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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Review of Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation Effects in CeO2

Cerium dioxide (CeO2) exhibits complex behavior when irradiated with swift heavy ions. Modifications to this material originate from the production of atomic-scale defects, which accumulate and induce changes to the microstructure, chemistry, and material properties. As such, characterizing its radiation response requires a wide range of complementary characterization techniques to elucidate the defect formation and stability over multiple length scales, such as X-ray and neutron scattering, optical spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. In this article, recent experimental efforts are reviewed in order to holistically assess the current understanding and knowledge gaps regarding the underlying physical mechanisms that dictate the response of CeO2 and related materials to irradiation with swift heavy ions. The recent application of novel experimental techniques has provided additional insight into the structural and chemical behavior of irradiation-induced defects, from the local, atomic-scale arrangement to the long-range structure. However, future work must carefully account for the influence of experimental conditions, with respect to both sample properties (e.g., grain size and impurity content) and ion-beam parameters (e.g., ion mass and energy), to facilitate a more direct comparison of experimental results.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Swift /UVOT discovery of Swift J221951−484240: a UV luminous ambiguous nuclear transient

We report the discovery of Swift J221951−484240 (hereafter: J221951), a luminous slow-evolving blue transient that was detected by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (Swift/UVOT) during the follow-up of gravitational wave alert S190930t, to which it is unrelated. Swift/UVOT photometry shows the UV spectral energy distribution of the transient to be well modelled by a slowly shrinking blackbody with an approximately constant temperature of T ∼ 2.5 × 10 4 K. At a redshift z = 0.5205, J221951 had a peak absolute magnitude of M u,AB = −23 mag, peak bolometric luminosity Lmax = 1.1 x 10 45 ergs -1 and a total radiated energy of E > 2.6 × 10 52 erg. The archival Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer IR photometry shows a slow rise prior to a peak near the discovery date. Spectroscopic UV observations display broad absorption lines in N V and O VI, pointing towards an outflow at coronal temperatures. The lack of emission in the higher H α lines, N I and other neutral lines is consistent with a viewing angle close to the plane of the accretion or debris disc. The origin of J221951 cannot be determined with certainty but has properties consistent with a tidal disruption event and the turn-on of an active galactic nucleus.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

CHIPFoam Modification to Allow for Modelling SWIFT Foams

SWIFT (Silicon-water in Familiar Template) foams are silicone foams that have a continuous porosity without having any obvious spherical or ellipsoidal pore shapes. Like other foamed rubber, SWIFT foams can experience large reversible deformations. Because of their microstructure, SWIFT foams have a stiffering behavior in compression that is very abrupt compared to most other foamed rubbers. Work by Benedikt reported by Miller showed that fitting compressive test data with the CHIPFoam model in its current form is impractical and inaccurate. This report describes an extension made to CHIPFoam to allow the modeling of SWIFT foams. While the extension allows the modeling of SWIFT foams, it also extends the range of porosity of foams that can be modelled with CHIPFoam to include very high porosity (>99%) foamed rubber. The previous model was unstable for porosities greater than 70%. The changes made to CHIPFoam include the introduction of a critical porosity at which the compressible Danielsson strain energy function that couples volumetric and deviatoric mechanical behavior begins to increase with compression. This new feature also required the introduction of a third term in the multiplicative decomposition of the relative volume, J . The organization of this report is described here. The first section, SWIFT Foam Structure and Mechanical Behavior, describes the structure of SWIFT foams as contrasted to other foamed rubbers. It also contrasts the mechanical behavior of SWIFT foams to other more traditional foamed rubbers. The second section, CHIPFoam Modifications, describes the specific modifications done to be able to modify the delayed rapid compressive stiffening seen in SWIFT foams. The third section, Results, demonstrates the use of the modified model to fit compressive loading response data from a SWIFT foam sample. The fourth section, Conclusions and Further Work, puts the work in perspective and presents likely further work.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

A step towards unveiling the nature of three cataclysmic variables: LS Cam, V902 Mon, and SWIFT J0746.3-1608

