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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2011

Multi-Scale Hydrometeorological Modeling, Land Data Assimilation and Parameter Estimation with the Land Information System

The Land Information System (LIS; http://lis.gsfc.nasa.gov) is a flexible land surface modeling framework that has been developed with the goal of integrating satellite-and ground-based observational data products and advanced land surface modeling techniques to produce optimal fields of land surface states and fluxes. As such, LIS represents a step towards the next generation land component of an integrated Earth system model. In recognition of LIS object-oriented software design, use and impact in the land surface and hydrometeorological modeling community, the LIS software was selected as a co-winner of NASA?s 2005 Software of the Year award.LIS facilitates the integration of observations from Earth-observing systems and predictions and forecasts from Earth System and Earth science models into the decision-making processes of partnering agency and national organizations. Due to its flexible software design, LIS can serve both as a Problem Solving Environment (PSE) for hydrologic research to enable accurate global water and energy cycle predictions, and as a Decision Support System (DSS) to generate useful information for application areas including disaster management, water resources management, agricultural management, numerical weather prediction, air quality and military mobility assessment. LIS has e volved from two earlier efforts -- North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) and Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) that focused primarily on improving numerical weather prediction skills by improving the characterization of the land surface conditions. Both of GLDAS and NLDAS now use specific configurations of the LIS software in their current implementations.In addition, LIS was recently transitioned into operations at the US Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) to ultimately replace their Agricultural Meteorology (AGRMET) system, and is also used routinely by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) for their land data assimilation systems to support weather and climate modeling. LIS not only consolidates the capabilities of these two systems, but also enables a much larger variety of configurations with respect to horizontal spatial resolution, input datasets and choice of land surface model through "plugins". LIS has been coupled to the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to support studies of land-atmosphere coupling be enabling ensembles of land surface states to be tested against multiple representations of the atmospheric boundary layer. LIS has also been demonstrated for parameter estimation, who showed that the use of sequential remotely sensed soil moisture products can be used to derive soil hydraulic and texture properties given a sufficient dynamic range in the soil moisture retrievals and accurate precipitation inputs.LIS has also recently been demonstrated for multi-model data assimilation using an Ensemble Kalman Filter for sequential assimilation of soil moisture, snow, and temperature.Ongoing work has demonstrated the value of bias correction as part of the filter, and also that of joint calibration and assimilation.Examples and case studies demonstrating the capabilities and impacts of LIS for hydrometeorological modeling, assimilation and parameter estimation will be presented as advancements towards the next generation of integrated observation and modeling systems

Peters-Lidard, Christa D.↗
DOE OSTI2013

AN AB INITIO MODEL FOR COSMIC-RAY MODULATION

A proper understanding of the effects of turbulence on the diffusion and drift of cosmic rays (CRs) is of vital importance for a better understanding of CR modulation in the heliosphere. This study presents an ab initio model for CR modulation, incorporating for the first time the results yielded by a two-component turbulence transport model. This model is solved for solar minimum heliospheric conditions, utilizing boundary values chosen so that model results are in reasonable agreement with spacecraft observations of turbulence quantities in the solar ecliptic plane and along the out-of-ecliptic trajectory of the Ulysses spacecraft. These results are employed as inputs for modeled slab and two-dimensional (2D) turbulence energy spectra. The modeled 2D spectrum is chosen based on physical considerations, with a drop-off at the very lowest wavenumbers. There currently exist no models or observations for the wavenumber where this drop-off occurs, and it is considered to be the only free parameter in this study. The modeled spectra are used as inputs for parallel mean free path expressions based on those derived from quasi-linear theory and perpendicular mean free paths from extended nonlinear guiding center theory. Furthermore, the effects of turbulence on CR drifts are modeled in a self-consistent way, also employing a recently developed model for wavy current sheet drift. The resulting diffusion and drift coefficients are applied to the study of galactic CR protons and antiprotons using a 3D, steady-state CR modulation code, and sample solutions in fair to good agreement with multiple spacecraft observations are presented.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

