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At least 1,243 records · Page 69

The Spallation Neutron Source Beam Commissioning and Initial Operations

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) accelerator delivers a one mega-Watt beam to a mercury target to produce neutrons used for neutron scattering materials research. It delivers ~ 1 GeV protons in short (< 1 us) pulses at 60 Hz. At an average power of ~ one mega-Watt, it is the highest-powered pulsed proton accelerator. The accelerator includes the first use of superconducting RF acceleration for a pulsed protons at this energy. The storage ring used to create the short time structure has record peak particle per pulse intensity. Beam commissioning took place in a staged manner during the construction phase of SNS. After the construction, neutron production operations began within a few months, and one mega-Watt operation was achieved within three years. The methods used to commission the beam and the experiences during initial operation are discussed.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

NIMBUS COMMAND SUBSYSTEM

All satellites have one common requirement, known as the command facility. This is usually a real-time direct RF link from a ground transmitter through the satellite receiver and decoder to a relay or controlled circuit. The more sophisticated research and operational satellites require a command facility which will permit storing of commands to activate systems at predetermined future times when the satellite is beyond the range of the command ground station. These satellites require an accurate clock and a source of precision frequencies. In the Nimbus spacecraft, all these functions are performed by an integrated command and clock subsystem, which includes the command clock and clock-receiver modules in the spacecraft, plus the associated command ground station. This paper will describe the functions and features of these various equipment's.

GROUND SUPPORT SYSTEM↗

In-flight jet engine noise measurement system

An instrumentation system in flight tests for noise research is described which utilizes miniature transducers to measure low-amplitude, high-frequency fluctuating pressures in a jet engine mounted under the wing of a turboprop aircraft. The system employs a rotor-mounted FM telemeter to acquire data from eight fan-blade-mounted transducers which are subjected to up to 75,000 g's of loading. Data is transmitted from the rotor to an antenna mounted in the inlet-duct wall using a low-power, close-coupled RF link. The blade pressures and other inlet and stator-vane fluctuating pressures are recorded on airborne, magnetic-tape recorders. The flight instrumentation described also includes PCM techniques to encode and record a variety of quasi-static measurements to provide engine and aircraft performance data. The instrumentation and experimental measurements are of value to an improved understanding of noise sources in jet engines and for the advancement of jet-engine ground noise testing techniques.

Knight, V. H., Jr.↗

Novel Co:MgF2 lidar for aerosol profiler

Lidars are of great interest because of their unique capabilities in remote sensing applications in sounding of the atmosphere, meteorology, and climatology. In this small business innovative research (SBIR) phase II program, laser sources including Co:MgF2, CTH:YAG, CTH:YSGG, CT:YAG, and Er:Glass were evaluated. Modulator of fused silica and TeO2 materials with Brewster's angle end faces were used with these lasers as acousto-optical (AO) Q-switches. A higher hold-off energy and hence a higher Q-switched energy was obtained by using a high power RF driver. The report provides performance characteristics of these lasers. The tunable (1.75-2.50 microns) Co:MgF2 laser damaged the TeO2 Q-switch cell. However, the CTH:YAG laser operating at 2.09 microns provided output energy of over 300 mJ/p in 50 ns pulse width using the fused silica Q-switch. This Q-switched CTH:YAG laser was used in a breadboard vertical aerosol profiler. A 40 cm diameter telescope, InSb and InGaAs detectors were used in the receiver. The data obtained using this lidar is provided in the report. The data shows that the eye safe lidar using CTH:YAG laser for the vertical aerosol density and range measurements is the viable approach.

Acharekar, M. A.↗

HERMA-Heartbeat Microwave Authentication

Systems and methods for identifying and/or authenticating individuals utilizing microwave sensing modules are disclosed. A HEaRtbeat Microwave Authentication (HERMA) system can enable the active identification and/or authentication of a user by analyzing reflected RF signals that contain a person's unique characteristics related to their heartbeats. An illumination signal is transmitted towards a person where a reflected signal captures the motion of the skin and tissue (i.e. displacement) due to the person's heartbeats. The HERMA system can utilize existing transmitters in a mobile device (e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cellphone signals) as the illumination source with at least one external receive antenna. The received reflected signals can be pre-processed and analyzed to identify and/or authenticate a user.

