The stability of tungsten carbide particles in iron-rich and nickel-rich liquid during the laser surface alloying (LSA) process was investigated. Kinetic calculations indicate a rapid dissolution of tungsten carbide particles in iron-rich liquid, as compared with the dissolution rate in nickel-rich liquid. Optical microscopy indicated a heterogeneous microstructure around the tungsten particles that is in agreement with concentration gradients predicted by kinetic calculation. The work demonstrates the applicability of computational thermodynamics and kinetic models for the LSA process.

This document summarizes research of reactively deposited metal hydride thin films and their properties. Reactive deposition processes are of interest, because desired stoichiometric phases are created in a one-step process. In general, this allows for better control of film stress compared with two-step processes that react hydrogen with pre-deposited metal films. Films grown by reactive methods potentially have improved mechanical integrity, performance and aging characteristics. The two reactive deposition techniques described in this report are reactive sputter deposition and reactive deposition involving electron-beam evaporation. Erbium hydride thin films are the main focus of this work. ErH{sub x} films are grown by ion beam sputtering erbium in the presence of hydrogen. Substrates include a Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} {l_brace}0001{r_brace}, a Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} {l_brace}1120{r_brace}, Si{l_brace}001{r_brace} having a native oxide, and polycrystalline molybdenum substrates. Scandium dideuteride films are also studied. ScD{sub x} is grown by evaporating scandium in the presence of molecular deuterium. Substrates used for scandium deuteride growth include single crystal sapphire and molybdenum-alumina cermet. Ultra-high vacuum methods are employed in all experiments to ensure the growth of high purity films, because both erbium and scandium have a strong affinity for oxygen. Film microstructure, phase, composition and stress are evaluated using a …

The quantitative analysis of microstructure and sequence distribution in polysiloxane copolymers using high-resolution solution {sup 29}Si NMR is reported. Copolymers containing dimethylsiloxane (DMS) and diphenysiloxane (DPS) monomer units prepared with either high vinyl content (HVM) or low vinyl content (LVM) were analyzed. The average run length (R{sub exp}), the number average sequence length (l{sub A}, l{sub B}), along with the various linkage probabilities (p{sub AA}, p{sub AB}, p{sub BA}, and p{sub BB}) were determined for different production lots of the LVM97 and HVM97 samples to address the lot variability of microstructure in these materials.

The mathematical description of acoustic wave propagation within a time- and space-varying, and moving, linear viscous fluid is formulated as a system of coupled linear equations. This system is rigorously developed from fundamental principles of continuum mechanics (conservation of mass, balance of linear and angular momentum, balance of entropy) and various constitutive relations (for stress, entropy production, and entropy conduction) by linearizing all expressions with respect to the small-amplitude acoustic wavefield variables. A significant simplification arises if the fluid medium is neither viscous nor heat conducting (i.e., an ideal fluid). In this case the mathematical system can be reduced to a set of five, coupled, first-order partial differential equations. Coefficients in the systems depend on various mechanical and thermodynamic properties of the ambient medium that supports acoustic wave propagation. These material properties cannot all be arbitrarily specified, but must satisfy another system of nonlinear expressions characterizing the dynamic behavior of the background medium. Dramatic simplifications in both systems occur if the ambient medium is simultaneously adiabatic and stationary.

None

These editing tips contain helpful suggestions to assist writers who are writing, editing, and publishing technical publications in the JNWPS. The suggestions clarify some of the most common writing problems and requirements of two publications used in the JNWPS: ''DOE-DTRA TP 1-1, Joint Nuclear Weapons Publications System Operating Procedures, Specifications, and Standards, and United States Government Printing Office Style Manual''. Topics include requirements for abbreviations, formats for drafts, layouts of illustrations and tables, appropriate wording for interim changes, guidance for creating a list of effective pages, how to insert and delete pages and paragraphs, referencing other technical publications, use of revision bars, requirements for safety precautions, use of hyphens, and how to place warnings, cautions, and notes. Also included are a writer's checklist, samples of draft title pages, and a section of helpful tips for the writers who use the department's desktop publishing software program, Adobe{reg_sign} FrameMaker{reg_sign}.

