We are interested in building structured overlapping grids for geometries defined by computer-aided-design (CAD) packages. Geometric information defining the boundary surfaces of a computation domain is often provided in the form of a collection of possibly hundreds of trimmed patches. The first step in building an overlapping volume grid on such a geometry is to build overlapping surface grids. A surface grid is typically built using hyperbolic grid generation; starting from a curve on the surface, a grid is grown by marching over the surface. A given hyperbolic grid will typically cover many of the underlying CAD surface patches. The fundamental operation needed for building surface grids is that of projecting a point in space onto the closest point on the CAD surface. We describe an fast algorithm for performing this projection, it will make use of a fairly coarse global triangulation of the CAD geometry. We describe how to build this global triangulation by first determining the connectivity of the CAD surface patches. This step is necessary since it often the case that the CAD description will contain no information specifying how a given patch connects to other neighboring patches. Determining the connectivity is difficult since the surface patches …

The authors describe AMRH results on a version of the Reinicke problem specified by the V and V group of LLNL's A-Div. The simulation models a point explosion with heat conduction. The problem specification requires that the heat conduction be replaced with diffusive radiation transport. The matter and radiation energy densities are tightly coupled.

We describe a system able to perform universal stochastic approximations of continuous multivariable functions in both neuron-like and quantum manner. The implementation of this model in the form of multi-barrier multiple-silt system has been earlier proposed. For the simplified waveguide variant of this model it is proved, that the system can approximate any continuous function of many variables. This theorem is also applied to the 2-input quantum neural model analogical to the schemes developed for quantum control.

A new diagnostic has been designed and commissioned that measures the profile of the beam in the halo channel of the Low Energy Demonstration Accelerator at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This paper describes the algorithms written to analyze the data from that diagnostic, a combined wire scanner and halo scraper. These algorithms determine the safe insertions limit of the scrapers, spatially differentiate the scraper signal, amalgamate the wire scanner data with the differentiated scraper data, determine when both the core and combined distributions rise above the noise floor, and compute the moments of the combined distribution. Results of applying the algorithms to data acquired during experiments matching the beam into the halo channel are presented.

The present work shows how data obtained in a depth-sensing indentation test using a Knoop indenter may be analyzed to provide elastic modulus and hardness of the specimen material. The method takes into account the elastic recovery along the direction of the short axis of the residual impression as the indenter is removed. If elastic recovery is not accounted for, the elastic modulus and hardness are overestimated by an amount that depends on the ratio of E/H of the specimen material. The new method of analysis expresses the elastic recovery of the short diagonal of the residual impression into an equivalent face angle for one side of the Knoop indenter. Conventional methods of analysis using this corrected angle provide results for modulus and hardness that are consistent with those obtained with other types of indenters.

Al 5083 disks of a superplastic forming grade were gas-pressure formed to hemispheres and cones at constant forming pressures with and without back pressure. The forming operation was performed using an in-house designed and built biaxial forming apparatus. The temporal change of dome heights of the hemispheres and cones were measured for the different forming and back pressures applied. The flow stresses and strain rates developed at the top of the dome during the forming step were shown to closely follow the flow stress-strain rate relationship obtained from the strain rate change tests performed at the same temperature using uniaxial tensile samples.

N/A

TA 2-1083, under which RFSA processing is conducted, calls for a nominal mercuric ion concentration in the dissolver solution of 0.006M with a maximum of 0.01 M. The second RFSA campaign operated according to these guidelines with the initial Hg(II) concentration being 0.0068 M. Part of this study is to ascertain optimum excess Hg(I) for chloride removal.

The purpose of this analysis is to propose and qualify a design of the tie-down system for the High Level Waste (HLW) pump/agitator transport container.