Lux, James Paul↗

Observation of classically `forbidden' electromagnetic wave propagation and implications for neutrino detection.

Ongoing experimental efforts in Antarctica seek to detect ultra-high energy neutrinos by measurement of radio-frequency (RF) Askaryan radiation generated by the collision of a neutrino with an ice molecule. An array of RF antennas, deployed either in-ice or in-air, is used to infer the properties of the neutrino. To evaluate their experimental sensitivity, such experiments require a refractive index model for ray tracing radio-wave trajectories from a putative in-ice neutrino interaction point to the receiving antennas; this gives the degree of signal absorption or ray bending from source to receiver. The gradient in the density profile over the upper 200 meters of Antarctic ice, coupled with Fermat's least-time principle, implies ray "bending" and the existence of "forbidden" zones for predominantly horizontal signal propagation at shallow depths. After re-deriving the formulas describing such shadowing, we report on experimental results that, somewhat unexpectedly, demonstrate the existence of electromagnetic wave transport modes from nominally shadowed regions. Finally, the fact that this shadow-signal propagation is observed both at South Pole and the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica suggests that the effect may be a generic property of polar ice, with potentially important implications for experiments seeking to detect neutrinos.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Jefferson Laboratory C100 Superconducting Radio-Frequency Cavity Fault Data, 2020

The dataset was created to train machine learning models for the task of identifying the (1) cavity and (2) fault type from C100-type cryomodules at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), thereby replacing the time-consuming efforts of a subject matter expert. Superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavity trips represent a significant source of accelerator downtime. Real-time – rather than post-mortem – identification of the offending cavity and classification of the fault type would give control room operators valuable feedback for corrective action planning. The anticipated benefit is increased beam-on-target time for users and provides performance metrics that can be used to improve future cavity designs. A series of 17 RF signals are recorded for each of the 8 cavities in a C100 cryomodule every time a cavity trips. These time-series signals are written to file using a specially designed data acquisition system. The dataset represents fault events recorded during Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) beam operations between January 18, 2019 and March 9, 2020. The following filtering steps were applied to collected data; (1) only 4 of the 17 signals per cavity are retained (GMES, GASK, CRFP, DETA2) (2) only events with data from each of the eight cavities in the cryomodule are kept, (3) only events that were sampled at 5 kHz were kept, (4) events from cryomodule 0L04 were neglected, (5) events occurring between February 4, 3PM and February 5, 12PM were neglected. As a result of preprocessing, the dataset is comprised of 2,375 unique events. The full dataset is comprised of three files: features.csv, cavity_labels.csv, fault_labels.csv. Each instance in faults.csv includes a timestamp (“date_time”), a label for the cryomodule which experienced the trip (“zone_label”), and 192 features (“feature_1”, “feature_2”... “feature_192”). The features correspond to 6 autoregressive features for each of 4 signals per cavity for each of the 8 cavities (6 × 4 signals/cavity × 8 cavities/cryomodule = 192). To deal with the large variation of signal amplitudes, time-series standardization via the z-score (standard score) function was applied prior to computing the features. For each instance, there is an associated label for the (1) cavity which faulted first (cavity_labels.csv) and (2) the type of fault that caused the trip (fault_labels.csv). The cavity identification can take values of [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] and the fault type can take values of [‘Microphonics’, ‘Quench_100ms’, ‘Controls_Fault’, ‘E_Quench’, ‘Quench_3ms’, ‘Single_Cav_Turn_Off’ , ‘Heat_Riser_Choke’, ‘Multi_Cav_Turn_Off’].

