The project ''Reinforcement of Aluminum Casting with Dissimilar Metal'' was a Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Cummins Inc. This project, technologies have been developed to reinforce aluminum castings with steel insert. Defect-free bond between the steel insert and the aluminum casting has been consistently obtained. The push-out experiment indicated that the bond strength is higher than that of the Al-Fin method. Two patents have been granted to the project team that is comprised of Cummins Inc. and ORNL. This report contains four sections: the coating of the steel pins, the cast-in method, microstructure characterization, and the bond strength. The section of the coating of the steel pins contains coating material selection, electro-plating technique for plating Cu and Ni on steel, and diffusion bonding of the coatings to the steel. The section of cast-in method deals with factors that affecting the quality of the metallurgical bond between the coated steel and the aluminum castings. The results of microstructure characteristics of the bonding are presented in the microstructure characterization section. A push-out experiment and the results obtained using this method is described in the section of bond strength/mechanical property.

Depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF{sub 6}) is stored in over 60,000 steel cylinders at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) in Paducah, Kentucky, and at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) in Portsmouth, Ohio. The cylinders range in age from 4 to 53 years. Although when new the cylinders had wall thicknesses specified to within manufacturing tolerances, over the years corrosion has reduced their actual wall thicknesses. The UF{sub 6} Cylinder Project is managed by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to safely maintain the UF{sub 6} and the cylinders containing it. This report documents activities that address UF{sub 6} Cylinder Project requirements and actions involving forecasting cylinder wall thicknesses. These requirements are delineated in the System Requirements Document (LMES 1997a), and the actions needed to fulfill them are specified in the System Engineering Management Plan (LMES 1997b). The report documents cylinder wall thickness projections based on models fit to ultrasonic thickness (UT) measurement data. UT data is collected at various locations on randomly sampled cylinders. For each cylinder sampled, the minimum UT measurement approximates the actual minimum thickness of the cylinder. Projections of numbers of cylinders expected to …

Some genes produce transcripts that function directly in regulatory, catalytic, or structural roles in the cell. These non-coding RNAs are prevalent in all living organisms, and methods that aid the understanding of their functional roles are essential. RNA secondary structure, the pattern of base-pairing, contains the critical information for determining the three dimensional structure and function of the molecule. In this work we examine whether the basic geometric and topological properties of secondary structure are sufficient to distinguish between RNA families in a learning framework. First, we develop a labeled dual graph representation of RNA secondary structure by adding biologically meaningful labels to the dual graphs proposed by Gan et al [1]. Next, we define a similarity measure directly on the labeled dual graphs using the recently developed marginalized kernels [2]. Using this similarity measure, we were able to train Support Vector Machine classifiers to distinguish RNAs of known families from random RNAs with similar statistics. For 22 of the 25 families tested, the classifier achieved better than 70% accuracy, with much higher accuracy rates for some families. Training a set of classifiers to automatically assign family labels to RNAs using a one vs. all multi-class scheme also yielded encouraging …

The most commonly discussed measures of microstructure in composite materials are the spatial correlation functions, which in a porous medium measure either the grain-to-grain correlations, or the pore-to-pore correlations in space. Improved bounds based on this information such as the Beran-Molyneux bounds for bulk modulus and the Beran bounds for conductivity are well-known. It is first shown here how to make direct use of this information to provide estimates that always lie between these upper and lower bounds for any microstructure whenever the microgeometry parameters are known. Then comparisons are made between these estimates, the bounds, and two new types of estimates. One new estimate for elastic constants makes use of the Peselnick-Meister bounds (based on Hashin-Shtrikman methods) for random polycrystals of laminates to generate self-consistent values that always lie between the bounds. A second new type of estimate for conductivity assumes that measurements of formation factors (of which there are at least two distinct types in porous media, associated respectively with pores and grains) are available, and computes new bounds based on this information. The paper compares and contrasts these various methods in order to clarify just what microstructural information and how precisely that information needs to be known …

Human exploitation of pinnipeds has considerable antiquity but shows increasing impacts on population numbers in the Holocene. Pinnipeds are a rich source of fat as well as protein. A few well-documented cases of regional extirpation of seals and sea lions by non-industrial peoples exist. The northeastern Pacific region, from southern California to Alaska, has yielded archaeological evidence for distributions and abundances of eared seals that differs markedly from historically documented biogeography. This is especially true of the northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus), among the most common pinnipeds in many archaeological sites from the Santa Barbara Channel area through to Kodiak Islands. This chapter reviews contemporary eared seal biogeography, evidence for the earlier timing and extent, of occurrence of northern fur seals along the northeastern Pacific coast, zooarchaeological and isotopic evidence for their foraging and probable maintenance of rookeries in lower latitudes, and for their disappearance from the southernmost part of their ancient distribution well before European contact. It also reviews ongoing debates over the behavioral ecology of ancient fur seals and over humans role in contributing to their disappearance.

Carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) injection into deep geologic formations could decrease the atmospheric accumulation of this gas from anthropogenic sources. Furthermore, by co-injecting H{sub 2}S or SO{sub 2}, the products respectively of coal gasification or combustion, with captured CO{sub 2}, problems associated with surface disposal would be mitigated. We developed models that simulate the co-injection of H{sub 2}S or SO{sub 2} with CO{sub 2} into an arkose formation at a depth of about 2 km and 75 C. The hydrogeology and mineralogy of the injected formation are typical of those encountered in Gulf Coast aquifers of the United States. Six numerical simulations of a simplified 1-D radial region surrounding the injection well were performed. The injection of CO{sub 2} alone or co-injection with SO{sub 2} or H{sub 2}S results in a concentrically zoned distribution of secondary minerals surrounding a leached and acidified region adjacent to the injection well. Co-injection of SO{sub 2} with CO{sub 2} results in a larger and more strongly acidified zone, and alteration differs substantially from that caused by the co-injection of H{sub 2}S or injection of CO{sub 2} alone. Precipitation of carbonates occurs within a higher pH (pH > 5) peripheral zone. Significant quantities of CO{sub …

Plasma oxidation was used to obtain radiocarbon dates on six different materials from a naturally mummified baby bundle from the Lower Pecos River region of southwest Texas. This bundle was selected because it was thought to represent a single event and would illustrate the accuracy and precision of the plasma oxidation method. Five of the materials were clearly components of the original bundle with 13 dates combined to yield a weighted average of 2135 {+-} 11 B.P. Six dates from a wooden stick of Desert Ash averaged 939 {+-} 14 B.P., indicating that this artifact was not part of the original burial. Plasma oxidation is shown to be a virtually non-destructive alternative to combustion. Because only sub-milligram amounts of material are removed from an artifact over its exposed surface, no visible change in fragile materials has been observed, even under magnification. The method is best applied when natural organic contamination is unlikely and serious consideration of this issue is needed in all cases. If organic contamination is present, it will have to be removed before plasma oxidation to obtain accurate radiocarbon dates.

Current designs for inertial confinement fusion capsules for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) consist of a solid deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel layer inside of a copper doped beryllium capsule. Phase contrast enhanced x-ray imaging is shown to render the D-T layer visible inside the Be(Cu) capsule. Phase contrast imaging is experimentally demonstrated for several surrogate capsules and validates computational models. Polyimide and low density divinyl benzene foam capsules were imaged at the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron. The surrogates demonstrate that phase contrast enhanced imaging provides a method to characterize surfaces when absorption imaging cannot be used. Our computational models demonstrate that a rough surface can be accurately reproduced in phase contrast enhanced x-ray images.

General frameworks for distributed computing are slowly evolving out of Grid, Peer Architecture, and Web Services. The following results from a summer long survey into distributing computing practices have revealed three things. One, that Legion and Cactus-G have achieved the most in terms of providing an all-purpose application environment. Two, that extending a local programming environment to operate in a highly distributed fashion can be facilitated with toolkits like Globus. Three, that building a new system from the ground up could be realized, in part, by using some of the following components; an Object Oriented Database, Tapestry, JXTA, BOINC, Globus, component architecture technology, XML and related libraries, Condor-G, Proteus, and ParMETIS.

Perturbations on an interface driven by a strong blast wave grow in time due to a combination of Rayleigh-Taylor, Richtmyer-Meshkov, and decompression effects. In this paper, we present the first results from a computational study of such a system under drive conditions to be attainable on the National Ignition Facility. Using the multiphysics, AMR, higher order Godunov Eulerian hydrocode, Raptor, we consider the late nonlinear instability evolution for multiple amplitude and phase realizations of a variety of multimode spectral types. We show that compressibility effects preclude the emergence of a regime of self-similar instability growth independent of the initial conditions by allowing for memory of the initial conditions to be retained in the mix-width at all times. The loss of transverse spectral information is demonstrated, however, along with the existence of a quasi-self-similar regime over short time intervals. The initial conditions are shown to have a strong affect on the time to transition to the quasi-self-similar regime.

Phase stability and aging mechanisms in a water-quenched (WQ) U-6wt% Nb (U-14at% Nb) alloy artificially aged at 200 C and naturally aged at ambient temperature for 15 years have been investigated and studied using Vickers-hardness measurement, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. Age hardening/softening phenomenon is recorded from the artificially aged samples based upon the microhardness measurement. The age hardening can be readily rationalized by the occurrence of fine-scaled Nb segregation, or spinodal decomposition, within the {alpha}'' domains, which results in the formation of a modulated structure containing nano-scaled Nb-rich and Nb-lean domains. Prolonged aging leads to age softening of the alloy by coarsening of the modulated structure. Chemical ordering, or disorder-order phase transformation, is found within the naturally aged alloy according to TEM observations of antiphase domain boundaries (APBs) and superlattice diffraction patterns. A possible superlattice structure for the ordered {alpha}'' phase observed in the naturally aged sample and underlying low-temperature aging mechanisms are proposed.