ABSTRACT We have carried out detailed time-resolved timing analyses of three cataclysmic variables (CVs) namely LS Cam, V902 Mon, and SWIFT J0746.3-1608, using the long-baseline, high-cadence optical photometric data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Our analysis of LS Cam observations hints the presence of a superorbital period of ∼4.025 ± 0.007 d along with negative and positive superhump periods of ∼3.30 and 3.70 h, respectively. These results can be explained as an interaction of nodal and apsidal precession of the accretion disc with orbital motion. For the other two sources, V902 Mon and SWIFT J0746.3-1608, we have found evidence of a beat period of 2387.0 ± 0.6 and 2409.5 ± 0.7 s, respectively, which were not found in earlier studies. Our results presented in this study indicate the change in the accretion mode during the entire observing period for both sources. For V902 Mon, an apparent orbital period derivative of (6.09 ± 0.60) × 10−10 was also found. Moreover, the second harmonic of orbital frequency dominates the power spectrum of SWIFT J0746.3-1608, suggestive of ellipsoidal modulation of the secondary star. Present analyses suggest that LS Cam could be a superhumping CV, whereas V902 Mon and SWIFT J0746.3-1608 are likely to be variable disc-overflow accreting intermediate polars.

Rawat, Nikita (ORCID:0000000246336832)↗
DOE OSTI2023

The 100-month Swift catalogue of supergiant fast X–ray transients

Supergiant fast X-ray transients (SFXTs) are high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) displaying X-ray outbursts that can reach peak luminosities up to 10 38 erg s -1 and spend most of their lives in more quiescent states with luminosities as low as 10 32 -10 33 erg s -1 . During the quiescent states, less luminous flares are also frequently observed with luminosities of 10 34 -10 35 erg s -1 . The main goal of the comprehensive and uniform analysis of the SFXT Swift triggers presented in this paper is to provide tools to predict whether a transient that has no known X-ray counterpart may be an SFXT candidate. These tools can be exploited for the development of future missions exploring the variable X-ray sky through large field-of-view instruments. We examined all available data on outbursts of SFXTs that triggered the Swift/Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) collected between 2005 August 30 and 2014 December 31, in particular those for which broad-band data, including the Swift/X-ray Telescope (XRT) data, are also available. This work complements and extends our previous catalogue of SFXT flares detected by BAT from 2005 February 12 to 2013 May 31, since we now include the additional BAT triggers recorded until the end of 2014 (i.e. beyond the formal first 100 months of the Swift mission). Due to a change in the mission’s observational strategy, virtually no SFXT triggers obtained a broad-band response after 2014. We processed all BAT and XRT data uniformly by using the Swift Burst Analyser to produce spectral evolution dependent flux light curves for each outburst in the sample. The BAT data allowed us to infer useful diagnostics to set SFXT triggers apart from the general γ-ray burst population, showing that SFXTs uniquely give rise to image triggers and are simultaneously very long, faint, and ‘soft’ hard-X-ray transients. We find that the BAT data alone can discriminate very well the SFXTs from other classes of fast transients, such as anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma repeaters. On the contrary, the XRT data collected around the time of the BAT triggers are shown to be decisive for distinguishing SFXTs from, for instance, accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars and jetted tidal disruption events. The XRT observations of 35 (out of 52 in total) SFXT BAT triggers show that in the soft X-ray energy band, SFXTs display a decay in flux from the peak of the outburst of at least three orders of magnitude within a day and rarely undergo large re-brightening episodes, favouring in most cases a rapid decay down to the quiescent level within three to five days (at most).

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Powerful Radio Sources in the Southern Sky. II. A Swift X-Ray Perspective

We recently constructed the G4Jy-3CRE, a catalog of extragalactic radio sources based on the GLEAM 4-Jy (G4Jy) sample, with the aim of increasing the number of powerful radio galaxies and quasars with similar selection criteria to those of the revised release of the Third Cambridge Catalog (3CR). The G4Jy-3CRE consists of a total of 264 radio sources mainly visible from the Southern Hemisphere. Here, we present an initial X-ray analysis of 89 G4Jy-3CRE radio sources with archival X-ray observations from the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. We reduced a total of 624 Swift observations, for about 0.9 Ms of integrated exposure time. We found X-ray counterparts for 59 radio sources belonging to the G4Jy-3CRE, nine of them showing extended X-ray emission. The remaining 30 sources do not show any X-ray emission associated with their radio cores. Our analysis demonstrates that X-ray snapshot observations, even if lacking uniform exposure times, as those carried out with Swift, allow us to (i) verify and/or refine the host galaxy identification; (ii) discover the extended X-ray emission around radio galaxies of the intracluster medium when harbored in galaxy clusters, as the case of G4Jy 1518 and G4Jy 1664; and (iii) detect X-ray radiation arising from their radio lobes, as for G4Jy 1863.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Multi-scale investigation of heterogeneous swift heavy ion tracks in stannate pyrochlore

