In this work, nanostructured composite materials have been synthesized using the mechanical alloying process. The new materials produced have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transition electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and electron energy dispersion spectrum (EDS) for their phase compositions, crystal structure, grain size, particle morphology and the distribution of catalyst element. Hydrogen storage capacities and the hydriding-dehydriding kinetics of the new materials have been measured at different temperatures using a Sieverts apparatus. It is observed that mechanical alloying accelerates the hydrogenation kinetics of the magnesium based materials at low temperature, but a high temperature must be provided to release the absorbed hydrogen from the hydrided magnesium based materials. It is believed that the dehydriding temperature is largely controlled by the thermodynamic configuration of magnesium hydride. Doping Mg-Ni nano/amorphous composite materials with lanthanum reduces the hydriding and dehydriding temperature. Although the stability of MgH2 can not be easily reduced by ball milling alone, the results suggest the thermodynamic properties of Mg-Ni nano/amorphous composite materials can be alternated by additives such as La or other effective elements. Further investigation toward understanding the mechanism of additives will be rewarded.

We have developed a methodology for analysis of PCCI engines that applies to conditions in which there is some stratification in the air-fuel distribution inside the cylinder at the time of combustion. Our analysis methodology consists of two stages: first, a fluid mechanics code is used to determine temperature and equivalence ratio distributions as a function of crank angle, assuming motored conditions. The distribution information is then used for grouping the mass in the cylinder into a two-dimensional (temperature-equivalence ratio) array of zones. The zone information is then handed on to a detailed chemical kinetics model that calculates combustion, emissions and engine efficiency information. The methodology applies to situations where chemistry and fluid mechanics are weakly linked. The results of the multi-zone model have been compared to the results obtained from a fully integrated code, in which a chemical kinetics code is directly linked into a fluid mechanics code to calculate chemistry in every cell of the grid. The results show that the multi-zone model predicts burn duration and peak cylinder pressure with good accuracy. However, ignition timing predicted by the multi-zone model is sensitive to the transition angle between the fluid mechanics code and the chemical kinetics code. The …

This paper presents an evaluation of the applicability of Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Engines (HCCI) for small-scale cogeneration (less than 1 MWe) in comparison to five previously analyzed prime movers. The five comparator prime movers include stoichiometric spark-ignited (SI) engines, lean burn SI engines, diesel engines, microturbines and fuel cells. The investigated option, HCCI engines, is a relatively new type of engine that has some fundamental differences with respect to other prime movers. Here, the prime movers are compared by calculating electric and heating efficiency, fuel consumption, nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and capital and fuel cost. Two cases are analyzed. In Case 1, the cogeneration facility requires combined power and heating. In Case 2, the requirement is for power and chilling. The results show that the HCCI engines closely approach the very high fuel utilization efficiency of diesel engines without the high emissions of NOx and the expensive diesel fuel. HCCI engines offer a new alternative for cogeneration that provides a unique combination of low cost, high efficiency, low emissions and flexibility in operating temperatures that can be optimally tuned for cogeneration systems. HCCI engines are the most efficient technology that meets the oncoming 2007 CARB NOx standards for cogeneration …

We are developing cryogenic high-resolution x-ray, {gamma}-ray and neutron spectrometers based on superconducting Mo/Cu transition edge sensors. Here we discuss the sensor design for different applications, present the photolithographic fabrication techniques, and outline future detector development to increase spectrometer sensitivity.

In order for volume sources to deliver the current (e.g., 0.8 A of Ar{sup +} per module) and brightness necessary for heavy ion fusion (HIF), they must operate at high current density. Conventional extractor designs for 1 to 2 MeV run into voltage breakdown limitations and cannot easily produce the required current rise time (about one microsecond). We discuss two systems that can overcome these volume-extraction problems. Each uses multichannel preaccelerators followed by a single channel main accelerator. Fast beam switching is done in the low energy beamlet stages. A new design, utilizing concentric ring preaccelerators, was recently described for another application [2]. A more conventional design uses a large number of small round beamlets. In either case, the merging beamlets are angled toward the axis, a feature that dominates other focusing. By suitable adjustment of the individual angles, beam aberrations are reduced. Because of the high current density, the overall structure is compact. Emittance growth from merging of beamlets is calculated and scaling is discussed.

