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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 109 records · Page 6

Influence of strong Coulomb coupling on diffusion in atmospheric pressure plasmas

Ion diffusion in atmospheric pressure plasmas is examined and particular attention is paid to the fact that ion–ion interactions can be influenced by strong Coulomb coupling. Three regimes are identified. At low ionization fractions (x i ≲ 10 —6 ), standard weakly correlated ion-neutral interactions set the diffusion rate. At moderate ionization fractions (10 —6 ≲ x i ≲ 10 —2 ) there is a transition from ion-neutral to ion–ion collisions setting the diffusion rate. In this regime, the effect of strong Coulomb coupling in ion–ion collisions is accounted for by applying the mean force kinetic theory. Since both ion-neutral and ion–ion interactions contribute a comparable amount to the total diffusion rate, models (such as particle-in-cell or fluid) must account for both contributions. At high ionization fractions (x i ≳ 10 —2 ), strongly correlated ion–ion collisions dominate and the plasma is heated substantially by a disorder-induced heating (DIH) process associated with strong correlations. The temperature increase due to DIH strongly influences the ion diffusion rate. This effect becomes even more important, and occurs at lower ionization fractions, as the pressure increases above atmospheric pressure. In addition to ion diffusion, DIH affects the neutral gas temperature, therefore influencing the neutral diffusion rate. Model predictions are tested using molecular dynamics simulations, which included a Monte Carlo collision routine to simulate the effect of ion-neutral collisions at the lowest ionization fractions. The model and simulations show good agreement over a broad range of ionization fractions. Importantly, the results provide a model for ion diffusion, on a wide range of ionization fractions and pressures, solely considering the elastic contribution to the diffusion coefficient—as an illustration of how strong Coulomb coupling influences diffusion processes in general.

fast neutral gas heating↗

Acclimation of Phytoplankton Fe:C Ratios Dampens the Biogeochemical Response to Varying Atmospheric Deposition of Soluble Iron

Abstract Dissolved iron (dFe) plays an important role in regulating marine productivity. In high nutrient, low chlorophyll regions (>33% of the global ocean), iron is the primary growth limiting nutrient, and elsewhere iron can regulate nitrogen fixation by diazotrophs. The link between iron availability and carbon export is strongly dependent on the phytoplankton iron quotas or cellular Fe:C ratios. This ratio varies by more than an order of magnitude in the open ocean and is positively correlated with ambient dFe concentrations in field observations. Representing Fe:C ratios within models is necessary to investigate how ocean carbon cycling will interact with perturbations to iron cycling in a changing climate. The Community Earth System Model ocean component was modified to simulate dynamic, group‐specific, phytoplankton Fe:C that varies as a function of ambient iron concentration. The simulated Fe:C ratios improve the representation of the spatial trends in the observed Fe:C ratios. The acclimation of phytoplankton Fe:C ratios dampens the biogeochemical response to varying atmospheric deposition of soluble iron, compared to a fixed Fe:C ratio. However, varying atmospheric soluble iron supply has first order impacts on global carbon and nitrogen fluxes and on nutrient limitation spatial patterns. Our results suggest that pyrogenic Fe is a significant dFe source that rivals mineral dust inputs in some regions. Changes in dust flux and iron combustion sources (anthropogenic and wildfires) will modify atmospheric Fe inputs in the future. Accounting for dynamic phytoplankton iron quotas is critical for understanding ocean biogeochemistry and projecting its response to variations in atmospheric deposition.

Environmental Sciences & Ecology↗

Fingerprint of rice paddies in spatial–temporal dynamics of atmospheric methane concentration in monsoon Asia

Agriculture (e.g., rice paddies) has been considered one of the main emission sources responsible for the sudden rise of atmospheric methane concentration (XCH 4 ) since 2007, but remains debated. Here we use satellite-based rice paddy and XCH 4 data to investigate the spatial-temporal relationships between rice paddy area, rice plant growth, and XCH 4 in monsoon Asia, which accounts for ~87% of the global rice area. We find strong spatial consistencies between rice paddy area and XCH 4 and seasonal consistencies between rice plant growth and XCH 4 . Our results also show a decreasing trend in rice paddy area in monsoon Asia since 2007, which suggests that the change in rice paddy area could not be one of the major drivers for the renewed XCH 4 growth, thus other sources and sinks should be further investigated. Our findings highlight the importance of satellite-based paddy rice datasets in understanding the spatial-temporal dynamics of XCH 4 in monsoon Asia.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Observed declines in upper ocean phosphate-to-nitrate availability

