An effort is underway at Sandia National Laboratories to develop a library of algorithms to search for potential interactions between surfaces represented by analytic and discretized topological entities. This effort is also developing algorithms to determine forces due to these interactions for transient dynamics applications. This document describes the Application Programming Interface (API) for the ACME (Algorithms for Contact in a Multiphysics Environment) library.

This report contains a summary of activities of Gnomon, Inc. and five subcontractors that have taken place during the first six months of 2004 (January 1, 2004-June 30, 2004) under the DOE-NETL cooperative agreement: ''Adaptive Management and Planning Models for Cultural Resources in Oil & Gas Fields in New Mexico and Wyoming'', DE-FC26-02NT15445. Although Gnomon and all five subcontractors completed tasks during these six months, most of the technical experimental work was conducted by the subcontractor, SRI Foundation (SRIF). SRIF created a sensitivity model for the Azotea Mesa area of southeastern New Mexico that rates areas as having a very good chance, a good chance, or a very poor chance of containing cultural resource sites. SRIF suggested that the results of the sensitivity model might influence possible changes in cultural resource management (CRM) practices in the Azote Mesa area of southeastern New Mexico.

There is currently a large research and development effort within the high-performance computing community on advanced parallel programming models. This research can potentially have an impact on parallel applications, system software, and computing architectures in the next several years. Given Sandia's expertise and unique perspective in these areas, particularly on very large-scale systems, there are many areas in which Sandia can contribute to this effort. This technical report provides a survey of past and present parallel programming model research projects and provides a detailed description of the Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) programming model. The PGAS model may offer several improvements over the traditional distributed memory message passing model, which is the dominant model currently being used at Sandia. This technical report discusses these potential benefits and outlines specific areas where Sandia's expertise could contribute to current research activities. In particular, we describe several projects in the areas of high-performance networking, operating systems and parallel runtime systems, compilers, application development, and performance evaluation.

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Analytic solutions are useful for code verification. Structural vibration codes approximate solutions to the eigenvalue problem for the linear elasticity equations (Navier's equations). Unfortunately the verification method of 'manufactured solutions' does not apply to vibration problems. Verification books (for example [2]) tabulate a few of the lowest modes, but are not useful for computations of large numbers of modes. A closed form solution is presented here for all the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for a cuboid solid with isotropic material properties. The boundary conditions correspond physically to a greased wall.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to assessing the Health and Human Services Commission's (Commission) systems and controls for monitoring managed care contracts in connection with its Business Improvement Plan with respect to the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) exclusive provider organization (EPO) contract and subcontracts.

Report of the Texas State Auditor's Office related to determining whether the Public Utility Commission of Texas administered the System Benefit Fund in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

MatSeis's infrasound analysis tool, Infra Tool, uses frequency slowness processing to deconstruct the array data into three outputs per processing step: correlation, azimuth and slowness. Until now, an experienced analyst trained to recognize a pattern observed in outputs from signal processing manually accomplished infrasound signal detection. Our goal was to automate the process of infrasound signal detection. The critical aspect of infrasound signal detection is to identify consecutive processing steps where the azimuth is constant (flat) while the time-lag correlation of the windowed waveform is above background value. These two statements describe the arrival of a correlated set of wavefronts at an array. The Hough Transform and Inverse Slope methods are used to determine the representative slope for a specified number of azimuth data points. The representative slope is then used in conjunction with associated correlation value and azimuth data variance to determine if and when an infrasound signal was detected. A format for an infrasound signal detection output file is also proposed. The detection output file will list the processed array element names, followed by detection characteristics for each method. Each detection is supplied with a listing of frequency slowness processing characteristics: human time (YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS.SSS), epochal time, correlation, …

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel for diesel engines that is receiving great attention worldwide. The material contained in this book is intended to provide the reader with information about biodiesel engines and fuels, analytical methods used to measure fuel properties, and specifications for biodiesel quality control.

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel for diesel engines that is gaining attention in the United States after reaching a considerable level of success in Europe. The purpose of this book is to describe and explain the process and issues involved in producing this fuel.

