Materials Evaluation Test Series (METS) 04, 05, and 06 (open access)

Materials Evaluation Test Series (METS) 04, 05, and 06

The purpose of this work is to examine the environmental, safety, health and operational aspects of detonating a confined explosive test apparatus that has been designed to maximize the dynamics of impact on beryllium metal components for Contained Firing Facility (CFF) applications. A combination of experimental collection and evaluation methods were designed and implemented to provide an evaluation of immediately postdetonation by-products reflecting a potential worst-case scenario beryllium aerosolization explosive event. The collective Material Evaluation Test Series (METS) 04 - 06 provided explosive devices designed to scale for the dedicated METS firing tank that would provide a post-detonation internal environment comparable to the CFF. The experimental results provided appropriate information to develop operational parameters to be considered for conducting full-scale beryllium-containing experimental tests with similar designs within CFF and B801A. These operational procedures include the inclusion of chelating agents in pre-shot CFF cardboard containers with a minimum of 600 gallons content, an extended time period post-test before purging the CFF chamber, and an adaptation of approaches toward applications of the scrubber and HEPA systems during the post-shot sequence for an integrated environmental, safety, and health approach. In addition, re-entry and film retrieval procedures will be adapted, in line with abatement …
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Zalk, D.; Ingram, C.; Simmons, L.; Arganbright, R.; Lyle, J. & Wong, K.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Stark Tuning of Donor Electron Spins of Silicon (open access)

Stark Tuning of Donor Electron Spins of Silicon

We report Stark shift measurements for {sup 121}Sb donor electron spins in silicon using pulsed electron spin resonance. Interdigitated metal gates on top of a Sb-implanted {sup 28}Si epi-layer are used to apply electric fields. Two Stark effects are resolved: a decrease of the hyperfine coupling between electron and nuclear spins of the donor and a decrease in electron Zeeman g-factor. The hyperfine term prevails at X-band magnetic fields of 0.35T, while the g-factor term is expected to dominate at higher magnetic fields. A significant linear Stark effect is also resolved presumably arising from strain.
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Bradbury, Forrest R.; Tyryshkin, Alexei M.; Sabouret, Guillaume; Bokor, Jeff; Schenkel, Thomas & Lyon, Stephen A.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Influence of argon and oxygen on charge-state-resolved ion energydistributions of filtered aluminum arcs (open access)

Influence of argon and oxygen on charge-state-resolved ion energydistributions of filtered aluminum arcs

The charge-state-resolved ion energy distributions (IEDs) in filtered aluminum vacuum arc plasmas were measured and analyzed at different oxygen and argon pressures in the range 0.5 8.0 mTorr. A significant reduction of the ion energy was detected as the pressure was increased, most pronounced in an argon environment and for the higher charge states. The corresponding average charge state decreased from 1.87 to 1.0 with increasing pressure. The IEDs of all metal ions in oxygen were fitted with shifted Maxwellian distributions. The results show that it is possible to obtain a plasma composition with a narrow charge-state distribution as well as a narrow IED. These data may enable tailoring thin-film properties through selecting growth conditions that are characterized by predefined charge state and energy distributions.
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Rosen, Johanna; Anders, Andre; Mraz, Stanislav; Atiser, Adil & Schneider, Jochen M.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nano-subgrain Strengthening in Ball-milled Iron (open access)

Nano-subgrain Strengthening in Ball-milled Iron

The strength and deformation behavior of ball-milled, iron-base materials containing nano-scale subgrains have been evaluated. As reported by several authors, nanosubgrains form during the early stages of ball milling as a result of severe plastic deformation inherent in the ball milling process. The strength for these nano-scale subgrains are compared with the strength of larger-scale subgrains in iron and iron-base alloys produced by traditional mechanical working. The data covers over 2 orders of magnitude in subgrain size (from 30 nm to 6 {micro}m) and shows a continuous pattern of behavior. For all materials studied, the strength varied as {lambda}{sup -1}, where {lambda} is the subgrain size. Strengthening from subgrains was found to breakdown at a much smaller subgrain size than strengthening from grains. In addition, the ball-milled materials showed significant strengthening contributions from nano-scale oxide particles. Shear bands are developed during testing of ball-milled materials containing ultra-fine subgrains. A model for shear band development in nano-scale subgrains during deformation has also been developed. The model predicts a strain state of uniaxial compression in the shear band with a strain of -1.24. Subgrains are shown to offer the opportunity for high strength and good work hardening with the absence of yield …
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Lesuer, D R; Syn, C K & Sherby, O D
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Structural health monitoring of wind turbine blades : SE 265 Final Project. (open access)

Structural health monitoring of wind turbine blades : SE 265 Final Project.