PONDEROMOTIVE ACCELERATION IN CORONAL LOOPS

Ponderomotive acceleration has been asserted to be a cause of the first ionization potential (FIP) effect, the well-known enhancement in abundance by a factor of 3–4 over photospheric values of elements in the solar corona with FIP less than about 10 eV. It is shown here by means of numerical simulations that ponderomotive acceleration occurs in solar coronal loops, with the appropriate magnitude and direction, as a “by-product” of coronal heating. The numerical simulations are performed with the HYPERION code, which solves the fully compressible three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic equations including nonlinear thermal conduction and optically thin radiation. Numerical simulations of coronal loops with an axial magnetic field from 0.005 to 0.02 T and lengths from 25,000 to 75,000 km are presented. In the simulations the footpoints of the axial loop magnetic field are convected by random, large-scale motions. There is a continuous formation and dissipation of field-aligned current sheets, which act to heat the loop. As a consequence of coronal magnetic reconnection, small-scale, high-speed jets form. The familiar vortex quadrupoles form at reconnection sites. Between the magnetic footpoints and the corona the reconnection flow merges with the boundary flow. It is in this region that the ponderomotive acceleration occurs. Mirroring the character of the coronal reconnection, the ponderomotive acceleration is also found to be intermittent.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Fragmentation Prediction for a Brittle Ceramic: a Two-Scale Model Approach

Glass and oxide-ceramic radioactive material forms (e.g., PuO{sub 2}) are susceptible to brittle fracture during handling and transportation. Fracture of these materials may result in the generation of fragments small enough to become airborne, and thus easily dispersed and inhaled. Entrainment and dispersal of particles with dimensions less than 10 μm is generally anticipated under normal aerodynamic conditions. The assessment of the risk to the public and the environment from these materials due to events resulting in their fracture is based on the determination of the source term for environmental release. This source term is typically quantified by an airborne release fraction (ARF) and a respirable fraction (RF) of material generated by a given event. While the recommended empirical bounding values prove satisfactory to comply with the regulatory process for handling and transportation of these materials, they are based on test data for only a few materials subjected to a limited range of loading conditions. Because the final state of fragmentation (in terms of the size and distribution of fragments) is strongly dependent not only on the properties of the material and the energetic loading conditions that lead to breakup, but also on the many intrinsic length scales associated with fragmentation, it is difficult to precisely predict fragmentation characteristics for other brittle solid wastes forms subjected to a wider range of loading conditions based on the test data alone. The purpose of this manuscript is to present a two-scale modeling approach that may be used to simulate the dynamic fragmentation of brittle solid radioactive material forms subjected to general loading and boundary conditions. The method provides the resulting fragment characteristics (average size and size distribution) across the entire fragment range of interest. At the macro-scale, the approach uses a gradient damage elastic continuum mechanics material model within a finite element framework to simulate dynamic fracture under general loading and boundary conditions. Results from the macroscopic calculations are passed to a one-dimensional (1-D) lower length scale model that incorporates the relevant fine scale effects to determine the micro-scale fragmentation. This 1-D micro-scale fragmentation model simulates the internal crack nucleation and opening processes to predict the average fragment size and the fragment size distribution as a function of the material properties, loading conditions, and microscopic characteristic length scale of the material. Results from the lower length scale model are then combined with the macro-scale model fragmentation information to determine the resulting fragment size distribution spanning both length scales. This two-scale model has been exercised on a representative problem drawn from experimental studies, consisting of an impact of a falling weight onto a brittle ceramic. (authors)

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Application of polymers for the emergency damage control and remediation at nuclear and chemical industry sites - 15259

From the standpoint of possible accidents and the following complex emergency damage control the nuclear and chemical industry sites are of the primary concern. Among the possible causes of accidents and emergency situations are technological and waste solution spills. Polymers can be used for this problem resolution and the spilled solutions could be effectively isolated. The apparent advantage of polymer materials is the possibility of solidifying solutions with rather high acidity and high salt bearing. To date the situations with the RW storage tank decommissioning in Russia and in the United States have much in common: the lack of the waste management strategy developed at the initial stage of production, the end of the storage tank lifetime. Development of the in-situ solidification technique for the mobile (liquid) components of heterogeneous waste will provide a good option to contain the radio nuclides within the storage site boundaries. The presented work was aimed at the search for the simple engineering decisions that would provide the waste immobilization in case of the accidental liquid spills. The application of polymers for the purpose indicated would allow in case of emergency to reduce the radioactive aerosol concentration in the air and prevent the distribution of aerosols on the premises and in the environment. Another promising area of the polymer application could be the technical challenges associated with the decommissioning of NPPs and other objects and facilities including the large volume LRW storage tanks. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2014