This article was stimulated by the recent SIAM ''100 DigitChallenge'' of Nick Trefethen, beautifully described in a recent book. Indeed, these ten numeric challenge problems are also listed in a recent book by two of present authors, where they are followed by the ten symbolic/numeric challenge problems that are discussed in this article. Our intent was to present ten problems that are characteristic of the sorts of problems that commonly arise in ''experimental mathematics''. The challenge in each case is to obtain a high precision numeric evaluation of the quantity, and then, if possible, to obtain a symbolic answer, ideally one with proof. Our goal in this article is to provide solutions to these ten problems, and in the process present a concise account of how one combines symbolic and numeric computation, which may be termed ''hybrid computation'', in the process of mathematical discovery.

A well-known result due to Hill provides an exact expression for the bulk modulus of any multicomponent elastic composite whenever the constituents are isotropic and the shear modulus is uniform throughout. Although no precise analog of Hill's result is available for the opposite case of uniform bulk modulus and varying shear modulus, it is shown here that some similar statements can be made for shear behavior of random polycrystals composed of laminates of isotropic materials. In particular, the Hashin-Shtrikman-type bounds of Peselnick, Meister, and Watt for random polycrystals composed of hexagonal (transversely isotropic) grains are applied to the problem of polycrystals of laminates. An exact product formula relating the Reuss estimate of bulk modulus and an effective shear modulus (of laminated grains composing the system) to products of the eigenvalues for quasi-compressional and quasi-uniaxial shear eigenvectors also plays an important role in the analysis of the overall shear behavior of the random polycrystal. When the bulk modulus is uniform in such a system, the equations are shown to reduce to a simple form that depends prominently on the uniaxial shear eigenvalue - as expected from physical arguments concerning the importance of uniaxial shear in these systems. One application of the …

Although it is well known that the rate of sintering is governed by deceleratory kinetics, it is often difficult to fit power-law and nth-order reaction models over broad time-temperature ranges. This work shows that a phenomenological model combining a reaction order with an activation energy distribution can correlate surface area as a function of sintering time and temperature over a greater range of those variables. Qualitatively, the activation energy distribution accounts the dependence of free energy on particle size and material defects, while the reaction order accounts for geometric factors such as a distribution of diffusion lengths. The model is demonstrated for sintering of hydroxyapatite using data of Bailliez and Nzihou (Chem. Eng. J. 98 (2004), 141-152).

The Defense Waste Processing Facilities (DWPF) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is used to process high-level radioactive waste from the Tank Farm into borosilicate glass to reduce the mobility of the radionuclides and has processed and vitrified nuclear wastes into canisters for long-term disposal since FY96. All wastes vitrified to date in DWPF are ''sludge only'' wastes. The old salt waste processing technology, ITP, was suspended in FY98 due to benzene build-up inside the tank. The new selected technologies for treating the salt waste are Actinide Removal Process (ARP) and Caustic Side Solvent Extraction process (CSSX). The Modular CSSX Unit (MCU) is a cesium removal process that will be operated downstream of the ARP. The MCU is a short-term method for cesium removal, which uses the same technology as the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF). Once the SWPF becomes operational, the MCU will be shut down. The modeling request is from the MCU project to verify the validity of its Concept Design Package. The modeling task is not typical because there are five different facilities/projects/processes involved, i.e., Tank Farm, ARP, MCU, Saltstone, and DWPF. Each facility, project, and process has their own management team and organization, with its own …

