The assessment of water vapour and carbon dioxide fluxes above arable crops - a comparison of methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schaaf, S.; Daemmgen, U.; Burkart, S. [Federal Agricultural Research Centre, Inst. of Agroecology, Braunschweig (Germany); Gruenhage, L. [Justus-Liebig-Univ., Inst. for Plant Ecology, Giessen (Germany)

2005-04-01

Vertical fluxes of water vapour and carbon dioxide obtained from gradient, eddy covariance (closed and open path systems) and chamber measurements above arable crops were compared with the directly measured energy balance and the harvested net biomass carbon. The gradient and chamber measurements were in the correct order of magnitude, whereas the closed path eddy covariance system showed unacceptably small fluxes. Correction methods based on power spectra analysis yielded increased fluxes. However, the energy balance could not be closed satisfactorily. The application of the open path system proved to be successful. The SVAT model PLATIN which had been adapted to various arable crops was able to depict the components of the energy balance adequately. Net carbon fluxes determined with the corrected closed path data sets, chamber, and SVAT model equal those of the harvested carbon. (orig.)

Block-conjugate-gradient method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCarthy, J.F.

1989-01-01

It is shown that by using the block-conjugate-gradient method several, say s, columns of the inverse Kogut-Susskind fermion matrix can be found simultaneously, in less time than it would take to run the standard conjugate-gradient algorithm s times. The method improves in efficiency relative to the standard conjugate-gradient algorithm as the fermion mass is decreased and as the value of the coupling is pushed to its limit before the finite-size effects become important. Thus it is potentially useful for measuring propagators in large lattice-gauge-theory calculations of the particle spectrum

Comparison of preconditioned generalized conjugate gradient methods to two-dimensional neutron and photon transport equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, G.S.; Yang, D.Y.

1998-01-01

We apply and compare the preconditioned generalized conjugate gradient methods to solve the linear system equation that arises in the two-dimensional neutron and photon transport equation in this paper. Several subroutines are developed on the basis of preconditioned generalized conjugate gradient methods for time-independent, two-dimensional neutron and photon transport equation in the transport theory. These generalized conjugate gradient methods are used: TFQMR (transpose free quasi-minimal residual algorithm) CGS (conjugate gradient square algorithm), Bi-CGSTAB (bi-conjugate gradient stabilized algorithm) and QMRCGSTAB (quasi-minimal residual variant of bi-conjugate gradient stabilized algorithm). These subroutines are connected to computer program DORT. Several problems are tested on a personal computer with Intel Pentium CPU. The reasons to choose the generalized conjugate gradient methods are that the methods have better residual (equivalent to error) control procedures in the computation and have better convergent rate. The pointwise incomplete LU factorization ILU, modified pointwise incomplete LU factorization MILU, block incomplete factorization BILU and modified blockwise incomplete LU factorization MBILU are the preconditioning techniques used in the several testing problems. In Bi-CGSTAB, CGS, TFQMR and QMRCGSTAB method, we find that either CGS or Bi-CGSTAB method combined with preconditioner MBILU is the most efficient algorithm in these methods in the several testing problems. The numerical solution of flux by preconditioned CGS and Bi-CGSTAB methods has the same result as those from Cray computer, obtained by either the point successive relaxation method or the line successive relaxation method combined with Gaussian elimination

Field comparison of an eddy accumulation and an aerodynamic-gradient system for measuring pesticide volatilization fluxes

Science.gov (United States)

Majewski, M.; Desjardina, R.; Rochette, P.; Pattey, E.; Selber, J.; Glotfelty, D.