SU-E-T-21: A Novel Sampling Algorithm to Reduce Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) Optimization Time

Purpose: The IMRT optimization problem requires substantial computer time to find optimal dose distributions because of the large number of variables and constraints. Voxel sampling reduces the number of constraints and accelerates the optimization process, but usually deteriorates the quality of the dose distributions to the organs. We propose a novel sampling algorithm that accelerates the IMRT optimization process without significantly deteriorating the quality of the dose distribution. Methods: We included all boundary voxels, as well as a sampled fraction of interior voxels of organs in the optimization. We selected a fraction of interior voxels using a clustering algorithm, that creates clusters of voxels that have similar influence matrix signatures. A few voxels are selected from each cluster based on the pre-set sampling rate. Results: We ran sampling and no-sampling IMRT plans for de-identified head and neck treatment plans. Testing with the different sampling rates, we found that including 10% of inner voxels produced the good dose distributions. For this optimal sampling rate, the algorithm accelerated IMRT optimization by a factor of 2–3 times with a negligible loss of accuracy that was, on average, 0.3% for common dosimetric planning criteria. Conclusion: We demonstrated that a sampling could be developed that reduces optimization time by more than a factor of 2, without significantly degrading the dose quality.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Nonlinear dynamics of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in a finite-width plasma flow

The nonlinear stage of Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability in a finite-width plane-parallel plasma flow is analyzed. The analysis is performed by means of two-dimensional numerical simulations with the use of ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations describing isothermal plasma flows propagating along the magnetic field. The influence of the magnetic field strength, the plasma temperature, and the ratio of the flow width to the width of the transition layer on the formation of vortex layers and large-scale flow perturbations is investigated. It is shown that, if the wavelength of periodic perturbations is shorter than the flow width, the symmetric and antisymmetric modes develop in a qualitatively similar manner. For waves with wavelengths longer than the flow width, the development of such modes is very different due to the mutual influence of the flow boundaries. Analysis of the development of instability at different values of the Alfven Mach number M{sub A} shows that long-lived vortices with a characteristic scale length on the order of the flow width appear in a weak magnetic field for both symmetric and antisymmetric modes; however, the vortex geometries for these modes are different. In a strong magnetic field, M{sub A} {approx} 5, the phase of vortex decay for both types of modes occurs faster than in a weak field; however, in the case of an antisymmetric mode, large-scale perturbations of the flow boundary are retained for a longer time. Analysis of the evolution of the initial disturbance produced by an ensemble of random small perturbations (noise) at different plasma temperatures shows that, for a flow width comparable with the width of the transition region, the development of KH instability is always antisymmetric in character and leads to well-developed large-scale perturbations of the flow as a whole. For a cold plasma with C{sub S} < 0.5U (where C{sub S} is the speed of sound and U is the flow velocity), in contrast to hot plasma with C{sub S} > 0.5U, the development of KH instability leads to the growth of the antisymmetric mode even if the flow width is much larger than the width of the transition region.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Nonlinear instability of an Oldroyd elastico–viscous magnetic nanofluid saturated in a porous medium

Through viscoelastic potential theory, a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of two semi-infinite fluid layers, of Oldroydian viscoelastic magnetic nanofluids (MNF), is investigated. The system is saturated by porous medium through two semi-infinite fluid layers. The Oldroyd B model is utilized to describe the rheological behavior of viscoelastic MNF. The system is influenced by uniform oblique magnetic field that acts at the surface of separation. The model is used for the MNF incorporated the effects of uniform basic streaming and viscoelasticity. Therefore, a mathematical simplification must be considered. A linear stability analysis, based upon the normal modes analysis, is utilized to find out the solutions of the equations of motion. The onset criterion of stability is derived; analytically and graphs have been plotted by giving numerical values to the various parameters. These graphs depict the stability characteristics. Regions of stability and instability are identified and discussed in some depth. Some previous studies are recovered upon appropriate data choices. The stability criterion in case of ignoring the relaxation stress times is also derived. To relax the mathematical manipulation of the nonlinear approach, the linearity of the equations of motion is taken into account in correspondence with the nonlinear boundary conditions. Taylor's theory is adopted to expand the governing nonlinear characteristic equation according to of the multiple time scales technique. This analysis leads to the well-known Ginzburg–Landau equation, which governs the stability criteria. The stability criteria are achieved theoretically. To simplify the mathematical manipulation, a special case is considered to achieve the numerical estimations. The influence of orientation of the magnetic fields on the stability configuration, in linear as well as nonlinear approaches, makes a dual role for the magnetic field strength in the stability graphs. Stability diagram is plotted for different sets of physical parameters. A new stability as well as instability region, in the parameter space, appears due to the nonlinear effects.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

