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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

Diffuse Radiation Forcing Constraints on Gross Primary Productivity and Global Terrestrial Evapotranspiration

Abstract The diffuse radiation fertilization effect—the increase in plant productivity in the presence of higher diffuse radiation ( K ↓,d )—is an important yet understudied aspect of atmosphere‐biosphere interactions and can modify the terrestrial carbon, energy, and water budgets. The K ↓,d fertilization effect links the carbon cycle with clouds and aerosols, all of which are large sources of uncertainties for our current understanding of the Earth system and for future climate projections. Here we establish to what extent observational and modeling uncertainty in sunlight's diffuse fraction ( k d ) affects simulated gross primary productivity (GPP) and terrestrial evapotranspiration ( λE ). We find only 48 eddy covariance sites with simultaneous sufficient measurements of K ↓,d with none in the tropical climate zone, making it difficult to constrain this mechanism globally using observations. Using a land modeling framework based on the latest version of the Community Land Model, we find that global GPP ranges from 114 Pg C year −1 when using k d forcing from the Modern‐Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 reanalysis to a ∼7% higher value of 122 Pg C year −1 when using the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System satellite product, with especially strong differences apparent over the tropical region (mean increase ∼9%). The differences in λE , although smaller (−0.4%) due to competing changes in shaded and sunlit leaf transpiration, can be greater than regional impacts of individual forcing agents like aerosols. Our results demonstrate the importance of comprehensively and systematically validating the simulated k d by atmosphere modules as well as the response to differences in k d within land modules across Earth System Models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

The Impact of Circumsolar Diffuse Radiation on the Numerical Computation and Forecasting of DNI

Weather Research and Forecasting model with solar extensions (WRF-Solar) uses the Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar applications (FARMS) to predict solar radiation from the forecasted atmospheric gases, aerosols, and clouds. The Beer-Bouguer-Lambert law utilized by FARMS as well as other radiative transfer models assumes Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) is a narrow beam only covering the sun disk. This assumption is interpreted differently in solar observations by pyrheliometers where the circumsolar diffuse radiation is accounted. This study precisely computes circumsolar diffuse radiation in all-sky conditions using a radiative transfer model based on a parameterization of precomputed cloud transmittance and reflectance. The model is implemented in WRF-Solar to provide day-ahead DNI forecast in the north America. The computation and forecasting of DNI is compared with the Beer-Bouguer-Lambert law to understand the impact of circumsolar diffuse radiation.

aerosols↗

Consistent solutions of the radiation diffusion equation in spherical and cylindrical geometries

We have extended the radiation diffusion model of Hammer and Rosen [Phys. Plasmas 10, 1829 (2003)] to diverging spherical and cylindrical geometries. The effect of curvilinear geometry on the supersonic, expanding wavefront increases as the internal radius of a spherical or cylindrical shell approaches zero. Small spherical geometries are important for modeling systems at the size scale of inertial confinement fusion capsules, at these scales existing quasi-analytic models for planar geometry significantly disagree with the results of simulation. With this method, the benefits of rapid iteration can be applied to common spherical systems at much smaller length scales. We present comparisons between numerical diffusion solutions and the analytic model to give ranges of applicability for the model.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

The “Fresnel Equations” for Diffuse radiation on Inclined photovoltaic Surfaces (FEDIS)

Here the well-known Fresnel equations solve for the reflection and transmission of light for precise incident angles. The transmission of diffuse radiation incident on a planar or domed surface is often needed for real-world applications. Due to the complexity of the Fresnel equations, the analytical solution of the integration has hitherto been unobtainable over the last centuries. Therefore, this problem was numerically solved by integrating the angular transmittances in space often leading to substantial computing burden and bias in the results. To efficiently estimate the solar energy resource for a glass-covered photovoltaic (PV) module, we derive an analytical solution of diffuse transmission based on the rigorous integration of an alternate form of the Fresnel equations. The approach leads to a simple yet accurate relative transmittance model that reconciles the solar energy sensed by pyranometers and PV panels. With limited and clearly stated approximations, the complex mathematical derivation resulted in an elegant solution. An experiment using 1-year of data at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) Solar Radiation Research Laboratory (SRRL) shows that the new model dramatically decreases the disparity between the solar radiation measurements by a Kipp and Zonen CM Pyranometer 22 (CMP22) and an IMT reference cell on a 1-axis tracking system. The solution in this paper can be widely used in scientific and engineering research, development, and applications wherever the Fresnel equations are used.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

