A Parallel Multigrid Method for the Finite Element Analysis of Mechanical Contact (open access)

A Parallel Multigrid Method for the Finite Element Analysis of Mechanical Contact

A geometrical multigrid method for solving the linearized matrix equations arising from node-on-face three-dimensional finite element contact is described. The development of an efficient implementation of this combination that minimizes both the memory requirements and the computational cost requires careful construction and storage of the portion of the coarse mesh stiffness matrices that are associated with the contact stiffness on the fine mesh. The multigrid contact algorithm is parallelized in a manner suitable for distributed memory architectures: results are presented that demonstrates the scheme's scalability. The solution of a large contact problem derived from an analysis of the factory joints present in the Space Shuttle reusable solid rocket motor demonstrates the usefulness of the general approach.
Date: March 21, 2002
Creator: Hales, J. D. & Parsons, I. D.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Heats of Formation of Energetic Oxetane Monomers and Polymers (open access)

Heats of Formation of Energetic Oxetane Monomers and Polymers

Energetic oxetane polymers have shown promise as performance-enhancing ingredients in gun and missile propellants. In order to correctly predict the performance of energetic materials containing these polymers, it is important to have accurate, experimentally determined values for the polymer heats of formation ({Delta}H{sub f}). In support of a theoretical study on gun propellant performance, heats of combustion were experimentally determined for a series of oxetane polymers and monomers (see below) using combustion calorimetry, and from these, {Delta}H{sub f} values were calculated. Polymers included BAMO/AMMO, BAMO/NMMO (polyol and TPE), and BNMO/NMMO mixtures. In order to calculate the {Delta}H{sub f} of the polymers from heat of combustion data, a number of assumptions were made regarding the polymer structure and molecular weight. A comparison of the {Delta}H{sub f} values for the monomers and polymers were made, and these values were compared to heats of formation measured elsewhere.
Date: March 21, 2001
Creator: Schmidt, R D & Manser, G E
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Distortion Correction for the Many Beam Fabry Perot Velocimeter (open access)

Distortion Correction for the Many Beam Fabry Perot Velocimeter

Graphical curves and text tables are presented that map out time and space distortions for data obtained from film records of the Many Beam Fabry Perot Velocimeter. Effective distortion corrections extracted from these mappings can be applied to upcoming velocimetry experiments, but only with limited success over periods of a year or more into the future. A method of using three fiducials to provide fresh time and space distortion data on each film record is presented as a more reliable procedure to correct distortions to an acceptable level of accuracy.
Date: March 21, 2001
Creator: Avara, G.; Collins, L. & Rivera, A.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Delineation of Fast Flow Paths in Porous Media Using Noble Gas Tracers (open access)

Delineation of Fast Flow Paths in Porous Media Using Noble Gas Tracers

Isotopically enriched xenon isotopes are ideal for tracking the flow of relatively large volumes of groundwater. Dissolved noble gas tracers behave conservatively in the saturated zone, pose no health risk to drinking water supplies, and can be used with a large dynamic range. Different Xe isotopes can be used simultaneously at multiple recharge sources in a single experiment. Results from a tracer experiment at a California water district suggests that a small fraction of tracer moved from the recharge ponds through the thick, unconfined, coarse-grained alluvial aquifer to high capacity production wells at a horizontal velocity of 6 m/day. In contrast, mean water residence times indicate that the average rate of transport is 0.5 to 1 m/day.
Date: March 21, 2002
Creator: Hudson, G. B. & Moran, J. E.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
IR Extinction Coefficient Measurements of CH and CD GDP Shells (open access)

IR Extinction Coefficient Measurements of CH and CD GDP Shells

None
Date: March 21, 2003
Creator: Cook, R C & Nikroo, A
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effect of Stainless-Steel Containers on High-Resolution Gamma-Ray Analysis of Plutonium (open access)

Effect of Stainless-Steel Containers on High-Resolution Gamma-Ray Analysis of Plutonium