A region-appearance-based adaptive variational model for 3D liver segmentation

Purpose: Liver segmentation from computed tomography images is a challenging task owing to pixel intensity overlapping, ambiguous edges, and complex backgrounds. The authors address this problem with a novel active surface scheme, which minimizes an energy functional combining both edge- and region-based information. Methods: In this semiautomatic method, the evolving surface is principally attracted to strong edges but is facilitated by the region-based information where edge information is missing. As avoiding oversegmentation is the primary challenge, the authors take into account multiple features and appearance context information. Discriminative cues, such as multilayer consecutiveness and local organ deformation are also implicitly incorporated. Case-specific intensity and appearance constraints are included to cope with the typically large appearance variations over multiple images. Spatially adaptive balancing weights are employed to handle the nonuniformity of image features. Results: Comparisons and validations on difficult cases showed that the authors’ model can effectively discriminate the liver from adhering background tissues. Boundaries weak in gradient or with no local evidence (e.g., small edge gaps or parts with similar intensity to the background) were delineated without additional user constraint. With an average surface distance of 0.9 mm and an average volume overlap of 93.9% on the MICCAI data set, the authors’ model outperformed most state-of-the-art methods. Validations on eight volumes with different initial conditions had segmentation score variances mostly less than unity. Conclusions: The proposed model can efficiently delineate ambiguous liver edges from complex tissue backgrounds with reproducibility. Quantitative validations and comparative results demonstrate the accuracy and efficacy of the model.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Comparison of analytic models of instability of rarefied gas flow in a channel

Numerical and analytical results are compared concerning the limit properties of the trajectories, attractors and bifurcations of rarefied gas flows in channels. The cascade of bifurcations obtained in our previous analytical and numerical investigations is simulated numerically for different scattering functions V generalizing the ray-diffuse reflection of gas particles from the surface. The main purpose of numerical simulation by Monte Carlo method is the investigation of the properties of different analytic nonlinear dynamic systems corresponding to rarefied gas flow in a channel. The results are compared as well for the models suggested originally by R. N. Miroshin, as for the approximations considered for the first time or for studied in our subsequent papers. Analytical solutions we obtained earlier for the ray reflection which means only one determined velocity of scattered from the walls gas atoms, generally different from the specular reflection. The nonlinear iterative equation describing a rarefied gas flow in a long channel becomes unstable in some regions of corresponding parameters of V (it means the sensitivity to boundary conditions). The values of the parameters are found from analytical approximations in these regions. Numerical results show that the chaotic behavior of the nonlinear dynamic system corresponds to strange attractors and distinguishes clearly from Maxwellian distribution and from the equilibrium on the whole. In the regions of instability (as the dimension of the attractor increases) the search for a corresponding state requires a lot more computation time and a lot of data (the amount of data required increases exponentially with embedding dimension). Therefore the main complication in the computation is reducing as well the computing time as the amount of data to find a suitably close solution. To reduce the computing time our analytical results are applied. Flow conditions satisfying the requirements to the experiment are indicated where the instability of considered type can be detected. The advantages and the drawbacks of considered approximations are detected and the features of obtained solutions are indicated. The recommendations are given for applying the results in practical applications and in numerical calculations of rarefied gas flows.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS2009

Multi-Scale Hydrometeorological Modeling, Land Data Assimilation and Parameter Estimation with the Land Information System