FEDIS (The “Fresnel Equations” for Diffuse radiation on Inclined photovoltaic Surfaces) [SWR-22-64]

The well-known Fresnel equations solve for the reflection and transmission of light for precise incident angles. The transmission of diffuse radiation incident on a planar or domed surface is often needed for real-world applications. Due to the complexity of the Fresnel equations, the analytical solution of the integration has hitherto been unobtainable over the last centuries. Therefore, this problem was numerically solved by integrating the angular transmittances in space often leading to substantial computing burden and bias in the results. To efficiently estimate the solar energy resource for a glass-covered photovoltaic (PV) module, we derive an analytical solution of diffuse transmission based on the rigorous integration of an alternate form of the Fresnel equations. The approach leads to a simple yet accurate relative transmittance model that reconciles the solar energy sensed by pyranometers and PV panels. With limited and clearly stated approximations, the complex mathematical derivation resulted in an elegant solution.

Xie, Yu↗

Implicit-explicit Runge-Kutta for radiation hydrodynamics I: Gray diffusion

Radiation hydrodynamics are a challenging multiscale and multiphysics set of equations. To capture the relevant physics of interest, one typically must time step on the hydrodynamics timescale, making explicit integration the obvious choice. On the other hand, the coupled radiation equations have a scaling such that implicit integration is effectively necessary in non-relativistic regimes. A first-order Lie-Trotter-like operator split is the most common time integration scheme used in practice, alternating between an explicit hydrodynamics step and an implicit radiation solve and energy deposition step. However, such a scheme is limited to first-order accuracy, and nonlinear coupling between the radiation and hydrodynamics equations makes a more general additive partitioning of the equations non-trivial. Here, we develop a new formulation and partitioning of radiation hydrodynamics with gray diffusion that allows us to apply (linearly) implicit-explicit Runge-Kutta time integration schemes. In conclusion, we prove conservation of total energy in the new framework, and demonstrate 2nd-order convergence in time on multiple radiative shock problems, achieving error 3–5 orders of magnitude smaller than the first-order Lie-Trotter operator split at the hydrodynamic CFL, even when Lie-Trotter applies a 3rd-order TVD Runge-Kutta scheme to the hydrodynamics equations.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Tree-based solvers for adaptive mesh refinement code FLASH – III: a novel scheme for radiation pressure on dust and gas and radiative transfer from diffuse sources

Radiation is an important contributor to the energetics of the interstellar medium, yet its transport is difficult to solve numerically. We present a novel approach towards solving radiative transfer of diffuse sources via backwards ray tracing. Here, we focus on the radiative transfer of infrared radiation and the radiation pressure on dust. The new module, TREERAY/RADPRESSURE, is an extension to the novel radiative transfer method TREERAY implemented in the grid-based Magneto-Hydrodynamics code FLASH. In TREERAY/RADPRESSURE, every cell and every star particle is a source of infrared radiation. We also describe how gas, dust, and radiation are coupled via a chemical network. This allows us to compute the local dust temperature in thermal equilibrium, leading to a significantly improvement over the classical grey approximation. In several tests, we demonstrate that the scheme produces the correct radiative intensities as well as the correct momentum input by radiation pressure. Subsequently, we apply our new scheme to model massive star formation from a collapsing, turbulent core of 150 M ⊙ . We include the effects of both, ionizing and infrared radiation on the dynamics of the core. We find that the newborn massive star prevents fragmentation in its proximity due to radiative heating. Over time, dust and radiation temperature equalize, while the gas temperature can be either warmer due to shock heating or colder due to insufficient dust–gas coupling. Compared to gravity, the effects of radiation pressure are insignificant for the stellar mass on the simulated time-scale in this work.

