With the promising new results of fast z-pinch technology developed at Sandia National Laboratories, we are investigating using z-pinch driven high-yield Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) as a fusion power plant energy source. These investigations have led to a novel fusion system concept based on an attempt to separate many of the difficult fusion engineering issues and a strict reliance on existing technology, or a reasonable extrapolation of existing technology, wherever possible. In this paper, we describe the main components of such a system with a focus on the fusion chamber dynamics. The concept works with all of the electrically-coupled ICF proposed fusion designs. It is proposed that a z-pinch driven ICF power system can be feasibly operated at high yields (1 to 30 GJ) with a relatively low pulse rate (0.01-0.1 Hz). To deliver the required current from the rep-rated pulse power driver to the z-pinch diode, a Recyclable Transmission Line (RTL) and the integrated target hardware are fabricated, vacuum pumped, and aligned prior to loading for each power pulse. In this z-pinch driven system, no laser or ion beams propagate in the chamber such that the portion of the chamber outside the RTL does not need to be under vacuum. Additionally, by utilizing a graded-density solid lithium or fluorine/lithium/beryllium eutectic (FLiBe) blanket between the source and the first-wall the system can breed its own fuel absorb a large majority of the fusion energy released from each capsule and shield the first-wall from a damaging neutron flux. This neutron shielding significantly reduces the neutron energy fluence at the first-wall such that radiation damage should be minimal and will not limit the first-wall lifetime. Assuming a 4 m radius, 8 m tall cylindrical chamber design with an 80 cm thick spherical FLiBe blanket, our calculations suggest that a 20 cm thick 6061-T6 Al chamber wall will reach the equivalent uranium ore radioactivity level within 100 years after a 30 year plant operation. The implication of this low radioactivity is that a z-pinch driven power plant may not require deep geologic waste storage.
This paper presents models and measurements of antenna input impedance in resonant cavities at high frequencies.The behavior of input impedance is useful in determining the transmission and reception characteristics of an antenna (as well as the transmission characteristics of certain apertures). Results are presented for both the case where the cavity is undermoded (modes with separate and discrete spectra) as well as the over moded case (modes with overlapping spectra). A modal series is constructed and analyzed to determine the impedance statistical distribution. Both electrically small as well as electrically longer resonant and wall mounted antennas are analyzed. Measurements in a large mode stirred chamber cavity are compared with calculations. Finally a method based on power arguments is given, yielding simple formulas for the impedance distribution.
We investigate a well-motivated mesh untangling objective function whose optimization automatically produces non-inverted elements when possible. Examples show the procedure is highly effective on simplicial meshes and on non-simplicial (e.g., hexahedral) meshes constructed via mapping or sweeping algorithms. The current whisker-weaving (WW) algorithm in CUBIT usually produces hexahedral meshes that are unsuitable for analyses due to inverted elements. The majority of these meshes cannot be untangled using the new objective function. The most likely source of the difficulty is poor mesh topology.
In this paper, an acetone planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique for nonintrusive, temperature imaging is demonstrated in gas-phase (Pr = 0.72) turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection at Rayleigh number, Ra = 1.3 x 10{sup 5}. The PLIF technique provides quantitative, spatially correlated temperature data without the flow intrusion or time lag associated with physical probes and without the significant path averaging that plagues most optical heat-transfer diagnostic tools, such as the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, thus making PLIF an attractive choice for quantitative thermal imaging in easily perturbed, complex three-dimensional flow fields. The instantaneous (20-ns integration time) thermal images presented have a spatial resolution of 176 x 176 x 500 {micro}m and a single-pulse temperature measurement precision of {+-}5.5 K, or 5.4 % of the total temperature difference. These images represent a 2-D slice through a complex, 3-D flow allowing for the thermal structure of the turbulence to be quantified. Statistics such as the horizontally averaged temperature profile, rms temperature fluctuation, two-point spatial correlations, and conditionally averaged plume structures are computed from an ensemble of 100 temperature images. The profiles of the mean temperature and rms temperature fluctuation are in good agreement with previously published data, and the results obtained from the two-point spatial correlations and conditionally averaged temperature fields show the importance of large-scale coherent structures in this turbulent flow.
Very fine-grained Ni and Cu films were formed using pulsed laser deposition onto fused silica substrates. The grain sizes in the films were characterized by electron microscopy, and the mechanical properties were determined by ultra-low load indentation, with finite-element modeling used to evaluate the properties of the layers separately from those of the substrate. Some Ni films were also examined after annealing to 350 and 450 °C to enlarge the grain sizes. These preliminary results show that the observed hardnesses are consistent with a simple extension of the Hall-Petch relationship to grain sizes as small as 11 nm for Ni and 32 nm for Cu.
