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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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17 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

DISCO: A 3D MOVING-MESH MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS CODE DESIGNED FOR THE STUDY OF ASTROPHYSICAL DISKS

This work presents the publicly available moving-mesh magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) code DISCO. DISCO is efficient and accurate at evolving orbital fluid motion in two and three dimensions, especially at high Mach numbers. DISCO employs a moving-mesh approach utilizing a dynamic cylindrical mesh that can shear azimuthally to follow the orbital motion of the gas. The moving mesh removes diffusive advection errors and allows for longer time-steps than a static grid. MHD is implemented in DISCO using an HLLD Riemann solver and a novel constrained transport (CT) scheme that is compatible with the mesh motion. DISCO is tested against a wide variety of problems, which are designed to test its stability, accuracy, and scalability. In addition, several MHD tests are performed which demonstrate the accuracy and stability of the new CT approach, including two tests of the magneto-rotational instability, one testing the linear growth rate and the other following the instability into the fully turbulent regime.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Moving-mesh Simulations of Star-forming Cores in Magneto-gravo-turbulence

Star formation in our Galaxy occurs in molecular clouds that are self-gravitating, highly turbulent, and magnetized. We study the conditions under which cloud cores inherit large-scale magnetic field morphologies and how the field is governed by cloud turbulence. We present four moving-mesh simulations of supersonic, turbulent, isothermal, self-gravitating gas with a range of magnetic mean-field strengths characterized by the Alfvénic Mach number M{sub A,0}, resolving prestellar core formation from parsec to a few astronomical unit scales. In our simulations with the turbulent kinetic energy density dominating over magnetic pressure (M{sub A,0}>1), we find that the collapse is approximately isotropic with B ∝ ρ {sup 2/3}, core properties are similar regardless of initial mean-field strength, and the field direction on 100 au scales is uncorrelated with the mean field. However, in the case of a dominant large-scale magnetic field (M{sub A,0}=0.35), the collapse is anisotropic with B ∝ ρ {sup 1/2}. This transition at M{sub A,0}∼1 is not expected to be sharp, but clearly signifies two different paths for magnetic field evolution in star formation. Based on observations of different star-forming regions, we conclude that star formation in the interstellar medium may occur in both regimes. Magnetic field correlation with the mean field extends to smaller scales as M{sub A,0} decreases, making future Atacama Large Millimeter Array observations useful for constraining M{sub A,0} of the interstellar medium.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Three-dimensional Boltzmann-Hydro Code for Core-collapse in Massive Stars. II. The Implementation of Moving-mesh for Neutron Star Kicks

We present a newly developed moving-mesh technique for the multi-dimensional Boltzmann-Hydro code for the simulation of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe). What makes this technique different from others is the fact that it treats not only hydrodynamics but also neutrino transfer in the language of the 3 + 1 formalism of general relativity (GR), making use of the shift vector to specify the time evolution of the coordinate system. This means that the transport part of our code is essentially general relativistic, although in this paper it is applied only to the moving curvilinear coordinates in the flat Minknowski spacetime, since the gravity part is still Newtonian. The numerical aspect of the implementation is also described in detail. Employing the axisymmetric two-dimensional version of the code, we conduct two test computations: oscillations and runaways of proto-neutron star (PNS). We show that our new method works fine, tracking the motions of PNS correctly. We believe that this is a major advancement toward the realistic simulation of CCSNe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2009

Recent Enhancements To The FUN3D Flow Solver For Moving-Mesh Applications

An unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver for unstructured grids has been extended to handle general mesh movement involving rigid, deforming, and overset meshes. Mesh deformation is achieved through analogy to elastic media by solving the linear elasticity equations. A general method for specifying the motion of moving bodies within the mesh has been implemented that allows for inherited motion through parent-child relationships, enabling simulations involving multiple moving bodies. Several example calculations are shown to illustrate the range of potential applications. For problems in which an isolated body is rotating with a fixed rate, a noninertial reference-frame formulation is available. An example calculation for a tilt-wing rotor is used to demonstrate that the time-dependent moving grid and noninertial formulations produce the same results in the limit of zero time-step size.

