The development of global on-stream inspection technology will have a dramatic effect on how refinery operations are managed in the U.S. in the future. Global on-stream inspection will provide assurance of the mechanical integrity of critical plant equipment and will allow refineries to operate more efficiently with less impact on our environment and with an increased margin of safety.

This report documents the C version of the MCAPM (Monte Carlo All Particle Method) generator and collision physics library of subroutines. The Monte Carlo data generator (gen2000) reads cross sections and distributions that describe in-flight reactions from a binary library and creates an internal data library. The collision routines (bang2000) use this internal library to perform the physics of interaction of particles with the background material. Particles modeled with MCAPM-C are neutrons, charged particles (p, d, t, {sup 3}He, and {alpha}), and {gamma}'s. MCAPM-C is written in (nearly) standard C, and versions exist for Sun Solaris, Compaq Unix, IBM AIX, SGI Irix, and Linux. The library and its data files are installed on LC's Compass, TC, Forest, Blue, and Sky machines. This report describes the contents and format of the library, physics assumptions made, and the interface to the library's subroutines.

The connectivity interface for UnstructuredMapping has been rewritten to provide a more thorough interface to the mesh. This new design also resembles the TSTT mesh query interface. While data is still stored in array form, indexed by integers, the interface provides iterators through the mesh entities and adjacencies. This document describes the additions to the UnstructuredMapping class as well as the definition and use of the UnstructuredMappingIterator and UnstructuredMappingAdjacencyIterator classes.

This issue has the following articles: (1) Shock-Ignition Experiments on OMEGA at NIF-Relevant Intensities; (2) Laser-Driven Magnetic-Flux Compression in High-Energy-Density Plasmas; (3) Lorentz Mapping of Magnetic Fields in Hot, Dense Plasmas; (4) Characterization and Optimization of Yb-Doped Photonic-Crystal Fiber Rod Amplifiers Using Spatially Resolved Spectral Interferometry; (5) Optical Differentiation and Multimillijoule {approx}150-ps Pulse Generation in a Regenerative Amplifier with a Temperature-Tuned Intracavity Volume Bragg Grating; (6) Slow Crack Growth During Radiatiave Cooling of LHG8 and BK7 Plates; and (7) Finite Element Simulation of Metal-Semiconductor-Metal Photoconductor.

Dynamic time expansion or compression of a small amplitude input signal generated with an initial scale is performed using a nonlinear waveguide. A nonlinear waveguide having a variable refractive index is connected to a bias voltage source having a bias signal amplitude that is large relative to the input signal to vary the reflective index and concomitant speed of propagation of the nonlinear waveguide and an electrical circuit for applying the small amplitude signal and the large amplitude bias signal simultaneously to the nonlinear waveguide. The large amplitude bias signal with the input signal alters the speed of propagation of the small-amplitude signal with time in the nonlinear waveguide to expand or contract the initial time scale of the small-amplitude input signal.

A method for determining the quality of an examined weld joint comprising the steps of providing acoustical data from the examined weld joint, and performing a neural network operation on the acoustical data determine the quality of the examined weld joint produced by a friction weld process. The neural network may be trained by the steps of providing acoustical data and observable data from at least one test weld joint, and training the neural network based on the acoustical data and observable data to form a trained neural network so that the trained neural network is capable of determining the quality of a examined weld joint based on acoustical data from the examined weld joint. In addition, an apparatus having a housing, acoustical sensors mounted therein, and means for mounting the housing on a friction weld device so that the acoustical sensors do not contact the weld joint. The apparatus may sample the acoustical data necessary for the neural network to determine the quality of a weld joint.

An horizontal advanced tensiometer is described that allows the monitoring of the water pressure of soil positions, particularly beneath objects or materials that inhibit the use of previous monitoring wells. The tensiometer includes a porous cup, a pressure transducer (with an attached gasket device), an adaptive chamber, at least one outer guide tube which allows access to the desired horizontal position, a transducer wire, a data logger and preferably an inner guide tube and a specialized joint which provides pressure on the inner guide tube to maintain the seal between the gasket of the transducer and the adaptive chamber.