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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 1,261 records · Page 70
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

A new efficient formulation of the HLLEM Riemann solver for general conservative and non-conservative hyperbolic systems

In this paper a new, simple and universal formulation of the HLLEM Riemann solver (RS) is proposed that works for general conservative and non-conservative systems of hyperbolic equations. For non-conservative PDE, a path-conservative formulation of the HLLEM RS is presented for the first time in this paper. The HLLEM Riemann solver is built on top of a novel and very robust path-conservative HLL method. It thus naturally inherits the positivity properties and the entropy enforcement of the underlying HLL scheme. However, with just the slight additional cost of evaluating eigenvectors and eigenvalues of intermediate characteristic fields, we can represent linearly degenerate intermediate waves with a minimum of smearing. For conservative systems, our paper provides the easiest and most seamless path for taking a pre-existing HLL RS and quickly and effortlessly converting it to a RS that provides improved results, comparable with those of an HLLC, HLLD, Osher or Roe-type RS. This is done with minimal additional computational complexity, making our variant of the HLLEM RS also a very fast RS that can accurately represent linearly degenerate discontinuities. Our present HLLEM RS also transparently extends these advantages to non-conservative systems. For shallow water-type systems, the resulting method is proven to be well-balanced. Several test problems are presented for shallow water-type equations and two-phase flow models, as well as for gas dynamics with real equation of state, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD & RMHD), and nonlinear elasticity. Since our new formulation accommodates multiple intermediate waves and has a broader applicability than the original HLLEM method, it could alternatively be called the HLLI Riemann solver, where the “I” stands for the intermediate characteristic fields that can be accounted for. -- Highlights: •New simple and general path-conservative formulation of the HLLEM Riemann solver. •Application to general conservative and non-conservative hyperbolic systems. •Inclusion of sub-structure and resolution of intermediate characteristic fields. •Well-balanced for single- and two-layer shallow water equations and multi-phase flows. •Euler equations with real equation of state, MHD equations, nonlinear elasticity.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Coexistence of Magnetic Orders in Two-Dimensional Magnet CrI3

The magnetic properties in two-dimensional van der Waals materials depend sensitively on structure. CrI 3 , as an example, has been recently demonstrated to exhibit distinct magnetic properties depending on the layer thickness and stacking order. Bulk CrI 3 is ferromagnetic (FM) with a Curie temperature of 61 K and a rhombohedral layer stacking, whereas few-layer CrI 3 has a layered antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase with a lower ordering temperature of 45 K and a monoclinic stacking. In this work, we use cryogenic magnetic force microscopy to investigate CrI 3 flakes in the intermediate thickness range (25–200 nm) and find that the two types of magnetic orders, hence the stacking orders, can coexist in the same flake with a layer of ~13 nm at each surface being in the layered AFM phase similar to few-layer CrI 3 and the rest in the bulk FM phase. The switching of the bulk moment proceeds through a remnant state with nearly compensated magnetic moment along the c-axis, indicating formation of c-axis domains allowed by a weak interlayer coupling strength in the rhombohedral phase. Our research provides a comprehensive picture on the magnetism in CrI 3 and point to the possibility of engineering magnetic heterostructures within the same material.

2D magnets↗
DOE OSTI2017

Redesigning the DOE Data Explorer to embed dataset relationships at the point of search and to reflect landing page organization

Scientific research is producing ever-increasing amounts of data. Organizing and reflecting relationships across data collections, datasets, publications, and other research objects are essential functionalities of the modern science environment, yet challenging to implement. Landing pages are often used for providing ‘big picture’ contextual frameworks for datasets and data collections, and many large-volume data holders are utilizing them in thoughtful, creative ways. The benefits of their organizational efforts, however, are not realized unless the user eventually sees the landing page at the end point of their search. What if that organization and ‘big picture’ context could benefit the user at the beginning of the search? That is a challenging approach, but The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) is redesigning the database functionality of the DOE Data Explorer (DDE) with that goal in mind. Phase I is focused on redesigning the DDE database to leverage relationships between two existing distinct populations in DDE, data Projects and individual Datasets, and then adding a third intermediate population, data Collections. Mapped, structured linkages, designed to show user relationships, will allow users to make informed search choices. These linkages will be sustainable and scalable, created automatically with the use of new metadata fields and existing authorities. Phase II will study selected DOE Data ID Service clients, analyzing how their landing pages are organized, and how that organization might be used to improve DDE search capabilities. At the heart of both phases is the realization that adding more metadata information for cross-referencing may require additional effort for data scientists. Finally, OSTI’s approach seeks to leverage existing metadata and landing page intelligence without imposing an additional burden on the data creators.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Exotic Magnetic Field-Induced Spin-Superstructures in a Mixed Honeycomb-Triangular Lattice System