The goal of this work was to determine the effects on plutonium isotopic analysis of having plutonium inside of a 0.25 inch thick stainless steel can. To do this, they analyzed plutonium samples with a U-Pu InSpector (which uses a high-resolution gamma-ray detector and the analysis code MGA (Multi Group Analysis)), to determine both the 240-Pu/239-Pu ratio and the years since the plutonium was separated from americium. They analyzed a 1.6 kg plutonium sample that was placed inside of a 0.25 inch can at varying distances (0-2 meters) and count times (10 seconds-30 minutes). In separate experiments, they analyzed 0.4g plutonium sources with stainless-steel thickness' ranging from 0.125 to 1.0 inch. This report will show three effects of having plutonium in a stainless steel can: (1) 240-Pu/240-Pu can be quickly and accurately determined for a 1.6 kg plutonium sample inside of a 0.25 inch thick stainless-steel can, as this thickness of stainless steel acts as a perfect filter to reduce the intense 59 keV gamma peak from 241-Am. (2) The accuracy of determining the plutonium-americium separation date is not effected by 0.25 inch of stainless steel. (3) Both 240-Pu/239-Pu and the americium separation date can be accurately determined for stainless-steel …
Date: March 21, 2000
Creator: Dougan, R.; Koenig, Z. & Kitt, B.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Dual-Mode Actinic EUV Mask Inspection Tool (open access)

A Dual-Mode Actinic EUV Mask Inspection Tool

To qualify the performance of non-actinic inspection tools, a novel EUV mask inspection system has been installed at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) synchrotron facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Similar to the older generation actinic mask inspection tool, the new system can operate in scanning mode, when mask blanks are scanned for defects using 13.5-nm in-band radiation to identify and map all locations on the mask that scatter a significant amount of EUV light. By modifying and optimizing beamline optics (11.3.2 at ALS) and replacing K-B focusing mirrors with a high quality Schwarzschild illuminator, the new system achieves an order of magnitude improvement on in-band EUV flux density at the mask, enabling faster scanning speed and higher sensitivity to smaller defects. Moreover, the system can also operate in imaging mode, when it becomes a zone-plate-based full-field EUV microscope with spatial resolution better than 100 nm. The microscope utilizes an off-axis setup, making it possible to obtain bright field images over a field-of-view of 5 x 5 {micro}m.
Date: March 21, 2005
Creator: Liu, Y.; Barty, A.; Gullikson, E.; S. Taylor, J.; Liddle, J. A. & Wood, O.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Ti-Cr-Al-O Thin Film Resistors (open access)

Ti-Cr-Al-O Thin Film Resistors

Thin films of Ti-Cr-Al-O are produced for use as an electrical resistor material. The films are rf sputter deposited from ceramic targets using a reactive working gas mixture of Ar and O{sub 2}. Vertical resistivity values from 10{sup 4} to 10{sup 10} Ohm-cm are measured for Ti-Cr-Al-O films. The film resistivity can be design selected through control of the target composition and the deposition parameters. The Ti-Cr-Al-O thin film resistor is found to be thermally stable unlike other metal-oxide films.
Date: March 21, 2002
Creator: Jankowski, Alan Frederic & Hayes, J. P.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bounds on Transport Coefficients of Porous Media (open access)

Bounds on Transport Coefficients of Porous Media

An analytical formulation of conductivity bounds by Bergman and Milton is used in a different way to obtain rigorous bounds on the real transport coefficients (electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and/or fluid permeability) of a fluid-saturated porous medium. These bounds do not depend explicitly on the porosity, but rather on two formation factors--one associated with the pore space and the other with the solid frame. Hashin-Shtrikman bounds for transport in random polycrystals of porous-material laminates will also be discussed.
Date: March 21, 2005
Creator: Berger, E. L.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Required Be Capsule Strength For Room Temperature Transport (open access)

Required Be Capsule Strength For Room Temperature Transport

The purpose of this memo is to lay out the criteria for the Be capsule strength necessary for room temperature transport. Ultimately we will test full thickness capsules by sealing high pressures inside, but currently we are limited to both thinner capsules and alternative measures of capsule material strength.
Date: March 21, 2005
Creator: Cook, B
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Accessing the Inaccessible: The Case for Opening up Russia's Closed Cities (open access)

Accessing the Inaccessible: The Case for Opening up Russia's Closed Cities

The selling of weapons-related nuclear knowledge by Russian scientists for economic gain constitutes a threat to US national security. Some estimate that the number of Russian scientists seeking permanent employment abroad constitute five to ten percent of all researchers who have left the field of science. And, there is concern that those who have left are ''the better minds.'' Moreover, the issue of brain drain concerns not only those who move abroad permanently, but those who still reside in Russia and travel abroad to sell their knowledge. Of particular concern to the US is the potential sale of WMD knowledge by some. To ''mitigate the risk that economic difficulties...might create the temptation for individuals or institutes to sell expertise to countries of proliferation concern and terrorist organizations,'' the Department of Energy launched a Nuclear Cities Initiative (NCI) in 1998 with the goal of creating commercial jobs and economic diversification in the ten closed cities that form the core of Russia's nuclear weapons complex to accommodate the loss of employment in the nuclear weapons industry. However, unless Russia opens access to the areas of its closed cities that are, or could become, involved in commercial activities-while of course carefully controlling access …
Date: March 21, 2001
Creator: Ball, D Y
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Micro-Fabricated Thin-Film Fuel Cells for Portable Power Requirements (open access)