Er 2 Sn 2 O 7 pyrochlore was irradiated with swift heavy Au ions (2.2 GeV), and the induced structural modifications were systematically examined using complementary characterization techniques including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and neutron total scattering with pair distribution function (PDF) analysis. Each technique probes different aspects and length scales of the transformed material regions. TEM revealed a core–shell ion track structure—an amorphous core surrounded by a disordered, anion-deficient fluorite shell—which was confirmed by XRD. Neutron total scattering, with sensitivity to the oxygen sublattice, provided relative fractions of amorphous and disordered fluorite phases and confirmed the presence of a defective pyrochlore phase, which largely maintains its structural ordering but is clearly distinct from the pristine pyrochlore matrix. This defect-rich pyrochlore phase forms a halo extending radially beyond the well-characterized core–shell track morphology observed in electron micrographs. Despite their differing long-range periodicity, the short-range structures of the amorphous, disordered, and defective pyrochlore phases are all modeled well with a weberite-type configuration. Evolution of the phase fractions with increasing ion fluence was examined to ascertain the phase-to-phase pathways that occur during primary and secondary ion impact. Furthermore, this approach extends knowledge about the multi-scale response of stannate pyrochlores to swift heavy ion irradiation in the electronic energy loss regime and improves existing track-overlap models.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Response of ZrC to swift heavy ion irradiation

Zirconium carbide (ZrC) is commonly used for energy sector research, as well as a surrogate for the proposed advanced nuclear fuel candidate uranium carbide. Here this study investigates structural modifications to nanocrystalline and microcrystalline ZrC resulting from dense electronic excitations induced by swift heavy ion exposure. Samples were irradiated with 946 MeV Au ions to various fluences up to 6 × 10 13 ions cm –2 and characterized using synchrotron-based x-ray diffraction. The evolution of the unit-cell parameter and heterogeneous microstrain were evaluated as a function of fluence and compared with those of nanocrystalline and microcrystalline CeO 2 (a surrogate for UO 2 fuel) irradiated under identical conditions. Distinct differences were observed in the radiation responses of the carbide and oxide across both grain sizes. Most notably, microcrystalline ZrC exhibits swelling characterized by two distinct regimes, which does not result in saturation at the ion fluences achieved. This contrasts with CeO 2 , which exhibits the well-documented direct-impact defect accumulation mechanism, reaching a steady-state saturation of swelling at higher fluences. Nanocrystalline CeO 2 undergoes more pronounced swelling compared with microcrystalline CeO 2 , in contrast to nanocrystalline ZrC, which exhibits only minimal unit-cell changes. These results demonstrate that swift heavy ion-induced structural changes can be quite different in carbides and oxides, which must be considered when extrapolating fission-fragment type damage in current fuels to advanced fuels.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Transformations to amorphous and X-type phases in swift heavy ion-irradiated Ln 2 O 3 and Mn 2 O 3

The intense, highly localized electronic excitation resulting from swift heavy ion irradiation induces phase transformations in many materials, including the lanthanide sesquioxides (Ln 2 O 3 ). To explore the effects of chemical composition on radiation-induced transformations, the structural responses of several related sesquioxides to swift heavy ion irradiation were compared. Polycrystalline Nd 2 O 3 , Eu 2 O 3 , Yb 2 O 3 , and Mn 2 O 3 were irradiated by 946 MeV Au ions to a range of ion fluences up to 2 × 10 13 cm -2 , and structural modifications were characterized using beamline-based in situ x-ray diffraction (XRD) and Rietveld refinement. Amorphization was induced in Nd 2 O 3 , Eu 2 O 3 , and Mn 2 O 3 , with the extent of the induced transformation following a clear dependence on cation ionic radius. Nd 2 O 3 and Eu 2 O 3 , having the largest cations, rapidly amorphized, whereas Mn 2 O 3 , having the smallest cation, experienced only a slight loss of crystallinity at the highest fluences studied. The radiation response was different for Yb 2 O 3 , which underwent a sluggish transformation to a nonequilibrium X-type phase. Furthermore, the crystalline-to-amorphous transformations proceeded by direct-impact mechanisms, while the C-to-X transformation proceeded by a multi-impact mechanism.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Swift /UVOT follow-up of gravitational wave alerts in the O3 era