Geological disposal of the spent nuclear fuel uses often the concept of multiple barrier systems. In order to predict the performance of these barriers, mathematical models have been developed, verified and validated against analytical solutions, laboratory tests and field experiments within the international DECOVALEX III project. These models in general consider the full coupling of thermal (T), hydraulic (H) and mechanical (M) processes that would prevail in the geological media around the repository. For Bench Mark Test no. 1 (BMT1) of the DECOVALEX III project, seven multinational research teams studied the implications of coupled THM processes on the safety of a hypothetical nuclear waste repository at the near-field and are presented in three accompany papers in this issue. This paper is the first of the three companion papers, which provides the conceptualization and characterization of the BMT1 as well as some general conclusions based on the findings of the numerical studies. It also shows the process of building confidence in the mathematical models by calibration with a reference T-H-M experiment with realistic rock mass conditions and bentonite properties and measured outputs of thermal, hydraulic and mechanical variables.

In the mid-1990s, a groundwater plume of uranium (U) was detected in monitoring wells in the B-BX-BY Waste Management Area (WMA) at the Hanford Site in Washington. This area has been used since the late 1940s to store high-level radioactive waste and other products of U fuel-rod processing. Using multiple collector ICP source magnetic sector mass spectrometry (MC ICPMS) high precision uranium isotopic analyses were conducted of samples of vadose zone contamination and of groundwater. The ratios {sup 236}U/{sup 238}U, {sup 234}U/{sup 238}U and {sup 238}U/{sup 235}U are used to distinguish contaminant sources. Based on the isotopic data, the source of the groundwater contamination appears to be related to a 1951 overflow event at tank BX-102 that spilled high level U waste into the vadose zone. The U isotopic variation of the groundwater plume is a result of mixing between contaminant U from this spill and natural background U. Vadose zone U contamination at tank B-110 likely predates the recorded tank leak and can be ruled out as a source of groundwater contamination, based on the U isotopic composition. The locus of vadose zone contamination is displaced from the initial locus of groundwater contamination, indicating that lateral migration in the …

Fall 2001: (September 29-30, 2001; Irvine, CA) This meeting focused on presentations and plans for two ad hoc projects sponsored by the committee?the burning plasma study and the partially ionized plasma proposals. Ongoing discussions with CHEDPP chair Ron Davidson were also included. Significant attention was given to FESAC and the Fusion Energy Snowmass meeting planned for Summer 2002. These discussions lead to continued development of the proposal for the burning plasma project. A science talk on plasma processing of materials from an industry perspective provided a backdrop for discussion of the partially ionized plasmas project. Spring 2002: (April 5-6, 2003; Washington, DC) This meeting included updates from the funding agencies (DOE, NSF, ONR, and NASA) and a discussion panel amongst them, a review of the burning plasma study proposal, and a discussion of the HED study?s progress. Future work items such as the plasma physics volume of the decadal physics survey and potential studies on computer modeling and simulation were also discussed. Fall 2002: (September 28-29, 2002; Irvine, CA) This meeting discussed the status of the then-recently started burning plasma study, heard the findings and recommendations of the HED study, and discussed the prospects for fusion in light of the …

BlueGene/L is the next large supercomputer for the DOE ASC program. BlueGene/L will consist of 65,000 dual processor IBM PowerPC 440 processors, each with attached FPU. Several interconnect networks consisting of a full 3D torus, combining tree, barrier tree, and interrupt tree are used to maximize computing efficiency. The theoretical peak performance of the system is 360 Teraflops/s.