The Land Information System (LIS; http://lis.gsfc.nasa.gov; Kumar et al., 2006; Peters- Lidard et al.,2007) is a flexible land surface modeling framework that has been developed with the goal of integrating satellite- and ground-based observational data products and advanced land surface modeling techniques to produce optimal fields of land surface states and fluxes. As such, LIS represents a step towards the next generation land component of an integrated Earth system model. In recognition of LIS object-oriented software design, use and impact in the land surface and hydrometeorological modeling community, the LIS software was selected ase co-winner of NASA's 2005 Software of the Year award. LIS facilitates the integration of observations from Earth-observing systems and predictions and forecasts from Earth System and Earth science models into the decision-making processes of partnering agency and national organizations. Due to its flexible software design, LIS can serve both as a Problem Solving Environment (PSE) for hydrologic research to enable accurate global water and energy cycle predictions, and as a Decision Support System (DSS) to generate useful information for application areas including disaster management, water resources management, agricultural management, numerical weather prediction, air quality and military mobility assessment. LIS has evolved from two earlier efforts North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS; Mitchell et al. 2004) and Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS; Rodell al. 2004) that focused primarily on improving numerical weather prediction skills by improving the characterization of the land surface conditions. Both of GLDAS and NLDAS now use specific configurations of the LIS software in their current implementations. In addition, LIS was recently transitioned into operations at the US Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) to ultimately replace their Agricultural Meteorology (AGRMET) system, and is also used routinely by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) for their land data assimilation systems to support weather and climate modeling. LIS not only consolidates the capabilities of these two systems, but also enables a much larger variety of configurations with respect to horizontal spatial resolution, input datasets and choice of land surface model through "plugins,". As described in Kumar et al., 2007, and demonstrated in Case et al., 2008, and Santanello et al., 2009, LIS has been coupled to the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to support studies of land-atmosphere coupling the enabling ensembles of land surface states to be tested against multiple representations of the atmospheric boundary layer. LIS has also been demonstrated for parameter estimation as described in Peters-Lidard et al. (2008) and Santanello et al. (2007), who showed that the use of sequential remotely sensed soil moisture products can be used to derive soil hydraulic and texture properties given a sufficient dynamic range in the soil moisture retrievals and accurate precipitation inputs. LIS has also recently been demonstrated for multi-model data assimilation (Kumar et al., 2008) using an Ensemble Kalman Filter for sequential assimilation of soil moisture, snow, and temperature. Ongoing work has demonstrated the value of bias correction as part of the filter, and also that of joint calibration and assimilation. Examples and case studies demonstrating the capabilities and impacts of LIS for hydrometeoroogical modeling, assimilation and parameter estimation will be presented as advancements towards the next generation of integrated observation and modeling systems.

Peters-Lidard, Christa D.↗
DOE OSTI2015

Nonlinear effects in ultrasound fields of diagnostic-type transducers used for kidney stone propulsion: Characterization in water

Newer imaging and therapeutic ultrasound technologies require higher in situ pressure levels compared to conventional diagnostic values. One example is the recently developed use of focused ultrasonic radiation force to move kidney stones and residual fragments out of the urinary collecting system. A commercial diagnostic 2.3 MHz C5-2 array probe is used to deliver the acoustic pushing pulses. The probe comprises 128 elements equally spaced at the 55 mm long convex cylindrical surface with 38 mm radius of curvature. The efficacy of the treatment can be increased by using higher intensity at the focus to provide stronger pushing force; however, nonlinear acoustic saturation can be a limiting factor. In this work nonlinear propagation effects were analyzed for the C5-2 transducer using a combined measurement and modeling approach. Simulations were based on the 3D Westervelt equation; the boundary condition was set to match the focal geometry of the beam as measured at a low power output. Focal waveforms simulated for increased output power levels were compared with the fiber-optic hydrophone measurements and were found in good agreement. It was shown that saturation effects do limit the acoustic pressure in the focal region of the transducer. This work has application to standard diagnostic probes and imaging.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Novel aspects of plasma control in ITER

ITER plasma control design solutions and performance requirements are strongly driven by its nuclear mission, aggressive commissioning constraints, and limited number of operational discharges. In addition, high plasma energy content, heat fluxes, neutron fluxes, and very long pulse operation place novel demands on control performance in many areas ranging from plasma boundary and divertor regulation to plasma kinetics and stability control. Both commissioning and experimental operations schedules provide limited time for tuning of control algorithms relative to operating devices. Although many aspects of the control solutions required by ITER have been well-demonstrated in present devices and even designed satisfactorily for ITER application, many elements unique to ITER including various crucial integration issues are presently under development. We describe selected novel aspects of plasma control in ITER, identifying unique parts of the control problem and highlighting some key areas of research remaining. Novel control areas described include control physics understanding (e.g., current profile regulation, tearing mode (TM) suppression), control mathematics (e.g., algorithmic and simulation approaches to high confidence robust performance), and integration solutions (e.g., methods for management of highly subscribed control resources). We identify unique aspects of the ITER TM suppression scheme, which will pulse gyrotrons to drive current within a magnetic island, and turn the drive off following suppression in order to minimize use of auxiliary power and maximize fusion gain. The potential role of active current profile control and approaches to design in ITER are discussed. Issues and approaches to fault handling algorithms are described, along with novel aspects of actuator sharing in ITER.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