This ICN documents the installation of three additional downgradient monitoring wells and one additional upgradient well. It updates the monitoring network and the stratigraphy of the aquifer.

The effect of preparation conditions on the structural and optical properties of silicon nanoparticles is investigated. Nanoscale reconstructions, unique to curved nanosurfaces, are presented for silicon nanocrystals and shown to have lower energy and larger optical gaps than bulk-derived structures. We find that high-temperature synthesis processes can produce metastable non-crystalline nanostructures with different core structures than bulk-derived crystalline clusters. The type of core structure that forms from a given synthesis process may depend on the passivation mechanism and time scale. The effect of oxygen on the optical of different types of silicon structures is calculated. In contrast to the behavior of bulk-like nanostructures, for non-crystalline and reconstructed crystalline structures surface oxygen atoms do not decrease the gap. In some cases, the presence of oxygen atoms at the nanocluster surface can significantly increase the optical absorption gap, due to decreased angular distortion of the silicon bonds. The relationship between strain and the optical gap in silicon nanoclusters is discussed.

In looking at simulations for the x-ray microscope the question ''Is it necessary to use the multislice method to adequately model the transmission of x-rays through the target?'' has been raised. Another question that has been raised is ''Is it necessary to include diffraction effects in our simulations?'' The purpose of this report is to lay these questions to rest. The short answer to both of these questions is ''No''. The multislice method (also known as the beam propagation method (BPM)) is used to solve the paraxial wave equation. The paraxial wave equation is what the Helmholtz equation reduces to in the limit of small index of refraction deviations and small angular deviations. It lies in the middle ground between full wave simulation and ray tracing (a short wavelength limit). The BPM takes a region and cuts it into strips. The method then propagates a wavefront through the region one strip at a time. For each strip, the method first propagates the wavefront the width of the strip as if through free space (diffraction step), then the method applies a phase correction based on the index of refraction distribution in the strip (refraction step). In this way the method marches …

This project explores the scientific foundation and approach for improving passive detection systems for plutonium and highly enriched uranium in real applications. Sources of gamma-ray radiation of interest were chosen to represent a range of national security threats, naturally occurring radioactive materials, industrial and medical radiation sources, and natural background radiation. The gamma-ray flux emerging from these sources, which include unclassified criticality experiment configurations as surrogates for nuclear weapons, were modeled in detail. The performance of several types of gamma-ray imaging systems using Compton scattering were modeled and compared. A mechanism was created to model the combine sources and background emissions and have the simulated radiation ''scene'' impinge on a model of a detector. These modeling tools are now being used in various projects to optimize detector performance and model detector sensitivity in complex measuring environments. This study also developed several automated algorithms for isotope identification from gamma-ray spectra and compared these to each other and to algorithms already in use. Verification testing indicates that these alternative isotope identification algorithms produced less false positive and false negative results than the ''GADRAS'' algorithms currently in use. In addition to these algorithms that used binned spectra, a new approach to isotope identification …

Models with low-scale breaking of global symmetries in the neutrino sector provide an alternative to the seesaw mechanism for understanding why neutrinos are light. Such models can easily incorporate light sterile neutrinos required by the LSND experiment. Furthermore, the constraints on the sterile neutrino properties from nucleosynthesis and large scale structure can be removed due to the non-conventional cosmological evolution of neutrino masses and densities. We present explicit, fully realistic supersymmetric models, and discuss the characteristic signatures predicted in the angular distributions of the cosmic microwave background.

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Grain size is a critically important aspect of polycrystalline materials and experimental observations on Cu and Al polycrystals have shown that a Hall-Petchtype phenomenon does exist at the onset of plastic deformation. In this work, a parametric study is conducted to investigate the effect of microstructural and deformation-related length scales on the behavior of such FCC polycrystals. It relies on a recently proposed non-local dislocation-mechanics based crystallographic theory to describe the evolution of dislocation mean spacings within each grain, and on finite element techniques to incorporate explicitly grain interaction effects. Polycrystals are modeled as representative volume elements (RVEs) containing up to 64 randomly oriented grains. Predictions obtained from RVEs of Cu polycrystals with different grain sizes are shown to be consistent with experimental data. Furthermore, mesh sensitivity studies revealed that, when there is a predominance of geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) relative to statistically-stored dislocations (SSDs), the polycrystal response becomes increasingly mesh sensitive. This was found to occur specially during the early stages of deformation in polycrystals with small grains.