The temperature–magnetic field phase diagram of the mixed honeycomb-triangular lattice system K 2 Mn 3 (VO 4 ) 2 CO 3 is investigated by means of magnetization, heat-capacity, and neutron-scattering measurements. The results indicate that triangular and honeycomb magnetic layers undergo sequential magnetic orderings and act as nearly independent magnetic sublattices. The honeycomb sublattice orders at about 85 K in a Neél-type antiferromagnetic structure, while the triangular sublattice displays two consecutive ordered states at much lower temperatures, 3 and 2.2 K. The ground state of the triangular sublattice consists of a planar “Y” magnetic structure that emerges from an intermediate collinear “ up-up-down ” state. Applied magnetic fields parallel or perpendicular to the c axis induce exotic ordered phases characterized by various spin-stacking sequences of triangular layers that yield bilayer, three-layer, or four-layer magnetic superstructures. The observed superstructures cannot be explained in the framework of quasiclassical theory based only on nearest-neighbor interlayer coupling and point towards the presence of effective second-nearest-neighbor interactions mediated by fluctuations of the magnetic moments in the honeycomb sublattice.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2013

Resolution enhancement of lung 4D-CT via group-sparsity

Purpose: 4D-CT typically delivers more accurate information about anatomical structures in the lung, over 3D-CT, due to its ability to capture visual information of the lung motion across different respiratory phases. This helps to better determine the dose during radiation therapy for lung cancer. However, a critical concern with 4D-CT that substantially compromises this advantage is the low superior-inferior resolution due to less number of acquired slices, in order to control the CT radiation dose. To address this limitation, the authors propose an approach to reconstruct missing intermediate slices, so as to improve the superior-inferior resolution.Methods: In this method the authors exploit the observation that sampling information across respiratory phases in 4D-CT can be complimentary due to lung motion. The authors’ approach uses this locally complimentary information across phases in a patch-based sparse-representation framework. Moreover, unlike some recent approaches that treat local patches independently, the authors’ approach employs the group-sparsity framework that imposes neighborhood and similarity constraints between patches. This helps in mitigating the trade-off between noise robustness and structure preservation, which is an important consideration in resolution enhancement. The authors discuss the regularizing ability of group-sparsity, which helps in reducing the effect of noise and enables better structural localization and enhancement.Results: The authors perform extensive experiments on the publicly available DIR-Lab Lung 4D-CT dataset [R. Castillo, E. Castillo, R. Guerra, V. Johnson, T. McPhail, A. Garg, and T. Guerrero, “A framework for evaluation of deformable image registration spatial accuracy using large landmark point sets,” Phys. Med. Biol. 54, 1849–1870 (2009)]. First, the authors carry out empirical parametric analysis of some important parameters in their approach. The authors then demonstrate, qualitatively as well as quantitatively, the ability of their approach to achieve more accurate and better localized results over bicubic interpolation as well as a related state-of-the-art approach. The authors also show results on some datasets with tumor, to further emphasize the clinical importance of their method.Conclusions: The authors have proposed to improve the superior-inferior resolution of 4D-CT by estimating intermediate slices. The authors’ approach exploits neighboring constraints in the group-sparsity framework, toward the goal of achieving better localization and noise robustness. The authors’ results are encouraging, and positively demonstrate the role of group-sparsity for 4D-CT resolution enhancement.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Effect of disease progression on the podocyte cell cycle in Alport Syndrome

Progression of glomerulosclerosis is associated with loss of podocytes with subsequent glomerular tuft instability. It is thought that a diminished number of podocytes may be able to preserve tuft stability through cell hypertrophy associated with cell cycle reentry. At the same time, reentry into the cell cycle risks podocyte detachment if podocytes cross the G1/S checkpoint and undergo abortive cytokinesis. In order to study cell cycle dynamics during chronic kidney disease (CKD) development, we used a FUCCI model (fluorescence ubiquitination-based cell cycle indicator) of mice with X-linked Alport Syndrome. This model exhibits progressive CKD and expresses fluorescent reporters of cell cycle stage exclusively in podocytes. With the development of CKD, an increasing fraction of podocytes in vivo were found to be in G1 or later cell cycle stages. Podocytes in G1 and G2 were hypertrophic. Heterozygous female mice, with milder manifestations of CKD, showed G1 fraction numbers intermediate between wild-type and male Alport mice. Proteomic analysis of podocytes in different cell cycle phases showed differences in cytoskeleton reorganization and metabolic processes between G0 and G1 in disease. Additionally, in vitro experiments confirmed that damaged podocytes reentered the cell cycle comparable to podocytes in vivo. Importantly, we confirmed the upregulation of PDlim2, a highly expressed protein in podocytes in G1, in a patient with Alport Syndrome, confirming our proteomics data in the human setting. Thus, our data showed that in the Alport model of progressive CKD, podocyte cell cycle distribution is altered, suggesting that cell cycle manipulation approaches may have a role in the treatment of various progressive glomerular diseases characterized by podocytopenia.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Superconductor-in-an-Hour: Spark Plasma Synthesis of Co- and Ni-Doped BaFe 2 As 2

