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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 1,693 records · Page 94
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Elements distribution and deformation features of a 4.5% Re nickel-based single crystal superalloy during creep at high temperature

Highlights: • Atom probe is used to investigate the element concentration changes in γ and γ' phase during creep. • Mo, W and Re diffuse from γ' to γ phase and enrich in γ/γ' interface during high temperature creep. • Super-dislocations in γ' phase may cross-slip from {111} to {100} plane due to the elements diffusions. • Dislocations shearing into γ' phase may decompose into K-W locks plus APB due to the refractory elements enrichment. - Abstract: By means of creep property measurement, microstructure observation and atom probe tomography, the elements distribution and deformation features of a 4.5% Re nickel-based single crystal superalloy during creep are investigated. Results show that after fully heat treated, the elements Al and Ta are mainly distributed in γ′ phase of alloy. After the alloy is crept up to fracture at 1100 °C/137 MPa, the change of the elements distributing in γ and γ′ phases occurs, wherein, the concentration decrement of the elements Al and Cr in γ′ and γ phases is attributed to their oxidation which may consume the ones. Moreover, some of the atoms Re, W and Mo dissolving in γ′ phase are repelled into γ matrix to reduce its internal energy. And the peak concentration of the atoms Re and W appears in the γ phase near the transition region, the atoms Re, W in the peak region cause the lattice distortion to increase the resistance of dislocations motion, which may improve the creep resistance of alloy. In the later stage of creep, dislocations shearing into the rafted γ′ phase may cross-slip from {111} to {100} plane to form the configuration of K-W locks, which may restrain the slipping of dislocations to improve the creep resistance of alloy. Wherein, the atom Re with lower diffusion coefficient may delay the dislocations in K-W locks for slipping and cross-slipping, which is thought to be the main reason of the K-W locks keeping in 4.5%Re alloy during creep at 1100 °C.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Structural transition in sputter-deposited amorphous germanium films by aging at ambient temperature

The structure of amorphous Ge (a-Ge) films prepared by sputter-deposition and the effects of aging at ambient temperature and pressure were studied by pair-distribution-function (PDF) analysis from electron scattering and molecular dynamics simulations. The PDFs of the as-deposited and aged samples for 3–13 months showed that the major peaks for Ge-Ge bonds decrease in intensity and broaden with aging for up to 7 months. In the PDFs of a-Ge of molecular dynamics simulation obtained by quenching liquid at different rates, the major peak intensities of a slowly cooled model are higher than those of a rapidly cooled model. Analyses on short- and medium-range configurations show that the slowly cooled model includes a certain amount of medium-range ordered (MRO) clusters, while the rapidly cooled model includes liquid-like configurations rather than MRO clusters. The similarity between experimental and computational PDFs implies that as-deposited films are similar in structure to the slowly cooled model, whereas the fully aged films are similar to the rapidly cooled model. It is assumed that as they undergo room-temperature aging, the MRO clusters disintegrate and transform into liquid-like regions in the same matrix. This transition in local configurations is discussed in terms of instability and the non-equilibrium of nanoclusters produced by a vapor-deposition process.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Numerical study of heterogeneous mean temperature and shock wave in a resonator

When a frequency of gas oscillation in an acoustic resonator is sufficiently close to one of resonant frequencies of the resonator, the amplitude of gas oscillation becomes large and hence the nonlinear effect manifests itself. Then, if the dissipation effects due to viscosity and thermal conductivity of the gas are sufficiently small, the gas oscillation may evolve into the acoustic shock wave, in the so-called consonant resonators. At the shock front, the kinetic energy of gas oscillation is converted into heat by the dissipation process inside the shock layer, and therefore the temperature of the gas in the resonator rises. Since the acoustic shock wave travels in the resonator repeatedly over and over again, the temperature rise becomes noticeable in due course of time even if the shock wave is weak. We numerically study the gas oscillation with shock wave in a resonator of square cross section by solving the initial and boundary value problem of the system of three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations with a finite difference method. In this case, the heat conduction across the boundary layer on the wall of resonator causes a spatially heterogeneous distribution of mean (time-averaged) gas temperature.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