ABSTRACT In this paper, we report on the observational performance of the Swift Ultra-violet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) in response to the gravitational wave (GW) alerts announced by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory and the Advanced Virgo detector during the O3 period. We provide the observational strategy for follow-up of GW alerts and provide an overview of the processing and analysis of candidate optical/UV sources. For the O3 period, we also provide a statistical overview and report on serendipitous sources discovered by Swift/UVOT. Swift followed 18 GW candidate alerts, with UVOT observing a total of 424 deg2. We found 27 sources that changed in magnitude at the 3σ level compared with archival u- or g-band catalogued values. Swift/UVOT also followed up a further 13 sources reported by other facilities during the O3 period. Using catalogue information, we divided these 40 sources into five initial classifications: 11 candidate active galactic nuclei (AGNs)/quasars, three cataclysmic variables (CVs), nine supernovae, 11 unidentified sources that had archival photometry, and six uncatalogued sources for which no archival photometry was available. We have no strong evidence to identify any of these transients as counterparts to the GW events. The 17 unclassified sources are likely a mix of AGN and a class of fast-evolving transient, and one source may be a CV.

Oates, S. R.↗
DOE OSTI2023

SWIFT: Single-pass, Weather Independent Fractionation Technology for Improved Property Control of Corn Stover Feedstock

Corn stover is an abundant source of biomass that can be utilized for bioenergy production, representing 70% of the available crop residues in the U.S. However, recent projections estimate that over 60% of corn stover will be collected at moisture levels that exceed 20% moisture (wet basis), resulting in instability in conventional baled logistics systems due to unwanted microbial degradation. This biomass challenge can be solved with a paradigm-shifting technology or SWIFT: Single-pass, Weather Independent Fractionation Technology. SWIFT streamlines collection by eliminating multiple time-consuming, costly, non-value-added, field and weather-dependent steps that comprise the current state of the art in corn stover harvest. The unique approach envisions simultaneous harvest and collection of high, dry matter, whole-plant corn (i.e., stover plus grain) combined with anaerobic storage and fractionation as a means to positively influence the physical and chemical characteristics of corn stover biomass and the resulting feedstock.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

SOWFA Large-Eddy Simulation of a Diurnal Cycle at the SWiFT Site

These are large-eddy simulation (LES) data output from the Simulator for Wind Farm Applications (SOWFA) with internal mesoscale-to-microscale coupling. A diurnal cycle was simulated over the Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWIFT) facility near Lubbock, Texas, from 2013-11-08 12:00:00 UTC to 2013-11-09 12:00:00 UTC. Indirect profile assimilation was used to enforce nonstationary mesoscale conditions. Mesoscale forcing data were extracted from WRF numerical weather prediction outputs or derived from observations at SWiFT.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Multiwavelength Observation Campaign of the TeV Gamma-Ray Binary HESS J0632 + 057 with NuSTAR, VERITAS, MDM, and Swift

HESS J0632+057 belongs to a rare subclass of binary systems that emit gamma rays above 100 GeV. It stands out for its distinctive high-energy light curve, which features a sharp "primary" peak and broader "secondary" peak. We present the results of contemporaneous observations by NuSTAR and VERITAS during the secondary peak between 2019 December and 2020 February, when the orbital phase (Φ) is between 0.55 and 0.75. NuSTAR detected X-ray spectral evolution, while VERITAS detected TeV emission. We fit a leptonic wind-collision model to the multiwavelength spectra data obtained over the four NuSTAR and VERITAS observations, constraining the pulsar spin-down luminosity and the magnetization parameter at the shock. Despite long-term monitoring of the source from 2019 October to 2020 March, the MDM observatory did not detect significant variation in Hα and Hβ line equivalent widths, an expected signature of Be-disk interaction with the pulsar. Furthermore, fitting folded Swift-XRT light-curve data with an intrabinary shock model constrained the orbital parameters, suggesting two orbital phases (at Φ D = 0.13 and 0.37), where the pulsar crosses the Be-disk, as well as phases for the periastron (Φ 0 = 0.30) and inferior conjunction (Φ IFC = 0.75). The broadband X-ray spectra with Swift-XRT and NuSTAR allowed us to measure a higher neutral hydrogen column density at one of the predicted disk-passing phases.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Limits on Leptonic TeV Emission from the Cygnus Cocoon with Swift-XRT

