refractive lens

The performance of a cooled Be compound refractive lens (CRL) has been tested at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) to enable vertical focusing of the pink beam and permit the X-ray beam to spatially overlap with an 80 µm-high low-density plasma that simulates astrophysical environments. Focusing the fundamental harmonics of an insertion device white beam increases the APS power density; here, a power density as high as 500 W mm –2 was calculated. A CRL is chromatic so it does not efficiently focus X-rays whose energies are above the fundamental. Only the fundamental of the undulator focuses at the experiment. A two-chopper system reduces the power density on the imaging system and lens by four orders of magnitude, enabling imaging of the focal plane without any X-ray filter. As a result, a method to measure such high power density as well as the performance of the lens in focusing the pink beam is reported.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Fast-ion transport in quasisymmetric equilibria in the presence of a resonant Alfvénic perturbation

Significant progress has been made in designing magnetic fields that provide excellent confinement of the guiding-centre trajectories of alpha particles using quasisymmetry (QS). Given the reduction in this transport channel, we assess the impact of resonant Alfvén eigenmodes (AEs) on the guiding-centre motion. The AE amplitudes are chosen to be consistent with experimental measurements and large-scale simulations. We evaluate the drift resonance condition, phase-space island width and island overlap criterion for quasisymmetric configurations. Kinetic Poincaré plots elucidate features of the transport, including stiff transport above a critical perturbation amplitude. Our analysis highlights key departures from the AE-driven transport in tokamaks, such as the avoidance of phase-space island overlap in quasihelical configurations and the enhanced transport due to wide phase-space islands in low magnetic shear configurations. In configurations that are closer to QS, with QS deviations $\delta B/B_0 \lesssim 10^{-3}$ , the transport is primarily driven by the AE, while configurations that are further from QS, $\delta B/B_0 \sim 10^{-2}$ , experience significant transport due to the QS-breaking fields in addition to the AE.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

A method for evaluating the mean preheat temperature in X-ray driven ablation

A novel method is proposed for evaluating the mean preheat temperature in X-ray driven ablation, based on the equation of state (EOS) of the ablator and the radiation hydrodynamic simulation. The equation of state of plastic (CH) has been discussed in detail. There are two types of planar CH in simulations, with the thick target being 10 μm thicker than the thin target. The difference between the transmission fluxes of the two types of targets can represent the energy absorbed by the last 10 μm of the thick target (or the preheated layer). This energy approximates the internal energy of the preheated layer. The mean preheat temperature of the preheated layer has also been obtained from simulations. The simulation results show that the relationship between the absorbed energy and the mean preheat temperature is similar to the EOS of CH for different conditions (e.g., different values of M-band fraction and radiation temperature) and can be written as ε=2.530×10{sup 11}T{sup ¯1.444} when the mean preheat temperature is below 12 eV. For these cases, the relationship between the surface preheat temperature T{sub S} and the mean preheat temperature T{sup ¯} was T{sub S}=0.63T{sup ¯}. This relation provides the means for demonstrating the proposed method, because the transmission fluxes and the surface preheat temperature T{sub S} can be measured experimentally.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Kinetic simulations of gas breakdown in the dense plasma focus

We describe the first fully-kinetic, collisional, and electromagnetic simulations of the breakdown phase of a MA-scale dense plasma focus and are shown to agree with measured electrical characteristics, including breakdown time. In the model, avalanche ionization is driven by cathode electron emission and this results in incomplete gas breakdown along the insulator. This reinforces the importance of the conditioning process that creates a metallic layer on the insulator surface. The simulations, nonetheless, help explain the relationship between the gas pressure, the insulator length, and the coaxial gap width. In the past, researchers noted three breakdown patterns related to pressure. Simulation and analytic results show that at low pressures, long ionization path lengths lead to volumetric breakdown, while high pressures lead to breakdown across the relatively small coaxial electrode gap. In an intermediate pressure regime, ionization path lengths are comparable to the insulator length which promotes ideal breakdown along the insulator surface.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Simulation of nonstationary phenomena in atmospheric-pressure glow discharge

Nonstationary processes in atmospheric-pressure glow discharge manifest themselves in spontaneous transitions from the normal glow discharge into a spark. In the experiments, both so-called completed transitions in which a highly conductive constricted channel arises and incomplete transitions accompanied by the formation of a diffuse channel are observed. A model of the positive column of a discharge in air is elaborated that allows one to interpret specific features of the discharge both in the stationary stage and during its transition into a spark and makes it possible to calculate the characteristic oscillatory current waveforms for completed transitions into a spark and aperiodic ones for incomplete transitions. The calculated parameters of the positive column in the glow discharge mode agree well with experiment. Data on the densities of the most abundant species generated in the discharge (such as atomic oxygen, metastable nitrogen molecules, ozone, nitrogen oxides, and negative oxygen ions) are presented.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

A learned closure method applied to phase mixing in a turbulent gradient-driven gyrokinetic system in simple geometry

We present a new method for formulating closures that learn from kinetic simulation data. We apply this method to phase mixing in a simple gyrokinetic turbulent system – temperature-gradient-driven turbulence in an unsheared slab. The closure, called the learned multi-mode (LMM) closure, is constructed by, first, extracting an optimal basis from a nonlinear kinetic simulation using singular value decomposition. Subsequent nonlinear fluid simulations are projected onto this basis and the results are used to formulate the closure. We compare the closure with other closures schemes over a broad range of the relevant two-dimensional parameter space (collisionality and gradient drive). We find that the turbulent kinetic system produces phase-mixing rates much lower than the linear expectations, which the LMM closure is capable of capturing. We also compare radial heat fluxes. A Hammett–Perkins closure, generalized to include collisional effects, is quite successful throughout the parameter space, producing ${\sim }14\,\%$ root-mean-square (r.m.s.) error. The LMM closure is also very effective: when trained at three (two) points (in a 35 point parameter grid), the LMM closure produces $8\,\%$ ( $12\,\%$ ) r.m.s. errors. The LMM procedure can be readily generalized to other closure problems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Ion-temperature- and density-gradient-driven instabilities and turbulence in Wendelstein 7-X close to the stability threshold

Electrostatic gyrokinetic instabilities and turbulence in the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator are studied. Particular attention is paid to the ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) instability and its character close to marginal stability [Floquet-type turbulence (Zocco et al., Phys. Rev. E, vol. 106, 2022, p. L013202) with no electron temperature gradient]. The flux tube version of the δƒ code stella (Barnes et al., J. Comput. Phys., vol. 391, 2019, pp. 365–380) is used to run linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations with kinetic electrons. The nature of the dominant instability depends on the wavelength perpendicular to the magnetic field, and the results are conveniently displayed in stability diagrams that take this dependence into account. This approach highlights the presence of universal instabilities, which are less unstable but have longer wavelengths than other modes. A quasi-linear estimate of the heat flux suggests they are relevant for transport. Close to the stability threshold, the linear eigenmodes and turbulence form highly extended structures along the computational domain if the magnetic shear is small. Numerical experiments and diagnostics are undertaken to assess the resulting radial localisation of the turbulence, which affects the interaction of the latter with zonal flows. Increasing the amplitude of the magnetic shear (e.g.through current drive) has a stabilising effect on the turbulence and, thus, reduces the nonlinear energy transport.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