We report progress in developing efficient pumping of laser-driven x-ray lasers that opens new possibilities for both high average power x-ray lasers as well as producing progressively shorter wavelength lasers. The new scheme of grazing incidence pumping (GRIP) is described. In essence, a chosen electron density region of a pre-formed plasma column, produced by a longer pulse at normal incidence onto a slab target, is selectively pumped by focusing the short pulse {approx}ps laser at a determined grazing incidence angle to the target. The controlled use of refraction of the pumping laser in the plasma results in several benefits: The pump laser path length is longer and there is an increase in the laser absorption in the gain region for creating a collisional Ni-like ion x-ray laser. There is also an inherent traveling wave, close to c, that increases the overall pumping efficiency. The scheme requires careful tailoring of the pump and plasma conditions to the specific x-ray laser under investigation but the main advantage is a 3 - 30 times reduction in the laser pump energy for mid-Z materials. We report several examples of this new x-ray laser on two different laser systems. The first demonstrates a 10 Hz …

Ultrasound imaging is widely used in medicine because of its benign characteristics and real-time capabilities. Physics theory suggests that the application of tomographic techniques may allow ultrasound imaging to reach its full potential as a diagnostic tool allowing it to compete with other tomographic modalities such as X-ray CT and MRI. This paper describes the construction and use of a prototype tomographic scanner and reports on the feasibility of implementing tomographic theory in practice and the potential of US tomography in diagnostic imaging. Data were collected with the prototype by scanning two types of phantoms and a cadaveric breast. A specialized suite of algorithms was developed and utilized to construct images of reflectivity and sound speed from the phantom data. The basic results can be summarized as follows: (1) A fast, clinically relevant US tomography scanner can be built using existing technology. (2) The spatial resolution, deduced from images of reflectivity, is 0.4 mm. The demonstrated 10 cm depth-of-field is superior to that of conventional ultrasound and the image contrast is improved through the reduction of speckle noise and overall lowering of the noise floor. (3) Images of acoustic properties such as sound speed suggest that it is possible to …

Article discussing the random growth of interfaces as a subordinated process.

Coralline sponges have the potential to fill in gaps in our understanding of subsurface oceanographic variability. However, one disadvantage they have compared to hermatypic reef building coral proxies is that they do not have annual density bands and need to be radiometrically dated for an age determination. To elucidate growth rate variability we have measured radiocarbon in 1 mm increments from Astrosclera willeyana sponges collected off the Central and Northern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and from Truk in the Caroline Islands and compared these radiocarbon profiles to independently dated coral radiocarbon records. Growth rates of the GBR sponges average 1.2 {+-} 0.3 and 1.0 {+-} 0.3 mm yr{sup -1}, north and central respectively but can vary by a factor of two. The growth rate of the Truk sponge averages 1.2 {+-} 0.1 mm yr{sup -1}. These growth rates are significantly faster to those measured for other GBR Astrosclera willeyana sponges (0.2 mm yr{sup -1}) by Calcein staining (Woerheide 1988).

Coralline sponges (sclerosponges) have been proposed as a new source for paleo subsurface temperature reconstructions by utilizing methods developed for reef-building corals. However unlike corals, coralline sponges do not have density variations making age determination difficult. In this study we examined multiple elemental rations (B, Mg, Sr, Ba, U) in the coralline sponge Astrosclera willeyana. We also measured skeletal density profiles along the outer ''living'' edge of the sponges and this data indicates significant thickening of skeletal material over intervals of 2-3 mm or 2-3 years. This suggests that any skeletal recovered environmental record from Astrosclera willeyana is an integration of signals over a 2-3 year period. Sponge Sr/Ca seemed to hold the most promise as a recorder of water temperature and we compared Sr/Ca from 2 sponges in the Great Barrier Reef and one from Truk in Micronesia to their respective sea surface temperature record. The correlations were not that strong ({approx} r=-0.5) but they were significant. It appears that the signal smoothing due to thickening or perhaps even some biologic control on Sr skeletal partitioning limits the use of Sr/Ca as an indicator of water temperature in Astrosclera willeyana.

Results from studies of effective Lagrangians for gaugino condensation are summarized and re-examined with an eye to previously neglected one-loop quadratically divergent corrections.