In this work, BaFe 2 As 2 superconductors doped with Co or Ni were synthesized by heat treatment of the reactive BaH 2 precursor and elemental Fe, Co, Ni, and As in a sealed niobium container. The hydride route provides better mixing of the starting materials, resulting in faster preparation of the target phases. The hydrogen gas evolved during sintering facilitates the preparation of the oxygen-free powders. Using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), including low-temperature synchrotron PXRD, it was shown that this route leads to successful doping of the Co (Ni) dopant and that the actual dopant content in the produced powdered samples of BaFe 2– x Co x As 2 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.4) and BaFe 2– x Ni x As 2 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.18) is close to the nominal content. The optimally doped samples of BaFe 2– x Co x As 2 and BaFe 2– x Ni x As 2 exhibit bulk superconducting properties. The highest T c for the Co-doped sample is 24 K when x = 0.15–0.175 and 21 K for the Ni-doped sample when x ~ 0.1. The reaction mechanism between the BaH 2 hydride precursor and elemental Fe and As was studied by operando high-temperature synchrotron PXRD. The formation of the target BaFe 2 As 2 phase occurs at the relatively low temperature of 785 K with binary iron arsenide (FeAs) being an intermediate product. Finally, the in situ combined synthesis and sintering of the intimately mixed BaH 2 and Fe, Co, and As was performed inside the spark plasma sintering apparatus to obtain compact pellets of the BaFe 2– x Co x As 2 superconductors. A higher sintering temperature (>873 K) is needed to ensure a homogeneous Co dopant distribution and, thus, the abrupt superconducting transitions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Tracking Sodium-Antimonide Phase Transformations in Sodium-Ion Anodes: Insights from Operando Pair Distribution Function Analysis and Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy

Operando pair distribution function (PDF) analysis and ex situ Na-23 magic-angle spinning solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS ssNMR) spectroscopy are used to gain insight into the alloying mechanism of high-capacity antimony anodes for sodium-ion batteries. Subtraction of the PDF of crystalline NaxSb phases from the total PDF, an approach constrained by chemical phase information gained from Na-23 ssNMR in reference to relevant model compounds, identifies two previously uncharacterized intermediate species formed electro-chemically; a-Na3-xSb (x approximate to 0.4-0.5), a structure locally similar to crystalline Na3Sb (c-Na3Sb) but with significant numbers of sodium vacancies and a limited correlation length, and a-Na1.7Sb, a highly amorphous structure featuring some Sb-Sb bonding. The first sodiation breaks down the crystalline antimony to form first a-Na3-xSb and, finally, crystalline Na3Sb. Desodiation results in the formation of an electrode formed of a composite of crystalline and amorphous antimony networks. We link the different reactivity of these networks to a series of sequential sodiation reactions manifesting as a cascade of processes observed in the electrochemical profile of subsequent cycles. The amorphofis network reacts at higher voltages reforming a-Na1.7Sb, then a-Na3-xSb, whereas lower potentials are required for the sodiation of crystalline antimony, which reacts to form a-Na3-xSb without the formation of a-Na3-xSb. a-Na3-xSb is converted to crystalline Na3Sb at the end of the second discharge. We find no evidence of formation of NaSb. Variable temperature Na-23 NMR experiments reveal significant sodium mobility within c-Na3Sb; this is a possible contributing factor to the excellent rate performance of Sb anodes.