LOCAL SIMULATIONS OF INSTABILITIES DRIVEN BY COMPOSITION GRADIENTS IN THE ICM

The distribution of helium in the intracluster medium (ICM) permeating galaxy clusters is not well constrained due to the very high plasma temperature. Therefore, the plasma is often assumed to be homogeneous. A nonuniform helium distribution can, however, lead to biases when measuring key cluster parameters. This has motivated one-dimensional models that evolve the ICM composition assuming that the effects of magnetic fields can be parameterized or ignored. Such models for nonisothermal clusters show that helium can sediment in the cluster core, leading to a peak in concentration offset from the cluster center. The resulting profiles have recently been shown to be linearly unstable when the weakly collisional character of the magnetized plasma is considered. In this paper, we present a modified version of the MHD code Athena, which makes it possible to evolve a weakly collisional plasma subject to a gravitational field and stratified in both temperature and composition. We thoroughly test our implementation and confirm excellent agreement against several analytical results. In order to isolate the effects of composition, in this initial study we focus our attention on isothermal plasmas. We show that plasma instabilities, feeding off gradients in composition, can induce turbulent mixing and saturate by rearranging magnetic field lines and alleviating the composition gradient. Composition profiles that increase with radius lead to instabilities that saturate by driving the average magnetic field inclination to roughly 45°. We speculate that this effect may alleviate the core insulation observed in homogeneous settings, with potential consequences for the associated cooling flow problem.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Adaptive hyperparameter updating for training restricted Boltzmann machines on quantum annealers

Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs) have been proposed for developing neural networks for a variety of unsupervised machine learning applications such as image recognition, drug discovery, and materials design. The Boltzmann probability distribution is used as a model to identify network parameters by optimizing the likelihood of predicting an output given hidden states trained on available data. Training such networks often requires sampling over a large probability space that must be approximated during gradient based optimization. Quantum annealing has been proposed as a means to search this space more efficiently which has been experimentally investigated on D-Wave hardware. D-Wave implementation requires selection of an effective inverse temperature or hyperparameter (β) within the Boltzmann distribution which can strongly influence optimization. Here, we show how this parameter can be estimated as a hyperparameter applied to D-Wave hardware during neural network training by maximizing the likelihood or minimizing the Shannon entropy. We find both methods improve training RBMs based upon D-Wave hardware experimental validation on an image recognition problem. Neural network image reconstruction errors are evaluated using Bayesian uncertainty analysis which illustrate more than an order magnitude lower image reconstruction error using the maximum likelihood over manually optimizing the hyperparameter. The maximum likelihood method is also shown to out-perform minimizing the Shannon entropy for image reconstruction.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Hydrogen Production from Polyethylene Pyrolysis

Hydrogen is anticipated to play a pivotal role in the future of clean energy and decarbonization efforts, serving as an energy storage medium, a power generation source, and a clean fuel for transportation. While most hydrogen is produced from carbonaceous fossil feedstocks like natural gas, petroleum, and coal, there is growing interest in using refuse-derived fuels such as waste plastics and municipal solid waste (MSW) as alternative feedstocks. Thermochemical processes such as pyrolysis and catalytic cracking can convert nonrecyclable plastics and organic MSW components to produce hydrogen with lower life cycle greenhouse gas emissions when coupled with CO 2 capture. Such approaches not only address waste-management challenges but also reduce methane emissions from landfills. Furthermore, waste feedstocks are low cost and can support meeting demands for hydrogen across various industries. In this work we examined production of hydrogen from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) as a model polymer using pyrolysis. Analytical studies of pyrolysis utilizing gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) provide insights into conversion pathways for plastic waste, potentially reducing the environmental footprint of traditional hydrogen production methods. This work generates a baseline methodology for hydrogen production from plastic pyrolysis with and without a catalyst and the necessary product distribution baseline from key single plastics. The effect of pyrolysis temperature on the conversion of HDPE was evaluated both with and without a catalyst(s), and the product distributions measured via GC/MS were identified and hydrogen formation was quantified. These results will help guide future research efforts to optimize catalysts and processes for more efficient hydrogen production and mixed plastic waste management.