(ISM:) HII regions↗

Strong Local Evaporative Cooling Over Land Due to Atmospheric Aerosols

Abstract Aerosols can enhance terrestrial productivity through increased absorption of solar radiation by the shaded portion of the plant canopy—the diffuse radiation fertilization effect. Although this process can, in principle, alter surface evaporation due to the coupling between plant water loss and carbon uptake, with the potential to change the surface temperature, aerosol‐climate interactions have been traditionally viewed in light of the radiative effects within the atmosphere. Here, we develop a modeling framework that combines global atmosphere and land model simulations with a conceptual diagnostic tool to investigate these interactions from a surface energy budget perspective. Aerosols increase the terrestrial evaporative fraction, or the portion of net incoming energy consumed by evaporation, by over 4% globally and as much as ∼40% regionally. The main mechanism for this is the increase in energy allocation from sensible to latent heat due to global dimming (reduction in global shortwave radiation) and slightly augmented by diffuse radiation fertilization. In regions with moderately dense vegetation (leaf area index >2), the local surface cooling response to aerosols is dominated by this evaporative pathway, not the reduction in incident radiation. Diffuse radiation fertilization alone has a stronger impact on gross primary productivity (+2.18 Pg C y −1 or +1.8%) than on land evaporation (+0.18 W m −2 or +0.48%) and surface temperature (−0.01 K). Our results suggest that it is important for land surface models to distinguish between quantity (change in total magnitude) and quality (change in diffuse fraction) of radiative forcing for properly simulating surface climate.

Chakraborty, TC↗

Two-dimensional simulations of internal gravity waves in a $\mathrm{5M_⊙}$ zero-age-main-sequence model

Main-sequence intermediate-mass stars present a radiative envelope that supports internal gravity waves (IGWs). Excited at the boundary with the convective core, IGWs propagate towards the stellar surface and are suspected to impact physical processes such as rotation and chemical mixing. Using the fully compressible time-implicit code MUSIC, we study IGWs in two-dimensional simulations of a zero-age-main-sequence 5 solar mass star model up to 91 percent of the stellar radius with different luminosity and radiative diffusivity enhancements. Our results show that low-frequency waves excited by core convection are strongly impacted by radiative effects as they propagate. This impact depends on the radial profile of radiative diffusivity which increases by almost 5 orders of magnitude between the centre of the star and the top of the simulation domain. In the upper layers of the simulation domain, we observe an increase of the temperature. Our study suggests that this is due to heat added in these layers by IGWs damped by radiative diffusion. We show that non-linear effects linked to large amplitude IGWs may be relevant just above the convective core. Both these effects are intensified by the artificial enhancement of the luminosity and radiative diffusivity, with enhancement factors up to 10 4 times the realistic values. Our results also highlight that direct comparison between numerical simulations with enhanced luminosity and observations must be made with caution. Finally, our work suggests that thermal effects linked to the damping of IGWs could have a non-negligible impact on stellar structure.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Radiation driven diffusion in γU-Mo

A monolithic fuel design based on a U-Mo alloy has been selected as the fuel type for conversion of the United States High-Performance Research Reactors (HPRRs). A critical phenomenon of interest with U-Mo monolithic fuel is the large amount of swelling that takes place during operation, particularly at high fission densities. The accurate prediction of fuel evolution under irradiation requires implementation of correct thermodynamic and kinetic properties into mesoscale and continuum level fuel performance modeling codes. One such property where there exists incomplete data is the diffusion of relevant species under irradiation. Fuel performance swelling predictions rely on an accurate representation of diffusion in order to determine the rate of fission gas swelling and the local microstructural evolution. In this work, we present molecular dynamics simulations of the radiation driven diffusion of U, Mo and Xe in U-Mo nuclear fuels. Diffusion coefficients for each species are determined over a range of temperatures and compositions. In this work, updated diffusion coefficients are presented that are applicable under irradiation that incorporate both intrinsic and radiation driven diffusion.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

A Variable Eddington Factor Model for Thermal Radiative Transfer with Closure Based on Data-Driven Shape Function