Micro-Fabricated Thin-Film Fuel Cells for Portable Power Requirements

None
Date: March 21, 2002
Creator: Jankowski, Alan Frederic; Hayes, Jeffrey P.; Graff, R. T. & Morse, J. D.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Ultrasonic Examination of Double-Shell Tank 241-AP-102. February 2005 (open access)

Ultrasonic Examination of Double-Shell Tank 241-AP-102. February 2005

COGEMA Engineering Corporation (COGEMA), under a contract from CH2M Hill Hanford Group (CH2M Hill), has performed an ultrasonic nondestructive examination of selected portions of Double-Shell Tank 241-AP-102. The purpose of this examination was to provide information that could be used to evaluate the integrity of the wall of the primary tank. The requirements for the ultrasonic examination of Tank 241-AP-102 were to detect, characterize (identify, size, and locate), and record measurements made of any wall thinning, pitting, or cracks that might be present in the wall of the primary tank. Any measurements that exceed the requirements set forth in the Engineering Task Plan (ETP), RPP-22571 (Jensen 2004) and summarized on page 1 of this document, are reported to CH2M Hill and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for further evaluation. Under the contract with CH2M Hill, all data is to be recorded on disk and paper copies of all measurements are provided to PNNL for third-party evaluation. PNNL is responsible for preparing a report that describes the results of the COGEMA ultrasonic examinations.
Date: March 21, 2005
Creator: Pardini, Allan F. & Posakony, Gerald J.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Parallelization of an Adaptive Multigrid Algorithm for Fast Solution of Finite Element Structural Problems (open access)

Parallelization of an Adaptive Multigrid Algorithm for Fast Solution of Finite Element Structural Problems

Adaptive mesh refinement selectively subdivides the elements of a coarse user supplied mesh to produce a fine mesh with reduced discretization error. Effective use of adaptive mesh refinement coupled with an a posteriori error estimator can produce a mesh that solves a problem to a given discretization error using far fewer elements than uniform refinement. A geometric multigrid solver uses increasingly finer discretizations of the same geometry to produce a very fast and numerically scalable solution to a set of linear equations. Adaptive mesh refinement is a natural method for creating the different meshes required by the multigrid solver. This paper describes the implementation of a scalable adaptive multigrid method on a distributed memory parallel computer. Results are presented that demonstrate the parallel performance of the methodology by solving a linear elastic rocket fuel deformation problem on an SGI Origin 3000. Two challenges must be met when implementing adaptive multigrid algorithms on massively parallel computing platforms. First, although the fine mesh for which the solution is desired may be large and scaled to the number of processors, the multigrid algorithm must also operate on much smaller fixed-size data sets on the coarse levels. Second, the mesh must be repartitioned as …
Date: March 21, 2002
Creator: Crane, N K; Parsons, I D & Hjelmstad, K D
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Groundwater Quality Assessment Plan for Single-Shell Tank Waste Management Area U at the Hanford Site (open access)

Groundwater Quality Assessment Plan for Single-Shell Tank Waste Management Area U at the Hanford Site

Specific conductance in one of the downgradient well exceeded its background value during the fourth quarter of FY 1999, triggering an upgrade from detection monitoring to a groundwater quality assessment program. This document presents the investigatory approach to be used for the assessment program. The objective of the first phase of the assessment program is to make the first determination to determine whether the WMA is the source of dangerous waste or dangerous waste constituents in the groundwater.
Date: March 21, 2000
Creator: Hodges, Floyd N. & Chou, Charissa J.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Testing of FMI's Coal Upgrading Process (open access)