Allan, Phoebe K.↗
DOE OSTI2017

In Situ Tracking Kinetic Pathways of Li + /Na + Substitution during Ion-Exchange Synthesis of Li x Na 1.5– x VOPO 4 F 0.5

Ion exchange is a ubiquitous phenomenon central to wide industrial applications, ranging from traditional (bio)chemical separation to the emerging chimie douce synthesis of materials for batteries and other energy applications. The exchange process is complex, involving substitution and transport of different ions under non-equilibrium conditions, and thus difficult to probe, leaving a gap in mechanistic understanding of kinetic exchange pathways toward final products. Herein, we report in situ tracking kinetic pathways of Li + /Na + substitution during solvothermal ion-exchange synthesis of Li x Na 1.5-x VOPO 4 F 0.5 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1.5), a promising multi-Li polyanionic cathode for batteries. The real-time observation, corroborated by first-principles calculations, reveals a selective replacement of Na + by Li + , leading to peculiar Na + /Li + /vacancy orderings in the intermediates. Contradicting the traditional belief of facile topotactic substitution via solid solution reaction, an abrupt two-phase transformation occurs and predominantly governs the kinetics of ion exchange and transport in the 1D polyanionic framework, consequently leading to significant difference of Li stoichiometry and electrochemical properties in the exchanged products. The findings may help to pave the way for rational design of ion exchange synthesis for making new materials.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Searching for the most powerful thermonuclear X-ray bursts with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory

We searched for thermonuclear X-ray bursts from Galactic neutron stars in all event mode data of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory collected until March 31, 2018. In particular, we are interested in the intermediate-duration bursts (shell flashes fueled by thick helium piles) with the ill-understood phenomenon of strong flux fluctuations. Nine such bursts have been discussed in the literature to date. Swift is particularly suitable for finding additional examples. We find and list a total of 134 X-ray bursts; 44 are detected with BAT only, 41 with XRT only, and 49 with both. Twenty-eight bursts involve automatic slews. We find 12 intermediate-duration bursts, all detected in observations involving automatic slews. Five show remarkably long Eddington-limited phases in excess of 200 s. Five show fluctuations during the decay phase; four of which are first discussed in the present study. We discuss the general properties of the fluctuations, considering also 7 additional literature cases. In general two types of fluctuations are observed: fast ones, with a typical timescale of 1 s and up and downward fluctuations of up to 70%, and slow ones, with a typical timescale of 1 min and only downward fluctuations of up to 90%. The latter look like partial eclipses because the burst decay remains visible in the residual emission. We revisit the interpretation of this phenomenon in the context of the new data set and find that it has not changed fundamentally despite the expanded data set. It is thought to be due to a disturbance of the accretion disk by outflowing matter and photons, causing obscuration and reflection due to Thompson scattering in an orbiting highly ionized cloud or structure above or below the disk. Furthermore, we discuss in detail the most pronounced burster SAX J1712.6–3739. One of the bursts from this source is unusual in that it lasts longer than 5600 s, but does not appear to be a superburst.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Multi-field/multi-scale turbulence response to electron cyclotron heating of DIII-D ohmic plasmas

The multi-field/multi-scale core ({rho}{approx} 0.5-0.8) turbulence response to electron cyclotron heating (ECH) of DIII-D Ohmic plasmas is reported for the first time. Long wavelength (low-k) electron temperature (T-tilde{sub e}/T{sub e}) and high-k density turbulence levels (n-tilde{sub e}/n{sub e}) are observed to strongly increase during ECH. In contrast, low-k and intermediate-k n-tilde{sub e}/n{sub e} showed little change, whereas the cross-phase between local low-k electron temperature and density fluctuations ({alpha}{sub n{sub eT{sub e}}}) was significantly modified. The increase in the electron thermal diffusivity determined from power balance is consistent with the increased turbulent transport correlated with the measured increases in low-k T-tilde{sub e}/T{sub e} and high-k n-tilde{sub e}/n{sub e}. Linear stability analysis using the trapped gyro-Landau fluid (TGLF) model indicates an enhanced growth rate for electron modes [e.g., trapped electron mode (TEM)] at low-k consistent with the observed modifications in T-tilde{sub e}/T{sub e} and {alpha}{sub n{sub eT{sub e}}}. TGLF also predicts an increase in high-k electron mode growth rates for normalized wavenumbers k{sub {theta}}{rho}{sub s} > 7, where electron temperature gradient (ETG) modes exist, which is consistent with the observed increase in high-kn-tilde{sub e}/n{sub e} turbulence.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Inelastic incoherent neutron scattering study of the molecular properties of pure hydrogen peroxide and its water mixtures of different concentration