A low-energy concrete house was designed using passive solar strategies to consume 70% less heating and cooling energy than a base case that conformed to the 1996 Home Energy Rating System (HERS) and the 1995 Model Energy Code (MEC). The performance of this house was then evaluated using computer simulations and measured data. The house, Tierra I, was monitored from July 22, 1996, through October 14, 1997. A Short Term Energy Monitoring (STEM) test was done November 19 to December 10, 1996. Computer simulations of the house were done using SUNREL, an updated version of the hourly data simulation package SERI-RES. The SUNREL model of the house was calibrated using both short- and long-term data. The house achieved energy savings of 56%, below the goal of 70%. The lower than expected savings resulted from problems with the window modeling. As a result, during the design phase the solar gains were overestimated causing an underestimate in the level of insulation necessary to achieve the savings goal. For very low-energy passive solar buildings, it is apparent that very accurate window modeling is required. It also became apparent that accurate ground models are required as well because ground-heat loss accounts for a significant …

N/A

Light antinuclei may be formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions via final state coalescence of antinucleons. The yields of antinuclei are sensitive to primordial antinucleon production, the volume of the system at kinetic freeze-out, and space-momentum correlations among antinucleons at freeze-out. We report here preliminary STAR results on {bar d} and {bar {sup 3}He} production in 130A GeV Au+Au collisions. These results are examined in a coalescence framework to elucidate the space-time structure of the antinucleon source.

The objective of this Class 3 project was demonstrate that detailed reservoir characterization of slope and basin clastic reservoirs in sandstone's of the Delaware Mountain Group in the Delaware Basin of West Texas and New Mexico is a cost effective way to recover oil more economically through geologically based field development. This project was focused on East Ford field, a Delaware Mountain Group field that produced from the upper Bell Canyon Formation (Ramsey sandstone). The field, discovered in 9160, is operated by Oral Petco, Inc., as the East Ford unit. A CO2 flood was being conducted in the unit, and this flood is the Phase 2 demonstration for the project.

The overall program objective is to develop and evaluate integrated biological/physical/chemical co-treatment strategies for the remediation of wastes associated with the exploration and production of fossil energy. The specific objectives of this project are: chemical accelerated biotreatment (CAB) technology development for enhanced site remediation, application of the risk based analyses to define and support the rationale for environmental acceptable endpoints (EAE) for exploration and production wastes, and evaluate both the technological technologies in conjugation for effective remediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soils from E&P sites in the USA.

As the electric industry goes through a transformation to a more market-driven model, traditional grounds for utility energy efficiency have come under fire, undermining the existing mechanisms to fund and deliver such services. The challenge, then, is to understand why the electric industry should sustain investments in helping low-income Americans use electricity efficiently, how such investments should be made, and how these policies can become part of the new electric industry structure. This report analyzes the opportunities and barriers to leveraging electric utility energy efficiency assistance to low-income customers during the transition of the electric industry to greater competition.

We consider a recent proposal by Horvath et al. to address the question whether topological charge fluctuations in QCD are instanton dominated via the response of fermions using lattice fermions with exact chiral symmetry, the overlap fermions. Considering several volumes and lattice spacings we find strong evidence for chirality of a finite density of low-lying eigenvectors of the overlap-Dirac operator in the regions where these modes are peaked. This result suggests instanton dominance of topological charge fluctuations in quenched QCD.

Solid-state lasers have held great promise for the generation of high-average-power, high-quality output beams for a number of decades. However, the inherent difficulty of scaling the active solid-state gain media while continuing to provide efficient cooling has limited demonstrated powers to <5kW. Even at the maximum demonstrated average powers, the output is most often delivered as continuous wave (CW) or as small energy pulses at high pulse repetition frequency (PRF) and the beam divergence is typically >10X the diffraction limit. Challenges posed by optical distortions and depolarization arising from internal temperature gradients in the gain medium of a continuously cooled system are only increased for laser designs that would attempt to deliver the high average power in the form of high energy pulses (>25J) from a single coherent optical aperture. Although demonstrated phase-locking of multiple laser apertures may hold significant promise for the future scaling of solid-state laser systems,1 the continuing need for additional technical development and innovation coupled with the anticipated complexity of these systems effectively limits this approach for near-term multi-kW laser operation outside of a laboratory setting. We have developed and demonstrated a new operational mode for solid-state laser systems in which the cooling of the gain …

Newsletter of the Texas Department of Health Asbestos Programs Branch discussing news and updates of the agency; changes to laws, regulations, and other policies related to asbestos usage and removal; and other asbestos-related information.

The Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) Problem Solving Environment (PSE) consists of the tools and libraries needed for the development of ASCI simulation codes on ASCI machines. The recently completed ASCI PSE Milepost demonstrated that this software environment is available and functional at the scale used for application mileposts on ASCI White. As part of the PSE Milepost, we performed extensive performance testing of several critical run-time based systems. In this paper, we present microbenchmark results that compare the MPI [5], Pthreads and OpenMP [7, 8] implementations on ASCI White and ASCI Blue Pacific. Our results demonstrate that these run-time systems on White have improved sufficiently to accommodate the machine's approximately four-fold increase in processing capability over Blue Pacific.

An assessment has been performed for an Accelerator Transmutation of Waste (ATW) concept based on the use of the high temperature gas reactor technology. The concept has been proposed by General Atomics for the ATW system. The assessment was jointly conducted at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Los Alamos national laboratory to assess and to define the potential candidates for the ATW system. This report represents the assessment work performed at ANL. The concept uses recycled light water reactor (LWR)-discharge-transuranic extracted from irradiated oxide fuel in a critical and sub-critical accelerator driven gas-cooled transmuter. In this concept, the transmuter operates at 600 MWt first in the critical mode for three cycles and then operates in a subcritical accelerator-driven mode for a single cycle. The transmuter contains both thermal and fast spectrum transmutation zones. The thermal zone is fueled with the TRU oxide material in the form of coated particles, which are mixed with graphite powder, packed into cylindrical compacts, and loaded in hexagonal graphite blocks with cylindrical channels; the fast zone is fueled with TRU-oxide material in the form of coated particles without the graphite powder and the graphite blocks that has been burned in the thermal region for three …

Different stable elements, and some natural and man-made radionuclides, were used as tracers or associated in other ways with nuclear devices that were detonated at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls as part of the U.S. nuclear testing program from 1946 through 1958. The question has been raised whether any of these materials dispersed by the explosions could be of sufficient concentration in either the marine environment or on the coral islands to be of a health concern to people living, or planning to live, on the atolls. This report addresses that concern. An inventory of the materials involved during the test period was prepared and provided to us by the Office of Defense Programs (DP) of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The materials that the DOE and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) ask to be evaluated are--sulfur, arsenic, yttrium, tantalum, gold, rhodium, indium, tungsten, thallium, thorium-230,232 ({sup 230,232}Th), uranium-233,238 ({sup 233,238}U), polonium-210 ({sup 210}Po), curium-232 ({sup 232}Cu), and americium-241 ({sup 241}Am). The stable elements were used primarily as tracers for determining neutron energy and flux, and for other diagnostic purposes in the larger yield, multistage devices. It is reasonable to assume that these materials would be distributed …

An assessment of the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES) program with guidance for future program strategy. The overall objective of this study is to prepare an independent assessment of the scientific quality of the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences program at the Department of Energy. The Fusion Science Assessment Committee (FuSAC) has been appointed to conduct this study.

Monthly newsletter discussing news and activities related to the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, articles about weather and atmospheric phenomena, and other related topics.

Authentication is how we establish trust in monitoring systems and measurements to verify compliance with, for example, the storage of nuclear weapons material. Authentication helps assure the monitoring party that accurate and reliable information is provided by any measurement system and that any irregularities are detected. The U.S. is developing its point of view on the procedures for authentication of monitoring systems now planned or contemplated for arms reduction and control applications. The authentication of a system utilizes a set of approaches, including: functional testing using trusted calibration sources, evaluation of documentation, evaluation of software, evaluation of hardware, random selection of hardware and software, tamper-indicating devices, and operational procedures. Authentication of measurement systems should occur throughout their lifecycles, starting with the elements of design, and moving to off-site authentication, on-siste authentication, and continuing with authentication following repair. The most important of these is the initial design of systems. Hardware and software design criteria and procurement decisions can make future authentication relatively straightforward or conversely very difficult. Facility decisions can likewise ease the procedures for authentication since reliable and effective monitoring systems and tampering indicating devices can help provide the assurance needed in the integrity of such items as measurement systems, …