On the Ill-Posed Nature of Inverse Problems: An Exactly Solvable Paradigm Inverse Neutron Diffusion Problem Illustrating the Solution's Non-Computability - Paper 48

In general, a physical system and/or the result of an indirect experimental measurement are modeled mathematically in terms of: (a) A system of linear and/or nonlinear equations that relate the system's independent variables and parameters to the system's state (i.e., dependent) variables; (b) Probability distributions, moments thereof, inequality and/or equality constraints that define the range of variations of the system's parameters; (c) One or several quantities, customarily referred to as system responses (or objective functions, or indices of performance), which are computed using the mathematical model. The 'direct problem' solves the 'parameter-to-output' mapping that describes the 'cause-to-effect' relationship in the respective physical process. In practice, the model parameters and/or responses are experimentally measured quantities and are therefore subject to uncertainties. Many measurement problems are 'inverse' to the direct problem in that they seek to determine the properties of the medium (i.e., various cross sections), or the properties of the source, and/or the size of the medium on its boundaries from measurements of quantities that depend on the neutron flux (or from direct measurements of the neutron flux). In general, two problems are called inverses of one another if the formulation of each involves all or part of the solution of the other. Some authors further group such inverse problems into 'invasive', when the interior flux is accessible for measurements as opposed to 'non-invasive', in which only fluxes on the boundary of (or exterior to) the medium can be measured. Examples of inverse radiative transfer problems have been reviewed by McCormick, while examples of inverse source problems for neutron transport have been provided by Sanchez and McCormick. More recently, Bledsoe et al., have presented two methods (the Levenberg-Marquard, and 'differential evolution method') for addressing numerically inverse transport problems. However, although these works (as well as other works cited therein) mentioned the detrimental effects of 'small perturbations in the input data', none of the works published thus far on inverse problems for particle transport or diffusion actually showed explicitly the effects that uncertainties in the measured responses (e.g., detector measurements) would actually have on the 'inverse' deduction (from such measurements) of the underlying medium's properties, sources, etc. This work highlights explicitly the nature of the difficulties encountered in so-called 'inverse problems' by presenting a paradigm inverse neutron diffusion problem admitting an exact solution, in which the 'inverse problem' is to determine the medium's diffusion coefficient from flux measurements. It will be shown explicitly (analytically) that this is not possible to achieve in a unique manner, even in the absence of measurement uncertainties, unless additional error-free information is provided about the quantity to be determined (in this case, the medium's diffusion coefficient). It if further shown that, even if this additional error-free information about the diffusion coefficient to be determined is available, the unavoidable experimental measurements errors, albeit it vanishingly small, in the measured flux render the 'exact solution' useless for computational purposes, since the exact solution turns out to be a divergent series. As discussed in this paper's ENDNOTES section, the paradigm problem presented in this work also underscores the need for 'regularization', which is a qualifier indicating that the inverse problem is to be solved in some approximate manner. (authors)

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Locally Resolved Electron Emission Area and Unified View of Field Emission from Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Films

One of the common problems in case of field emission from polycrystalline diamond films, which typically have uniform surface morphology, is uncertainty in determining exact location of electron emission sites across the surface. Although several studies have suggested that grain boundaries are the main electron emission source, it is not particularly clear what makes some sites emit more than the others. It is also practically unclear how one could quantify the actual electron emission area and therefore field emission current per unit area. In this paper we study the effect of actual, locally resolved, field emission (FE) area on electron emission characteristics of uniform planar highly conductive nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond ((N)UNCD) field emitters. It was routinely found that field emission from as-grown planar (N)UNCD films is always confined to a counted number of discrete emitting centers across the surface which varied in size and electron emissivity. It was established that the actual FE area critically depends on the applied electric field, as well as that the actual FE area and the overall electron emissivity improve with sp2 fraction present in the film irrespectively of the original substrate roughness and morphology. To quantify the actual FE area and its dependence on the applied electric field, imaging experiments were carried out in a vacuum system in a parallel-plate configuration with a specialty anode phosphor screen. Electron emission micrographs were taken concurrently with I-V characteristics measurements. In addition, a novel automated image processing algorithm was developed to process extensive imaging datasets and calculate emission area per image. By doing so, it was determined that the emitting area was always significantly smaller than the FE cathode surface area. Namely, the actual FE area would change from 5×10-3 % to 1.5 % of the total cathode area with the applied electric field increased. Finally and most importantly, it was shown that when I-E curves as measured in the experiment were normalized by the field-dependent emission area, the resulting j-E curves demonstrated a strong kink and significant deviation from Fowler-Nordheim (FN) law, and eventually saturated at a current density of ~100 mA/cm2 . This value was nearly identical for all (N)UNCD films measured in this study, regardless of the substrate.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS2004