Testing of FMI's Coal Upgrading Process

WRI and FMI have collaborated to develop and test a novel coal upgrading technology. Proprietary coal upgrading technology is a fluidized bed-based continuous process which allows high through-puts, reducing the coal processing costs. Processing is carried out under controlled oxidizing conditions at mild enough conditions that compared to other coal upgrading technologies; the produced water is not as difficult to treat. All the energy required for coal drying and upgrading is derived from the coal itself. Under the auspices of the Jointly Sponsored Research Program, Cooperative Agreement DE-FC26-98FT40323, a nominal 400 lbs/hour PDU was constructed and operated. Over the course of this project, several low-rank coals were successfully tested in the PDU. In all cases, a higher Btu, low moisture content, stable product was produced and subsequently analyzed. Stack emissions were monitored and produced water samples were analyzed. Product stability was established by performing moisture readsorption testing. Product pyrophobicity was demonstrated by instrumenting a coal pile.
Date: March 21, 2009
Creator: Sethi, Vijay
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Observed Minimum Illuminance Threshold for Night Market Vendors in Kenya who use LED Lamps (open access)

Observed Minimum Illuminance Threshold for Night Market Vendors in Kenya who use LED Lamps

Creation of light for work, socializing, and general illumination is a fundamental application of technology around the world. For those who lack access to electricity, an emerging and diverse range of LED based lighting products hold promise for replacing and/or augmenting their current fuel-based lighting sources that are costly and dirty. Along with analysis of environmental factors, economic models for total cost-ofownership of LED lighting products are an important tool for studying the impacts of these products as they emerge in markets of developing countries. One important metric in those models is the minimum illuminance demanded by end-users for a given task before recharging the lamp or replacing batteries. It impacts the lighting service cost per unit time if charging is done with purchased electricity, batteries, or charging services. The concept is illustrated in figure 1: LED lighting products are generally brightest immediately after the battery is charged or replaced and the illuminance degrades as the battery is discharged. When a minimum threshold level of illuminance is reached, the operational time for the battery charge cycle is over. The cost to recharge depends on the method utilized; these include charging at a shop at a fixed price per charge, charging …
Date: March 21, 2009
Creator: Johnstone, Peter; Jacobson, Arne; Mills, Evan & Radecsky, Kristen
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Segue between Favorable and Unfavorable Solvation (open access)

Segue between Favorable and Unfavorable Solvation

Solvation of small and large clusters are studied by simulation, considering a range of solvent-solute attractive energy strengths. Over a wide range of conditions, both for solvation in the Lennard-Jones liquid and in the SPC model of water, it is shown that the mean solvent density varies linearly with changes in solvent-solute adhesion or attractive energy strength. This behavior is understood from the perspective of Weeks theory of solvation [Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem. 2002, 53, 533] and supports theories based upon that perspective.
Date: March 21, 2007
Creator: Maibaum, Lutz & Chandler, David
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Comments on Cosmic Censorship in AdS/CFT (open access)

Comments on Cosmic Censorship in AdS/CFT

Recently Hertog, Horowitz, and Maeda (HHM) (hep-th/0310054) have proposed that cosmic censorship can be violated in the AdS/CFT context. They argue that for certain initial data there is insufficient energy available to make a black hole whose horizon is big enough to cloak the singularity that forms. We have investigated this proposal in the models HHM discuss and have thus far been unable to find initial data that provably satisfy this criterion, despite our development of an improved lower bound on the size of the singular region. This is consistent with recent numerical results (hep-th/0402109). For certain initial data, the energies of our configurations are not far above the lower bound on the requisite black hole mass, and so it is possible that in the exact time development naked singularities do form. We go on to argue that the finite radius cut-off AdS_5 situation discussed by HHM displays instabilities when the full 10D theory is considered. We propose an AdS_3 example that may well be free of this instability.
Date: March 21, 2004
Creator: Hubeny, Veronika E.; Liu, Xiao; Rangamani, Mukund & Shenker, Stephen
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
End-Of-Life Vehicle Recycling: State of the Art of Resource Recovery From Shredder Residue. (open access)

End-Of-Life Vehicle Recycling: State of the Art of Resource Recovery From Shredder Residue.

Each year, more than 50 million vehicles reach the end of their service life throughout the world. More than 95% of these vehicles enter a comprehensive recycling infrastructure that includes auto parts recyclers/dismantlers, remanufacturers, and material recyclers (shredders). Today, about 75% of automotive materials are profitably recycled via (1) parts reuse and parts and components remanufacturing and (2) ultimately by the scrap processing (shredding) industry. The process by which the scrap processors recover metal scrap from automobiles involves shredding the obsolete automobiles, along with other obsolete metal-containing products (such as white goods, industrial scrap, and demolition debris), and recovering the metals from the shredded material. The single largest source of recycled ferrous scrap for the iron and steel industry is obsolete automobiles. The non-metallic fraction that remains after the metals are recovered from the shredded materials (about 25% of the weight of the vehicle)--commonly called shredder residue--is disposed of in landfills. Over the past 10 to 15 years, a significant amount of research and development has been undertaken to enhance the recycle rate of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), including enhancing dismantling techniques and improving remanufacturing operations. However, most of the effort has focused on developing technology to recover materials, such as …
Date: March 21, 2007
Creator: Jody, B. J.; Daniels, E. J. & Systems, Energy
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Center-stabilized Yang-Mills Theory:Confinement and Large N Volume Independence (open access)

