SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Acceleration methods”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,153 records · Page 64

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2026

Optical stochastic cooling at Fermilab’s IOTA ring

Stochastic cooling (SC) constitutes one of the greatest conceptual and technological achievements in particle beam cooling. Numerous SC systems have been built in the microwave regime and used to extend the science reach of accelerator facilities worldwide. The ability to sense and correct the particle ensemble using high-bandwidth feedback systems is at the core of the concept. Here, we describe the first realization of SC at optical frequencies and bandwidths. The demonstration was recently carried out at Fermilab’s integrable optics test accelerator (IOTA) storage ring using the transit-time method of optical stochastic cooling (OSC) and achieved an integrated system bandwidth of approximately 20 THz, which is more than 2000 times that of conventional SC systems. This demonstration establishes the foundation for more advanced OSC experiments with high-gain amplification, currently underway at Fermilab, and the eventual application of OSC to colliders and other accelerator facilities.

Jarvis, Jonathan D. [Fermilab]↗

DOE OSTI2020

Mitigation of space charge effects using electron column at IOTA ring

We investigate a novel method to mitigate space charge effects of high intensity proton beams propagating in circular accelerators by means of trapping and controlling electrons generated from beam-induced residual gas ionization. This compensation method uses Coulomb repulsion force between a proton beam and electrons to mitigate self-space charge effects of the beam if it passes through a plasma column. The transverse electron-proton (e-p) instability in the plasma column is well controlled by the longitudinal magnetic field of a solenoid magnet and the bias voltages on electrodes. In this report, we will show simulation results how to control distributions of electrons and ions as well as that of the proton beam inside the column.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Monte Carlo MP2-F12 for Noncovalent Interactions: The C 60 Dimer

A scalable stochastic algorithm is presented that can evaluate explicitly correlated (F12) second-order many-body perturbation (MP2) energies of weak, noncovalent, intermolecular interactions. It first transforms the formulas of the MP2 and F12 energy differences into a short sum of high-dimensional integrals of Green’s functions in real space and imaginary time. Furthermore, these integrals are then evaluated by the Monte Carlo method augmented by parallel execution, redundant-walker convergence acceleration, direct-sampling autocorrelation elimination, and control-variate error reduction. By sharing electron-pair walkers across the supermolecule and its subsystems spanned by the joint basis set, the statistical uncertainty is reduced by one to 2 orders of magnitude in the MP2 binding energy corrected for the basis-set incompleteness and superposition errors. The method predicts the MP2-F12/aug-cc-pVDZ binding energy of 19.1 ± 4.0 kcal mol –1 for the C 60 dimer at the center distance of 9.748 Å.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2022

Results of the first implementation of RF phase signature matching at LANSCE

The LINAC at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) has been utilizing the Delta-t method to match the RF cavities to the design acceleration parameters since its commissioning in 1972. The differences in time-of-flight between two subsequent Beam Position and Phase Monitors (BPPMs) are measured with both accelerated and drifting beams, depending on the whether the module is set to on or off. The algorithm optimizes the module amplitude and phase via iterative measurements if the initial phase is in the vicinity of the design value. With an upgrade to a faster readout system, a scan over the whole RF cavity phase range requires relatively less time than the classical optimization procedure. The Phase Scan Signature Matching (PSSM) method provides a time-efficient method that ensures the phase selection lands on the bunching side and empowers future analyses to build module-specific models. The PSSM also utilizes a direct model to determine the correct amplitude to sub-percent level instead of using linearized matrices. Furthermore, lacking a reliable energy measurement method in the LINAC, we measure the beam phases at two downstream locations to increase the precision of energy measurements. In this letter, we also discuss the sensitivities of PSSM, error propagation, and the implementation results for the 2019 and 2020 beam cycles.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2024

Novel Carbon Storage Monitoring Methods

Conference presentation at American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, October 27–31, 2024. We presented a high-level overview of many novel and sustainable carbon storage monitoring methods that are at various stages of planning or demonstration to accelerate the deployment of CCS technologies at future CCS sites across the United States. Our work impacts the general CCS industry by providing novel and more sustainable methods for tracking CO 2 plume migration and performing assurance monitoring. Our work primarily benefits three parties: 1) CCS community members through knowledge sharing of lessons learned; 2) CCS operators through commercialization of additional methods, including improvements on workflows and simplification of fieldwork; and 3) stakeholders of CCS projects through implementation of low-impact and more autonomous monitoring solutions.

