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Computational modeling of the temperature-induced structural changes of tethered Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) with self-consistent field theory

Proposed for publication in Macromolecules.

Curro, John G.

We modeled the effects of temperature, degree of polymerization, and surface coverage on the equilibrium structure of tethered poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) chains immersed in water. We employed a numerical self-consistent field theory where the experimental phase diagram was used as input to the theory. At low temperatures, the composition profiles are approximately parabolic and extend into the solvent. In contrast, at temperatures above the LCST of the bulk solution, the polymer profiles are collapsed near the surface. The layer thickness and the effective monomer fraction within the layer undergo what appears to be a first-order change at a temperature that depends on surface coverage and chain length. Our results suggest that as a result of the tethering constraint, the phase diagram becomes distorted relative to the bulk polymer solution and exhibits closed loop behavior. As a consequence, we find that the relative magnitude of the layer thickness change at 20 and 40 C is a nonmonotonic function of surface coverage, with a maximum that shifts to lower surface coverage as the chain length increases in qualitative agreement with experiment.

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Hierarchical probabilistic regionalization of volcanism for Sengan region in Japan using multivariate statistical techniques and geostatistical interpolation techniques

Mckenna, Sean A.

Sandia National Laboratories, under contract to Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan (NUMO), is performing research on regional classification of given sites in Japan with respect to potential volcanic disruption using multivariate statistics and geo-statistical interpolation techniques. This report provides results obtained for hierarchical probabilistic regionalization of volcanism for the Sengan region in Japan by applying multivariate statistical techniques and geostatistical interpolation techniques on the geologic data provided by NUMO. A workshop report produced in September 2003 by Sandia National Laboratories (Arnold et al., 2003) on volcanism lists a set of most important geologic variables as well as some secondary information related to volcanism. Geologic data extracted for the Sengan region in Japan from the data provided by NUMO revealed that data are not available at the same locations for all the important geologic variables. In other words, the geologic variable vectors were found to be incomplete spatially. However, it is necessary to have complete geologic variable vectors to perform multivariate statistical analyses. As a first step towards constructing complete geologic variable vectors, the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) zone 54 projected coordinate system and a 1 km square regular grid system were selected. The data available for each geologic variable on a geographic coordinate system were transferred to the aforementioned grid system. Also the recorded data on volcanic activity for Sengan region were produced on the same grid system. Each geologic variable map was compared with the recorded volcanic activity map to determine the geologic variables that are most important for volcanism. In the regionalized classification procedure, this step is known as the variable selection step. The following variables were determined as most important for volcanism: geothermal gradient, groundwater temperature, heat discharge, groundwater pH value, presence of volcanic rocks and presence of hydrothermal alteration. Data available for each of these important geologic variables were used to perform directional variogram modeling and kriging to estimate values for each variable at 23949 centers of the chosen 1 km cell grid system that represents the Sengan region. These values formed complete geologic variable vectors at each of the 23,949 one km cell centers.

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Thermal modeling of W rod armor

Nygren, Richard

Sandia has developed and tested mockups armored with W rods over the last decade and pioneered the initial development of W rod armor for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in the 1990's. We have also developed 2D and 3D thermal and stress models of W rod-armored plasma facing components (PFCs) and test mockups and are applying the models to both short pulses, i.e. edge localized modes (ELMs), and thermal performance in steady state for applications in C-MOD, DiMES testing and ITER. This paper briefly describes the 2D and 3D models and their applications with emphasis on modeling for an ongoing test program that simulates repeated heat loads from ITER ELMs.

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Diagnosing dynamic hohlraums with tracer absorption line spectroscopy

Proposed for publication in Physics of Plasmas.

Sanford, Thomas W.L.; Nash, Thomas J.

In recent dynamic hohlraum experiments on the Z facility, Al and MgF{sub 2} tracer layers were embedded in cylindrical CH{sub 2} foam targets to provide K-shell lines in the keV spectral region for diagnosing the conditions of the interior hohlraum plasma. The position of the tracers was varied: sometimes they were placed 2 mm from the ends of the foam cylinder and sometimes at the ends of the cylinder. Also varied was the composition of the tracers in the sense that pure Al layers, pure MgF{sub 2} layers, or mixtures of the elements were employed on various shots. Time-resolved K-shell spectra of both Al and Mg show mostly absorption lines. These data can be analyzed with detailed configuration atomic models of carbon, aluminum, and magnesium in which spectra are calculated by solving the radiation transport equation for as many as 4100 frequencies. We report results from shot Z1022 to illustrate the basic radiation physics and the capabilities as well as limitations of this diagnostic method.

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Coupled atomistic-continuum simulation using arbitrary overlapping domains

Proposed for publication in Journal of Computational Physics.

Zimmerman, Jonathan A.; Klein, Patrick A.

