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.

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The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) was initiated in 1992 by the United States Department of Energy. The ICSBEP became an official activity of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995. Representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, the Russian Federation, Hungary, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Yugoslavia, Kazakhstan, Spain, and Israel are now participating. The purpose of the ICSBEP is to identify, evaluate, verify, and formally document a comprehensive and internationally peer-reviewed set of criticality safety benchmark data. The work of the ICSBEP is published as an OECD handbook entitled “International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments”. The 2001 Edition of the Handbook contains benchmark specifications for 2642 critical or subcritical configurations that are intended for use in validation efforts and for testing basic nuclear data.

Measurement and signal intelligence demands has created new requirements for information management and interoperability as they affect surveillance and situational awareness. Integration of on-board autonomous learning and adaptive control structures within a remote sensing platform architecture would substantially improve the utility of intelligence collection by facilitating real-time optimization of measurement parameters for variable field conditions. A problem faced by conventional digital implementations of intelligent systems is the conflict between a distributed parallel structure on a sequential serial interface functionally degrading bandwidth and response time. In contrast, optically designed networks exhibit the massive parallelism and interconnect density needed to perform complex cognitive functions within a dynamic asynchronous environment. Recently, all-optical self-organizing neural networks exhibiting emergent collective behavior which mimic perception, recognition, association, and contemplative learning have been realized using photorefractive holography in combination with sensory systems for feature maps, threshold decomposition, image enhancement, and nonlinear matched filters. Such hybrid information processors depart from the classical computational paradigm based on analytic rules-based algorithms and instead utilize unsupervised generalization and perceptron-like exploratory or improvisational behaviors to evolve toward optimized solutions. These systems are robust to instrumental systematics or corrupting noise and can enrich knowledge structures by allowing competition between multiple hypotheses. This property …

In the second year of the project, the Eulerian-Lagrangian formulation for analyzing three-phase slurry flows in a bubble column is further developed. The approach uses an Eulerian analysis of liquid flows in the bubble column, and makes use of the Lagrangian trajectory analysis for the bubbles and particle motions. An experimental set for studying a two-dimensional bubble column is also developed. The operation of the bubble column is being tested and diagnostic methodology for quantitative measurements is being developed. An Eulerian computational model for the flow condition in the two-dimensional bubble column is also being developed. The liquid and bubble motions are being analyzed and the results are being compared with the experimental setup. Solid-fluid mixture flows in ducts and passages at different angle of orientations were analyzed. The model predictions were compared with the experimental data and good agreement was found. Gravity chute flows of solid-liquid mixtures is also being studied. Further progress was also made in developing a thermodynamically consistent model for multiphase slurry flows with and without chemical reaction in a state of turbulent motion. The balance laws are obtained and the constitutive laws are being developed. Progress was also made in measuring concentration and velocity of …

The U.S. Department of Energy and ADA Environmental Solutions are engaged in a project to develop commercial flue gas conditioning additives. The objective is to develop conditioning agents that can help improve particulate control performance of smaller or under-sized electrostatic precipitators on utility coal-fired boilers. The new chemicals will be used to control both the electrical resistivity and the adhesion or cohesivity of the fly ash. There is a need to provide cost-effective and safer alternatives to traditional flue gas conditioning with SO{sub 3} and ammonia. During this reporting quarter, progress was made in obtaining an industry partner for a long-term demonstration and in technology transfer activities. Engineering and equipment procurement activities related to the long-term demonstration were also completed.

As part of Task 1 in Advanced Technologies for Stripper Gas Well Enhancement, Schlumberger--Holditch Reservoir Technologies (H-RT) has joined with two Appalachian Basin producers, Great Lakes Energy Partners, LLC, and Belden & Blake Corporation to develop methodologies for identification and enhancement of stripper wells with economic upside potential. These industry partners have provided us with data for more than 700 wells in northwestern Pennsylvania. Phase 1 goals of this project are to develop and validate methodologies that can quickly and cost-effectively identify wells with enhancement potential. We have continued to enhance and streamline our software, and we are testing the final stages of our new Microsoft{trademark} Access/Excel based software. We are continuing to process this well data and are identifying potential candidate wells that can be used in Phase 2 to validate the new methodologies. In addition, preparation of the final technical report is underway.

Presented at the 2001 NCPV Program Review Meeting: Report on research on four alternative methods for purifying metallurgical-grade silicon to target levels suitable for solar-grade silicon.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Alvin, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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Presented at the 2001 NCPV Program Review Meeting: Group III-nitride-arsenide materials were studied by SIMS, XRD, and Profiler to determine small amounts of nitrogen that can lower the alloys bandgap significantly.

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The proliferation resistance attributes or ''barriers'' developed by the Technology Opportunities to improve the Proliferation resistance of nuclear power Systems (TOPS) task force of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee (NERAC) provides a framework for the qualitative evaluation of the proliferation resistance of various candidate nuclear fuel cycles. This report summarizes such a qualitative assessment performed for ten current and proposed civilian nuclear fuel cycles.