02 PETROLEUM↗

NASA NTRS1985

A finite volume method for the calculation of compressible chemically reacting flows

Several efficient pseudo time techniques have been developed for calculating steady state chemically reacting flows. The techniques include the implicit treatment of the chemical source term, point implicit multiple grid accelerator and a constant CFL condition. It turns out that these methods can be viewed as ways of rescaling the equations in time such that all chemical and convective phenomena evolve at comparable pseudo time scales. Consequently the number of iterations needed to solve reacting problems is approximately the same as for non-reacting problems. The techniques are demonstrated for a simple dissociation model and a nontrivial H2 - Air combustion model.

Bussing, T. R. A.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Enhanced reduction of velocity data obtained during CETA flight experiment

A newly developed technique for enhanced data reduction provides an improved procedure that allows least squares minimization to become possible between data sets with an unequal number of data points. This technique was applied in the Crew and Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) experiment on the STS-37 Shuttle flight in April 1991 to obtain the velocity profile from the acceleration data. The new technique uses a least-squares method to estimate the initial conditions and calibration constants. These initial conditions are estimated by least-squares fitting the displacements indicated by the Hall-effect sensor data to the corresponding displacements obtained from integrating the acceleration data. The velocity and displacement profiles can then be recalculated from the corresponding acceleration data using the estimated parameters. This technique, which enables instantaneous velocities to be obtained from the test data instead of only average velocities at varying discrete times, offers more detailed velocity information, particularly during periods of large acceleration or deceleration.

Finley, Tom D.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Enhanced data reduction of the velocity data on CETA flight experiment

Finley, Tom D.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Unstructured multigrid methods for the compressible Euler equations

A two-step explicit finite element based solution procedure for the compressible Euler equations is described. Convergence to steady state can be accelerated by using a multigrid technique. The geometric flexibility of the finite element method is retained by using a sequence of unnested grids. The viability of this approach is demonstrated for elliptic problems and initial experiences with the technique applied to the Euler equations are reported.

Loehner, R.↗

DOE OSTI2019

Genetic algorithms for computational materials discovery accelerated by machine learning

Materials discovery is increasingly being impelled by machine learning methods that rely on pre-existing datasets. Where datasets are lacking, unbiased data generation can be achieved with genetic algorithms. Here a machine learning model is trained on-the-fly as a computationally inexpensive energy predictor before analyzing how to augment convergence in genetic algorithm-based approaches by using the model as a surrogate. This leads to a machine learning accelerated genetic algorithm combining robust qualities of the genetic algorithm with rapid machine learning. The approach is used to search for stable, compositionally variant, geometrically similar nanoparticle alloys to illustrate its capability for accelerated materials discovery, e.g., nanoalloy catalysts. The machine learning accelerated approach, in this case, yields a 50-fold reduction in the number of required energy calculations compared to a traditional “brute force” genetic algorithm. This makes searching through the space of all homotops and compositions of a binary alloy particle in a given structure feasible, using density functional theory calculations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS2011

Fast Simulations of Gas Sloshing and Cold Front Formation

We present a simplified and fast method for simulating minor mergers between galaxy clusters. Instead of following the evolution of the dark matter halos directly by the N-body method, we employ a rigid potential approximation for both clusters. The simulations are run in the rest frame of the more massive cluster and account for the resulting inertial accelerations in an optimised way. We test the reliability of this method for studies of minor merger induced gas sloshing by performing a one-to-one comparison between our simulations and hydro+N-body ones. We find that the rigid potential approximation reproduces the sloshing-related features well except for two artefacts: the temperature just outside the cold fronts is slightly over-predicted, and the outward motion of the cold fronts is delayed by typically 200 Myr. We discuss reasons for both artefacts.