We have investigated the spectra of shock-frozen H{sub 2}O{sub 2}–H{sub 2}O mixtures across the full composition range 99.1%–0.0% H{sub 2}O{sub 2}. In contrast to literature reports, we find that intermediate compositions (30%–70% H{sub 2}O{sub 2}) freeze to a solid solution rather than phase separating, which only occurs on annealing to just below the melting point. We have fully characterised the dihydrate H{sub 2}O{sub 2}·2H{sub 2}O (48.6% H{sub 2}O{sub 2}) for the first time and shown that its spectrum can account for the features previously observed on the surface of a Au/TiO{sub 2} catalyst.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Design of a Doppler reflectometer for KSTAR

A Doppler reflectometer has been designed to measure the poloidal propagation velocity on the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) tokamak. It has the operating frequency range of V-band (50-75 GHz) and the monostatic antenna configuration with extraordinary mode (X-mode). The single sideband modulation with an intermediate frequency of 50 MHz is used for the heterodyne measurement with the 200 MHz in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) phase detector. The corrugated conical horn antenna is used to approximate the Gaussian beam propagation and it is installed together with the oversized rectangular waveguides in the vacuum vessel. The first commissioning test of the Doppler reflectometer system on the KSTAR tokamak is planned in the 2014 KSTAR experimental campaign.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2019

Ladderlike optical conductivity in the spin-fermion model

In the nested limit of the spin-fermion model for the cuprates, one-dimensional physics in the form of half-filled two-leg ladders emerges. We show here that the renormalization group flow of the corresponding ladder is towards the $d$-Mott phase, a gapped spin-liquid with short-ranged $d$-wave pairing correlations, and reveals an intermediate $\mathrm{SO}(5)\times{}\mathrm{SO}(3)$ symmetry. We use the results of the renormalization group in combination with a memory-function approach to calculate the optical conductivity of the spin-fermion model in the high-frequency regime, where processes within the hot spot region dominate the transport. We argue that umklapp processes play a major role. For finite temperatures, we determine the resistivity in the zero-frequency (dc) limit. Our results show an approximate linear temperature dependence of the resistivity and a conductivity that follows a nonuniversal power law. A comparison to experimental data supports our assumption that the conductivity is dominated by the antinodal contribution above the pseudogap.

1-dimensional systems↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sm 0.5 Sr 0.5 CoO 3-δ Surface Modification of La 0.6 Sr 0.4 Co 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3-δ -Ce 0.9 Gd0.1 2-δ Composite Oxygen Electrodes for Solid Oxide Electrochemical Cells

La 0.6 Sr 0.4 Co 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3- δ -Ce 0.9 Gd 0.1 O 2- δ (LSCF-GDC) composite oxygen electrodes have been widely used in intermediate temperature (<700 °C) solid oxide cells, with composite usually providing better electrochemical performance than single-phase LSCF. However, LSCF-based electrodes are often observed to degrade over time due to Sr segregation. Here we present an impedance spectroscopy study comparing the degradation behaviors of LSCF-GDC and Sm 0.5 Sr 0.5 CoO 3- δ (SSC) infiltrated LSCF-GDC electrodes. The LSCF-GDC polarization resistance increases by ~5 times over ~1000 h at 650 °C. In contrast, the SSC-infiltrated electrode shows similar initial polarization resistance but much more stable performance. The impedance modeling results show that the improved stability is associated with the low frequency oxygen dissociative adsorption/desorption process. The results suggest that this adsorption/desorption process slows due to increased Sr segregation on LSCF over time, and that SSC does not degrade significantly due to Sr surface segregation.

Electrochemistry↗
DOE OSTI2016

Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop - Phase 1 Status Report

This report documents the current status of the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) as of the end of FY2016. Currently, METL is in Phase I of its design and construction. Once operational, the METL facility will test small to intermediate-scale components and systems in order to develop advanced liquid metal technologies. Testing different components in METL is essential for the future of advanced fast reactors as it will provide invaluable performance data and reduce the risk of failures during plant operation.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Blue Canyon Dome Emplacement Artifacts

The Blue Canyon Dome (BCD) experiments are a series of intermediate scale subsurface chemical explosions designed to explore the geophysical relationship between scaled yields and formation damage. Phase 2 of this experiment involved explosions designed to evaluate the effect of damage, demonstrating the effect of geologic features and previous damage on the near field seismic signatures, not just in amplitude, but also in spectral content. Based on the emplacement effect on the seismic signature, the moment-based yield estimates showed error between 10s-1000s of percent. This report details an alternative approach to emplacement-based filtering techniques of the seismic signatures to improve yield estimates for explosions in damaged rock. The results will be used to develop an improved inverse yield model that leverages the information in the seismic signature for each source based on emplacement type.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