Biedron, Robert T,↗
DOE OSTI2019

An FEM-MLMC algorithm for a moving shutter diffraction in time stochastic model

We consider a moving shutter and non-deterministic generalization of the diffraction in time model introduced by Moshinsky several decades ago to study a class of quantum transients. We first develop a moving-mesh finite element method (FEM) to simulate the determisitic version of the model. We then apply the FEM and multilevel Monte Carlo (MLMC) algorithm to the stochastic moving-domain model for simulation of approximate statistical moments of the density profile of the stochastic transients.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Thermomechanics coupling to Monte Carlo particle transport on unstructured mesh geometries using Cardinal

Geometry deformation due to thermal expansion influences neutron transport in many systems. Studying this phenomenon involves coupling models for neutronics, thermal hydraulics, and solid mechanics. To enable high fidelity modeling of these coupled physics, new capabilities were introduced in Cardinal, coupling OpenMC Monte Carlo particle transport models with MOOSE thermomechanical physics on unstructured moving-mesh geometries. In this work, we present a fully open-source capability leveraging on-the-fly mesh skinning to automatically regenerate OpenMC geometry, which allows multiphysics feedback from temperature, density, and geometry changes. The new capability is verified using an analytic benchmark slab problem, which couples S 2 neutron transport with thermal conduction, convective boundary conditions, Doppler-broadened cross sections, and nonlinear thermal expansion effects along the heated slab. Cardinal reproduces the analytic solutions for the neutron flux, heating, k eff , and temperature with demonstrated convergence in various error terms including mesh resolution and cross section temperature library spacing. For the nominal benchmark conditions and with a fine mesh, maximum relative errors for neutron flux, temperature, and heating are lower than 1%, while errors in integral quantities such as k eff and slab length are within 1 pcm and 48 µm, respectively. This work (i) presents a new numerical approach to thermomechanics coupling with OpenMC models, (ii) is the first (to our knowledge) to utilize a mechanical partial differential equation (PDE) solution to solve the (Griesheimer and Kooreman, 2022) analytic benchmark, and (iii) develops this verified capability within an open-source package.

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

An Eulerian Vlasov-Fokker–Planck algorithm for spherical implosion simulations of inertial confinement fusion capsules

Here, we present a numerical algorithm that enables a phase-space adaptive Eulerian Vlasov–Fokker–Planck (VFP) simulation of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) capsule implosions. The approach relies on extending a recent mass, momentum, and energy conserving phase-space moving-mesh adaptivity strategy to spherical geometry. In configuration space, we employ a mesh motion partial differential equation (MMPDE) strategy while, in velocity space, the mesh is expanded/contracted and shifted with the plasma’s evolving temperature and drift velocity. The mesh motion is dealt with by transforming the underlying VFP equations into a computational (logical) coordinate, with the resulting inertial terms carefully discretized to ensure conservation. To deal with the spatial and temporally varying dynamics in a spherically imploding system, we have developed a novel nonlinear stabilization strategy for MMPDE in the configuration space. The strategy relies on a nonlinear optimization procedure that optimizes between mesh quality and the volumetric rate change of the mesh to ensure both accuracy and stability of the solution. Implosions of ICF capsules are driven by several boundary conditions: (1) an elastic moving wall boundary; (2) a time-dependent Maxwellian Dirichlet boundary; and (3) a pressure-driven Lagrangian boundary. Of these, the pressure-driven Lagrangian boundary driver is new to our knowledge. The implementation of our strategy is verified through a set of test problems, including the Guderley and Van-Dyke implosion problems — the first-ever reported using a Vlasov–Fokker–Planck model.

