Node-on-segment contact is the most common form of contact used today but has many deficiencies ranging from potential locking to non-smooth behavior with large sliding. Furthermore, node-on-segment approaches are not at all applicable to higher order discretizations (e.g. quadratic elements). In a previous work, [3, 4] we developed a segment-to-segment contact approach for eight node hexahedral elements based on the mortar method that was applicable to large deformation mechanics. The approach proved extremely robust since it eliminated the over-constraint that caused 'locking' and provided smooth force variations in large sliding. Here, we extend this previous approach to treat frictional contact problems. In addition, the method is extended to 3D quadratic tetrahedrals and hexahedrals. The proposed approach is then applied to several challenging frictional contact problems that demonstrate its effectiveness.

Crystals of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH{sub 2}PO{sub 4}, KDP) are grown in large scale for use as nonlinear material in laser components. Traces of trivalent metal impurities are often added to the supernatant to achieve habit control during crystal growth, selectively inhibiting the growth of the {l_brace}100{r_brace} face. Model systems representing AlPO{sub 4}-doped KDP {l_brace}100{r_brace} stepped surfaces are prepared and studied using ab initio quantum methods. Results of Hartree-Fock partial optimizations are presented, including estimated energies of ion pair binding to the steps. We find that the PO{sub 4}{sup 3-} ion takes a position not unlike that of a standard phosphate in the crystal lattice, while the aluminum atom is displaced far from a K{sup +} ion position to establish coordinations with the PO{sub 4}{sup 3-} ion and to bind with another lattice-bound phosphate. Our optimized structures suggest that it is the formation of a fourth coordination of Al(III) to a third phosphate ion from solution, or perhaps from a nearby position in the lattice, that disrupts further deposition, pinning the steps.

Article about two events hosted by Brilliant Magazine celebrating Carolyn Farb and Mark Sullivan.

Convective amplification in large homogeneous systems is studied, both analytically and numerically, in the case of a linear diffraction-free stochastic amplifier. Overall amplification does not result from successive amplifications in small scale high intensity hot-spots, but from a single amplification in a delocalized mode of the driver field spreading over the whole interaction length. For this model, the hot-spot approach is found to systematically underestimate the gain factor by more than 50%.

We have augmented the code POSINST to include solenoid fields, and used it to simulate the build up of electron cloud due to electron multipacting in the PEP-II positron ring. We find that the distribution of electrons is strongly affected by the resonances associated with the cyclotron period and bunch spacing. In addition, we discover a threshold beyond which the electron density grows exponentially until it reaches the space charge limit. The threshold does not depend on the bunch spacing but does depend on the positron bunch population.

The Full Aperture Backscatter System (FABS) provides a measure of the spectral power, and integrated energy scattered by stimulated Brillouin (348-354 nm) and Raman (400 - 700 nm) scattering into the final focusing lens of the first four beams of the NIF laser. The system was designed to provide measurements at the highest expected fluences with: (1) spectral and temporal resolution, (2) beam aperture averaging, and (3) near-field imaging. This is accomplished with a strongly attenuating diffusive fiber coupler and streaked spectrometer and separate calibrated time integrated spectrometers, and imaging cameras. Measurement of the wavelength dependent sensitivity of the complete system is accomplished with a calibrated Xe lamp. Data from the calibration system is combined with experimental data to produce the power and energy measurements. Examples of measurements will be discussed.

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) received ISO 14001/EMS certification in June 2002. Communication played an effective role in implementing ISO 14001/EMS at the INEEL. This paper describes communication strategies used during the implementation and certification processes. The INEEL achieved Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) and Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star status in 2001. ISMS implemented a formal process to plan and execute work. VPP facilitated worker involvement by establishing geographic units at various facilities with employee points of contact and management champions. The INEEL Environmental Management System (EMS) was developed to integrate the environmental functional area into its ISMS and VPP. Since the core functions of ISMS, VPP, and EMS are interchangeable, they were easy to integrate. Communication is essential to successfully implement an EMS. (According to ISO 14001 requirements, communication interacts with 12 other elements of the requirements.) We developed communication strategies that integrated ISMS, VPP, and EMS. For example, the ISMS, VPP, and EMS Web sites communicated messages to the work force, such as “VPP emphasizes the people side of doing business, ISMS emphasizes the system side of doing business, and EMS emphasizes the systems to protect the environment; but they all define work, identify …

The National Ignition Facility is under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy Stockpile Stewardship Program. Optical streak cameras are an integral part of the experimental diagnostics instrumentation. To accurately reduce data from the streak cameras a temporal calibration is required. This article describes a technique for generating trains of precisely timed short-duration optical pulses that are suitable for temporal calibrations.