Here, a new variable Eddington factor (VEF) model is presented for nonlinear problems of thermal radiative transfer (TRT). The VEF model is data-driven and acts on known (a-priori) radiation-diffusion solutions for material temperatures in the TRT problem. A linear auxiliary problem is constructed for the radiative transfer equation (RTE) whose emission source and opacities are evaluated at these known material temperatures. The solution to this RTE approximates the specific intensity distribution in phase-space and time. It is applied as a shape function to define the Eddington tensor for the presented VEF model. The shape function computed via the auxiliary RTE problem will capture some degree of transport effects within the TRT problem. The VEF moment equations closed with this approximate Eddington tensor will thus carry with them these captured transport effects. In this study, the temperature data comes from multigroup P 1 , P 1/3 , and flux-limited diffusion radiative transfer models. The proposed VEF model can be interpreted as a transport-corrected diffusion reduced-order model. Numerical results are presented on the Fleck-Cummings test problem which models a supersonic wavefront of radiation. The VEF model is shown to improve accuracy by 1–2 orders of magnitude compared to the considered radiation-diffusion model solutions to the TRT problem.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

HARD: A performance portable radiation hydrodynamics code based on FleCSI framework

Hydrodynamics And Radiation Diffusion (HARD) is an open-source application for high-performance simulations of compressible hydrodynamics with radiation-diffusion coupling. Built on the FleCSI (Bergen et al., 2021 [1]) (Flexible Computational Science Infrastructure) framework, HARD expresses its computational units as tasks whose execution can be orchestrated by multiple back-end runtimes, including Legion (Bauer et al., 2012 [2]), MPI (Forum, 1994 [3]), and HPX (Kaiser et al., 2020 [4]). Node-level parallelism is handled through Kokkos (Edwards et al., 2014 [5]), providing a single-source, portable code base that runs efficiently on laptops, small homogeneous clusters, and the largest heterogeneous supercomputers currently available. To ensure scientific reliability, HARD includes a regression test suite that automatically reproduces canonical verification problems such as the Sod and LeBlanc shock tubes, and the Sedov blast wave, comparing numerical solutions against known analytical results. The project is distributed under an OSI-approved license, hosted on GitHub, and accompanied by reproducible build scripts and continuous integration workflows. This combination of performance portability, verification infrastructure, and community-focused development makes HARD a sustainable platform for advancing radiation hydrodynamics research across multiple domains.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Matrix-Free High-Performance Saddle-Point Solvers for High-Order Problems in \(\boldsymbol{H}(\operatorname{\textbf{div}})\)

Here, this work describes the development of matrix-free GPU-accelerated solvers for high-order finite element problems in H(div). The solvers are applicable to grad-div and Darcy problems in saddle-point formulation, and have applications in radiation diffusion and porous media flow problems, among others. Using the interpolation–histopolation basis, efficient matrix-free preconditioners can be constructed for the (1, 1)-block and Schur complement of the block system. With these approximations, block-preconditioned MINRES converges in a number of iterations that is independent of the mesh size and polynomial degree. The approximate Schur complement takes the form of an M-matrix graph Laplacian and therefore can be well-preconditioned by highly scalable algebraic multigrid methods. High-performance GPU-accelerated algorithms for all components of the solution algorithm are developed, discussed, and benchmarked. Numerical results are presented on a number of challenging test cases, including the “crooked pipe” grad-div problem, the SPE10 reservoir modeling benchmark problem, and a nonlinear radiation diffusion test case.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Classical-quantum simulation of non-equilibrium Marshak waves

In the radiation hydrodynamic simulations used to design inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and pulsed power experiments, nonlinear radiation diffusion tends to dominate CPU time. This raises the interesting question of whether a quantum algorithm can be found for nonlinear radiation diffusion which provides a quantum speedup. Recently, such a quantum algorithm was introduced based on a quantum algorithm for solving systems of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) which provides a quadratic quantum speedup. Here, we apply this quantum PDE (QPDE) algorithm to the problem of a non-equilibrium Marshak wave propagating through a cold, semi-infinite, optically thick target, where the radiation and matter fields are not assumed to be in local thermodynamic equilibrium. The dynamics is governed by a coupled pair of nonlinear PDEs which are solved using the QPDE algorithm, as well as two standard PDE solvers: (i) Python's py-pde solver; and (ii) the KULL ICF simulation code developed at Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratory. We compare the simulation results obtained using the QPDE algorithm and the standard PDE solvers and find excellent agreement.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Vegetation clumping modulates global photosynthesis through adjusting canopy light environment