ACME Wind Turbine Corporation has contacted our dynamic analysis firm regarding structural health monitoring of their wind turbine blades. ACME has had several failures in previous years. Examples are shown in Figure 1. These failures have resulted in economic loss for the company due to down time of the turbines (lost revenue) and repair costs. Blade failures can occur in several modes, which may depend on the type of construction and load history. Cracking and delamination are some typical modes of blade failure. ACME warranties its turbines and wishes to decrease the number of blade failures they have to repair and replace. The company wishes to implement a real time structural health monitoring system in order to better understand when blade replacement is necessary. Because of warranty costs incurred to date, ACME is interested in either changing the warranty period for the blades in question or predicting imminent failure before it occurs. ACME's current practice is to increase the number of physical inspections when blades are approaching the end of their fatigue lives. Implementation of an in situ monitoring system would eliminate or greatly reduce the need for such physical inspections. Another benefit of such a monitoring system is that …
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Barkley, W. C. (Walter C.); Jacobs, Laura D.; Rutherford, A. C. (Amanda C.) & Puckett, Anthony
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Prediction and observation of tin and silver plasmas with index of refraction greater than one in the soft X-ray range (open access)

Prediction and observation of tin and silver plasmas with index of refraction greater than one in the soft X-ray range

None
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Filevich, J.; Grava, J.; Purvis, M.; Marconi, M. C.; Rocca, J. J.; Nilsen, J. et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: Expanding the Universe of Protein Families (open access)

The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: Expanding the Universe of Protein Families

Metagenomics projects based on shotgun sequencing of populations of micro-organisms yield insight into protein families. We used sequence similarity clustering to explore proteins with a comprehensive dataset consisting of sequences from available databases together with 6.12 million proteins predicted from an assembly of 7.7 million Global Ocean Sampling (GOS) sequences. The GOS dataset covers nearly all known prokaryotic protein families. A total of 3,995 medium- and large-sized clusters consisting of only GOS sequences are identified, out of which 1,700 have no detectable homology to known families. The GOS-only clusters contain a higher than expected proportion of sequences of viral origin, thus reflecting a poor sampling of viral diversity until now. Protein domain distributions in the GOS dataset and current protein databases show distinct biases. Several protein domains that were previously categorized as kingdom specific are shown to have GOS examples in other kingdoms. About 6,000 sequences (ORFans) from the literature that heretofore lacked similarity to known proteins have matches in the GOS data. The GOS dataset is also used to improve remote homology detection. Overall, besides nearly doubling the number of current proteins, the predicted GOS proteins also add a great deal of diversity to known protein families and shed …
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Yooseph, Shibu; Sutton, Granger; Rusch, Douglas B.; Halpern, Aaron L.; Williamson, Shannon J.; Remington, Karin et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effects of Natural Environmental Changes on Soil-Vapor Extraction Rates (open access)

Effects of Natural Environmental Changes on Soil-Vapor Extraction Rates

Remediation by soil-vapor extraction has been used for over a decade at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). We have found that natural changes in environmental conditions affect the rate of soil-vapor extraction. Data on flow rate observations collected over this time are compared to in-situ measurements of several different environmental parameters (soil-gas pressure, soil-temperature, soil-moisture, Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT), rainfall and barometric pressure). Environmental changes that lead to increased soil-moisture are associated with reduced soil-vapor extraction flow rates. We have found that the use of higher extraction vacuums combined with dual-phase extraction can help to increase pneumatic conductivity when vadose zone saturation is a problem. Daily changes in barometric pressure and soil-gas temperature were found to change flow rate measurements by as much as 10% over the course of a day.
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Martins, S. & Gregory, S.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Hybrid 320 Ton Off Highway Haul Truck: Quarterly Technical Status Report 13 (open access)

Hybrid 320 Ton Off Highway Haul Truck: Quarterly Technical Status Report 13

This thirteenth quarterly status report for the Hybrid Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) project, DOE Award DE-FC04-02AL68080 presents the project status at the end of December 2005, and covers activities in the thirteenth project quarter, October 2005 ? December 2005.
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Richter, Tim
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
SOURCE TERM REMEDIATION & DEMOLITION STRATEGY FOR THE HANFORD K-AREA SPENT FUEL BASINS (open access)

SOURCE TERM REMEDIATION & DEMOLITION STRATEGY FOR THE HANFORD K-AREA SPENT FUEL BASINS

This paper discusses the technologies applied at Hanford's K-Basins to mitigate risk and reduce the source term in preparing the basins for deactivation and demolition. These project technologies/strategies (in various stages of implementation) are sequential in nature and are the basis for preparing to dispose of the K Basins--two highly contaminated concrete basins at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State. A large collection of spent nuclear fuel stored for many years underwater at the K Basins has been removed to stable, dry, safe storage. Remediation activities are underway to prepare the basin structures for de-inventory, decontamination, and disposal.
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Chronister, G. B. & Knollmeyer, P. M.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Improved Miscible Nitrogen Flood Performance Utilizing Advanced Reservoir Characterization and Horizontal Laterals in a Class I Reservoir -- East Binger (Marchand) Unit (open access)

Improved Miscible Nitrogen Flood Performance Utilizing Advanced Reservoir Characterization and Horizontal Laterals in a Class I Reservoir -- East Binger (Marchand) Unit