$\gamma$-ray observations of the Cygnus Cocoon, an extended source surrounding the Cygnus X star-forming region, suggest the presence of a cosmic ray accelerator reaching energies up to a few PeV. The very-high-energy (VHE; 0.1-100~TeV) $\gamma$-ray emission may be explained by the interaction of cosmic-ray hadrons with matter inside the Cocoon, but an origin of inverse Compton radiation by relativistic electrons cannot be ruled out. Inverse Compton $\gamma$-rays at VHE are accompanied by synchrotron radiation peaked in X-rays. Hence, X-ray observations may probe the electron population and magnetic field of the source. We observed eleven fields in or near the Cygnus Cocoon with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory's X-Ray Telescope (Swift-XRT) totaling 110 ksec. We fit the fields to a Galactic and extra-galactic background model and performed a log-likelihood ratio test for an additional diffuse component. We found no significant additional emission and established upper limits in each field. By assuming that the X-ray intensity traces the TeV intensity and follows an dN/dE ∝ E -2.5 spectrum, we obtained a 90% upper limit of F X < 8.7 x 10 -11 erg cm -2 s -1 or 5.2 x10 -11 erg cm -2 s -1 on the X-ray flux of the entire Cygnus Cocoon between 2 and 10 keV depending on the choice of hydrogen column density model. This suggests that no more than one quarter of the $\gamma$-ray flux at 1 TeV is produced by inverse Compton scattering, when assuming an equipartition magnetic field of ~20 μG.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

University of Colorado and Black Swift Technologies RPAS-based measurements of the lower atmosphere during LAPSE-RATE

Abstract. Between 14 and 20 July 2018, small remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPASs) were deployed to the San Luis Valley of Colorado (USA) together with a variety of surface-based remote and in situ sensors as well as radiosonde systems as part of the Lower Atmospheric Profiling Studies at Elevation – a Remotely-piloted Aircraft Team Experiment (LAPSE-RATE). The observations from LAPSE-RATE were aimed at improving our understanding of boundary layer structure, cloud and aerosol properties, and surface–atmosphere exchange and provide detailed information to support model evaluation and improvement work. The current paper describes the observations obtained using four different types of RPASs deployed by the University of Colorado Boulder and Black Swift Technologies. These included the DataHawk2, the Talon and the TTwistor (University of Colorado), and the S1 (Black Swift Technologies). Together, these aircraft collected over 30 h of data throughout the northern half of the San Luis Valley, sampling altitudes between the surface and 914 m a.g.l. Data from these platforms are publicly available through the Zenodo archive and are co-located with other LAPSE-RATE data as part of the Zenodo LAPSE-RATE community (https://zenodo.org/communities/lapse-rate/, last access: 27 May 2021). The primary DOIs for these datasets are https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3891620 (DataHawk2, de Boer et al., 2020a, e), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4096451 (Talon, de Boer et al., 2020d), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4110626 (TTwistor, de Boer et al., 2020b), and https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3861831 (S1, Elston and Stachura, 2020).

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Black Swift Technologies S0 Uncrewed Aircraft System Data

This dataset includes atmospheric measurements obtained with the Black Swift Technologies S0 uncrewed aircraft system at the ARM SGP facility and a nearby mesonet site (Marshall). Flights were conducted over a one-week period, alongside platforms deployed by the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Depth-resolved thermal conductivity and damage in swift heavy ion irradiated metal oxides

We investigated thermal transport in swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiated insulating single crystalline oxide materials: yttrium aluminum garnet- Y 3 Al 5 O 12 (YAG), sapphire (Al 2 O 3 ), zinc oxide (ZnO) and magnesium oxide (MgO) irradiated by 167 MeV Xe ions at 10 12 – 10 14 ions/cm 2 fluences. Depth profiling of the thermal transport on nano- and micro- meter scales was assessed by time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) and modulated thermoreflectance (MTR) methods, respectively. This combination allowed us to isolate the conductivities of different sub-surface damage-regions characterized by their distinct microstructure evolution regimes. Thermal conductivity degradation in SHI irradiated YAG and Al 2 O 3 is attributed to formation of ion tracks and subsequent amorphization, while in ZnO and MgO it is mostly due to point defects. Additionally, notably lower conductivity when probed by very low penetrating thermal waves is consistent with surface hillock formation. An analytical model based on Klemens-Callaway method for thermal conductivity coupled with a simplified microstructure evolution capturing saturation in defect concentration was used to obtain depth dependent damage across the ion impacted region. The studies showed that YAG has the highest damage profile resulting in the less dependence of thermal conductivity with the depth, while MgO on the contrary has the strongest dependence. The presented work sheds new light on how SHI induced defects affect thermal transport degradation and recovery of oxide ceramics as promising candidates for next generation nuclear reactor applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