The Consortium for Advanced Residential Building (CARB), one of the Building America teams, describes recommended best practices to achieve 30% - 40% energy savings without compromising health or safety in houses built in cold climates, hot-humid climates, and hot-dry climates.

The material in this book is intended to provide the reader with information about the biodiesel and liquid fuels industry, biodiesel start-up issues, legal and regulatory issues, and operational concerns.

The objective of this Public Interest Energy Research (PIER)scoping project is to identify options for public-interest research and development (R&D) to improve transmission-planning tools, techniques, and methods. The information presented was gathered through a review of current California utility, California Independent System Operator (ISO), and related western states electricity transmission-planning activities and emerging needs. This report presents the project teams findings organized under six topic areas and identifies 17 distinct R&D activities to improve transmission-planning in California and the West. The findings in this report are intended for use, along with other materials, by PIER staff, to facilitate discussions with stakeholders that will ultimately lead to development of a portfolio of transmission-planning R&D activities for the PIER program.

This report describes research conducted between April 1, 2004 and June 30, 2004 on the preparation and use of dry regenerable sorbents for removal of carbon dioxide from flue gas. Support materials and supported sorbents were prepared by spray drying. Sorbents consisting of 20 to 50% sodium carbonate on a ceramic support were prepared by spray drying in batches of approximately 300 grams. The supported sorbents exhibited greater carbon dioxide capture rates than unsupported calcined sodium bicarbonate in laboratory tests. Preliminary process design and cost estimation for a retrofit application suggested that costs of a dry regenerable sodium carbonate-based process could be lower than those of a monoethanolamine absorption system. In both cases, the greatest part of the process costs come from power plant output reductions due to parasitic consumption of steam for recovery of carbon dioxide from the capture medium.

This research project is aimed at assessing the soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration potential of reclaimed minesoils (RMS). The experimental sites, owned and maintained by the American Electrical Power, are located in Guernsey, Morgan, Noble, and Muskingum Counties of Ohio. These sites, characterized by age chronosequences, were reclaimed with and without topsoil application and are under continuous grass or forest cover. During this quarter, bulk and core soil samples were collected from all 13 experimental sites for 0-15 cm, 15-30 cm, and 30-50 cm depths. In addition, 54 experimental plots (4 x 4 m) were established at three separate locations on reclaimed minesites to assess the influence of compost application on SOC during project period 2. This report presents the results from two sites reclaimed during 1978. The first site is under grass and the other under forest cover. The soil bulk density ({rho}{sub b}), SOC, total nitrogen (TN) concentrations and stocks were determined for these two sites on a 20 x 20 m grid. The preliminary analysis showed that the {rho}{sub b} ranged from 0.88 Mg m{sup -3} to 1.16 Mg m{sup -3} for 0-15 cm, 0.91 Mg m{sup -3} to 1.32 Mg m{sup -3} for 15-30 cm, and …

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The objectives of this project are to evaluate the feasibility of carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) sequestration in Texas low-rank coals and to determine the potential for enhanced coalbed methane (CBM) recovery as an added benefit of sequestration. The main tasks for this reporting period were to correlate well logs and refine coal property maps, evaluate methane content and gas composition of Wilcox Group coals, and initiate discussions concerning collection of additional, essential data with Anadarko. To assess the volume of CO{sub 2} that may be sequestered and volume of methane that can be produced in the vicinity of the proposed Sam Seymour sequestration site, we used approximately 200 additional wells logs from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to correlate and map coal properties of the 3 coal-bearing intervals of Wilcox group. Among the maps we are making are maps of the number of coal beds, number of coal beds greater than 5 ft thick, and cumulative coal thickness for each coal interval. This stratigraphic analysis validates the presence of abundant coal for CO{sub 2} sequestration in the Wilcox Group in the vicinity of Sam Seymour power plant. A typical wellbore in this region may penetrate 20 to 40 coal beds with cumulative …