We present a formulation for coupling atomistic and continuum simulation methods for application to both quasistatic and dynamic analyses. In our formulation, a coarse-scale continuum discretization is assumed to cover all parts of the computational domain with atomistic crystals introduced only in regions of interest. The geometry of the discretization and crystal are allowed to overlap arbitrarily. Our approach uses interpolation and projection operators to link the kinematics of each region, which are then used to formulate a system potential energy from which we derive coupled expressions for the forces acting in each region. A hyperelastic constitutive formulation is used to compute the stress response of the defect-free continuum with constitutive properties derived from the Cauchy-Born rule. A correction to the Cauchy-Born rule is introduced in the overlap region to minimize fictitious boundary effects. Features of our approach will be demonstrated with simulations in one, two and three dimensions.

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Dynamic vulnerability assessment

Nelson, Cynthia L.

With increased terrorist threats in the past few years, it is no longer feasible to feel confident that a facility is well protected with a static security system. Potential adversaries often research their targets, examining procedural and system changes, in order to attack at a vulnerable time. Such system changes may include scheduled sensor maintenance, scheduled or unscheduled changes in the guard force, facility alert level changes, sensor failures or degradation, etc. All of these changes impact the system effectiveness and can make a facility more vulnerable. Currently, a standard analysis of system effectiveness is performed approximately every six months using a vulnerability assessment tool called ASSESS (Analytical Systems and Software for Evaluating Safeguards and Systems). New standards for determining a facility's system effectiveness will be defined by tools that are currently under development, such as ATLAS (Adversary Time-line Analysis System) and NextGen (Next Generation Security Simulation). Although these tools are useful to model analyses at different spatial resolutions and can support some sensor dynamics using statistical models, they are limited in that they require a static system state as input. They cannot account for the dynamics of the system through day-to-day operations. The emphasis of this project was to determine the feasibility of dynamically monitoring the facility security system and performing an analysis as changes occur. Hence, the system effectiveness is known at all times, greatly assisting time-critical decisions in response to a threat or a potential threat.

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Polymeric insulation post electrodeless dielectrophoresis (iDEP) for the monitoring of water-borne pathogens

Mcgraw, Gregory J.; Brazzle, John D.; Cummings, Eric B.; Shediac, Renee; Fintschenko, Yolanda; Davalos, Rafael V.; Ceremuga, Joseph T.; Chames, Jeffery M.; Hunter, Marion C.; Fiechtner, Gregory J.

We have successfully demonstrated selective trapping, concentration, and release of various biological organisms and inert beads by insulator-based dielectrophoresis within a polymeric microfluidic device. The microfluidic channels and internal features, in this case arrays of insulating posts, were initially created through standard wet-etch techniques in glass. This glass chip was then transformed into a nickel stamp through the process of electroplating. The resultant nickel stamp was then used as the replication tool to produce the polymeric devices through injection molding. The polymeric devices were made of Zeonor{reg_sign} 1060R, a polyolefin copolymer resin selected for its superior chemical resistance and optical properties. These devices were then optically aligned with another polymeric substrate that had been machined to form fluidic vias. These two polymeric substrates were then bonded together through thermal diffusion bonding. The sealed devices were utilized to selectively separate and concentrate a biological pathogen simulants. These include spores that were selectively concentrated and released by simply applying D.C. voltages across the plastic replicates via platinum electrodes in inlet and outlet reservoirs. The dielectrophoretic response of the organisms is observed to be a function of the applied electric field and post size, geometry and spacing. Cells were selectively trapped against a background of labeled polystyrene beads and spores to demonstrate that samples of interest can be separated from a diverse background. We have implemented and demonstrated here a methodology to determine the concentration factors obtained in these devices.

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Effects of radiation on laser diodes

Phifer, Carol

The effects of ionizing and neutron radiation on the characteristics and performance of laser diodes are reviewed, and the formation mechanisms for nonradiative recombination centers, the primary type of radiation damage in laser diodes, are discussed. Additional topics include the detrimental effects of aluminum in the active (lasing) volume, the transient effects of high-dose-rate pulses of ionizing radiation, and a summary of ways to improve the radiation hardness of laser diodes. Radiation effects on laser diodes emitting in the wavelength region around 808 nm are emphasized.

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Surface dynamics dominated by bulk thermal defects -- the case of NiAl (110)

Proposed for publication in Physical Review B.

Nobel, Jan A.; Bartelt, Norman C.

We find that small temperature changes cause steps on the NiAl(110) surface to move. We show that this step motion occurs because mass is transferred between the bulk and the surface as the concentration of bulk thermal defects (i.e., vacancies) changes with temperature. Since the change in an island's area with a temperature change is found to scale strictly with the island's step length, the thermally generated defects are created (annihilated) very near the surface steps. To quantify the bulk/surface exchange, we oscillate the sample temperature and measure the amplitude and phase lag of the system response, i.e., the change in an island's area normalized to its perimeter. Using a one-dimensional model of defect diffusion through the bulk in a direction perpendicular to the surface, we determine the migration and formation energies of the bulk thermal defects. During surface smoothing, we show that there is no flow of material between islands on the same terrace and that all islands in a stack shrink at the same rate. We conclude that smoothing occurs by mass transport through the bulk of the crystal rather than via surface diffusion. Based on the measured relative sizes of the activation energies for island decay, defect migration, and defect formation, we show that attachment/detachment at the steps is the rate-limiting step in smoothing.

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Results 87951–87975 of 99,299
Results 87951–87975 of 99,299