Abstract The spatial dispersion of photoelements within a vegetation canopy, quantified by the clumping index (CI), directly regulates the within‐canopy light environment and photosynthesis rate, but is not commonly implemented in terrestrial biosphere models to estimate the ecosystem carbon cycle. A few global CI products have been developed recently with remote sensing measurements, making it possible to examine the global impacts of CI. This study deployed CI in the radiative transfer scheme of the Community Land Model version 5 (CLM5) and used the revised CLM5 to quantitatively evaluate the extent to which CI can affect canopy absorbed radiation and gross primary production (GPP), and for the first time, considering the uncertainty and seasonal variation of CI with multiple remote sensing products. Compared to the results without considering the CI impact, the revised CLM5 estimated that sunlit canopy absorbed up to 9%–15% and 23%–34% less direct and diffuse radiation, respectively, while shaded canopy absorbed 3%–18% more diffuse radiation across different biome types. The CI impacts on canopy light conditions included changes in canopy light absorption, and sunlit–shaded leaf area fraction related to nitrogen distribution and thus the maximum rate of Rubisco carboxylase activity ( V cmax ), which together decreased photosynthesis in sunlit canopy by 5.9–7.2 PgC year −1 while enhanced photosynthesis by 6.9–8.2 PgC year −1 in shaded canopy. With higher light use efficiency of shaded leaves, shaded canopy increased photosynthesis compensated and exceeded the lost photosynthesis in sunlit canopy, resulting in 1.0 ± 0.12 PgC year −1 net increase in GPP. The uncertainty of GPP due to the different input CI datasets was much larger than that caused by CI seasonal variations, and was up to 50% of the magnitude of GPP interannual variations in the tropical regions. This study highlights the necessity of considering the impacts of CI and its uncertainty in terrestrial biosphere models.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Probing elemental diffusion and radiation tolerance of perovskite solar cells via non-destructive Rutherford backscattering spectrometry

Mixed organic–inorganic halide perovskite-based solar cells have attracted interest in recent years due to their potential for both terrestrial and space applications. Analysis of interfaces is critical to predicting device behavior and optimizing device architectures. Most advanced tools to study buried interfaces are destructive in nature and can induce further degradation. Ion beam techniques, such as Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), is a useful non-destructive method to probe an elemental depth profile of multilayered perovskite solar cells (PSCs) as well as to study the inter-diffusion of various elemental species across interfaces. Additionally, PSCs are becoming viable candidates for space photovoltaic applications, and it is critical to investigate their radiation-induced degradation. RBS can be simultaneously utilized to analyze the radiation effects induced by He+ beam on the device, given their presence in space orbits. In the present work, a 2 MeV He+ beam was used to probe the evidence of elemental diffusion across PSC interfaces with architecture glass/ITO/SnO2/Cs0.05(MA0.17FA0.83)0.95Pb(I0.83Br0.17)3/spiro-OMeTAD/MoO3/Au. During the analysis, the device active area was exposed to an irradiation equivalent of up to 1.62 × 1015 He+/cm2, and yet, no measurable evidence (with a depth resolution ∼1 nm) of beam-induced ion migration was observed, implying high radiation tolerance of PSCs. On the other hand, aged PSCs exhibited indications of the movement of diverse elemental species, such as Au, Pb, In, Sn, Br, and I, in the active area of the device, which was quantified with the help of RBS.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Radiation-reduced diffusion of Nd in bcc Fe

Here, this study combines ab initio calculations and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the bulk diffusion of Nd, an exemplar lanthanide element, in bcc Fe. Contrary to the conventional belief that irradiation accelerates diffusion processes, our study reveals that irradiation can unexpectedly reduce the diffusion of Nd due to the strong binding between substitutional Nd atoms and vacancies in bcc Fe. Combined with the high concentration of nonequilibrium vacancies, this promotes the abundant formation of Nd+3Va defect complexes containing a single Nd substitutional atom and three vacancies, accompanied by the depletion of Nd-vacancy pairs that mediate the diffusion of Nd.

Density functional theory (DFT)↗