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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 19 records

Inferring the temperature profile of the radiative shock in the COAX experiment with shock radiography, Dante, and spectral temperature diagnostics

Predicting and modeling the behavior of experiments with radiation waves propagating through low-density foams require a detailed quantification of the numerous uncertainties present. In regimes where a prominent radiative shock is produced, key dynamical features include the shock position, temperature, and curvature and the spatial distribution and temperature of the corresponding supersonic radiation wave. The COAX experimental platform is designed to constrain numerical models of such a radiative shock propagating through a low-density foam by employing radiography for spatial and shock information, Dante for characterizing the x-ray flux from the indirectly driven target, and a novel spectral diagnostic designed to probe the temperature profile of the wave. In this work, we model COAX with parameterized 2D simulations and a Hohlraum-laser modeling package to study uncertainties in diagnosing the experiment. The inferred temperature profile of the COAX radiation transport experiments has been shown to differ from simulations more than expected from drive uncertainties that have been constrained by simultaneous soft x-ray flux and radiography measurements.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Detailed temperature diagnostic studies for Radishock and COAX experiments

Spectral diagnostics provide a powerful probe of high energy-density physics experiments. By shining an x-ray source on a target, absorption features can be used to determine accurate temperature profiles of that target material. Many studies produce a single temperature/density measurement by fitting these observed spectra. This paper demonstrates how, by leveraging detailed simulations, we can not only measure the average temperature and density, but the full density and temperature profiles. To do so, we must conduct a careful analysis of the uncertainties in the diagnostic measurement. Here we discuss the characteristics and associated uncertainties of the spectral diagnostic used in the COAX, Radishock and OuTi experiments, ultimately demonstrating how these detailed studies increase the potential of this powerful probe.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Coax-to-channelised coplanar waveguide in-phase N-way, radial power divider

A novel nonplanar, wideband power divider which makes use of a coax-to-CCPW transition is demonstrated. The transition utilizes a coaxial transformer whose outer conductor is slotted along the length for RF power division and also for exciting the CCPWs in equal amplitude and phase at the radial junction. The measured (8-16 GHz) excess insertion loss at the output ports is 0.5 dB for a four-way divider. The amplitude and phase balance are within 0.5 dB and 5 deg, respectively. The power divider should find applications in the feed network of phased arrays.

Simons, R. N.↗

An efficient and accurate model of the coax cable feeding structure for FEM simulations

An efficient and accurate coax cable feed model is proposed for microstrip or cavity-backed patch antennas in the context of a hybrid finite element method (FEM). A TEM mode at the cavity-cable junction is assumed for the FEM truncation and system excitation. Of importance in this implementation is that the cavity unknowns are related to the model fields by enforcing an equipotential condition rather than field continuity. This scheme proved quite accurate and may be applied to other decomposed systems as a connectivity constraint. Comparisons of our predictions with input impedance measurements are presented and demonstrate the substantially improved accuracy of the proposed model.

Gong, Jian↗

Test cavity and Iris-to-Coax transition for tuning and high-power verification of SNS DTL iris couplers

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) Drift Tube Linac (DTL) employs iris couplers to efficiently deliver RF power into the accelerating structure. To support the development, tuning, and high‑power conditioning of these couplers prior to installation in the actual DTLs, a dedicated test cavity and an iris‑to‑coaxial transition structure have been designed. This work presents the electromagnetic design, simulation, and optimization of the test setup, enabling precise characterization of the iris coupler’s performance. The transition structure allows for tuning of the iris opening dimensions without requiring a waveguide taper or full‑size waveguide transitions, while maintaining impedance matching between the coaxial feed and the iris geometry to minimize reflection and power loss. During low‑power tests, the iris opening di-mensions can be evaluated using the iris‑to‑coax transi-tion attached to the test cavity. For high‑power condi-tioning, full‑size waveguides with ceramic vacuum win-dows are connected to the test cavity to replicate opera-tional conditions. Key design parameters were optimized using computer-aided simulation, and sensitivity studies were conducted to assess the impact of mechanical toler-ances on RF performance. The resulting test platform provides a reliable and efficient means for tuning and validating iris couplers, contributing to improved opera-tional stability in the SNS DTL.

Lee, Sung-Woo [ORNL] (ORCID:000000030915835X)↗

Coaxial wires coax energy from water

Inexpensive, earth-abundant photoabsorbers for solar water splitting have, so far, not demonstrated notable performance. Now, voltage gained from a coaxial heterojunction coupled with nanostructure-enhanced photocurrent results in Cu 2 O photocathodes demonstrating benchmark water-splitting performance.

08 HYDROGEN↗

High speed electrostatic photomultiplier tube for the 1.06 micrometer wavelength. Cup and slat dynode chain combined with flat cathode and coax output produces 0.25 nsec rise time

The Varian cup and slat dynode chain was modified to have a flat cathode. These modifications were incorporated in an all-electrostatic photomultiplier tube having a rise time of 0.25 n sec. The tube delivered under the contract had a flat S-20 opaque cathode with a useful diameter of 5 mm. The design of the tube is such that a III to V cathode support is mounted in place of the existing cathode substrate. This cathode support is designed to accept a transferred III to V cathode and maintain the cathode surface in the same position as the S-20 photocathode.