Catalysts↗
DOE OSTI2018

Analyses for High‐Resolution Projections Through the End of the 21st Century for Precipitation Extremes Over the United States

This study compares an ensemble of dynamically downscaled projections of extreme daily precipitation over the contiguous United States (CONUS). With a grid spacing of 12 km and a domain that encompasses most of North America, we use the Weather Research and Forecast model as a regional climate model. We incorporate initial and boundary conditions from three different Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 Earth system models (ESMs). We focus on precipitation extremes in the future climate (2045–2054 and 2085–2094) by comparing a business-as-usual high-emissions scenario to emissions from a historical period (1995–2004). In the historical period, the Weather Research and Forecasting-downscaled simulations result in significant improvements over the ESMs for precipitation extremes. In the analyses of future climate, there is a large increase in the projected frequency of extreme precipitation events over the entire CONUS and a decrease in median precipitation days. Moreover, most regions show an increase in the number of dry days in the future scenarios. The magnitude of extreme precipitation events is projected to increase in the CONUS at all temperatures above freezing. The strongest precipitation events will increase in intensity, primarily because of a shift in precipitation distribution due to the increase in near-surface air temperatures (Clausius-Claperyon relationship). However, these events are also affected by changes in some atmospheric dynamical factors, such as stronger low level jet, especially over the Midwestern United States. In addition, compared to those calculated by the ESMs, the downscaled projections show important regional differences in the frequency and magnitude of extreme precipitation events.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Study of In-Trap Ion Clouds by Ion Trajectory Simulations

Gaussian distribution has been utilized to describe the global number density distribution of ion cloud in the Paul trap, which is known as the thermal equilibrium theory and widely used in theoretical modeling of ion clouds in the ion traps. Using ion trajectory simulations, however, the ion clouds can now also be treated as a dynamic ion flow field and the location-dependent features could now be characterized. This study was carried out to better understand the in-trap ion cloud properties, such as the local particle velocity and temperature. The local ion number densities were found to be heterogeneously distributed in terms of mean and distribution width; the velocity and temperature of the ion flow varied with pressure depending on the flow type of the neutral molecules; and the “quasi-static” equilibrium status can only be achieved after a certain number of collisions, for which the time period is pressure-dependent. This work provides new insights of the ion clouds that are globally stable but subjected to local rf heating and collisional cooling. .

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

CHANDRA AND XMM-NEWTON X-RAY OBSERVATIONS OF THE HYPERACTIVE T TAURI STAR RY TAU

We present results of pointed X-ray observations of the accreting jet-driving T Tauri star RY Tau using Chandra and XMM-Newton . We obtained high-resolution grating spectra and excellent-quality CCD spectra and light curves with the objective of identifying the physical mechanisms underlying RY Tau’s bright X-ray emission. Grating spectra reveal numerous emission lines spanning a broad range of temperature superimposed on a hot continuum. The X-ray emission measure distribution is dominated by very hot plasma at T {sub hot} ∼ 50 MK, but higher temperatures were present during flares. A weaker cool plasma component is also present as revealed by low-temperature lines such as O viii. X-ray light curves show complex variability consisting of short-duration (∼hours) superhot flares accompanied by fluorescent Fe emission at 6.4 keV superimposed on a slowly varying (∼one day) component that may be tied to stellar rotation. The hot flaring component is undoubtedly of magnetic (e.g., coronal) origin. Soft- and hard-band light curves undergo similar slow variability implying that at least some of the cool plasma shares a common magnetic origin with the hot plasma. Any contribution to the X-ray emission from cool shocked plasma is small compared to the dominant hot component but production of individual low-temperature lines such as O viii in an accretion shock is not ruled out.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Influence of Dynamic Three Point Bending on the Work Hardening Capacity of T105Mn120 Manganese Steel

The paper analyzes work hardening behavior of T105Mn120 Hadfield steel under dynamic conditions. The specimens were investigated under two states: (a) untreated (as cast) and (b) solution treated to 1100 °C. Dynamic flexural behavior was examined by means of three-point-bending tests performed with a dynamic mechanical analyser (DMA), and structural analysis was done by x-ray diffraction, optical and scanning electron microscopy; DMA tests were performed under two variants: (a) temperature scans, between − 150 and 400 °C and (b) isothermal strain sweeps, up to 0.15% strain amplitudes. The former emphasized the critical temperatures of thermally induced reversible martensitic transformation and antiferromagnetic–paramagnetic phase transition, while the latter enabled to monitor the storage modulus increase due to the work hardening caused by dynamic bending. Strain sweeps tests revealed the effects of both dynamic bending frequency and number of cycles. The largest work hardening effect, obtained after five strain sweep cycles applied at the frequency of 5 Hz, was associated with the finest distribution of precipitated carbides, observed by differential scanning calorimetry and the formation of slip micro-bands, illustrated on OM micrographs and SEM energy dispersion spectroscopy maps.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Resolving local ordering and structure in Mn x Ge 1- x Te alloys through thermodynamic ensembles of pair distribution functions