We present the application of a new knowledge visualization tool, VxInsight, to the mapping and analysis of patent databases. Patent data are mined and placed in a database, relationships between the patents are identified, primarily using the citation and classification structures, then the patents are clustered using a proprietary force-directed placement algorithm. Related patents cluster together to produce a 3-D landscape view of the tens of thousands of patents. The user can navigate the landscape by zooming into or out of regions of interest. Querying the underlying database places a colored marker on each patent matching the query. Automatically generated labels, showing landscape content, update continually upon zooming. Optionally, citation links between patents may be shown on the landscape. The combination of these features enables powerful analyses of patent databases.
We use atom-tracking scanning tunneling microscopy to study the diffusion of Pd in the Pd/Cu(001) surface alloy. By following the motion of individual Pd atoms incorporated in the surface, we show that Pd diffuses by a vacancy-exchange, mechanism. We measure an effective activation energy for the diffusion of incorporated Pd atoms of 0.88 eV, which is consistent with an ab initio calculated barrier of 0.94 eV.
Between 1965 and 1979 there were five documented and one or more inferred attempts to stimulate the production from hydrocarbon reservoirs by detonating nuclear devices in reservoir strata. Of the five documented tests, three were carried out by the US in low-permeability, natural-gas bearing, sandstone-shale formations, and two were done in the USSR within oil-bearing carbonates. The objectives of the US stimulation efforts were to increase porosity and permeability in a reservoir around a specific well by creating a chimney of rock rubble with fractures extending beyond it, and to connect superimposed reservoir layers. In the USSR, the intent was to extensively fracture an existing reservoir in the more general vicinity of producing wells, again increasing overall permeability and porosity. In both countries, the ultimate goals were to increase production rates and ultimate recovery from the reservoirs. Subsurface explosive devices ranging from 2.3 to about 100 kilotons were used at depths ranging from 1208 m (3963 ft) to 2568 m (8427 ft). Post-shot problems were encountered, including smaller-than-calculated fracture zones, formation damage, radioactivity of the product, and dilution of the BTU value of tie natural gas with inflammable gases created by the explosion. Reports also suggest that production-enhancement factors from these tests fell short of expectations. Ultimately, the enhanced-production benefits of the tests were insufficient to support continuation of the pro-grams within increasingly adversarial political, economic, and social climates, and attempts to stimulate hydrocarbon reservoirs with nuclear devices have been terminated in both countries.
Shock excitations are normally random process realizations, and most of our efforts to represent them either directly or indirectly reflect this fact. The most common indirect representation of shock sources is the shock response spectrum. It seeks to establish the damage-causing potential of random shocks in terms of responses excited in linear, single-degree-of-freedom systems. This paper shows that shock sources can be represented directly by developing the probabilistic and statistical structure that underlies the random shock source. Confidence bounds on process statistics and probabilities of specific excitation levels can be established from the model. Some numerical examples are presented.
Ion Beam Induced Luminescence (IBIL) and Ion Beam Induced Charge Collection (IBICC) have been applied in the study of the luminescence emission efficiency and investigation of the homogeneity of the luminescence emission in phosphors. The IBIL imaging was performed by using sharply focused ion beams or broad/partially-focused ion beams. The luminescence emission homogeneity in samples was examined to reveal possible distributed crystal-defects that may lead to the inhomogeneity of the luminescence emission in samples.The purpose of the study is to search for suitable luminescent thin films that have high homogeneity of luminescence emission, large IBIL efficiency under heavy ion excitation, and can be placed as a thin layer on the top of microelectronic devices to be analyzed with Ion Photon Emission Microscopy (IPEM). The emission yield was found to be low for organic materials, due to saturation of the light output dependence on the energy deposition of heavy ions. The emission yield of a typical Bicron plastic scintillator is about 70 photons/ion/micron. Inorganic materials may have higher IBIL yield under high-energy and heavy-ion excitation, but the challenging problem is the inhomogeneity of the IBIL emission. The IBIL image techniques are applied in the investigation of the homogeneity of a GaN epitaxial thin film, a zircon single crystal and a thin layer coated by Thiogallate(EuII) ceramic.
This paper investigates the questions of what statistical information about a memory request sequence is useful to have in making page replacement decisions: Our starting point is the Markov Request Model for page request sequences. Although the utility of modeling page request sequences by the Markov model has been recently put into doubt, we find that two previously suggested algorithms (Maximum Hitting Time and Dominating Distribution) which are based on the Markov model work well on the trace data used in this study. Interestingly, both of these algorithms perform equally well despite the fact that the theoretical results for these two algorithms differ dramatically. We then develop succinct characteristics of memory access patterns in an attempt to approximate the simpler of the two algorithms. Finally, we investigate how to collect these characteristics in an online manner in order to have a purely online algorithm.