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Capture Cavities for the CW Polarized Positron Source Ce+BAF

The initial design of the capture cavities for a continuous wave (CW) polarized positron beam for the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) up-grade at Jefferson Lab is presented. A chain of standing wave multi-cell copper cavities inside a solenoid channel are selected to capture positrons in CW mode. The cavity shunt impedance is surveyed by tuning the cavity geometry while considering accommodating large phase space distribution positron beams with large beam pipe radius while ensuring a large enough passband mode separation. The RF field wall loss power and maximum wall loss power density are considered in cavity and waveguide design. A range of design parameters are given for larger system optimization when the capture cavities are considered together with thermal calculation and beam dynamics in next phase of work.

Wang, S.↗

Progress towards the completion of the proton power upgrade project

The Proton Power Upgrade project at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will increase the proton beam power capability from 1.4 to 2.8 MW. Upon completion in early 2025, 2 MW of beam power will be available for neutron production at the existing first target station (FTS) with the remaining beam power available for the future second target station (STS). The project has installed seven superconducting radio-frequency (RF) cryomodules and supporting RF power systems to increase the beam energy by 30% to 1.3 GeV, and the beam current will be increased by 50%. The injection and extraction region of the accumulator ring are being upgraded, and a new 2 MW mercury target has been developed along with supporting equipment for high-flow gas injection to mitigate cavitation and fatigue stress. The first four cryomodules and supporting systems were commissioned in 2022-2023 and supported neutron production at 1.05 GeV, 1.7 MW with high reliability. The first-article 2 MW target was operated successfully for approximately 4400 MW-Hours over two run periods. The long outage began in August 2023 for installation of the remaining technical equipment and construction of the Ring-to-Target Beam Transport tunnel stub that will enable connection to the STS without interrupting operation of the FTS. The upgrade is proceeding on-schedule and on-budget, and resumption of neutron production for the user program is planned for July 2024.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Far-field Wireless Energy Harvesting for Increased Safeguards Equipment Battery Life.

Modern unattended safeguards equipment (e.g. seals) incorporates many low-power electronic circuits, which are typically powered by expensive and toxic lithium thionyl chloride (LiSOCL2) batteries. The limited life of these batteries necessitates their periodic replacement. This replacement must be performed before total battery discharge to avoid potential loss of continuity of knowledge. Thus, the effective battery capacity becomes significantly less than the actual usable capacity. Additionally, such maintenance is a radiological hazard to personnel, as well as a monetary burden to a safeguards inspectorate. Energy harvesting, a commercially available technology, could extend the operational life of batterypowered equipment to achieve significant efficiencies for safeguards deployments. Energy harvesting is the scavenging and storage of ambient energy sources, such as solar, thermal, and kinetic for use in lowpower electronic applications. While the amount of scavenged energy per unit time may be small, it most often comes from a source that will not be depleted throughout the deployment of the harvesting device. The best-known energy harvesters are solar panels and wind turbines. Recently, far-field wireless energy harvesting has become a commercially available option. Far-field wireless energy harvesting provides consistent, predictable, and un-tethered power over distances up to 50 feet. This process converts radio frequency (RF) energy, both intentionally emitted and ambient, into usable direct current (DC) power. Incorporating far-field wireless energy harvesting into safeguards equipment can significantly extend the equipment’s battery life and perhaps make it indefinite. Furthermore, additional functionality can be added to safeguards equipment without lowering its operational life expectancy. This paper explores the benefits and drawbacks of integrating far-field wireless energy harvesting into a chosen safeguards seal: the Remotely Monitored Sealing Array (RMSA). Specifically, it examines the performance of a commercially available RF harvesting system from Powercast, as well as commercial and custom antenna solutions.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

The NASA High Intensity Radiated Fields Laboratory

High Intensity Radiated Fields (HIRF) are the result of a multitude of intentional and nonintentional electromagnetic sources that currently exists in the world. Many of today's digital systems are susceptible to electronic upset if subjected to certain electromagnetic environments (EME). Modern aerospace designers and manufacturers increasingly rely on sophisticated digital electronic systems to provide critical flight control in both military, commercial, and general aviation aircraft. In an effort to understand and emulate the undesired environment that high energy RF provides modern electronics, the Electromagnetics Research Branch (ERB) of the Flight Electronics and Technology Division (FETD) conducts research on RF and microwave measurement methods related to the understanding of HIRF. In the High Intensity Radiated Fields Laboratory, the effects of high energy radiating electromagnetic fields on avionics and electronic systems are tested and studied.