Characterizing local bonding environments in complex materials is essential for understanding and optimizing their properties. Equally as important is the ability to predict local motifs as a function of synthesis conditions, enhancing chemists’ ability to design properties into materials. In this study, we present an approach to leverage statistical mechanics to generate temperature- and energy-informed ensemble averaged pair distribution functions (PDFs). This method, which we have named Thermodynamic Ensemble Averages of PDFs for Ordering and Transformations (TEAPOT), utilizes density functional theory (DFT) to relax supercells while incorporating energetic penalties for local order, enabling accurate and computationally efficient analysis of local structure. We apply this method to the neutron PDF measurements of the pseudobinary MnTe–GeTe (MGT) alloy, demonstrating its capability to resolve complex local distortions and chemical ordering. Our results reveal detailed insights into phase transformations and local distortions driven by Mn substitution. For compositions that globally present as rock salt, our analysis reveals that Ge coordination geometry is heavily impacted by synthesis temperature. We propose that high temperature synthesis conditions promote a lowered Ge polyhedra distortion, promoting high charge carrier mobility due to the alignment of local and global structure. Incorporating statistical mechanics and computation into experimental analysis thus guides synthesis of tailored local structure.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Phonon second harmonic generation in NaBr studied by inelastic neutron scattering and computer simulation

The phenomenon of second harmonic generation (SHG) was found for phonons in anharmonic NaBr by inelastic neutron scattering. The temperature dependence of this phonon SHG was measured from 300 K to 650 K. At 300 K the second harmonic (SH) is seen as a high-energy branch around 33 meV, nearly independent of $\overrightarrow{Q}$. The temperature effective potential (TDEP) method and classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulation with machine learning interatomic potential were able to reproduce the SH, and showed that SHG occurs with the flat transverse optical (TO) phonon branch. A classical model of a nonlinear medium explains the intensity and lifetime of the SH, compared to those of the TO modes. Also successful was a quantum model based on the Heisenberg-Langevin equation for interacting phonons coupled to a thermal bath, which also predicts a spectral distribution of the SH. In conclusion, the measured temperature dependence of the intensity of the second harmonic showed that it follows the Planck distribution of a one-phonon quasiparticle, and not two TO phonons.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

NMR evidence for inhomogeneous glassy behavior driven by nematic fluctuations in iron arsenide superconductors

We present 75 As nuclear magnetic resonance spin-lattice and spin-spin relaxation rate data in Ba(Fe 1–x Co x ) 2 As 2 and Ba(Fe 1–x Cu x ) 2 As 2 as a function of temperature, doping, and magnetic field. The relaxation curves exhibit a broad distribution of relaxation rates, consistent with inhomogeneous glassy behavior up to 100 K. The doping and temperature response of the width of the dynamical heterogeneity is similar to that of the nematic susceptibility measured by elastoresistance measurements. In this study, we argue that quenched random fields which couple to the nematic order give rise to a nematic glass that is reflected in the spin dynamics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Population genomics provides insights into the genetic basis of adaptive evolution in the mushroom-forming fungus Lentinula edodes

Introduction: Mushroom-forming fungi comprise diverse species that develop complex multicellular structures. In cultivated species, both ecological adaptation and artificial selection have driven genome evolution. However, little is known about the connections among genotype, phenotype and adaptation in mushroom-forming fungi. Objectives: This study aimed to (1) uncover the population structure and demographic history of Lentinula edodes, (2) dissect the genetic basis of adaptive evolution in L. edodes, and (3) determine if genes related to fruiting body development are involved in adaptive evolution. Methods: We analyzed genomes and fruiting body-related traits (FBRTs) in 133 L. edodes strains and conducted RNA-seq analysis of fruiting body development in the YS69 strain. Combined methods of genomic scan for divergence, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and RNA-seq were used to dissect the genetic basis of adaptive evolution. Results: We detected three distinct subgroups of L. edodes via single nucleotide polymorphisms, which showed robust phenotypic and temperature response differentiation and correlation with geographical distribution. Demographic history inference suggests that the subgroups diverged 36,871 generations ago. Moreover, L. edodes cultivars in China may have originated from the vicinity of Northeast China. A total of 942 genes were found to be related to genetic divergence by genomic scan, and 719 genes were identified to be candidates underlying FBRTs by GWAS. Integrating results of genomic scan and GWAS, 80 genes were detected to be related to phenotypic differentiation. A total of 364 genes related to fruiting body development were involved in genetic divergence and phenotypic differentiation. Conclusion: Adaptation to the local environment, especially temperature, triggered genetic divergence and phenotypic differentiation of L. edodes. A general model for genetic divergence and phenotypic differentiation during adaptive evolution in L. edodes, which involves in signal perception and transduction, transcriptional regulation, and fruiting body morphogenesis, was also integrated here.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