The Xyce{trademark} Parallel Electronic Simulator has been written to support the simulation needs of the Sandia National Laboratories electrical designers. As such, the development has focused on providing the capability to solve extremely large circuit problems by supporting large-scale parallel computing platforms (up to thousands of processors). In addition, they are providing improved performance for numerical kernels using state-of-the-art algorithms, support for modeling circuit phenomena at a variety of abstraction levels and using object-oriented and modern coding-practices that ensure the code will be maintainable and extensible far into the future. The code is a parallel code in the most general sense of the phrase--a message passing parallel implementation--which allows it to run efficiently on the widest possible number of computing platforms. These include serial, shared-memory and distributed-memory parallel as well as heterogeneous platforms. Furthermore, careful attention has been paid to the specific nature of circuit-simulation problems to ensure that optimal parallel efficiency is achieved even as the number of processors grows.
New standards for ac current and voltage measurements, thin-film multifunction thermal converters (MJTCS), have been fabricated using thin-film and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Improved sensitivity and accuracy over single-junction thermoelements and targeted performance will allow new measurement approaches in traditionally troublesome areas such as the low frequency and high current regimes. A review is presented of new microfabrication techniques and packaging methods that have resulted from a collaborative effort at Sandia National Laboratories and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (MHZ).
We investigated the late-time (asymptotic) behavior of tracer test breakthrough curves (BTCs) with rate-limited mass transfer (e.g., in dual-porosity or multiporosity systems) and found that the late-time concentration c is given by the simple expression c = tad{c0g - [m0(∂g/∂t)]}, for t ≫ tad and tα ≫ tad, where tad is the advection time, c0 is the initial concentration in the medium, m0 is the zeroth moment of the injection pulse, and tα is the mean residence time in the immobile domain (i.e., the characteristic mass transfer time). The function g is proportional to the residence time distribution in the immobile domain; we tabulate g for many geometries, including several distributed (multirate) models of mass transfer. Using this expression, we examine the behavior of late-time concentration for a number of mass transfer models. One key result is that if rate-limited mass transfer causes the BTC to behave as a power law at late time (i.e., c ̃ t-k), then the underlying density function of rate coefficients must also be a power law with the form αk-3 as α → 0. This is true for both density functions of first-order and diffusion rate coefficients. BTCs with k < 3 persisting to the end of the experiment indicate a mean residence time longer than the experiment, and possibly an infinite residence time, and also suggest an effective rate coefficient that is either undefined or changes as a function of observation time. We apply our analysis to breakthrough curves from single-well injection-withdrawal tests at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, New Mexico. We investigated the late-time (asymptotic) behavior of tracer test breakthrough curves (BTCs) with rate-limited mass transfer (e.g., in dual-porosity or multiporosity systems) and found that the late-time concentration c is given by the simple expression c = tad{c0g - [m0(∂g/∂t)]}, for t ≫ tad and tα ≫ t ad, where tad is the advection time, c0 is the initial concentration in the medium, m0 is the zeroth moment of the injection pulse, and tα is the mean residence time in the immobile domain (i.e., the characteristic mass transfer time). The function g is proportional to the residence time distribution in the immobile domain; we tabulate g for many geometries, including several distributed (multirate) models of mass transfer. Using this expression, we examine the behavior of late-time concentration for a number of mass transfer models. One key result is that if rate-limited mass transfer causes the BTC to behave as a power law at late time (i.e., c t-k), then the underlying density function of rate coefficients must also be a power law with the form αk-3 as α → 0. This is true for both density functions of first-order and diffusion rate coefficients. BTCs with k < 3 persisting to the end of the experiment indicate a mean residence time longer than the experiment, and possibly an infinite residence time, and also suggest an effective rate coefficient that is either undefined or changes as a function of observation time. We apply our analysis to breakthrough curves from single-well injection-withdrawal tests at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, New Mexico.
Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) extends the two-dimensional imaging capability of traditional synthetic aperture radar to three-dimensions by using an aperture in the elevation plane to estimate the 3-D structure of the target. The operation of this additional aperture can be viewed from a null-steering point of view rather than the traditional phase determination point of view. Knowing that IFSAR can be viewed from the null-steering perspective allows us to take advantage of the mathematical foundation developed for null-steering arrays. In addition, in some problems of interest in IFSAR the null-steering perspective provides better intuition and suggests alternative solutions. One example is the problem of estimating building height where layover is present.
Low residual stress silicon oxynitride thin films are investigated for use as a replacement for silicon dioxide (SiO2) as sacrificial layer in surface micromachined microelectrical-mechanical systems (MEMS). It is observed that the level of residual stress in oxynitrides is a function of the nitrogen content in the film. MEMS film stacks are prepared using both SiO2 and oxynitride sacrificial layers. Wafer bow measurements indicate that wafers processed with oxynitride release layers are significantly flatter. Polycrystalline Si (poly-Si) cantilevers fabricated under the same conditions are observed to be flatter when processed with oxynitride rather than SiO2 sacrificial layers. These results are attributed to the lower post-processing residual stress of oxynitride compared to SiO2.