Climate warming is increasing ocean stratification, which in turn should decrease the nutrient flux to the upper ocean. This may slow marine primary productivity, causing cascading effects throughout food webs. However, observing changes in upper ocean nutrients is challenging because surface concentrations are often below detection limits. We show that the nutricline depth, where nutrient concentrations reach well-detected levels, is tied to productivity and upper ocean nutrient availability. Next, we quantify nutricline depths from a global database of observed vertical nitrate and phosphate profiles to assess contemporary trends in global nutrient availability (1972–2022). We find strong evidence that the P-nutricline (phosphacline) is mostly deepening, especially throughout the southern hemisphere, but the N-nutricline (nitracline) remains mostly stable. Earth System Model (ESM) simulations support the hypothesis that reduced iron stress and increased nitrogen fixation buffer the nitracline, but not phosphacline, against increasing stratification. These contemporary trends are expected to continue in the coming decades, leading to increasing phosphorus but not nitrogen stress for marine phytoplankton, with important ramifications for ocean biogeochemistry and food web dynamics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

2020 State of the Science Report, Chapter 8: Encounters of Marine Animals with Marine Renewable Energy Device Mooring Systems and Subsea Cables

Many marine renewable energy (MRE) technologies, including floating or midwater wave and tidal devices, require mooring systems (i.e., mooring lines and anchors) to maintain their position within the water column or on the sea surface. In the case of some devices such as tidal kites, these lines and cables can be highly dynamic. An array of non-bottom-mounted devices may also include transmission cables within the water column interconnecting devices to one another, or to offshore substations or hubs on the seabed. The potential for these lines and cables to present hazards for marine animals that may become entangled or entrapped in them, or confused by their presence remains an issue of uncertainty. The degree to which mitigation to avoid or reduce entanglement risk might be required for future MRE installations is yet to be determined, pending greater understanding of the actual nature of the risk. In this chapter, the entanglement or entrapment of a marine animal is defined as the cause to become caught in a system without possibility of escaping. https://tethys.pnnl.gov/publications/state-of-the-science-2020-chapter-8-moorings

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

Lattice B -field correlators for heavy quarks

We analyze the color-magnetic (or “ B ”) field two-point function that encodes the finite-mass correction to the heavy-quark momentum-diffusion coefficient. The simulations are done on fine isotropic lattices in the quenched approximation at 1.5 T c , using a range of gradient flow times for noise suppression and operator renormalization. The continuum extrapolation is performed at fixed flow time followed by a second extrapolation to zero flow time. Perturbative calculations to next-to-leading order of this correlation function, matching gradient-flowed correlators to MS ¯ , are used to resolve nontrivial renormalization issues. We perform a spectral reconstruction based on perturbative model fits to estimate the coefficient κ B of the finite-mass correction to the heavy-quark momentum-diffusion coefficient. The approach we present here yields high-precision data for the correlator with all renormalization issues incorporated at next-to-leading order and is also applicable for actions with dynamical fermions. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Evolution of a plant gene cluster in Solanaceae and emergence of metabolic diversity

Plants produce phylogenetically and spatially restricted, as well as structurally diverse specialized metabolites via multistep metabolic pathways. Hallmarks of specialized metabolic evolution include enzymatic promiscuity and recruitment of primary metabolic enzymes and examples of genomic clustering of pathway genes. Solanaceae glandular trichomes produce defensive acylsugars, with sidechains that vary in length across the family. We describe a tomato gene cluster on chromosome 7 involved in medium chain acylsugar accumulation due to trichome specific acyl-CoA synthetase and enoyl-CoA hydratase genes. This cluster co-localizes with a tomato steroidal alkaloid gene cluster and is syntenic to a chromosome 12 region containing another acylsugar pathway gene. We reconstructed the evolutionary events leading to this gene cluster and found that its phylogenetic distribution correlates with medium chain acylsugar accumulation across the Solanaceae. This work reveals insights into the dynamics behind gene cluster evolution and cell-type specific metabolite diversity.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Thermal properties of the metallic delafossite PdCo⁢O 2 : A combined experimental and first-principles study