Williams, Reuben A.↗

Measurement of Impulsive Thrust from a Closed Radio Frequency Cavity in Vacuum

A vacuum test campaign evaluating the impulsive thrust performance of a tapered RF test article excited in the TM212 mode at 1,937 megahertz (MHz) has been completed. The test campaign consisted of a forward thrust phase and reverse thrust phase at less than 8 x 10(exp -6) Torr vacuum with power scans at 40 watts, 60 watts, and 80 watts. The test campaign included a null thrust test effort to identify any mundane sources of impulsive thrust, however none were identified. Thrust data from forward, reverse, and null suggests that the system is consistently performing with a thrust to power ratio of 1.2 +/- 0.1 mN/kW.

White, Harold↗

Betatron Radiation from a Beam Driven Plasma Source

Photons produced by the betatron oscillation of electrons in a beam-driven plasma wake provide a uniquely intense and high-energy source of hard X-rays and gamma rays. This betatron radiation is interesting not only for its high intensity and spectral characteristics, but also because it can be used as a diagnostic for beam matching into the plasma, which is critical for maximizing the energy extraction efficiency of a plasma accelerator stage. At SLAC, gamma ray detection devices have been installed at the dump area of the FACET beamline where the betatron radiation from the plasma source used in the E200 plasma wakefield acceleration experiment may be observed. The ultra-dense, high-energy beam at FACET (2 x 10{sup 10} electrons, 20 x 20 {micro}m{sup 2} spot, 20-100 {micro}m length, 20 GeV energy) when sent into a plasma source with a nominal density of {approx} 1 x 10{sup 17} cm{sup -3} will generate synchrotron-like spectra with critical energies well into the tens of MeV. The intensity of the radiation can be increased by introducing a radial offset to the centroid of the witness bunch, which may be achieved at FACET through the use of a transverse deflecting RF cavity. The E200 gamma ray detector has two main components: a 30 x 35 cm{sup 2} phosphorescent screen for observing the transverse extent of the radiation, and a sampling electromagnetic calorimeter outfitted with photodiodes for measuring the on-axis spectrum. To estimate the spectrum, the observed intensity patterns across the calorimeter are fit with a Gaussian-integrated synchrotron spectrum and compared to simulations. Results and observations from the first FACET user run (April-June 2012) are presented.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Preliminary Design of Mu2E Spill Regulation System (SRS)

Direct μ→e conversion requires resonant extraction of a stream of pulsed beam, comprised of short micro-bunches (pulses) from the Delivery ring (DR) to the Mu2e target. Experimental needs and radiation protection apply strict re-quirements on the beam quality control and regulation of the spill. The objective of the Spill Regulation System (SRS) is to maintain the intensity uniformity of a stream of ~25k pulses as 1e12 protons are extracted at 590.08 kHz over a 43 ms spill period. To meet the specified perfor-mance, two regulation elements will be driven simultane-ously: a family of three zero-harmonic quadrupoles (tune ramp quads) and a RF Knock-Out (RFKO) system. The SRS will use two separate control loops to control each regulation element simultaneously. It will be critical to co-ordinate the SRS processes within the machine cycle and within each spill interval. The SRS has been designed to have a total Gain-Bandwidth product of 10 kHz, which can be used to mitigate several sources of ripple in the spill pro-file.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Progress towards the completion of the proton power upgrade project

