Above-boiling temperature conditions, as encountered, forexample, in geothermal reservoirs and in geologic repositories for thestorage of heat-producing nuclear wastes, may give rise to stronglyaltered liquid and gas flow processes in porous subsurface environments.The magnitude of such flow perturbation is extremely hard to measure inthe field. We therefore propose a simple temperature-profile method thatuses high-resolution temperature data for deriving such information. Theenergy that is transmitted with the vapor and water flow creates a nearlyisothermal zone maintained at about the boiling temperature, referred toas a heat pipe. Characteristic features of measured temperature profiles,such as the differences in the gradients inside and outside of the heatpipe regions, are used to derive the approximate magnitude of the liquidand gas fluxes in the subsurface, for both steady-state and transientconditions.

We present a computational study of signal propagation and attenuation of a 200 MHz dipole antenna in a cave environment. The cave is modeled as a straight and lossy random rough wall. To simulate a broad frequency band, the full wave Maxwell equations are solved directly in the time domain via a high order vector finite element discretization using the massively parallel CEM code EMSolve. The simulation is performed for a series of random meshes in order to generate statistical data for the propagation and attenuation properties of the cave environment. Results for the power spectral density and phase of the electric field vector components are presented and discussed.

Residual stress analysis was performed on thick, 1.0 to 25 {micro}m, depleted Uranium (DU) films deposited on an Al substrate by magnetron sputtering. Two distinct characterization techniques were used to measure substrate curvature before and after deposition. Stress evaluation was performed using the Benabdi/Roche equation, which is based on beam theory of a bi-layer material. The residual stress evolution was studied as a function of coating thickness and applied negative bias voltage (0-300V). The stresses developed were always compressive; however, increasing the coating thickness and applying a bias voltage presented a trend towards more tensile stresses and thus an overall reduction of residual stresses.

We provide a discussion of the density and photoexcitation sensitivity of the X-ray spectra of Fe L-shell ions (Fe XVII-Fe XXIV) calculated with the Livermore X-ray Spectral Synthesizer, a suite of IDL codes that calculates spectral models of highly charged ions based primarily on HULLAC atomic data. These models are applicable to collisionally ionized laboratory or cosmic plasmas with electron temperatures T{sub e} {approx} 2-45 MK (0.2-4 keV) and electron densities n{sub e} {approx}> 10{sup 11} cm{sup -3}. Potentially useful density diagnostics are identified for Fe XVII and Fe XIX-Fe XXIII, with the most straightforward being the Fe XVII I(17.10 {angstrom})/I(17.05 {angstrom}) line ratio and the Fe XXII I(11.92 {angstrom})/I(11.77 {angstrom}) line ratio. Applying these models to the Chandra X-ray Observatory High Energy Transmission Grating spectrum of the intermediate polar EX Hya, we find that the strength of all the Fe L-shell lines are consistent with electron densities n{sub e} {approx}> 1 x 10{sup 14} cm{sup -3}. Specifically, from the observed Fe XVII I(17.10{angstrom})/I(17.05{angstrom}) line ratio, we infer an electron density n{sub e} {approx}> 2 x 10{sup 14} cm{sup -3} at the 3{sigma} level, while from the observed Fe XXII I(11.92 {angstrom})/I(11.77 {angstrom}) line ratio, we infer n{sub e} = …

For large-scale constitutive strength models the shear modulus is typically assumed to be linearly dependent on temperature. However, for materials compressed beyond the Hugoniot or in regimes where there is very little experimental data, accurate and validated models must be used. To this end, we present here a new methodology that fully accounts for electron- and ion-thermal contributions to the elastic moduli over broad ranges of temperature (<20,000 K) and pressure (<10 Mbar). In this approach, the full potential linear muffin-tin orbital (FP-LMTO) method for the cold and electron-thermal contributions is closely coupled with ion-thermal contributions. For the latter two separate approaches are used. In one approach, the quasi-harmonic, ion-thermal contribution is obtained through a Brillouin zone sum of strain derivatives of the phonons, and in the other a full anharmonic ion-thermal contribution is obtained directly through Monte Carlo (MC) canonical distribution averages of strain derivatives on the multi-ion potential itself. Both approaches use quantum-based interatomic potentials derived from model generalized pseudopotential theory (MGPT). For tantalum, the resulting elastic moduli are compared to available ultrasonic measurements and diamond-anvil-cell compression experiments. Over the range of temperature and pressure considered, the results are then used in a polycrystalline averaging for the shear …

A new methodology for calculating high temperature and pressure elastic moduli in metals has been developed accounting for both the electron-thermal and ion-thermal contributions. Anharmonic and quasi-harmonic thermoelasticity for bcc tantalum have thereby been calculated and compared as a function of temperature (<12,000 K) and pressure (<10 Mbar). In this approach, the full potential linear muffin-tin orbital (FP-LMTO) method for the cold and electron-thermal contributions is closely coupled with ion-thermal contributions obtained via multi-ion, quantum-based interatomic potentials derived from model generalized pseudopotential theory (MGPT). For the later contributions two separate approaches are used. In one approach, the quasi-harmonic ion-thermal contribution is obtained through a Brillouin zone sum of the strain derivatives of the phonons, and in the other the anharmonic ion-thermal contribution is obtained directly through Monte Carlo (MC) canonical distribution averages of strain derivatives on the multi-ion potentials themselves. The resulting elastic moduli compare well in each method and to available ultrasonic measurements and diamond-anvil-cell compression experiments indicating minimal anharmonic effects in bcc tantalum over the considered pressure range.