A significant work program was implemented from 2002 to 2005 in the East Binger Unit (''EBU'') miscible nitrogen injection project in an effort to reduce gas cycling and economically increase ultimate oil recovery. This work included the drilling of new wells, both horizontal and vertical, as well as pattern realignment through producer-to-injector conversions. Monitoring of overall performance of the pilot area continues. Response to the various projects continues to be very favorable. Injection into the pilot area, despite being limited at times by problems in the Air Separation Unit of the Nitrogen Management Facility, has increased an average of 50% over levels prior to the project. Meanwhile, gas production and nitrogen content of produced gas have both decreased. After decreasing to 20-25% early in the project, nitrogen recycle (produced nitrogen volume divided by injected nitrogen volume) within the pilot area has risen back to about 42%, still far below the 72% prior to initiation of the project. Poor areal sweep efficiency appears to be the primary cause of nitrogen cycling. Seven vertical and three horizontal wells have been drilled in the pilot area throughout the project, and most have had initial produced gas oil ratios and gas nitrogen contents significantly …
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Sinner, Joe
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
DOUBLE SHELL TANK (DST) WASTE TRANSFER LINE ENCASEMENT INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT TECHNOLOGY STUDY (open access)

DOUBLE SHELL TANK (DST) WASTE TRANSFER LINE ENCASEMENT INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT TECHNOLOGY STUDY

None
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: BOWER, R.R.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Measurements of CP-Violating Asymmetries and BranchingFractions in B Decays to omegaK and omegaPi (open access)

Measurements of CP-Violating Asymmetries and BranchingFractions in B Decays to omegaK and omegaPi

We present measurements of CP-violating asymmetries and branching fractions for the decays B{sup +} {yields} {omega}{pi}{sup +}, B{sup +} {yields} {omega}K{sup +}, and B{sup 0} {yields} {omega}K{sup 0}. The data sample corresponds to 232 million B{bar B} pairs produced by e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilation at the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance. For the decay B{sup 0} {yields} {omega}K{sub s}{sup 0}, we measure the time-dependent CP-violation parameters S = 0.51{sub -0.39}{sup +0.35} {+-} 0.02, and C = -0.55{sub -0.26}{sup +0.28} {+-} 0.03. We also measure the branching fractions, in units of 10{sup -6}, {Beta}(B{sup +} {yields} {omega}{pi}{sup +}) = 6.1 {+-} 0.7 {+-} 0.4, {Beta}(B{sup +} {yields} {omega}K{sup +}) = 6.1 {+-} 0.6 {+-} 0.4, and {Beta}(B{sup 0} {yields} {omega}K{sup 0}) = 6.2 {+-} 1.0 {+-} 0.4, and charge asymmetries {Alpha}{sub ch}(B{sup +} {yields} {omega}{pi}{sup +}) = -0.01 {+-} 0.10 {+-} 0.01 and {Alpha}{sub ch}(B{sup +} {yields} {omega}K{sup +}) = 0.05 {+-} 0.09 {+-} 0.01.
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Aubert, B.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Automation&Characterization of US Air Force Bench Top Wind Tunnels - Summary Report (open access)

Automation&Characterization of US Air Force Bench Top Wind Tunnels - Summary Report

The United States Air Force Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratories (PMEL) calibrate over 1,000 anemometer probes per year. To facilitate a more efficient calibration process for probe-style anemometers, the Air Force Metrology and Calibration Program underwent an effort to modernize the existing PMEL bench top wind tunnels. Through a joint effort with the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the performance of PMEL wind tunnels was improved. The improvement consisted of new high accuracy sensors, automatic data acquisition, and a software-driven calibration process. As part of the wind tunnel upgrades, an uncertainty analysis was completed, laser Doppler velocimeter profiling was conducted to characterize the velocities at probe locations in the wind tunnel, and pitot tube calibrations of the wind tunnel were verified. The bench top wind tunnel accuracy and repeatability has been measured for nine prototype wind tunnel systems and valuable field experience has been gained with these wind tunnels at the PMELs. This report describes the requirements for the wind tunnel improvements along with actual implementation strategies and details. Lessons-learned from the automation, the velocity profiling, and the software-driven calibration process will also be discussed.
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Hardy, J. E.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Optical Reflection Spectroscopy of Thick Corrosion Layers on 304 Stainless Steel (open access)

Optical Reflection Spectroscopy of Thick Corrosion Layers on 304 Stainless Steel

Corrosion resistant structural materials of both iron and nickel based alloys are used in the electric power industry for the construction of the coolant loops of both conventional and nuclear power generating stations. These materials, in the presence of high temperature (e.g. 287 C), high pH (e.g. 10.0 {at} 20 C) water with dissolved hydrogen will oxidize and form corrosion films that are double metal oxides (or spinels) of the form AB{sub 2}O{sub 4}. This work describes optical reflectivity techniques that have been developed to study the growth of these films in situ. The optical technique uses a dual-beam specular reflection spectrometer to measure the spectrum of reflected light in small angle (i.e. < 15{sup o}) scatter. The reflection spectra are then calibrated using a set of corrosion coupons with corrosion films that are well known. Results are compared with models based on multilayer reflection and Mie scattering from a particle size distribution. Surface roughness is found to be the dominant cause of reduced reflection as the films grow.
Date: March 23, 2006
Creator: Castelli, R. A.; Persans, P. D.; Strohmayer, W. & Parkinson, V.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library