Vibrational spectra can serve as chemical fingerprints for positive identification of chemical and biological warfare molecules. The required speed and sensitivity might be achieved with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) using nanotextured metal surfaces. Systematic and reproducible methods for preparing metallic surfaces that maximize sensitivity have not been previously developed. This work sought to develop methods for forming high-efficiency metallic nanostructures that can be integrated with either gas or liquid-phase chem-lab-on-a-chip separation columns to provide a highly sensitive, highly selective microanalytical system for detecting current and future chem/bio agents. In addition, improved protein microchromatographic systems have been made by the creation of acrylate-based porous polymer monoliths that can serve as protein preconcentrators to reduce the optical system sensitivity required to detect and identify a particular protein, such as a bacterial toxin.

This report presents the results of a study of various wind turbine blade design parameters as a function of blade length in the range from 30 meters to 70 meters. The results have been summarized in dimensional and non-dimensional formats to aid in interpretation. The parametric review estimated peak power and annual energy capture for megawatt scale wind turbines with rotors of 62, 83, 104, 125, and 146 meters in diameter. The baseline ''thin'' distribution represents conventional airfoils used in large wind turbine blades. The ''thicker'' and ''thickest'' distributions utilize airfoils that have significantly increased thickness to improve structural performance and reduce weight. An aerodynamic scaling effort was undertaken in parallel with the structural analysis work to evaluate the effect of extreme thickness on aerodynamic characteristics. Increased airfoil section thickness appears to be a key tool in limiting blade weight and cost growth with scale. Thickened and truncated trailing edges in the inboard region provide strong, positive effects on blade structural performance. Larger blades may require higher tip speeds combined with reduced blade solidity to limit growth of design loads. A slender blade can be used to reduce extreme design loads when the rotor is parked, but requires a higher …

At {nu}Fact'02, the muon-based neutrino factory was confronted with existing and planned neutrino facilities. When it was first discussed in 1999 in Lyon [1], it raised great enthusiasm, especially because it was thought to be the only machine capable of measuring CP violation in the leptonic sector. Since that time the pendulum has partially swung back. Two successive detailed studies [2, 3] have shown that a neutrino Factory and the needed R&D were both expensive. In terms of present experiments, neutrino oscillations have been confirmed at SuperK and SNO and results are soon expected from KamLAND. K2K, MniBOONE, MINOS and CNGS are going ahead and new perspectives have been opened by off-axis pion-based neutrino beams and the approval of the high intensity Japanese Hadron Facility. Crests and troughs of a wave are common in long term projects. They are even healthy because they force us to scrutinize the first ideas and sometimes to invent new ones to reach a realistic and affordable design. This analysis has been applied to target systems (section 2), RF capture and cooling of the muons (section 4) and accelerators (section 5). The new concept of pure electron neutrino or anti-neutrino beams produced by, {beta}-decay is …

Snow samples were collected in southeastern Idaho over two winters to assess trace elements and common ions concentrations in air pollutant fallout across the region. The objectives were to: 1) develop sampling and analysis techniques that would produce accurate measurements of a broad suite of elements and ions in snow, 2) identify the major elements in regional fallout and their spatial and temporal trends, 3) determine if there are unique combinations of elements that are characteristic to the major source areas in the region (source profiles), and 4) use pattern recognition and multivariate statistical techniques (principal component analysis and classical least squares regression) to investigate source apportionment of the fallout to the major source areas. In the winter of 2000-2001, 250 snow samples were collected across the region over a 4-month period and analyzed in triplicate using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and ion chromatography (IC). Thirty-nine (39) trace elements and 9 common ions were positively identified in most samples. The data were analyzed using pattern recognition tools in the software, Pirouette® (Infometrix, Inc.). These results showed a large crustal component (Al, Zn, Mn, Ba, and rare earth elements), an overwhelming contribution from phosphate processing facilities located outside Pocatello in …

We study the role of a possible nonet of light scalar mesons in the still interesting [eta] -> 3[p]i decay process, with the primary motivation of learning more about the scalars themselves. The framework is a conventional non-linear chiral Lagrangian of pseudoscalars and vectors extended to include the scalars. The parameters involving the scalars were previously obtained to fit the s-wave [pi][pi] and [pi] K scatterings in the region up to about 1 GeV as well as the strong decay [eta]' --> [eta][pi][pi]. At first, one might expect a large enhancement from diagrams including a light [sigma] (560). However there is an amusing cancellation mechanism which prevents this from occurring. In the simplest model there is an enhancement of about 13 per cent in the [eta] -> 3[pi] decay rate due to the scalars. In a more complicated model which includes derivative type symmetry breakers, the cancellation is modified and the scalars contribute about 30 percent of the total decay rate (although the total is not significantly changed). The vectors do not contribute much. Our model produces a reasonable estimate for the related a{sub 0}(980) - f{sub 0}(980) mixing strength, which has been a topic of current debate. Promising directions …

This conference paper describes the electronic properties of ZnO/CdS/Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS)/Mo/SLG polycrystalline thin-film solar cells with compositions ranging from Cu-rich to In-rich were investigated by deep level transient spectroscopy and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. This compositional change represents the evolution of the film during growth by the three-stage process. Four thin-film CIGS samples with different Cu content were obtained. The Cu/(In+Ga) ratio ranges from 1.24 (Cu-rich)to 0.88 (In-rich), whereas the Ga/(In+Ga) ratio ranges from 0.19 (Cu-rich)to 0.28 (In-rich).The Cu-rich sample exhibits a shallow majority-carrier trap with an activation energy of 0.12 eV and another deeper trap with an activation energy of 0.28 eV, whereas the In-rich sample has a shallow minority-carrier trap with an activation energy of 0.12 eV. The two samples show evidence of a deeper trap at higher temperature. C-V measurements showed that the average carrier concentration (N values) around the junction of the cell changed as the film transitions from Cu-rich to In-rich. DLTS shows that acceptor-like traps are dominant in samples where CIGS grains did not go through the Cu-rich to In(Ga)-rich transition. While donor-like traps are dominant in the In(Ga)-rich samples.

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of compression on pressure drop in flexible, spiral wire helix core ducts used in residential and light commercial applications. Ducts of 6 inches, 8 inches and 10 inches (150, 200 and 250 mm) nominal diameters were tested under different compression configurations following ASHRAE Standard 120-1999--Methods of Testing to Determine Flow Resistance of HVAC Air Ducts and Fittings. The results showed that the available published references tend to underestimate the effects of compression. The study demonstrated that moderate compression in flexible ducts, typical of that often seen in field installations, could increase the pressure drop by a factor of four, while further compression could increase the pressure drop by factors close to ten. The results proved that the pressure drop correction factor for compressed ducts cannot be independent of the duct size, as suggested by ASHRAE Fundamentals, and therefore a new relationship was developed for better quantification of the pressure drop in flexible ducts. This study also suggests potential improvements to ASHRAE Standard 120-1999 and provides new data for duct design.

An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the pressure drop characteristics of residential duct system components that are either not available or not thoroughly (sometimes incorrectly) described in existing duct design literature. The tests were designed to imitate cases normally found in typical residential and light commercial installations. The study included three different sizes of flexible ducts, under different compression configurations, splitter boxes, supply boots, and a fresh air intake hood. The experimental tests conformed to ASHRAE Standard 120P--''Methods of Testing to Determine Flow Resistance of HVAC Air Ducts and Fittings''. The flexible duct study covered compressibility and bending effects on the total pressure drop, and the results showed that the available published references tend to underestimate the effects of compression in flexible ducts that can increase pressure drops by up to a factor of nine. The supply boots were tested under different configurations including a setup where a flexible duct elbow connection was considered as an integral part of the supply boot. The supply boots results showed that diffusers can increase the pressure drop by up to a factor of two in exit fittings, and the installation configuration can increase the pressure drop by up to a factor of …

Insulated pressure vessels are cryogenic-capable pressure vessels that can be fueled with liquid hydrogen or ambient-temperature compressed hydrogen. This flexibility results in multiple advantages with respect to compressed hydrogen tanks or low-pressure liquid hydrogen tanks. Our work is directed at verifying that commercially available aluminum-lined, fiber-wrapped pressure vessels can be safely used to store liquid hydrogen. A series of tests have been conducted, and the results indicate that no significant vessel damage has resulted from cryogenic operation. Future activities include a demonstration project in which the insulated pressure vessels will be installed and tested on two vehicles. A draft standard will also be generated for certification of insulated pressure vessels.

This report addresses legal issues after the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UnitedNations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The protocol is not yet in effect internationally and cannot be legally binding on the U.S. unless and until the Senate gives its advice and consent.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently seeking to validate technologies that can directly treat radioactively contaminated high mercury (Hg) subcategory wastes without removing the mercury from the waste. The Sulfur Polymer Stabilization/Solidification (SPSS) process developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory is one of several candidate technologies capable of successfully treating various Hg waste streams. To supplement previously supplied data on treatment of soils, EPA needs additional data concerning stabilization of high Hg subcategory waste sludges. To this end, a 5000 ppm sludge surrogate, containing approximately 50 wt% water, was successfully treated by pilot-scale SPSS processing. In two process runs, 85 and 95 wt% of water was recovered from the sludge during processing. At waste loadings of 30 wt% dry sludge, the treated waste form had no detectable mercury (<10 ppb) in TCLP leachates. Data gathered from the demonstration of treatment of this sludge will provide EPA with information to support revisions to current treatment requirements for high Hg subcategory wastes.

None

This report is an update of NREL's ongoing process design and economic analyses of processes related to developing ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstocks. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is promoting the development of ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstocks as an alternative to conventional petroleum-based transportation fuels. DOE funds both fundamental and applied research in this area and needs a method for predicting cost benefits of many research proposals. To that end, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has modeled many potential process designs and estimated the economics of each process during the last 20 years. This report is an update of the ongoing process design and economic analyses at NREL. We envision updating this process design report at regular intervals; the purpose being to ensure that the process design incorporates all new data from NREL research, DOE funded research and other sources, and that the equipment costs are reasonable and consistent with good engineering practice for plants of this type. For the non-research areas this means using equipment and process approaches as they are currently used in industrial applications. For the last report, published in 1999, NREL performed a complete review and update of the process design and economic model for …

None

The subsurface radioactive disposal site located at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory contains neutron-activated metals from nonfuel nuclear-reactor- core components. A long-term corrosion test is being conducted to obtain site-specific corrosion rates to support efforts to more accurately estimate the transfer of activated elements in an arid vadose zone environment. The tests use nonradioactive metal coupons representing the prominent neutron-activated material buried at the disposal location, namely, Type 304L stainless steel, Type 315L stainless steel, nickel-chromium alloy (UNS NO7718), beryllium, aluminum 6061-T6, and a zirconium alloy, (UNS R60804). In addition, carbon steel (the material presently used in the cask disposal liners and other disposal containers) and a duplex stainless steel (UNS S32550) (the proposed material for the high- integrity disposal containers) are also included in the test program. This paper briefly describes the test program and presents the early corrosion rate results after 1 year and 3 years of underground exposure.

GEW has been operating the first fuel cell in Europe producing heat and electricity from digester gas in an environmentally friendly way. The first 9,000 hours in operation were successfully concluded in August 2001. The fuel cell powered by digester gas was one of the 25 registered ''Worldwide projects'' which NRW presented at the EXPO 2000. In addition to this, it is a key project of the NRW State Initiative on Future Energies. All of the activities planned for the first year of operation were successfully completed: installing and putting the plant into operation, the transition to permanent operation as well as extended monitoring till May 2001.

Even at moderate energy machines, there is a regime where hard pion electroproduction proceeds by a perturbatively calculable process. The process, they claim, is not the leading twist fragmentation one but rather a higher twist process that produces kinematically isolated pions. Semiexclusive data may teach us more about parton distribution functions of the target and the pion distribution amplitude. In addition, there is a connection to generalized parton distribution calculations of exclusive processes in that the perturbative kernel is the same. The subject of this report is semiexclusive photoproduction of hard pions, and the semiexclusive deep inelastic scattering version of the same, e + p {yields} e + {pi} + X, which we can also write as p(e,e{prime}{prime})X. The authors are interested in pions with large transverse momentum (that is what ''hard'' means), and particularly in pions that are kinematically isolated, rather than pions that are part of a jet. And further, they shall hope to isolate processes that can be calculated perturbatively using Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD).

Even at moderate energy machines, there is a regime where hard pion electroproduction proceeds by a perturbatively calculable process. The process, we claim, is not the leading twist fragmentation one but a rather higher twist process that produces kinematically isolated pions. Semiexclusive data may teach us more about parton distribution functions of the target and the pion distribution amplitude. In addition, there is a connection to generalized parton distribution calculations of exclusive processes in that the perturbative kernel is the same.