The genome sequence of a second fruit fly, D. pseudoobscura, presents an opportunity for comparative analysis of a primary model organism D. melanogaster. The vast majority of Drosophila genes have remained on the same arm, but within each arm gene order has been extensively reshuffled leading to the identification of approximately 1300 syntenic blocks. A repetitive sequence is found in the D. pseudoobscura genome at many junctions between adjacent syntenic blocks. Analysis of this novel repetitive element family suggests that recombination between offset elements may have given rise to many paracentric inversions, thereby contributing to the shuffling of gene order in the D. pseudoobscura lineage. Based on sequence similarity and synteny, 10,516 putative orthologs have been identified as a core gene set conserved over 35 My since divergence. Genes expressed in the testes had higher amino acid sequence divergence than the genome wide average consistent with the rapid evolution of sex-specific proteins. Cis-regulatory sequences are more conserved than control sequences between the species but the difference is slight, suggesting that the evolution of cis-regulatory elements is flexible. Overall, a picture of repeat mediated chromosomal rearrangement, and high co-adaptation of both male genes and cis-regulatory sequences emerges as important themes of …

The capillary pressure model correlates drainage and imbibition data from the UNSODA database, provided that the data incorporate the entry head, a minimum displacement required for drainage to begin. According to the model, the imbibition pressure equals the drainage pressures at a critical minimum saturation of 0.301; below this critical saturation, no additional reversible drainage should occur. Some of the UNSODA data sets had a minimum saturation approximately half this value. The difference is attributed to the presence of fissures, which would lower the residual wetting and critical minimum saturations by reducing the fraction of the void volume controlled by capillary pores. If the UNSODA saturations are adjusted for this discrepancy, a probability distribution of minimum saturations for each data set peaks near the predicted critical minimum saturation. Maximum saturations for each data set have a peak near the predicted residual nonwetting saturation of 0.884.

Recent evaluations in the field of biomass separations have resulted in a novel concept termed the “embedded membrane.” Biomass solutions, which typically consist of a sludge-like material, contain a wide range of particle types and concentrations. These highly abusive solutions have the potential to cause reduced flux and even catastrophic failure through erosion mechanisms within the membrane. The embedded membrane concept relies on embedding finer, filtration inducing particles (e.g. ceramic such as TiO2) into the interstices of a macroporous support (e.g., sintered metal such as sintered stainless steel). It is believed that the embedded membrane would be resistant to erosion processes, since only the macroporous support material would be subjected to the harsh hydrodynamic properties of the flowing bulk process fluid. Moreover, the finer, filtration inducing embedded particles that provide the necessary filtration efficiency are protected from the bulk process fluid. In an effort to investigate the embedded membrane concept, samples of sintered stainless steel membranes embedded with ceramic particles have been prepared.

Modifications to the displacement kerma cross section methods employed in the NJOY99 nuclear data processing code are described. Calculations were performed with the modified code for molybdenum using ENDF-6 neutron interaction data. Results are presented for a range of plausible Ed values.

The first search for diffractively produced Z bosons in the muon decay channel is presented, using a data set collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV between April and September 2003, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 110 pb{sup -1}. The first dN/d|t| distribution for proton-antiproton elastic scattering at this c.o.m. energy is also presented, using data collected by the D0 Forward Proton Detector between January and May 2002. The measured slope is reproduced by theoretical predictions.

The SCDAP/RELAP5/ATHENA code was extended to enable the code to perform transient analyses of High Temperature Gas Reactors (HTGRs). Preliminary results indicate that post-shutdown decay heat can be adequately removed from HTGRs by natural circulation of atmospheric air.

Film boiling heat transfer coefficients for a downward-facing hemispherical surface are measured from the quenching tests in DELTA (Downward-boiling Experimental Laminar Transition Apparatus). Two test sections are made of copper to maintain low Biot numbers. The outer diameters of the hemispheres are 120 mm and 294 mm, respectively. The thickness of all the test sections is 30 mm. The effect of diameter on film boiling heat transfer is quantified utilizing results obtained from the test sections. The measured data are compared with the numerical predictions from laminar film boiling analysis. The measured heat transfer coefficients are found to be greater than those predicted by the conventional laminar flow theory on account of the interfacial wavy motion incurred by the Helmholtz instability. Incorporation of the wavy motion model considerably improves the agreement between the experimental and numerical results in terms of heat transfer coefficient. In addition, the interfacial wavy motion and the quenching process are visualized through a digital camera.

A -1200 ppm forced volume magnetostriction has been obtained in a [0-3], resin binder, Gd{sub 5}Si{sub 2}Ge{sub 2} particulate composite. The strain is a result of a magnetically induced phase transformation from a high volume (high temperature, low magnetic field) monoclinic phase to a low volume (low temperature, high magnetic field) orthorhombic phase. The particles used in the composite were ball-milled from a bulk sample and were sieved to obtain a size distribution of {approx}> 600 {micro}m. Bulk Gd{sub 5}Si{sub 2}Ge{sub 2} was manufactured via arc melting and subsequently annealed at 1300 C for 1 hour to produce a textured, polycrystalline sample. The transformation temperatures of the bulk sample, as measured using a Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC), were M{sub s}= -9.3 C, M{sub f}=-14.6 C, A{sub s}=-4.4 C, and A{sub f}=-1.2 C. The composite and the bulk samples were magnetically characterized using a SQUID magnetometer, and found to undergo a paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition during the phase transformation, consistent with published results. The bulk sample was also found to possess a maximum linear magnetostriction -2500 ppm.