Roediger, E.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Fast Simulations of Gas Sloshing and Cold Front Formation

We present a simplified and fast method for simulating minor mergers between galaxy clusters. Instead of following the evolution of the dark matter halos directly by the N-body method, we employ a rigid potential approximation for both clusters. The simulations are run in the rest frame of the more massive cluster and account for the resulting inertial accelerations in an optimised way. We test the reliability of this method for studies of minor merger induced gas sloshing by performing a one-to-one comparison between our simulations and hydro+N-body ones. We find that the rigid potential approximation reproduces the sloshing-related features well except for two artifacts: the temperature just outside the cold fronts is slightly over-predicted, and the outward motion of the cold fronts is delayed by typically 200 Myr. We discuss reasons for both artifacts.

Roediger, E.↗

DOE OSTI2018

Multiscale two-stage solver for Biot’s poroelasticity equations in subsurface media

In this paper, we propose a two-stage preconditioner for accelerating the iterative solution by a Krylov subspace method of Biot’s poroelasticity equations based on a displacement-pressure formulation. The spatial discretization combines a finite element method for mechanics and a finite volume approach for flow. The fully implicit backward Euler scheme is used for time integration. The result is a 2 × 2 block linear system for each timestep. The preconditioning operator is obtained by applying a two-stage scheme. The first stage is a global preconditioner that employs multiscale basis functions to construct coarse-scale coupled systems using a Galerkin projection. This global stage is effective at damping low-frequency error modes associated with long-range coupling of the unknowns. The second stage is a local block-triangular smoothing preconditioner, which is aimed at high-frequency error modes associated with short-range coupling of the variables. Lastly, various numerical experiments are used to demonstrate the robustness of the proposed solver.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Inorganic resins enable the increased purification efficiency of 82 Sr from rubidium targets for use in PET imaging isotope production

The 82 Sr/ 82 Rb generator system has found use in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of myocardial perfusion. 82 Sr is produced by proton irradiation of Rb metal/RbCl salt followed by chemical separation. Inorganic ion-exchangers were synthesized by hydrothermal methods and evaluated for the purification of accelerator-produced 82Sr from a RbCl target and co-produced impurities like 75 Se, Fe, Cr, and Ni. A process consisting of removal of bulk RbCl using sodium nonatitanate (SNT), then removal of remaining tracers of Rb and Se using poorly crystalline silicotitanate (pCST) is suitable for 82 Sr separation and achieves higher purity of 82 Sr vs. commonly used organic resins.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Microbial spies and bloggers: programming cells to convert environmental information into discernible signals

Microbes regulate their dynamic behaviors using the chemical and physical characteristics of their environment. The ability of microbes to continuously convert this physicochemical information into biochemical information and to use organic matter in the environment as a power source makes these organisms attractive as chassis for building sensors. However, most biosensors have severe limitations when considering applications in hard-to-image settings like soils, sediments, and wastewater. Emerging technologies at the interface of biomolecular design, microbiome engineering, and synthetic biology offer new tools to program cells and communities as biosensors for these settings. Here, in this review, we describe innovations in biosensor outputs that are enabling new applications in complex environments, including reporters that are read out using electrochemical, gas chromatography, hyperspectral imaging, and next-generation sequencing methods. We also discuss computational advances that are accelerating the diversification of sensing components by mining metagenomics data for new transcriptional regulators and by designing allosteric protein switches that directly regulate reporter outputs using analytes. We highlight emerging opportunities for programming undomesticated microbes in communities to function as distributed sensors in the environment. Finally, we discuss the need for responsible biosensor development and to modernize regulatory frameworks to support evidence-based assessment of environmental biosensors.

analyte↗

DOE OSTI2019

Comparative life cycle analysis for value recovery of precious metals and rare earth elements from electronic waste