Notes on Interface Growth Kinetics 50 Years after Burton, Cabrera and Frank

This overview is devoted to some unresolved basic problems in crystal growth kinetics. The density wave approach to propagation of a spatially diffuse interface between a growing crystal and its simple (e.g., metallic) melt is discussed is Section 2. This approach allows for the calculation of kinetic coefficients and is an alternative to the localized interface concept in which each atom belongs to either a solid or a liquid. Sections 3 and 4 deals mainly with layer growth from solution. Mutual retardation of the growth steps via their bulk and d a c e diffusion fields is the major subject. The influence of solution flow on step bunching (Section 4) suggests the essential influence of bulk diffusion on the surface morphology. The flow within the solution boundary layer enhances step-step interaction, influences the step bunching process and the resulting step pattern morphology on the growing surface. Recent experiments on the rates at which strongly polygonized steps on protein and small molecule crystals propagate during growth from solution are analyzed in Section 5 . We have shown that the step segments may be "singular" and that "one-dimensional nucleation" may be the rate limiting stage for the segments that are shorter or comparable in length to the thermodynamically equilibrium interlink distance. In this case, the reciprocal dependence of the segment propagation rate on the segment length that follow from the Gibbs-Thompson law, should be replaced by an abrupt switch from zero to a finite constant velocity. Until recently, the Kossel crystal remained the only model used in crystal growth theory. In such Kossel Gibbs-Thomson law, should be replaced by an abrupt switch &om zero to a finite constant velocity. crystals, all kinks at the steps are identical and the kink rate is a linear function of the supersaturation. In the non-Kossel crystals, there may be several kink configurations characterized by different geometries and energies. These configurations should appear in a specific sequence when each new lattice unit cell is filled. As a result of such a cooperative interaction within the unit cell, a non-linear dependence of the kink rate on the vapor pressure or solution concentration in excess over the equilibrium value should be expected.

Chernov, A. A.↗
DOE OSTI2013

Evaluation of interpolation methods for surface-based motion compensated tomographic reconstruction for cardiac angiographic C-arm data

Purpose: For interventional cardiac procedures, anatomical and functional information about the cardiac chambers is of major interest. With the technology of angiographic C-arm systems it is possible to reconstruct intraprocedural three-dimensional (3D) images from 2D rotational angiographic projection data (C-arm CT). However, 3D reconstruction of a dynamic object is a fundamental problem in C-arm CT reconstruction. The 2D projections are acquired over a scan time of several seconds, thus the projection data show different states of the heart. A standard FDK reconstruction algorithm would use all acquired data for a filtered backprojection and result in a motion-blurred image. In this approach, a motion compensated reconstruction algorithm requiring knowledge of the 3D heart motion is used. The motion is estimated from a previously presented 3D dynamic surface model. This dynamic surface model results in a sparse motion vector field (MVF) defined at control points. In order to perform a motion compensated reconstruction, a dense motion vector field is required. The dense MVF is generated by interpolation of the sparse MVF. Therefore, the influence of different motion interpolation methods on the reconstructed image quality is evaluated. Methods: Four different interpolation methods, thin-plate splines (TPS), Shepard's method, a smoothed weighting function, and a simple averaging, were evaluated. The reconstruction quality was measured on phantom data, a porcine model as well as on in vivo clinical data sets. As a quality index, the 2D overlap of the forward projected motion compensated reconstructed ventricle and the segmented 2D ventricle blood pool was quantitatively measured with the Dice similarity coefficient and the mean deviation between extracted ventricle contours. For the phantom data set, the normalized root mean square error (nRMSE) and the universal quality index (UQI) were also evaluated in 3D image space. Results: The quantitative evaluation of all experiments showed that TPS interpolation provided the best results. The quantitative results in the phantom experiments showed comparable nRMSE of Almost-Equal-To 0.047 {+-} 0.004 for the TPS and Shepard's method. Only slightly inferior results for the smoothed weighting function and the linear approach were achieved. The UQI resulted in a value of Almost-Equal-To 99% for all four interpolation methods. On clinical human data sets, the best results were clearly obtained with the TPS interpolation. The mean contour deviation between the TPS reconstruction and the standard FDK reconstruction improved in the three human cases by 1.52, 1.34, and 1.55 mm. The Dice coefficient showed less sensitivity with respect to variations in the ventricle boundary. Conclusions: In this work, the influence of different motion interpolation methods on left ventricle motion compensated tomographic reconstructions was investigated. The best quantitative reconstruction results of a phantom, a porcine, and human clinical data sets were achieved with the TPS approach. In general, the framework of motion estimation using a surface model and motion interpolation to a dense MVF provides the ability for tomographic reconstruction using a motion compensation technique.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Identification and Study of Validation Level Test Cases for Computational Modeling of Non-Charring Ablators