Center-stabilized Yang-Mills Theory:Confinement and Large N Volume Independence

We examine a double trace deformation of SU(N) Yang-Mills theory which, for large N and large volume, is equivalent to unmodified Yang-Mills theory up to O(1/N{sup 2}) corrections. In contrast to the unmodified theory, large N volume independence is valid in the deformed theory down to arbitrarily small volumes. The double trace deformation prevents the spontaneous breaking of center symmetry which would otherwise disrupt large N volume independence in small volumes. For small values of N, if the theory is formulated on R{sup 3} x S{sup 1} with a sufficiently small compactification size L, then an analytic treatment of the non-perturbative dynamics of the deformed theory is possible. In this regime, we show that the deformed Yang-Mills theory has a mass gap and exhibits linear confinement. Increasing the circumference L or number of colors N decreases the separation of scales on which the analytic treatment relies. However, there are no order parameters which distinguish the small and large radius regimes. Consequently, for small N the deformed theory provides a novel example of a locally four-dimensional pure gauge theory in which one has analytic control over confinement, while for large N it provides a simple fully reduced model for Yang-Mills theory. …
Date: March 21, 2008
Creator: Unsal, Mithat; /SLAC /Stanford U., Phys. Dept.; Yaffe, Laurence G. & /Washington U., Seattle
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
SOLVING THE STAND-OFF PROBLEM FOR MAGNETIZED TARGET FUSION: PLASMA STREAMS AS DISPOSABLE ELECTRODES, PLUS A LOCAL SPHERICAL BLANKET (open access)

SOLVING THE STAND-OFF PROBLEM FOR MAGNETIZED TARGET FUSION: PLASMA STREAMS AS DISPOSABLE ELECTRODES, PLUS A LOCAL SPHERICAL BLANKET

In a fusion reactor based on the Magnetized Target Fusion approach, the permanent power supply has to deliver currents up to a few mega-amperes to the target dropped into the reaction chamber. All the structures situated around the target will be destroyed after every pulse and have to be replaced at a frequency of 1 to 10 Hz. In this paper, an approach based on the use of spherical blanket surrounding the target, and pulsed plasma electrodes connecting the target to the power supply, is discussed. A brief physic analysis of the processes associated with creation of plasma electrodes is discussed.
Date: March 21, 2006
Creator: Ryutov, D. D. & Thio, Y. F.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Using Perturbed QR Factorizations To Solve Linear Least-Squares Problems (open access)

Using Perturbed QR Factorizations To Solve Linear Least-Squares Problems

We propose and analyze a new tool to help solve sparse linear least-squares problems min{sub x} {parallel}Ax-b{parallel}{sub 2}. Our method is based on a sparse QR factorization of a low-rank perturbation {cflx A} of A. More precisely, we show that the R factor of {cflx A} is an effective preconditioner for the least-squares problem min{sub x} {parallel}Ax-b{parallel}{sub 2}, when solved using LSQR. We propose applications for the new technique. When A is rank deficient we can add rows to ensure that the preconditioner is well-conditioned without column pivoting. When A is sparse except for a few dense rows we can drop these dense rows from A to obtain {cflx A}. Another application is solving an updated or downdated problem. If R is a good preconditioner for the original problem A, it is a good preconditioner for the updated/downdated problem {cflx A}. We can also solve what-if scenarios, where we want to find the solution if a column of the original matrix is changed/removed. We present a spectral theory that analyzes the generalized spectrum of the pencil (A*A,R*R) and analyze the applications.
Date: March 21, 2008
Creator: Avron, Haim; Ng, Esmond G. & Toledo, Sivan
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Multiple Synthesis Routes to Transparent Ceramic Lutetium Aluminum Garnet (open access)

Multiple Synthesis Routes to Transparent Ceramic Lutetium Aluminum Garnet

None
Date: March 21, 2007
Creator: Kuntz, J. D.; Roberts, J. J.; Hough, M. E. & Cherepy, N. J.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library