On the rogue waves propagation in non-Maxwellian complex space plasmas

The implications of the non-Maxwellian electron distributions (nonthermal/or suprathermal/or nonextensive distributions) are examined on the dust-ion acoustic (DIA) rogue/freak waves in a dusty warm plasma. Using a reductive perturbation technique, the basic set of fluid equations is reduced to a nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The latter is used to study the nonlinear evolution of modulationally unstable DIA wavepackets and to describe the rogue waves (RWs) propagation. Rogue waves are large-amplitude short-lived wave groups, routinely observed in space plasmas. The possible region for the rogue waves to exist is defined precisely for typical parameters of space plasmas. It is shown that the RWs strengthen for decreasing plasma nonthermality and increasing superthermality. For nonextensive electrons, the RWs amplitude exhibits a bit more complex behavior, depending on the entropic index q. Moreover, our numerical results reveal that the RWs exist with all values of the ion-to-electron temperature ratio σ for nonthermal and superthermal distributions and there is no limitation for the freak waves to propagate in both two distributions in the present plasma system. But, for nonextensive electron distribution, the bright- and dark-type waves can propagate in this case, which means that there is a limitation for the existence of freak waves. Our systematic investigation should be useful in understanding the properties of DIA solitary waves that may occur in non-Maxwellian space plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

The case for mixed dark matter from sterile neutrinos

Sterile neutrinos are SU(2) singlets that mix with active neutrinos via a mass matrix, its diagonalization leads to mass eigenstates that couple via standard model vertices. We study the cosmological production of heavy neutrinos via standard model charged and neutral current vertices under a minimal set of assumptions: i) the mass basis contains a hierarchy of heavy neutrinos , ii) these have very small mixing angles with the active (flavor) neutrinos, iii) standard model particles, including light (active-like) neutrinos are in thermal equilibrium. If kinematically allowed, the same weak interaction processes that produce active-like neutrinos also produce the heavier species. We introduce the quantum kinetic equations that describe their production, freeze out and decay and discuss the various processes that lead to their production in a wide range of temperatures assessing their feasibility as dark matter candidates. The final distribution function at freeze-out is a mixture of the result of the various production processes. We identify processes in which finite temperature collective excitations may lead to the production of the heavy species. As a specific example, we consider the production of heavy neutrinos in the mass range M {sub h} ∼< 140 MeV from pion decay shortly after the QCD crossover including finite temperature corrections to the pion form factors and mass. We consider the different decay channels that allow for the production of heavy neutrinos showing that their frozen distribution functions exhibit effects from ''kinematic entanglement'' and argue for their viability as mixed dark matter candidates. We discuss abundance, phase space density and stability constraints and argue that heavy neutrinos with lifetime τ> 1/ H {sub 0} freeze out of local thermal equilibrium, and conjecture that those with lifetimes τ || 1/ H {sub 0} may undergo cascade decay into lighter DM candidates and/or inject non-LTE neutrinos into the cosmic neutrino background. We provide a comparison with non-resonant production via active-sterile mixing.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Effect of Composition on the Phase Structure and Magnetic Properties of Ball-Milled LaFe11.71-xMnxSi1.29H1.6 Magnetocaloric Powders

Magnetocaloric alloys are an important class of materials that enable non-vapor compression cycles. One promising candidate for magnetocaloric systems is LaFeMnSi, thanks to a combination of factors including low-cost constituents and a useful curie temperature, although control of the constituents’ phase distribution can be challenging. In this paper, the effects of composition and high energy ball milling on the particle morphology and phase stability of LaFe11.71-xMnxSi1.29H1.6 magnetocaloric powders were investigated. The powders were characterized with optical microscopy, dynamic light scattering, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It was found that the powders retained most of their original magnetocaloric phase during milling, although milling reduced the degree of crystallinity in the powder. Furthermore, some oxide phases (<1 weight percent) were present in the as-received and milled powders, which indicates that no significant contamination of the powders occurred during milling. Finally, the results indicated that the Curie temperature drops as Fe content decreases (Mn content increases). In all of the powders, milling led to an increase in the Curie temperature of ~3–6 °C.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