1D2V↗
DOE OSTI2025

Finite domain solution of a hydraulic fracture in a permeable rock

In this work, we present a domain-based algorithm to simulate the propagation of a plane-strain hydraulic fracture in a zero-toughness permeable elastic medium. The algorithm utilizes a domain-based method to solve the elasticity equation and integrates a multi-scale tip asymptote, which is particular to hydraulic fractures, into this framework. This integration is key to accurately model the energy dissipation and the fluid leak-off in the fracture tip region. The algorithm combines a 2D finite volume method (FVM) for solving the elasticity equation with a 1D FVM for solving the nonlinear lubrication equation. Incorporating the far-field asymptotics and using a moving-mesh scheme reduces the computational burden while improving the accuracy of the scheme. The paper concludes with an analysis of the numerical results. This study demonstrates the potential of this domain-based approach for modeling hydraulic fractures in poroelastic media.

Domain-based method↗
DOE OSTI2015

The incidence of low-metallicity Lyman-limit systems at z ∼ 3.5: Implications for the cold-flow hypothesis of baryonic accretion

Cold accretion is a primary growth mechanism of simulated galaxies, yet observational evidence of “cold flows” at redshifts where they should be most efficient (z = 2–4) is scarce. In simulations, cold streams manifest as Lyman-limit absorption systems (LLSs) with low heavy-element abundances similar to those of the diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM). Here we report on an abundance survey of 17 H i-selected LLSs at z = 3.2–4.4 which exhibits no metal absorption in Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectra. Using medium-resolution spectra obtained at Magellan, we derive ionization-corrected metallicities (or limits) with a Markov-chain Monte Carlo sampling that accounts for the large uncertainty in N{sub H i} measurements typical of LLSs. The metal-poor LLS sample overlaps with the IGM in metallicity and can be described by a model where 71{sub −11}{sup +13}% are drawn from the IGM chemical abundance distribution. These represent roughly half of all LLSs at these redshifts, suggesting that 28%–40% of the general LLS population at z ∼ 3.7 could trace accreting gas. An ancillary sample of ten LLSs without any a priori metal-line selection is fit by a model having 48{sub −12}{sup +14}% of metallicities drawn from the IGM. We compare these results with regions of a moving-mesh simulation. The observed and simulated LLS metallicity distributions are in good agreement, after accounting for known uncertainties in both, with the fraction of simulated baryons in IGM-metallicity LLSs within a factor of two of the observed value. A statistically significant fraction of all LLSs have low metallicity and therefore represent candidates for accreting gas; large-volume simulations can establish what fraction of these candidates actually lie near galaxies and the observational prospects for detecting the presumed hosts in emission.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Simulating the dust content of galaxies: successes and failures

We present full-volume cosmological simulations, using the moving-mesh code AREPO to study the coevolution of dust and galaxies. We extend the dust model in AREPO to include thermal sputtering of grains and investigate the evolution of the dust mass function, the cosmic distribution of dust beyond the interstellar medium and the dependence of dust-to-stellar mass ratio on galactic properties. The simulated dust mass function is well described by a Schechter fit and lies closest to observations at z = 0. The radial scaling of projected dust surface density out to distances of 10 Mpc around galaxies with magnitudes 17 < i < 21 is similar to that seen in Sloan Digital Sky Survey data, albeit with a lower normalization. At z = 0, the predicted dust density of Ωdust ≈ 1.3 × 10 -6 lies in the range of Ωdust values seen in low-redshift observations. We find that the dust-to-stellar mass ratio anticorrelates with stellar mass for galaxies living along the star formation main sequence. Moreover, we estimate the 850 μm number density functions for simulated galaxies and analyse the relation between dust-to-stellar flux and mass ratios at z = 0. At high redshift, our model fails to produce enough dust-rich galaxies, and this tension is not alleviated by adopting a top-heavy initial mass function. We do not capture a decline in Ωdust from z = 2 to 0, which suggests that dust production mechanisms more strongly dependent on star formation may help to produce the observed number of dusty galaxies near the peak of cosmic star formation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