Sparks, S. D.↗

A temperature profile diagnostic for radiation waves on OMEGA-60

Predicting and matching radiation wave propagation with computational models has proven difficult. Information provided by experiments studying radiation flow has been limited when only radiation breakout is measured. We have developed the COAX (co-axial) diagnostic platform to provide spatial temperature profiles of a radiation wave through low density foams as a more detailed constraint for simulations. COAX uses a standard, laser-driven OMEGA-60 halfraum to drive radiation down a titanium-laden silicon oxide foam. Point-projection X-ray absorption spectroscopy perpendicular to the radiation flow measures the spatial profile of titanium ionization. The spectroscopic measurement utilizes a broadband capsule backlighter. Imaging and streak spectroscopy are used to characterize the size and spectrum of this source. Radiography provides an additional constraint by capturing the developing shock as the radiation flow becomes subsonic. The DANTE diagnostic is used to measure the halfraum temperature. Here, we provide a spectroscopic analysis of COAX data to determine temperature, and we describe experimental sources of uncertainty. The temperature is obtained by comparison to multi-temperature synthetic spectra post-processed from radiation-hydrodynamics simulations. Quantitative comparison between data and synthetic spectra generated from temperature profiles at relevant simulation times enable determination of a peak temperature of 114 ± 8 eV at 265 ± 22.4 μm from the halfraum. This represents an improvement over the temperature uncertainties of previous radiation flow experiments. Further refinements to the spectroscopic analysis could achieve ±4 eV. The combination between space-resolved spectroscopy and radiography enables us to determine the distance from the halfraum of both the radiation front and the shock front at the time of measurement. For the example shown in this paper the radiation front position is 600–630 μm at 3.43 ± 0.16 ns and the shock front position is 633 μm at 3.3 ± 0.24 ns.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Diffraction theory techniques applied to aperture antennas on finite circular and square ground planes

Expressions which represent the elevation-plane patterns of a large TEM mode coax aperture and a TM-01 mode circular aperture on finite circular and square ground planes have been derived using geometrical theory of diffraction; design curves for the coax case are presented. The expressions for the field pattern were obtained by superposing the infinite ground plane solutions, the first-order diffracted field solutions, and the axial caustic solutions in their respective regions of validity. The pattern analyses for the coax and circular apertures are verified experimentally.

Cockrell, C. R.↗

Design of experiments to spectroscopically characterize radiation flow in stochastic media

Precise characterization of experimental radiation flow is required to validate the high energy density physics models, numerical methods, and codes that are used to simulate radiation-hydrodynamics phenomena such as thermal radiation transport in stochastic media. The Cassio code is used to simulate thermal radiation flow through inhomogeneous, stochastic-media-foam configurations containing optically thick clumps dispersed within an optically thin background aerogel. Cassio can model small inhomogeneous problems directly, but most problems require approximations to meet computer limitations on run-times and memory usage. Various examples of these approximations are methods that produce, in one calculation, an ensemble-averaged solution and associated standard deviation; reduced spatial dimensionality with approximate geometries; and full material homogenization with no geometric detail. Cassio simulations are used to design experiments at the OMEGA-60 Laser Facility that can measure the radiation flow using the spatially resolved COAX absorption spectroscopy diagnostic. The experimental platforms flow radiation through foam targets ranging from a background-only aerogel, to a single configuration of a specified stochastic medium, to a fully homogenized foam of the background and clump materials. Under constant total clump mass, larger clumps (here, larger than 10 μm diameter) will mix more slowly with the background such that the bulk radiation flow is faster than it would be in a fully homogenized material. The COAX platform can be used to infer temperature and density profiles in both the background material and clumps, simultaneously, and therefore to differentiate radiation flow in a range of stochastic and homogeneous media.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Modeling Hydrodynamic Instabilities, Shocks, and Radiation Waves in High Energy Density Experiments [Dissertation]

This thesis presents the computational design, modeling, and analysis of three experiments in high-energy density physics (HEDP), all of them concerning fundamental radiation flows. The first experiment is a laboratory astrophysics experiment to investigate the role of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) in the process of galactic filaments supplying gas to galactic halos. The achieved goal was to provide a first study in which the role of the instability is maximal and predict behavior in future iterations of an experiment accessing a more radiative regime where the role of the instability is stifled. This experiment would help answer how certain galaxies are able to grow so rapidly and produce many stars as the KHI limits this process. The second experiment, COAX, is a radiation flow experiment with a novel spectroscopy diagnostic configuration, designed to spatially measure the temperature of a radiation wave as it travels down a doped foam. A key result of this work was the development of a synthetic spectroscopy application and application of modern spectroscopy comparison techniques to provide our first temperature reconstructions from the experimental data. This experimental platform serves as the launching ground for a number of new experiments that vary the basic premise and thus is foundational to our ongoing research. The final experiment is a full integration of modeling, design, and theoretical development for the Radishock experiment. This experimental platform studies the head-on collision of a radiation wave with a counter-propagating shock, and like COAX, uses spectroscopy to diagnose and detect the interaction. My research analyzes the successful shots, indicating aspects of successful detections and suggests improvements to future iterations of the design.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