There is an ever-increasing concern regarding the electronic waste (e-waste), which is the fastest growing waste stream in the world. Incentivized by various legislations and the intrinsic value of critical metals inside, recycling of e-waste is becoming an attractive business opportunity that also benefits the environment. We report a novel electrochemical recovery (ER) process has been developed as a promising alternative to the existing pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes based technologies to recover base metals, precious metals, and rare earth elements (REEs) from e-waste. Experimental results indicate that the ER process has lower chemical consumption, enhanced control, and reduced energy demand compared to the pyrometallurgical and the hydrometallurgical processes. To quantify and compare the environmental performances of the three technologies, life cycle analysis has been conducted. Results show that the ER process outperforms the other two processes in almost all impact categories adopted in TRACI and ILCD while there is no clear winner between the hydrometallurgical and the pyrometallurgical processes. The highest impactful input for the ER method is hydrochloric acid, and for the pyrometallurgical method is copper scrap, while for the hydrometallurgical method, it is hydrogen peroxide, an oxidizer that accelerates base metal extraction process, that dominates the overall environmental footprint. The environmental viability of the ER process warrants the further development of ER process at industrial scale.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2021

Arbuscular mycorrhizal trees cause a higher carbon to nitrogen ratio of soil organic matter decomposition via rhizosphere priming than ectomycorrhizal trees

Tree roots and their associated microbes can significantly influence soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition, i.e., the rhizosphere priming effect. This effect is expected to be greater in trees associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, which produce higher extracellular enzymes especially surrounding hyphae, than in trees associated with ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi. In this work, we selected five tree species associated with AM (Juglans mandshurica Maxim. and Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.) or ECM (Picea koraiensis Nakai, Quercus mongolica Fischer ex Turcz. and Larix kaempferi (Lamb.) Carriere). We grew tree seedlings inside of cores lined with different mesh sizes to investigate how roots, hyphae and exudates influence soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) mineralization via the rhizosphere priming effect, using a 13 C natural abundance approach and a 15 N pool dilution method, concurrently. We found that tree seedlings significantly accelerated soil C decomposition by on average 78%, i.e., positive priming, compared to unplanted control pots. AM-associated trees induced 2.1 times greater soil C decomposition than ECM-associated trees across all mesh sizes. In contrast, gross N mineralization did not differ between tree-mycorrhizal associations. Compared to ECM counterparts, AM-associated trees had higher C- and lower N-degrading enzyme activities. Consequently, AM-associated trees induced a significantly higher C:N ratio of SOM decomposition than their ECM counterparts, which could be associated with the differences in soil enzyme activities for C and N degradation. Further, for both AM- and ECM-associated trees, we found no significant influences of mesh size on soil C decomposition, suggesting that the rhizosphere priming effect of mycorrhizal symbiosis was predominantly driven by root exudates. We conclude that SOM decomposition caused by AM-associated trees may have a higher C:N ratio than that by ECM-associated trees mainly due to differences in microbial enzyme investment. Our findings imply that tree-mycorrhizal associations are capable of modulating soil biogeochemical cycling via the rhizosphere priming effect.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2019

Rational Design of Efficient Amine Reductant Initiators for Amine–Peroxide Redox Polymerization

Amine-peroxide redox polymerization (APRP) has been highly prevalent in industrial and medical applications since the 1950s, yet the initiation mechanism of this radical polymerization process is poorly understood so that innovations in the field are largely empirically driven and incremental. Through a combination of computational prediction and experimental analysis, we elucidate the mechanism of this important redox reaction between amines and benzoyl peroxide for the ambient production of initiating radicals. Our calculations show that APRP proceeds through S N 2 attack by the amine on the peroxide but that homolysis of the resulting intermediate is the rate-determining step. We demonstrate a correlation between the computationally predicted initiating rate and the experimentally measured polymerization rate with an R 2 = 0.80. The new mechanistic understanding was then applied to computationally predict amine reductant initiators with faster initiating kinetics. This led to our discovery of N-(4-methoxyphenyl)pyrrolidine (MPP) as amine reductant, which we confirmed significantly outperforms current state-of-the-art tertiary aromatic amines by ~20-fold, making it the most efficient amine-peroxide redox initiator to date. The application of amines with superior kinetics such as MPP in APRP could greatly accelerate existing industrial processes, facilitate new industrial manufacturing methods, and improve biocompatibility in biomedical applications conducted with reduced initiator concentrations yet higher overall efficiency.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