The Proton Power Upgrade project at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will increase the proton beam power capability from 1.4 to 2.8 MW. Upon completion in early 2025, 2 MW of beam power will be available for neutron production at the existing first target station (FTS) with the remaining beam power available for the future second target station (STS). The project has installed seven superconducting radio-frequency (RF) cryomodules and supporting RF power systems to increase the beam energy by 30% to 1.3 GeV, and the beam current will be increased by 50%. The injection and extraction region of the accumulator ring are being upgraded, and a new 2 MW mercury target has been developed along with supporting equipment for high-flow gas injection to mitigate cavitation and fatigue stress. The first four cryomodules and supporting systems were commissioned in 2022-2023 and supported neutron production at 1.05 GeV, 1.7 MW with high reliability. The first-article 2 MW target was operated successfully for approximately 4400 MW-Hours over two run periods. The long outage began in August 2023 for installation of the remaining technical equipment and construction of the Ring-to-Target Beam Transport tunnel stub that will enable connection to the STS without interrupting operation of the FTS. The upgrade is proceeding on-schedule and on-budget, and resumption of neutron production for the user program is planned for July 2024.

Champion, Mark↗

Simulation Study Using an Injection Phase-locked Magnetron as an Alternative Source for SRF Accelerators

As a drop-in replacement for the CEBAF CW klystron system, a 1497 MHz, CW-type high-efficiency magnetron using injection phase lock and amplitude variation is attractive. Amplitude control using magnetic field trimming and anode voltage modulation has been studied using analytical models and MATLAB/Simulink simulations. Since the 1497 MHz magnetron has not been built yet, previously measured characteristics of a 2.45GHz cooker magnetron are used as reference. The results of linear responses to the amplitude and phase control of a superconducting RF (SRF) cavity, and the expected overall benefit for the current CEBAF and future MEIC RF systems are presented in this paper.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

RF sheath induced sputtering on Proto-MPEX. I. Sheath equivalent dielectric layer for modeling the RF sheath

The pulsed linear plasma device Prototype Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (Proto-MPEX) uses a radio frequency (RF) helicon antenna with an aluminum nitride ceramic window for plasma production. The RF sheath created under the helicon antenna is sufficient to cause ion impact energies to be greater than the sputtering threshold of the AlN helicon window material and for impurities to be created. In this study, we investigate the RF sheath on the inner diameter of the helicon window and its impact on the impurity production rates in Proto-MPEX. Three models—a 3D COMSOL finite element RF model of the Proto-MPEX helicon region, a rectified DC sheath potential model, and the 3D Global Impurity TRansport code—are coupled together to study impurity production and transportation. This novel method of impurity generation and transport modeling spans length scales ranging from the sheath (millimeters or less) up to the full device (meters) and can be applied to other radio frequency sources and antennas in a wide range of plasma physics studies, including basic plasmas, low-temperature processing plasmas, plasma thrusters, and fusion plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Adaptive Bio-Inspired Wireless Network Routing for Planetary Surface Exploration

Wireless mobile networks suffer connectivity loss when used in a terrain that has hills, and valleys when line of sight is interrupted or range is exceeded. To resolve this problem and achieve acceptable network performance, we have designed an adaptive, configurable, hybrid system to automatically route network packets along the best path between multiple geographically dispersed modules. This is very useful in planetary surface exploration, especially for ad-hoc mobile networks, where computational devices take an active part in creating a network infrastructure, and can actually be used to route data dynamically and even store data for later transmission between networks. Using inspiration from biological systems, this research proposes to use ant trail algorithms with multi-layered information maps (topographic maps, RF coverage maps) to determine the best route through ad-hoc network at real time. The determination of best route is a complex one, and requires research into the appropriate metrics, best method to identify the best path, optimizing traffic capacity, network performance, reliability, processing capabilities and cost. Real ants are capable of finding the shortest path from their nest to a food source without visual sensing through the use of pheromones. They are also able to adapt to changes in the environment using subtle clues. To use ant trail algorithms, we need to define the probability function. The artificial ant is, in this case, a software agent that moves from node to node on a network graph. The function to calculate the fitness (evaluate the better path) includes: length of the network edge, the coverage index, topology graph index, and pheromone trail left behind by other ant agents. Each agent modifies the environment in two different ways: 1) Local trail updating: As the ant moves between nodes it updates the amount of pheromone on the edge; and 2) Global trail updating: When all ants have completed a tour the ant that found the shortest route updates the edges in its path.

Alena, Richard I.↗