A seismic slip is observed along several faults in the Salton Sea and southernmost Landers rupture zone regions using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data spanning different time periods between 1992 and 1997. In the southernmost Landers rupture zone, projecting south from the Pinto Mountain Fault, sharp discontinuities in the interferometric phase are observed along the sub-parallel Burnt Mountain and Eureka Peak Faults beginning three months after the Landers earthquake and is interpreted to be post-Landers after-slip. Abrupt phase offsets are also seen along the two southernmost contiguous 11 km Durmid Hill and North Shore segments of the San Andreas Fault with an abrupt termination of slip near the northern end of the North Shore Segment. A sharp phase offset is seen across 20 km of the 30 km-long Superstition Hills Fault before phase decorrelation in the Imperial Valley along the southern 10 km of the fault prevents coherent imaging by InSAR. A time series of deformation interferograms suggest most of this slip occurred between 1993 and 1995 and none of it occurred between 1992 and 1993. A phase offset is also seen along a 5 km central segment of the Coyote Creek fault that forms a wedge with an …

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Presented at 2001 NCPV Program Review Meeting: Randomly oriented or[110] pc-Si layers grown on foreign and Si substrates by atmospheric pressure IVT with high rates and large grain sizes.

Fossil fuels, especially coal, can support the energy demands of the world for centuries to come, if the environmental problems associated with CO{sub 2} emissions can be overcome. Permanent and safe methods for CO{sub 2} capture and disposal/storage need to be developed. Mineralization of stationary-source CO{sub 2} emissions as carbonates can provide such safe capture and long-term sequestration. Mg-rich lamellar-hydroxide based minerals (e.g., brucite and serpentine) offer a class of widely available, low-cost materials, with intriguing mineral carbonation potential. Carbonation of such materials inherently involves dehydroxylation, which can disrupt the material down to the atomic level. As such, controlled dehydroxylation, before and/or during carbonation, may provide an important parameter for enhancing carbonation reaction processes. Mg(OH){sub 2} was chosen as the model material for investigating lamellar hydroxide mineral dehydroxylation/carbonation mechanisms due to (i) its structural and chemical simplicity, (ii) interest in Mg(OH){sub 2} gas-solid carbonation as a potentially cost-effective CO{sub 2} mineral sequestration process component, and (iii) its structural and chemical similarity to other lamellar-hydroxide-based minerals (e.g., serpentine-based minerals) whose carbonation reaction processes are being explored due to their low-cost CO{sub 2} sequestration potential. Fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that govern dehydroxylation/carbonation processes is essential for minimizing the cost of any …

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), currently operating in the United States, is used for material testing at very high neutron fluxes. Powered with highly enriched uranium (HEU), the ATR has a maximum thermal power rating of 250 MWth. Because of the large test volumes located in high flux areas, the ATR is an ideal candidate for assessing the feasibility of converting HEU driven reactor cores to low-enriched uranium (LEU) cores. The present work investigates the optimized LEU Monolithic and Dispersed fuel with 10B loading minimization design and evaluates the subsequent neutronics operating effects of these optimized fuel designs. The MCNP ATR 1/8th core model was used to optimize the 235U and minimize the 10B loading in the LEU core, such that the differences in K-eff and heat flux profiles between the HEU and LEU cores were minimized. The fuel depletion methodology MCWO was used to calculate K eff versus effective full power days (EFPD) in this paper. The MCWO-calculated results for the optimized LEU Monolithic and Dispersed fuel cases demonstrated adequate excess reactivity such that the K-eff versus EFPD plot is similar to the ATR reference HEU case study. Each HEU fuel element contains 19 fuel plates with a fuel …

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The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) is conducting a project to examine the fundamental issues limiting the use of biomass in small industrial steam/power systems in order to increase the future use of this valuable domestic resource. Specifically, the EERC is attempting to elucidate the ash-related problems--grate clinkering and heat exchange surface fouling--associated with cofiring coal and biomass in grate-fired systems. Utilization of biomass in stoker boilers designed for coal can be a cause of concern for boiler operators. Boilers that were designed for low volatile fuels with lower reactivities can experience damaging fouling when switched to higher volatile and more reactive lower-rank fuels, such as when cofiring biomass. Higher heat release rates at the grate can cause more clinkering or slagging at the grate because of higher temperatures. Combustion and loss of volatile matter can start too early for biomass fuels compared to the design fuel, vaporizing alkali and chlorides which then condense on rear walls and heat exchange tube banks in the convective pass of the stoker, causing noticeable increases in fouling. In addition, stoker-fired boilers that switch to biomass blends may encounter new chemical species such as potassium sulfates and various chlorides, in combination with different …

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.