This report describes the focusing solenoid for the proposed Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) [1]. The focusing solenoid consists of a pair of superconducting solenoids that are on a common bobbin. The two coils, which have separate leads, may be operated in the same polarity or at opposite polarity. This report discusses the superconducting magnet design and the cryostat design for the MICE focusing module. Also discussed is how this superconducting magnet can be integrated with a pair of small 4.2 K coolers.

The focusing solenoids for MICE surround energy absorbers that are used to reduce the transverse momentum of the muon beam that is being cooled within MICE. The focusing solenoids will have a warm-bore diameter of 470 mm. Within this bore is a flask of liquid hydrogen or a room temperature beryllium absorber. The focusing solenoid consists of two coils wound with a copper matrix Nb-Ti conductor originally designed for MRI magnets. The two coils have separate leads, so that they may be operated at the same polarity or at opposite polarity. The focusing magnet is designed so that it can be cooled with a pair of 1.5 W (at 4.2 K) coolers. The MICE cooling channel has three focusing magnets with their absorbers. The three focusing magnets will be hooked together in series for a circuit stored-energy of about 9.0 MJ. Quench protection for the focusing magnets is discussed. This report presents the mechanical and thermal design parameters for this magnet, including the results of finite element calculations of mechanical forces and heat flow in the magnet cold mass.

We discuss energy efficiency and renewable energy investments in Eritrea from the strategic long-term economic perspective of meeting Eritrea's sustainable development goals and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are potentially important contributors to national productive capital accumulation, enhancement of the environment, expansion of energy services, increases in household standard of living, and improvements in health. In this study we develop a spreadsheet model for calculating some of the national benefits and costs of different levels of investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. We then present the results of the model in terms of investment demand and investment scenario curves. These curves express the contribution that efficiency and renewable energy projects can make in terms of reduced energy sector operating expenses, and reduced carbon emissions. We provide demand and supply curves that show the rate of return, the cost of carbon emissions reductions vs. supply, and the evolution of the marginal carbon emissions per dollar of GDP for different investment levels and different fuel-type subsectors.

A commercial surface carburization treatment that shows promise for hardening the surfaces of the stainless steel target vessel of the Spallation Neutron Source against cavitation erosion and pitting caused by the action of pulsed pressure waves in the liquid mercury target has been investigated. To verify promotional claims for the treatment and to uncover any factors that might be of concern for the integrity of a carburized target vessel, some characterization tests of the nature of the surface layers of carburized austenitic 316LN stainless steel were conducted. The findings support most of the claims. The carburized layer is about 35 {micro}m thick. Its indentation hardness is about five times larger than that of the substrate steel and declines rapidly with depth into the layer. The surface is distorted by the treatment, and the austenite lattice is enlarged. The corrosion resistance of the carburized layer in an acid medium is greater than that for untreated austenite. The layer is not brittle; it is plastically deformable and is quite resistant to cracking during straining. Contrary to the provider's assertations, the maximum carbon content of the layer is much less than 6-7 wt% carbon, and the carbon is not simply contained in supersaturated …

This report discusses the results from the rupture of a thin window that is part of a 20-liter liquid hydrogen vessel. This rupture will spill liquid hydrogen onto the walls and bottom of a 300 K cylindrical vacuum vessel. The spilled hydrogen goes into film boiling, which removes the thermal energy from the vacuum vessel wall. This report analyzes the transient heat transfer in the vessel and calculates the thermal deflection and stress that will result from the boiling liquid in contact with the vessel walls. This analysis was applied to aluminum and stainless steel vessels.

Improved thermal management is needed to increase the power density of electronic and more effectively cool electronic enclosures that are envisioned in future aircraft, spacecraft and surface ships. Typically, heat exchanger cores must increase in size to more effectively dissipate increased heat loads, this would be impossible in many cases, thus improved heat exchanger cores will be required. In this Phase I investigation, MRi aimed to demonstrate improved thermal management using graphite foam (Gr-foam) core heat exchangers. The proposed design was to combine Gr-foams from POCO with MRi's innovative low temperature, active metal joining process (S-Bond{trademark}) to bond Gr-foam to aluminum, copper and aluminum/SiC composite faceplates. The results were very favorable, so a Phase II SBIR with the MDA was initiated. This had primarily 5 tasks: (1) bonding, (2) thermal modeling, (3) cooling chip scale packages, (4) evaporative cooling techniques and (5) IGBT cold plate development. The bonding tests showed that the ''reflow'' technique with S-Bond{reg_sign}-220 resulted in the best and most consistent bond. Then, thermal modeling was used to design different chip scale packages and IGBT cold plates. These designs were used to fabricate many finned graphite foam heat sinks specifically for two standard type IC packages, the 423 …