Metallic delafossite materials (e.g., PdCo⁢O 2 , PtCo⁢O 2 ), have attracted much recent attention due to record-high oxide conductivities, the origins of which remain unclear. Relatively little attention has been paid to their related thermal properties, however. Here, we address this via wide temperature range experimental studies of the crystal structure, thermal expansion, and specific heat of single-crystal PdCo⁢O 2 , combined with density-functional theory (DFT) calculations of the electronic and phononic densities of states, and thus thermal properties. PdCo⁢O 2 is shown to retain the $R\bar{3}m$ space group from 12 to 1000 K, exhibiting a- and c-axis thermal expansion in good quantitative agreement with DFT-based lattice dynamics calculations. The Co-O bond lengths additionally elucidate the stability of the low-spin state of the nominally Co 3+ ions, which is a notable difference between the edge-shared Co-O octahedra in PdCo⁢O 2 and the corner-shared octahedra in Co-based perovskites. Measurements of specific heat from 1.9 to 400 K provide accurate values for the Debye temperature and Sommerfeld coefficient, the phononic part being describable via a combined Debye-Einstein approach (accounting for high-frequency oxygen-related optical phonons), with excess intermediate-temperature specific heat due to a prominent low-energy peak in the phonon density of states. Most significantly, all electronic and phononic contributions to the specific heat are shown to be remarkably closely reproduced by DFT-based calculations, establishing quantitative understanding of key thermal properties of the metallic delafossite PdCo⁢O 2 .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A velocity space hybridization-based Boltzmann equation solver

In the present research, a new method for simulation of rarefied gas flows is proposed, a velocity-space hybrid of both a DSMC representation of particles and a discrete velocity quasi-particle representation of the distribution function. The hybridization scheme is discussed in detail, and is numerically verified for two test-cases: the BKW relaxation problem and a stationary Maxwellian distribution. It is demonstrated that such a velocity-space hybridization can provide computational benefits when compared to a pure discrete velocity method or pure DSMC approach, while retaining some of the more attractive properties of discrete velocity methods. Further possible improvements to the velocity-space hybrid approach are discussed.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Hedging direct simulation Monte Carlo bets via event splitting

We propose a new scheme for simulation of collisions with multiple possible outcomes in variable-weight DSMC computations. The scheme is applied to a 0-D ionization rate coefficient computation, and 1-D electrical breakdown simulation. We show that the scheme offers a significant (up to an order of magnitude) improvement in the level of stochastic noise over the usual acceptance-rejection algorithm, even when controlling for the slight additional computational costs. Furthermore, the benefits and performance of the scheme are analyzed in detail, and possible extensions are proposed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Hydrodynamic characterization of the coastal pioneer array ocean observing system

Ocean observation buoys require relatively small amounts of power, yet traditionally necessitate costly resupply trips for battery replacement. With the offshore location of the buoys and small power requirements, wave energy may be an effective solution for providing consistent and reliable power to support the buoy instrumentation. The US National Science Foundation Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) includes arrays of point absorber-like buoy systems used for ocean observation that have been deployed at multiple locations including the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight. A study is currently underway to design a pitch resonator wave energy converter to supplement existing renewable energy generation for powering observation instrumentation. This paper details field measurements from surface moorings of the OOI Coastal Pioneer Array, which informs the subsequent development of a numerical model for the moored observation system. The model is developed in Wave Energy Converter Simulator (WEC-Sim), which leverages the Simscape multibody solver within the MATLAB/Simulink framework and linear potential flow theory to simulate the hydrodynamic interactions and multibody dynamics in 6 degrees of freedom. Multiple tuning variables are considered to produce a model for the system that matches well with empirical data (about 8% error). In conclusion, the WEC-Sim model will serve as a platform for integrating the pitch resonator wave energy converter concept and deployment preparation (detailed design including power take-off and control systems, response evaluation, etc.).