Selected results from the STAR collaboration are presented. We focus on recent results on jet-like correlations, nuclear modification factors of identified hadrons, elliptic flow of multi-strange baryons {Xi} and {Omega} and resonance yields. First measurements of open charm production at RHIC are presented.

A number of recent works have established the mortar technique as an accurate and robust spatial discretization method for contact problems in computational solid mechanics. Since methods based on this idea rely on an integral, non-local representation of the contact operators, their formulation is somewhat more involved than is true for more traditional ''point to surface'' contact algorithms; in particular, the integral projections have nontrivial linearizations in the fully large deformation context. In this work, we concentrate on another aspect of formulations of this type--definition and implementation of frictional contact operators within the mortar contact framework. Issues associated with frame indifference of frictional tractions and kinematics are discussed, and a numerical demonstration of the technique is given.

Coupled climate and carbon cycle modeling studies have shown that the feedback between global warming and the carbon cycle, in particular the terrestrial carbon cycle, could accelerate climate change and result in larger warming. In this paper, we investigate the sensitivity of this feedback for year-2100 global warming in the range of 0 K to 8 K. Differing climate sensitivities to increased CO{sub 2} content are imposed on the carbon cycle models for the same emissions. Emissions from the SRES A2 scenario are used. We use a fully-coupled climate and carbon cycle model, the INtegrated Climate and CArbon model (INCCA) the NCAR/DOE Parallel Coupled Model coupled to the IBIS terrestrial biosphere model and a modified-OCMIP ocean biogeochemistry model. In our model, for scenarios with year-2100 global warming increasing from 0 to 8 K, land uptake decreases from 47% to 29% of total CO{sub 2} emissions. Due to competing effects, ocean uptake (16%) shows almost no change at all. Atmospheric CO{sub 2} concentration increases were 48% higher in the run with 8 K global climate warming than in the case with no warming. Our results indicate that carbon cycle amplification of climate warming will be greater if there is higher climate …

An LDRD (Laboratory Directed Research and Development) project is underway at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to demonstrate the feasibility of using a three-dimensional multi-group deterministic neutron transport code (Attila®) to perform global (core-wide) criticality, flux and depletion calculations for safety analysis of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). This paper discusses the ATR, model development, capabilities of Attila, generation of the cross-section libraries, comparisons to experimental results for Advanced Fuel Cycle (AFC) concepts, and future work planned with Attila.

Jet quenching in the matter created in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions provides a tomographic tool to probe the medium properties. Recent experimental results on jet production at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) are reviewed. Jet properties in p+p and d+Au collisions have been measured, establishing the baseline for studying jet modification in heavy-ion collisions. Current progress on detailed studies of high transverse momentum production in Au+Au collisions is discussed, with an emphasis on dihadron correlation measurements.

This paper provides a review of early gas cooled reactors including the Magnox reactors originating in the United Kingdom and the subsequent development of the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGR). These early gas cooled reactors shared a common coolant medium, namely carbon dioxide (CO2). A framework of information is provided about these early reactors and identifies unique problems/opportunities associated with use of CO2 as a coolant. Reactor designers successfully rose to these challenges. After years of successful use of the CO2 gas cooled reactors in Europe, the succeeding generation of reactors, called the High Temperature Gas Reactors (HTGR), were designed with Helium gas as the coolant. Again, in the 21st century, with the latest reactor designs under investigation in Generation IV, there is a revived interest in developing Gas Cooled Fast Reactors that use CO2 as the reactor coolant. This paper provides a historical perspective on the 52 CO2 reactors and the reactor programs that developed them. The Magnox and AGR design features and safety characteristics were reviewed, as well as the technologies associated with fuel storage, reprocessing, and disposal. Lessons-learned from these programs are noted to benefit the designs of future generations of gas cooled nuclear reactors.

The physical process leading to the acceleration of the expansion of the universe is unknown. It may involve new high energy physics or extensions to gravitation. Calling this generically dark energy, we examine the consistencies and relations between these two approaches, showing that an effective equation of state function w(z) is broadly useful in describing the properties of the dark energy. A variety of cosmological observations can provide important information on the dynamics of dark energy and the future looks bright for constraining dark energy, though both the measurements and the interpretation will be challenging. We also discuss a more direct relation between the spacetime geometry and acceleration, via ''geometric dark energy'' from the Ricci scalar, and superacceleration or phantom energy where the fate of the universe may be more gentle than the Big Rip.

Article on O-methylation of benzaldehyde derivatives by "lignin specific" caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase.