Adoption of hydrogen (H{sub 2}) vehicles has been advocated for decades as an ecological ideal, capable of eliminating petroleum consumption as well as tail-pipe air pollution and carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) from automobiles. Storing sufficient hydrogen fuel onboard still remains a great technological challenge, despite recent advances in lightweight automotive materials, hybrid-electric drivetrains and fuel cells enabling 60-100 mpg equivalent H{sub 2}-fueled automobiles. Future onboard hydrogen storage choices will be pivotal, with lasting strategic consequences for the eventual scale, shape, security, investment requirements, and energy intensity of the H{sub 2} refueling infrastructure, in addition to impacts on automotive design, cost, range, performance, and safety. Multiple hydrogen storage approaches have been examined and deployed onboard prototype automobiles since the 1970's. These include storing H{sub 2} as a cryogenic liquid (LH{sub 2}) at temperatures of 20-25 Kelvin, compressing room temperature H{sub 2} gas to pressures as high as 10,000 psi, and reversible chemical absorption storage within powdered metal hydrides (e.g. LaNi{sub 5}H{sub 6}, TiFeH{sub 2}, MgH{sub 2}, NaAlH{sub 4}) which evolve H{sub 2} when warmed. Each of these approaches face well-known fundamental physical limits (thermal endurance, volume, and weight, respectively). This report details preliminary experiments investigating the potential of a new approach …

Double-shell ignition is complementary to the baseline approach by virtue of not requiring: (1) cryogenic preparation and fielding, (2) high-contrast pulse-shaping for shock-timing, and (3) demanding x-ray flux symmetry control. The use of simpler low-contrast pulse-shaping potentially allows more benign hohlraum conditions by reducing the risk of laser backscatter. In addition, the associated higher laser fluence threshold for optics damage initiation allows the possibility of more routine high-fluence shots with 2{omega} on the NIF. Based on LDRD-sponsored research in FY01-03 on NIF double-shell ignition target designs, the feasibility of this approach was advanced through both a highly successful implosion campaign on the Omega laser facility and a variety of design improvements for mitigating instability. The double-shell implosion campaign on Omega achieved the important milestone of repeatably demonstrating dominant primary (2.45 MeV) neutron production from the mix-susceptible compressional phase of a double-shell implosion, using fall-line design optimization and exacting fabrication standards. Showing effective control of fuel-pusher mix during final compression is an essential element for achieving ignition. In our studies to control mix by reducing hydrodynamic instability a new pathway for destructive Rayleigh-Taylor growth on the outer surface of the inner shell at ignition scales was identified. However, highly resolved multi-mode …

It is shown that, in a finite beta plasma, there may exist sheath driven modes whose amplitude decreases exponentially with the distance from the divertor plate. The modes are sensitive to the radial tilt of the divertor plate. The short-wavelength branch of the instability, with the cross-field wavelength Dof order of a few ion gyroradii, is present in the case of a ''positive'' tilt of the divertor plate, whereas the long-wavelength branch, with D of order of 10 or so gyroradii is unstable for the opposite sign of the tilt. The parallel e-folding length becomes less than the distance from the plate to the X point (thereby making the mode insensitive to the processes near the X-point and the upper scrape-off layer) at the plasma betas exceeding (2-3) {center_dot} 10{sup -4}. A detailed analysis of the dispersion relations is provided. The features of the modes that can be used for their experimental identification are discussed. It is pointed out that the analog of these modes may also exist in linear plasma devices with shaped end electrodes.

(1,2-naphtho)(1,8-naphtho)thioindigo (PNT) has been synthesized following a simple Friedel-Crafts route and its photochemical properties in toluene and PMMA characterized. PNT is a photochromic molecule capable of reversible photoisomerization between a yellow form (cis-PNT, {lambda}{sub max} = 484 nm) and a purple form (trans-PNT, {lambda}{sub max} = 595 nm). The stable purple form converts to the yellow form with a trans-PNT to cis-PNT conversion quantum yield of 0.027 in toluene and 0.062 in PMMA. The unstable yellow form exhibits a cis-PNT to trans-PNT quantum efficiency of conversion of 0.27-0.85 in toluene and 0.17-0.68 PMMA, with highest conversion efficiency occurring in the vicinity of its {lambda}{sub max} of 484 nm. Trans-PNT has a strong fluorescence quantum yield, 0.14 (toluene) and 0.16 (PMMA). For samples prepared photochemically in the cis-PNT form, slow thermal relaxation to the trans form occurs in the dark, with a half life of about 17 hours in toluene (25 C) and even slower, 168 hours, in PMMA. The property of photoswitching between fluorescent and non-fluorescent forms makes this material a candidate for many applications in imaging and data storage. An anomalous excitation profile for the fluorescence from trans-PNT, showing a dip at {approx}600 nm, is an agreement with the …

The primary purposes of this project were to (1) improve and validate the LLNL/IMPACT atmospheric chemistry and aerosol transport model, (2) experimentally analyze size- and time-resolved aerosol measurements taken during spring 2001 in Northern California, and (3) understand the origin of dust impacting Northern California. Under this project, we (1) more than doubled the resolution of the LLNL-IMPACT global atmospheric chemistry and aerosol model (to 1 x 1 degree), (2) added an interactive dust emission algorithm to the IMPACT model in order to simulate observed events, (3) added detailed microphysics to the IMPACT model to calculate the size-distribution of aerosols in terms of mass, (4) analyzed the aerosol mass and elemental composition of the size- and time-resolved aerosol measurements made by our UC Davis collaborators, and (5) determined that the majority of the observed soil dust is from intercontinental transport across the Pacific. A detailed report on this project is in the attached document ''Impact of Long-Range Dust Transport on Northern California in Spring 2002'' (UCRL-TR-209597), except for the addition of aerosol microphysics, which is covered in the attached document ''Implementation of the Missing Aerosol Physics into LLNL IMPACT'' (UCRL-TR-209568). In addition to the technical results, this project has (1) …

None

In ongoing experiments performed on the OMEGA laser [J. M. Soures et al., Phys. Plasmas 5, 2108 (1996)] at the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), nanosecond laser pulses are used to drive strong blast waves into two-layer targets. Perturbations on the interface between the two materials are unstable to the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability as a result of shock transit and the Rayleigh-Taylor instability during the deceleration-phase behind the shock front. These experiments are designed to produce a strongly shocked interface whose evolution is a scaled version of the unstable hydrogen-helium interface in core-collapse supernovae such as SN 1987A. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop an understanding of the effect of hydrodynamic instabilities and the resulting transition to turbulence on supernovae observables that remain as yet unexplained. The authors are, at present, particularly interested in the development of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability through the late nonlinear stage, the transition to turbulence, and the subsequent transport of material within the turbulent region. In this paper, the results of numerical simulations of 2D single and multimode experiments are presented. These simulations are run using the 2D Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) radiation hydrodynamics code CALE [R. T. Barton, Numerical Astrophysics …

This paper discusses parallel scaling performance of large scale parallel structured adaptive mesh refinement (SAMR) calculations in SAMRAI. Previous work revealed that poor scaling qualities in the adaptive gridding operations in SAMR calculations cause them to become dominant for cases run on up to 512 processors. This work describes algorithms we have developed to enhance the efficiency of the adaptive gridding operations. Performance of the algorithms is evaluated for two adaptive benchmarks run on up 512 processors of an IBM SP system.

A cooperative control architecture is presented that allows a fleet of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) to collect data in a parallel, coordinated and optimal manner. The architecture is designed to react to a set of unpredictable events thereby allowing data collection to continue in an optimal manner.

The DRACO code creates geometry and meshes through a command-line Python interface consisting of hundreds of classes and modules which must be accompanied by current documentation. The standard Python utility pydoc performs introspection on objects and prints their associated documentation strings verbatim. However, pydoc supports only very rudimentary formatting and cannot produce printable documentation. We decided to modify pydoc to process formatted ''docstrings'' and use the Doxygen tool to generate the needed forms of documentation. Codes with complex interfaces often require substantial effort to keep user documentation current with interface changes. The DRACO code creates geometry and meshes through a command-line Python interface consisting of hundreds of classes and thousands of functions. A previous attempt to write documentation manually quickly fell out of date, so the development team needed to find an alternative. The existing tools did not provide the flexibility we needed, and the team was already conversant in Doxygen, a C++ code-documenting utility with a simple tag-based markup. Python comes with a utility, pydoc, that performs introspection on objects and prints their docstrings verbatim. However, pydoc supports only very rudimentary formatting and cannot produce printable documentation. Thus we decided to create ''docstrings'' written in Doxygen syntax for each …

In this patent application we wish to claim the following approach to ameliorating spontaneous amplified emission (ASE) that occurs in a laser amplifier slab. There are two important elements of our approach. We wish to claim the application of both together but not either one alone. (1) The first element of the invention is to roughen the edge surfaces of the amplifier slab. A rough surface with random planar features larger than the wavelength of light will reflect and refract incident light rays at angles different than the median plane of the surface. The rough surface can then be characterized by two parameters. First there is a distribution of heights about the zero mean plane of the surface. If normal this distribution is characterized by a standard deviation. The second parameter is the correlation distance that describes how close together on average are the peaks and valleys. The ratio of these two numbers determines the spread of light reflected off the surface of the edge of the slab. (2) The second element in our invention is to bond the roughened edges of the gain medium to an ASE absorbing media using a suitable bonding agent. In order for the ASE …

We have developed and characterized a mixer to study the reaction kinetics of protein folding on a microsecond timescale. The mixer uses hydrodynamic focusing of pressure-driven flow in a microfluidic channel to reduce diffusion times as first demonstrated by Knight et al.[1]. Features of the mixer include 1 {micro}s mixing times, sample consumptions of order 1 nl/s, loading sample volumes on the order of microliters, and the ability to manufacture in fused silica for compatibility with most spectroscopic methods.

It has been well documented that spectacular dust storms in Asia (e.g. the events in 1998 and 2001) can affect the USA through long-range transport of dust across the Pacific. However, our observations and modeling show that the majority of dust at sites in Lassen National Park and Trinity Alps (Northern California) in spring 2002 (a year with no spectacular Asian dust events) is still from long-range intercontinental transport across the Pacific. We implemented the interactive dust emission algorithm of Ginoux et al. (2004) into the LLNL 3-D global atmospheric chemistry and aerosol transport model (IMPACT), then ran the model using a separate tracer for each dust emission region, using hi-resolution (1 x 1 degree) meteorological data from the NASA GMAO GEOS-3 assimilation system for 2001 and 2002. We also experimentally analyzed size- and time-resolved aerosol samples at Lassen National Park and Trinity Alps in the spring of 2002, which were taken as part of NOAA's ITCT 2k2 measurement campaign. The model-predicted time-series of soil dust over Northern California agrees remarkably well with our measurements, with a strong temporal correlation between the observations and intercontinental transport of dust across the Pacific in the model. Hence, we conclude that the majority …

A public/private collaboration between federal, state, provincial, and local U.S. and Canadian governmental organizations, called the Canada - United States Cargo Security Project has been formed, with the goal to improve security of containerized cargo moving from overseas locations into eastern Canadian provinces and the Northeastern United States. The current phase of this project has two technical objectives. These are: (1) to build and test a prototype in-container sensor system able to detect unauthorized entry into the container and the presence of radioactive material, to record geographical location and environmental data, and to transmit this information via satellite communications to a remote monitoring facility, and (2) to develop a secure website where data from the in-container sensors and other information will be displayed in real or near-real time and can be made available to law enforcement and emergency response organizations as appropriate. This paper will describe these activities, currently being undertaken by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. An additional goal of the project's current phase is to integrate multi-jurisdictional training and first-responder exercises while monitoring and tracking container shipments from overseas to the US via Canadian ports-of-entry into North America. This activity is being undertaken by other project partners, which …

A phenomenological model is proposed to correlate the onset of solid-state amorphization with the loss of interfacial stability in Ni-Ti multilayers. Additionally, a temperature dependence to the onset of amorphization is attributed to the effect of interfacial coherency that varies with the Ni-Ti layer pair spacing.

The scaling behavior of basic earthquake source parameters such as the energy release per unit area of fault slip, quantitatively measured as the apparent stress, is currently in dispute. There are compelling studies that show apparent stress is constant over a wide range of moments (e.g. Choy and Boatwright, 1995; McGarr, 1999; Ide and Beroza, 2001, Ide et al. 2003). Other equally compelling studies find the apparent stress increases with moment (e.g. Kanamori et al., 1993; Abercrombie, 1995; Mayeda and Walter, 1996; Izutani and Kanamori, 2001; Richardson and Jordan, 2002). The resolution of this issue is complicated by the difficulty of accurately accounting for attenuation, radiation inhomogeneities, bandwidth and determining the seismic energy radiated by earthquakes over a wide range of event sizes in a consistent manner. As one part of our LDRD project we convened a one-day workshop on July 24, 2003 in Livermore to review the current state of knowledge on this topic and discuss possible methods of resolution with many of the world's foremost experts.

Carbon atoms occupying specific positions within fuel molecules can be labeled and followed in emissions. Renewable bio-derived fuels possess a natural uniform carbon-14 ({sup 14}C) tracer several orders of magnitude above petroleum-derived fuels. These fuels can be used to specify sources of carbon in particulate matter (PM) or other emissions. Differences in emissions from variations in the distribution of a fuel component within a blend can also be measured. Using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), we traced fuel components with biological {sup 14}C/C levels of 1 part in 10{sup 12} against a {sup 14}C-free petroleum background in PM and CO{sub 2}. Different carbon atoms in the ester structure of the diesel oxygenate dibutyl maleate displayed far different propensities to produce PM. Homogeneous cosolvent and heterogeneous emulsified ethanol-in-diesel blends produced significantly different PM despite having the same oxygen content in the fuel. Emulsified blends produced PM with significantly more volatile species. Although ethanol-derived carbon was less likely to produce PM than diesel fuel, it formed non-volatile structures when it resided in PM. The contribution of lubrication oil to PM was determined by measuring an isotopic difference between 100% bio-diesel and the PM it produced. Data produced by the experiments provides validation for …

In 1980, Don Smith requested that the EG&G Detector Group in North Las Vegas provide a summary of calibrated sensitivities for the VCD-145 detector. The &sired information was provided in a memorandum from Sam Egdorf (Reference 1). A memo from Brent Davis issued a week later described the effect on VCD-145 detector sensitivity that resulted from changing the thickness of the stainless steel entrance window (Reference 2). This memo is intended first to effectively archive those two references, and second to record thoughts about the significance of their contents. Reference 1 lists a total of 118 calibrated values for 80 different VCD-145 detectors, from 1977 to 1980. With only four exceptions, all of the serial numbers from V004 to V087 were included. The earlier calibrations were for detectors with 1-mil entrance windows, and the later ones were for detectors with 2-mil entrance windows. Three of the earlier units were calibrated at both thicknesses by temporarily placing an extra 1-mil sheet of stainless steel across the window. Altogether six different collimator diameters were used, from 60 mm to 95 mm. Some units were calibrated for more than one collimator diameter, and 14 were at some point designated as backup detectors for …

A series of studies by the Air Force, the National Reconnaissance Office and NASA have identified the critical role played by large optics in fulfilling many of the space related missions of these agencies. Whether it is the Next Generation Space Telescope for NASA, high resolution imaging systems for NRO, or beam weaponry for the Air Force, the diameter of the primary optic is central to achieving high resolution (imaging) or a small spot size on target (lethality). While the detailed requirements differ for each application (high resolution imaging over the visible and near-infrared for earth observation, high damage threshold but single-wavelength operation for directed energy), the challenges of a large, lightweight primary optic which is space compatible and operates with high efficiency are the same. The advantage of such large optics to national surveillance applications is that it permits these observations to be carried-out with much greater effectiveness than with smaller optics. For laser weapons, the advantage is that it permits more tightly focused beams which can be leveraged into either greater effective range, reduced laser power, and/or smaller on-target spot-sizes; weapon systems can be made either much more effective or much less expensive. This application requires only single-wavelength …

Western Research Institute (WRI) in conjunction with Earth Tech and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) was to identify proper sites with soils and/or groundwater contaminated by petroleum constituents and MTBE. Biodegradation rates would have been quantitatively assessed in both laboratory and field tests to achieve the optimal destruction of contaminants of concern. WRI and Earth Tech identified a site contaminated with high concentrations of methanol associated with petroleum hydrocarbons. The site was assessed and a remediation project plan was prepared; however, the site was soon acquired by a new company. An agreement between Earth Tech, WRI, and the new site owners could not be reached; therefore, a work was performed to identify a new project site. Task 33 was terminated and the available funding was redeployed to other Tasks after receiving approval from the U.S. DOE task manager.

In the original paper a mistake in Figure 11 occurred. The corrected version of the figure is provided.

Industrial processes use mechanical draft cooling towers (MDCT's) to dissipate waste heat by transferring heat from water to air via evaporative cooling, which causes air humidification. The Savannah River Site (SRS) has cross-flow and counter-current MDCT's consisting of four independent compartments called cells. Each cell has its own fan to help maximize heat transfer between ambient air and circulated water. The primary objective of the work is to simulate the cooling tower performance for the counter-current cooling tower and to conduct a parametric study under different fan speeds and ambient air conditions. The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) developed a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model and performed the benchmarking analysis against the integral measurement results to accomplish the objective. The model uses three-dimensional steady-state momentum, continuity equations, air-vapor species balance equation, and two-equation turbulence as the basic governing equations. It was assumed that vapor phase is always transported by the continuous air phase with no slip velocity. In this case, water droplet component was considered as discrete phase for the interfacial heat and mass transfer via Lagrangian approach. Thus, the air-vapor mixture model with discrete water droplet phase is used for the analysis. A series of parametric calculations was performed …

A study was performed in the Plutonium Finishing Plant to assess the performance of Hanford personnel neutron dosimetry. The study was assessed whole body dosimetry and extremity dosimetry performance. For both parts of the study, the TEPC was used as the principle instrument for characterizing workplace neutron fields. In the whole body study, 12.7-cm-diameter TEPCs were used in ten different locations in the facility. TLD and TED personnel dosimeters were exposed on a water-filled phantom to enable a comparison of TEPC and dosimeter response. In the extremity study, 1.27-cm-diameter TEPCs were exposed inside the fingers of a gloveboxe glove. Extremity dosimeters were wrapped around the TEPCs. The glove was then exposed to six different cans of plutonium, simulating the exposure that a worker's fingers would receive in a glovebox. The comparison of TEPC-measured neutron dose equivalent to TLD-measured gamma dose equivalent provided neutron-to-gamma ratios that can be used to estimate the neutron dose equivalent received by a worker's finger based on the gamma readings of an extremity dosimeter. The study also utilized a Snoopy and detectors based on bubble technology for assessing neutron exposures, providing a comparison of the effectiveness of these instruments for workplace monitoring. The study concludes that …

We present a numerical method to solve the linear stability of impulsively accelerated density interfaces in two dimensions such as those arising in the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability. The method uses an Eulerian approach, and is based on an unwind method to compute the temporally evolving base state and a flux vector splitting method for the perturbations. The method is applicable to either gas dynamics or magnetohydrodynamics. Numerical examples are presented for cases in which a hydrodynamic shock interacts with a single or double density interface, and a doubly shocked single density interface. Convergence tests show that the method is spatially second order accurate for smooth flows, and between first and second order accurate for flows with shocks.