AREPO-RT : radiation hydrodynamics on a moving mesh

We introduce AREPO-RT , a novel radiation hydrodynamic (RHD) solver for the unstructured moving-mesh code AREPO . Our method solves the moment-based radiative transfer equations using the M1 closure relation. We achieve second-order convergence by using a slope-limited linear spatial extrapolation and a first-order time prediction step to obtain the values of the primitive variables on both sides of the cell interface. A Harten–Lax–van Leer flux function, suitably modified for moving meshes, is then used to solve the Riemann problem at the interface. The implementation is fully conservative and compatible with the individual time-stepping scheme of AREPO . It incorporates atomic hydrogen (H) and helium (He) thermochemistry, which is used to couple the ultraviolet radiation field to the gas. Additionally, infrared (IR) radiation is coupled to the gas under the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium between the gas and the dust. We successfully apply our code to a large number of test problems, including applications such as the expansion of HII regions, radiation pressure-driven outflows, and the levitation of optically thick layer of gas by trapped IR radiation. The new implementation is suitable for studying various important astrophysical phenomena, such as the effect of radiative feedback in driving galactic scale outflows, radiation-driven dusty winds in high-redshift quasars, or simulating the reionization history of the Universe in a self-consistent manner.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

IMPROVED PERFORMANCES IN SUBSONIC FLOWS OF AN SPH SCHEME WITH GRADIENTS ESTIMATED USING AN INTEGRAL APPROACH

In this paper, we present results from a series of hydrodynamical tests aimed at validating the performance of a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) formulation in which gradients are derived from an integral approach. We specifically investigate the code behavior with subsonic flows, where it is well known that zeroth-order inconsistencies present in standard SPH make it particularly problematic to correctly model the fluid dynamics. In particular, we consider the Gresho–Chan vortex problem, the growth of Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities, the statistics of driven subsonic turbulence and the cold Keplerian disk problem. We compare simulation results for the different tests with those obtained, for the same initial conditions, using standard SPH. We also compare the results with the corresponding ones obtained previously with other numerical methods, such as codes based on a moving-mesh scheme or Godunov-type Lagrangian meshless methods. We quantify code performances by introducing error norms and spectral properties of the particle distribution, in a way similar to what was done in other works. We find that the new SPH formulation exhibits strongly reduced gradient errors and outperforms standard SPH in all of the tests considered. In fact, in terms of accuracy, we find good agreement between the simulation results of the new scheme and those produced using other recently proposed numerical schemes. These findings suggest that the proposed method can be successfully applied for many astrophysical problems in which the presence of subsonic flows previously limited the use of SPH, with the new scheme now being competitive in these regimes with other numerical methods.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Minidisks in Binary Black Hole Accretion

Newtonian simulations have demonstrated that accretion onto binary black holes produces accretion disks around each black hole (“minidisks”), fed by gas streams flowing through the circumbinary cavity from the surrounding circumbinary disk. We study the dynamics and radiation of an individual black hole minidisk using 2D hydrodynamical simulations performed with a new general relativistic version of the moving-mesh code Disco. We introduce a comoving energy variable that enables highly accurate integration of these high Mach number flows. Tidally induced spiral shock waves are excited in the disk and propagate through the innermost stable circular orbit, providing a Reynolds stress that causes efficient accretion by purely hydrodynamic means and producing a radiative signature brighter in hard X-rays than the Novikov–Thorne model. Disk cooling is provided by a local blackbody prescription that allows the disk to evolve self-consistently to a temperature profile where hydrodynamic heating is balanced by radiative cooling. We find that the spiral shock structure is in agreement with the relativistic dispersion relation for tightly wound linear waves. We measure the shock-induced dissipation and find outward angular momentum transport corresponding to an effective alpha parameter of order 0.01. We perform ray-tracing image calculations from the simulations to produce theoretical minidisk spectra and viewing-angle-dependent images for comparison with observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