Shewanella oneidensis is an important model organism for bioremediation studies because of its diverse respiratory capabilities. However, the genetic basis and regulatory mechanisms underlying the ability of S. oneidensis to survive and adapt to various environmentally relevant stresses is poorly understood. To define this organism's molecular response to elevated growth temperatures, temporal gene expression profiles were examined in cells subjected to heat stress using whole-genome DNA microarrays for S. oneidensis MR-1. Approximately 15 percent (711) of the predicted S. oneidensis genes represented on the microarray were significantly up- or down-regulated (P < 0.05) over a 25-min period following shift to the heat shock temperature (42 C). As expected, the majority of S. oneidensis genes exhibiting homology to known chaperones and heat shock proteins (Hsps) were highly and transiently induced. In addition, a number of predicted genes encoding enzymes in glycolys is and the pentose cycle, [NiFe] dehydrogenase, serine proteases, transcriptional regulators (MerR, LysR, and TetR families), histidine kinases, and hypothetical proteins were induced in response to heat stress. Genes encoding membrane proteins were differentially expressed, suggesting that cells possibly alter their membrane composition or structure in response to variations in growth temperature. A substantial number of the genes encoding ribosomal …

Ti K-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy was used to explore the local titanium environment and valence in 2-4 mol% Ti-doped sodium alanate. An estimate of the oxidation state of the dopant, based upon known standards, revealed a zero-valent titanium atom. An analysis of the near-edge and extended fine structures indicates that the Ti does not enter substitutional or interstitial sites in the NaAlH{sub 4} lattice. Rather, the Ti is located on/near the surface and is coordinated by 10.2 {+-} 1 aluminum atoms with an interatomic distance of 2.82 {+-} 0.01 {angstrom}, similar to that of TiAl{sub 3}. The Fourier transformed EXAFS spectra reveals a lack of long-range order around the Ti dopant indicating that the Ti forms nano-clusters of TiAl{sub 3}. The similarity of the spectra in the hydrided and dehydrided samples suggests that the local Ti environment is nearly invariant during hydrogen cycling.

The observed flavor structure of the standard model arises naturally in ''split fermion'' models which localize fermions at different places in an extra dimension. It has, until now, been assumed that the bulk masses for such fermions can be chosen to be flavor diagonal simultaneously at every point in the extra dimension, with all the flavor violation coming from the Yukawa couplings to the Higgs. We consider the more natural possibility in which the bulk masses cannot be simultaneously diagonalized, that is, that they are twisted in flavor space. We show that, in general, this does not disturb the natural generation of hierarchies in the flavor parameters. Moreover, it is conceivable that all the flavor mixing and CP-violation in the standard model may come only from twisting, with the five-dimensional Yukawa couplings taken to be universal.

A broad base of knowledge is necessary for the successful solution to applied problems, but on the other hand, developing such practical solutions can open the door to new and exciting adventures in basic research. Several such synergistic events are briefly described. These include the design and development of magnetic refrigerant materials (1) for the liquefaction of H{sub 2} gas, and (2) for near-room temperature cooling and refrigeration; and (3) the design and development of cryocooler regenerator materials. The first led to the discovery of both supercooling and superheating in the same substance (Dy and Er); the second to the discovery of the giant magnetocaloric effect, the colossal magnetostriction, and the giant magnetoresistance in the same substance [Gd{sub 5}(Si{sub x}Ge{sub 1-x}{sub 4})]; and the third the disappearance of three of the four magnetically ordered phases in Er by Pr additions in both high purity Er and commercial grade Er.

The volumetric heat capacities of a number of binary and ternary Er- and Tm-based intermetallic compounds, which exhibited substantial ductilities, were measured from {approx}3 to {approx}350 K. They have the RM stoichiometry (where R = Er or Tm, and M is a main group or transition metal) and crystallize in the CsCl-type structure. The heat capacities of the Tm-based compounds are in general larger than the corresponding Er-based materials. Many of them have heat capacities which are significantly larger than those of the low temperature (<15 K) prototype cryocooler regenerator materials HoCu{sub 2}, Er{sub 3}Ni and ErNi. Utilization of the new materials as regenerators in the various cryocoolers should improve the performance of these refrigeration units for cooling below 15 K.