hydrodynamic modeling↗

Flyby reaction trajectories: Chemical dynamics under extrinsic force

Dynamic effects are an important determinant of chemical reactivity and selectivity, but the deliberate manipulation of atomic motions during a chemical transformation is not straightforward. In this work, we demonstrate that extrinsic force exerted upon cyclobutanes by stretching pendant polymer chains influences product selectivity through force-imparted nonstatistical dynamic effects on the stepwise ring-opening reaction. The high product stereoselectivity is quantified by carbon-13 labeling and shown to depend on external force, reactant stereochemistry, and intermediate stability. Computational modeling and simulations show that, besides altering energy barriers, the mechanical force activates reactive intramolecular motions nonstatistically, setting up “flyby trajectories” that advance directly to product without isomerization excursions. A mechanistic model incorporating nonstatistical dynamic effects accounts for isomer-dependent mechanochemical stereoselectivity.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Assessing the impacts of wakes on floating wind farms with shared anchors

This paper examines wake effects for floating wind farms with shared anchors. Three 20-turbine farms are examined: a grid-formation baseline with no shared anchors, a farm based on 3-line anchors, and a farm based on 6-line anchors, governed by a wind turbine spacing of 8 rotor diameters. The IEA 15 MW reference turbine on the UMaine semisubmersible platform was used with a taut mooring system in deep- water depths representative of U.S. west coast lease areas. A steady-state wake model showed that, when evaluating a sweep of wind headings, the baseline design had the lowest wake losses, with a value of 11.7 %, followed by the 6-line at 12.9% and the 3-line at 13.8%. Dynamic simulations were run in FAST.Farm to analyse the effects of wakes on mean anchor loads for wind headings that showed significant wake losses. The baseline farm showed the largest anchor load reductions due to wake effects (up to 16%), followed by the 3-line farm (up to 8%), and the 6-line farm, which showed relatively consistent load magnitudes on the 6-line anchors across all headings.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Cabana: A Performance Portable Library for Particle-Based Simulations

Particle-based simulations are ubiquitous throughout many fields of computational science and engineering, spanning the atomistic level with molecular dynamics (MD), to mesoscale particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations for solid mechanics, device-scale modeling with PIC methods for plasma physics, and massive N-body cosmology simulations of galaxy structures, with many other methods in between (Hockney & Eastwood, 1989). While these methods use particles to represent significantly different entities with completely different physical models, many low-level details are shared including performant algorithms for short- and/or long-range particle interactions, multi-node particle communication patterns, and other data management tasks such as particle sorting and neighbor list construction. Cabana is a performance portable library for particle-based simulations, developed as part of the Co-Design Center for Particle Applications (CoPA) within the Exascale Computing Project (ECP) (Alexander et al., 2020). The CoPA project and its full development scope, including ECP partner applications, algorithm development, and similar software libraries for quantum MD, is described in (Mniszewski et al., 2021). Cabana uses the Kokkos library for on-node parallelism (Edwards et al., 2014; Trott et al., 2022), enabling simulation on multi-core CPU and GPU architectures, and MPI for GPU-aware, multi-node communication. Cabana provides particle simulation capabilities on almost all current Kokkos backends, including serial execution, OpenMP (including OpenMP-Target for GPUs), CUDA (NVIDIA GPUs), HIP (AMD GPUs), and SYCL (Intel GPUs), providing a clear path for the coming generation of accelerator-based exascale hardware. Cabana builds on Kokkos by providing new particle data structures and particle algorithms resulting in a similar execution policy-based, node-level programming model that is intended to be used in addition to the core Kokkos library within an application. Cabana is designed as an application and physics agnostic, but particle-specific toolkit which can either be used to generate a new application, or to be used as needed in existing applications at various levels of invasiveness including through interfaces that wrap user memory in existing data structures.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Propagation Pattern for Moment Representation of the Lattice Boltzmann Method

A propagation pattern for the moment representation of the regularized lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) in three dimensions is presented. Using effectively lossless compression, the simulation state is stored as a set of moments of the lattice Boltzmann distribution function, instead of the distribution function itself. An efficient cache-aware propagation pattern for this moment representation has the effect of substantially reducing both the storage and memory bandwidth required for LBM simulations. This article extends recent work with the moment representation by expanding the performance analysis on central processing unit (CPU) architectures, considering how boundary conditions are implemented, and demonstrating the effectiveness of the moment representation on a graphics processing unit (GPU) architecture.

42 ENGINEERING↗