Publications

Laity, George R.; Robinson, Allen C.; Cuneo, M.E.; Alam, Mary K.; Beckwith, Kristian B.; Bennett, Nichelle L.; Bettencourt, Matthew T.; Bond, Stephen D.; Cochrane, Kyle C.; Criscenti, Louise C.; Cyr, Eric C.; De Zetter, Karen J.; Drake, Richard R.; Evstatiev, Evstati G.; Fierro, Andrew S.; Gardiner, Thomas A.; Glines, Forrest W.; Goeke, Ronald S.; Hamlin, Nathaniel D.; Hooper, Russell H.; Koski, Jason K.; Lane, James M.; Larson, Steven R.; Leung, Kevin L.; McGregor, Duncan A.; Miller, Philip R.; Miller, Sean M.; Ossareh, Susan J.; Phillips, Edward G.; Simpson, Sean S.; Sirajuddin, David S.; Smith, Thomas M.; Swan, Matthew S.; Thompson, Aidan P.; Tranchida, Julien G.; Bortz-Johnson, Asa J.; Welch, Dale R.; Russell, Alex M.; Watson, Eric D.; Rose, David V.; McBride, Ryan D.

This report describes the high-level accomplishments from the Plasma Science and Engineering Grand Challenge LDRD at Sandia National Laboratories. The Laboratory has a need to demonstrate predictive capabilities to model plasma phenomena in order to rapidly accelerate engineering development in several mission areas. The purpose of this Grand Challenge LDRD was to advance the fundamental models, methods, and algorithms along with supporting electrode science foundation to enable a revolutionary shift towards predictive plasma engineering design principles. This project integrated the SNL knowledge base in computer science, plasma physics, materials science, applied mathematics, and relevant application engineering to establish new cross-laboratory collaborations on these topics. As an initial exemplar, this project focused efforts on improving multi-scale modeling capabilities that are utilized to predict the electrical power delivery on large-scale pulsed power accelerators. Specifically, this LDRD was structured into three primary research thrusts that, when integrated, enable complex simulations of these devices: (1) the exploration of multi-scale models describing the desorption of contaminants from pulsed power electrodes, (2) the development of improved algorithms and code technologies to treat the multi-physics phenomena required to predict device performance, and (3) the creation of a rigorous verification and validation infrastructure to evaluate the codes and models across a range of challenge problems. These components were integrated into initial demonstrations of the largest simulations of multi-level vacuum power flow completed to-date, executed on the leading HPC computing machines available in the NNSA complex today. These preliminary studies indicate relevant pulsed power engineering design simulations can now be completed in (of order) several days, a significant improvement over pre-LDRD levels of performance.

Koski, Jason K.; Leung, Kevin L.; Thompson, Aidan P.; Lane, James M.

Abstract not provided.

Physical Review E

Koski, Jason K.; Moore, Stan G.; Grest, Gary S.; Stevens, Mark J.

The role of an external field on capillary waves at the liquid-vapor interface of a dipolar fluid is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. For fields parallel to the interface, the interfacial width squared increases linearly with respect to the logarithm of the size of the interface across all field strengths tested. The value of the slope decreases with increasing field strength, indicating that the field dampens the capillary waves. With the inclusion of the parallel field, the surface stiffness increases with increasing field strength faster than the surface tension. For fields perpendicular to the interface, the interfacial width squared is linear with respect to the logarithm of the size of the interface for small field strengths, and the surface stiffness is less than the surface tension. Above a critical field strength that decreases as the size of the interface increases, the interface becomes unstable due to the increased amplitude of the capillary waves.