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In continuation of efforts from last quarter, processing parameters, used in the formation of Pd-Cu alloy films, were being optimized in a drum (web) coater system with the goal of producing large-area, contiguous, pinhole-free films for H{sub 2} separation membranes. Since the (pre-treatment) functionality of the surface of the plastic backing material is sub-optimal, they tended to produce films in the drum coater that were either not contiguous (disseminates upon release from the polymer backing material) or contain pinholes. Alternative approaches, such as direct deposition onto thermally oxidized silicon wafers, have been attempted to yield pinhole-free films; i.e., formation of a poorly adherent Pd-Cu film on silicon will then directly release from the silicon substrate. Permeation characteristics of a 25 {micro}m-thick, Pd{sub 60}Cu{sub 40} alloy foil were conducted. After pre-treating the sample to stabilize the FCC {beta}-phase, the hydrogen permeability was determined to be 5.4 x 10{sup -5} cm{sup 3} cmcm{sup -2}s{sup -1}cm Hg{sup -1/2}. Thin, 1-3 {micro}m-thick Pd-Cu alloy films have been prepared on PS films and samples will be prepared and tested in the next quarter.

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There is growing interest in policies, programs and tariffs that encourage customer loads to provide demand response (DR) to help discipline wholesale electricity markets. Proposals at the retail level range from eliminating fixed rate tariffs as the default service for some or all customer groups to reinstituting utility-sponsored load management programs with market-based inducements to curtail. Alternative rate designs include time-of-use (TOU), day-ahead real-time pricing (RTP), critical peak pricing, and even pricing usage at real-time market balancing prices. Some Independent System Operators (ISOs) have implemented their own DR programs whereby load curtailment capabilities are treated as a system resource and are paid an equivalent value. The resulting load reductions from these tariffs and programs provide a variety of benefits, including limiting the ability of suppliers to increase spot and long-term market-clearing prices above competitive levels (Neenan et al., 2002; Boren stein, 2002; Ruff, 2002). Unfortunately, there is little information in the public domain to characterize and quantify how customers actually respond to these alternative dynamic pricing schemes. A few empirical studies of large customer RTP response have shown modest results for most customers, with a few very price-responsive customers providing most of the aggregate response (Herriges et al., 1993; Schwarz …

MCT has developed a suite of novel dewatering chemicals (or aids) that are designed to cause a decrease in the capillary pressures of the water trapped in a filter cake by (1) decreasing the surface tension of water, (2) increasing the contact angles of the particles to be dewatered, and (3) causing the particles to coagulate, all at the same time. The decrease in capillary pressure in turn causes an increase in the rate filtration, an increase in throughput, and a decrease in pressure drop requirement for filtration. The reagents are used frequently as blends of different chemicals in order to bring about the changes in all of the process variables noted above. The minerals and coal samples tested in the present work included copper sulfide, lead sulfide, zinc sulfide, kaolin clay, talc, and silica. The laboratory-scale test work included studies of reagent types, drying cycle times, cake thickness, slurry temperature, conditioning intensity and time, solid content, and reagent dosages. To better understand the mechanisms involved, fundamental studies were also conducted. These included the measurements of the contact angles of the particles to be dewatered (which are the measures of particle hydrophobicity) and the surface tensions of the filtrates produced …

Foster Wheeler Power Group, Inc. is working under US Department of Energy Contract No. DE-FC26-00NT40972 to develop a partial gasification module (PGM) that represents a critical element of several potential coal-fired Vision 21 plants. When utilized for electrical power generation, these plants will operate with efficiencies greater than 60% and produce near zero emissions of traditional stack gas pollutants. The new process partially gasifies coal at elevated pressure producing a coal-derived syngas and a char residue. The syngas can be used to fuel the most advanced power producing equipment such as solid oxide fuel cells or gas turbines, or processed to produce clean liquid fuels or chemicals for industrial users. The char residue is not wasted; it can also be used to generate electricity by fueling boilers that drive the most advanced ultra-supercritical pressure steam turbines. The amount of syngas and char produced by the PGM can be tailored to fit the production objectives of the overall plant, i.e., power generation, clean liquid fuel production, chemicals production, etc. Hence, PGM is a robust building bock that offers all the advantages of coal gasification but in a more user-friendly form; it is also fuel flexible in that it can use alternative …

Reclaimed phosphate mined land in central Florida has been identified as an area with potential for growing biomass crops. Approximately 73,000 acres of land could be available for production. Additional research is needed to define the possibilities.