Computational modeling of Thermal Protection System (TPS) materials, used for aerospace applications, provides numerous advantages in preliminary selection and design of a heatshield material and shape for atmospheric entry vehicles. However, to serve as a reliable tool for prediction of material thermal and ablative behavior, the modeling approach needs to be validated against real experimental and flight data, preferably at a range of applied conditions. The validation study is typically very complex as it requires reliable measured data not only for the material thermal response and surface recession, but also well characterized environmental conditions. The validation problem becomes even more complex when the material thermal response is dictated by multi-physics effects such as solid conduction, in-depth thermal decomposition, pyrolysis gas flow and chemical reactions. The multi-physics effects complicate not only the modeling effort, but also the experimental measurement for validation of various aspects of the highly coupled problem. In this study, an attempt is made to identify suitable experimental data that could serve as a source for validation of material thermal response modeling tools. To reduce the computational complexity, this study focuses only on non-charring ablators, where the material thermal response could be modeled with a single governing equation for solid conduction and the ablation is limited only to the surface of the material. With a well characterized and publicly available experimental data being sparse, the study is limited in presenting test cases for only three materials: camphor, graphite and FiberForm® in the sequence of increased modeling complexity. Graphite is a commonly used TPS material for aerospace applications, both for leading edges of high-speed vehicles and internal insulation of solid rocket motors. FiberForm® is a porous carbon pre-form used in preparation of the well known PICA material Tran et al. [1996]. Inclusion of camphor into the list is conditioned with the relative simplicity in modeling the material thermal and chemical response and the low-enthalpy flow environment. In addition, camphor has been used as a simple test material for study of flow transition behavior by Stock and Ginoux [1973] and assessment of a heatshield shape change at flight relevant conditions by Rotondi et al. [2022]. In this work, the identified experimental data was extracted from the public literature and test cases that yet have been published. As it was found from the review, not a single test case contains an exhaustive set of data that would validate every aspect of the material physics. However, in the data collected, various aspects of the material behavior can be still validated, such as surface and in-depth temperature, amount of recession and a shape change. The identified experimental data for each case is accompanied with a characterized flow environment and simulated boundary conditions predicted by a Data-Parallel Line Relaxation (DPLR) code Wright et al. [1998]. In addition, material thermal response numerical simulations in each test case are performed with Kentucky Aerothermodynamics and Thermal Response System (KATS-MR) Zibitsker et al. [2022] providing a comparative study and a sanity check for the proposed validation data. Sample results from the performed numerical study are shown below. Figure 1 shows distribution of surface heat flux and pressure values on a hemi-cylinder model made of FiberForm® and tested in HyMETS arc-jet facility. The results are shown for the high pressure condition among the two tests. Flow simulation was performed with DPLR code on a quarter of original geometry. In the figure, the quarter shape was mirrored across zx and xy planes to show the complete distribution. Figure 2 shows the material response results for the high pressure case (7500 Pa), simulated with KATS-MR and a comparison to the experimental data for the surface temperature and shape shape. The simulation was performed on a 2-D slice, extracted in the xy plane at the middle of the sample. Figure 3 shows the material response simulation for the low pressure case (3500 Pa) and a comparison to the experimental data for surface temperature and shape change.

ablation↗