GALACTIC WINDS DRIVEN BY ISOTROPIC AND ANISOTROPIC COSMIC-RAY DIFFUSION IN DISK GALAXIES

The physics of cosmic rays (CRs) is a promising candidate for explaining the driving of galactic winds and outflows. Recent galaxy formation simulations have demonstrated the need for active CR transport either in the form of diffusion or streaming to successfully launch winds in galaxies. However, due to computational limitations, most previous simulations have modeled CR transport isotropically. Here, we discuss high-resolution simulations of isolated disk galaxies in a 10{sup 11} M {sub ⊙} halo with the moving-mesh code Arepo that include injection of CRs from supernovae, advective transport, CR cooling, and CR transport through isotropic or anisotropic diffusion. We show that either mode of diffusion leads to the formation of strong bipolar outflows. However, they develop significantly later in the simulation with anisotropic diffusion compared to the simulation with isotropic diffusion. Moreover, we find that isotropic diffusion allows most of the CRs to quickly diffuse out of the disk, while in the simulation with anisotropic diffusion, most CRs remain in the disk once the magnetic field becomes dominated by its azimuthal component, which occurs after ∼300 Myr. This has important consequences for the gas dynamics in the disk. In particular, we show that isotropic diffusion strongly suppresses the amplification of the magnetic field in the disk compared to anisotropic or no diffusion models. We therefore conclude that reliable simulations which include CR transport inevitably need to account for anisotropic diffusion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

THE ROLE OF COSMIC-RAY PRESSURE IN ACCELERATING GALACTIC OUTFLOWS

We study the formation of galactic outflows from supernova (SN) explosions with the moving-mesh code AREPO in a stratified column of gas with a surface density similar to the Milky Way disk at the solar circle. We compare different simulation models for SN placement and energy feedback, including cosmic rays (CRs), and find that models that place SNe in dense gas and account for CR diffusion are able to drive outflows with similar mass loading as obtained from a random placement of SNe with no CRs. Despite this similarity, CR-driven outflows differ in several other key properties including their overall clumpiness and velocity. Moreover, the forces driving these outflows originate in different sources of pressure, with the CR diffusion model relying on non-thermal pressure gradients to create an outflow driven by internal pressure and the random-placement model depending on kinetic pressure gradients to propel a ballistic outflow. CRs therefore appear to be non-negligible physics in the formation of outflows from the interstellar medium.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Simulating Gamma-Ray Emission in Star-forming Galaxies

Star-forming galaxies emit GeV and TeV gamma-rays that are thought to originate from hadronic interactions of cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei with the interstellar medium. To understand the emission, we have used the moving-mesh code Arepo to perform magnetohydrodynamical galaxy formation simulations with self-consistent CR physics. Our galaxy models exhibit a first burst of star formation that injects CRs at supernovae. Once CRs have sufficiently accumulated in our Milky Way–like galaxy, their buoyancy force overcomes the magnetic tension of the toroidal disk field. As field lines open up, they enable anisotropically diffusing CRs to escape into the halo and to accelerate a bubble-like, CR-dominated outflow. However, these bubbles are invisible in our simulated gamma-ray maps of hadronic pion-decay and secondary inverse-Compton emission because of low gas density in the outflows. By adopting a phenomenological relation between star formation rate (SFR) and far-infrared emission and assuming that gamma-rays mainly originate from decaying pions, our simulated galaxies can reproduce the observed tight relation between far-infrared and gamma-ray emission, independent of whether we account for anisotropic CR diffusion. This demonstrates that uncertainties in modeling active CR transport processes only play a minor role in predicting gamma-ray emission from galaxies. We find that in starbursts, most of the CR energy is “calorimetrically” lost to hadronic interactions. In contrast, the gamma-ray emission deviates from this calorimetric property at low SFRs due to adiabatic losses, which cannot be identified in traditional one-zone models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