1993-01-01

The field experiment reported here applied the relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) technique to the measurement of triallate (TA) and trifluralin (TF) volatilization from fallow soil. A critical analysis of the REA system used in this experiment is done, and the fluxes are compared to those obtained by the aerodynamic-gradient (AG) technique. The measured cumulative volatilization losses, corrected for the effective upwind source area (footprint), for the AG system were higher than with the REA system. The differences between the methods over the first 5 days of the experiment were 27 and 13% for TA and TF, respectively. A mass balance based on the amount of parent compounds volatilized from soil during the first 5 days of the experiment showed a 110 and 70% and a 79 and 61% accountability for triallate and trifluralin by the AG and REA methods, respectively. These results also show that the non-footprint-corrected AG flux values underestimated the volatilization flux by approximately 16%. The footprint correction model used in this experiment does not presently have the capability of accounting for changes in atmospheric stability. However, these values still provide an indication of the most likely upwind area affecting the evaporative flux estimations. The soil half-lives for triallate and trifluralin were 9.8 and 7.0 days, respectively. ?? 1992 American Chemical Society.

Dai-Kou type conjugate gradient methods with a line search only using gradient.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Yuanyuan; Liu, Changhe

2017-01-01

In this paper, the Dai-Kou type conjugate gradient methods are developed to solve the optimality condition of an unconstrained optimization, they only utilize gradient information and have broader application scope. Under suitable conditions, the developed methods are globally convergent. Numerical tests and comparisons with the PRP+ conjugate gradient method only using gradient show that the methods are efficient.

Dependence of trapped-flux-induced surface resistance of a large-grain Nb superconducting radio-frequency cavity on spatial temperature gradient during cooldown through Tc

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Shichun; Kubo, Takayuki; Geng, R. L.

2016-08-01

Recent studies by Romanenko et al. revealed that cooling down a superconducting cavity under a large spatial temperature gradient decreases the amount of trapped flux and leads to reduction of the residual surface resistance. In the present paper, the flux expulsion ratio and the trapped-flux-induced surface resistance of a large-grain cavity cooled down under a spatial temperature gradient up to 80 K /m are studied under various applied magnetic fields from 5 to 20 μ T . We show the flux expulsion ratio improves as the spatial temperature gradient increases, independent of the applied magnetic field: our results support and enforce the previous studies. We then analyze all rf measurement results obtained under different applied magnetic fields together by plotting the trapped-flux-induced surface resistance normalized by the applied magnetic field as a function of the spatial temperature gradient. All the data can be fitted by a single curve, which defines an empirical formula for the trapped-flux-induced surface resistance as a function of the spatial temperature gradient and applied magnetic field. The formula can fit not only the present results but also those obtained by Romanenko et al. previously. The sensitivity rfl of surface resistance from trapped magnetic flux of fine-grain and large-grain niobium cavities and the origin of d T /d s dependence of Rfl/Ba are also discussed.

Estimation of aerosol plutonium transport by the dust-flux method: a perspective on application of detailed data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shinn, J.H.

1976-01-01

Two methods of dust-flux measurements are discussed which have been utilized to estimate aerosol plutonium deposition and resuspension. In previous studies the methods were found to be sufficiently detailed to permit parameterization of dust-flux to the erodibility of the soil, and a seventh-power dependency of dust-flux (or plutonium flux) to wind speed was observed in worst case conditions. The eddy-correlation method is technically more difficult, requires high-speed data acquisition, and requires an instrument response time better than one second, but the eddy-correlation method has been shown feasible with new fast-response sensors, and it is more useful in limited areas because it can be used as a probe. The flux-gradient method is limited by critical assumptions and is more bulky, but the method is more commonly used and accepted. The best approach is to use both methods simultaneously. It is suggested that several questions should be investigated by the methods, such as saltation stimulation of dust-flux, simultaneous suspension and deposition, foliar deposition and trapping, erodibility of crusted surfaces, and horizontally heterogeneous erodibility

STOCHASTIC GRADIENT METHODS FOR UNCONSTRAINED OPTIMIZATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nataša Krejić

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This papers presents an overview of gradient based methods for minimization of noisy functions. It is assumed that the objective functions is either given with error terms of stochastic nature or given as the mathematical expectation. Such problems arise in the context of simulation based optimization. The focus of this presentation is on the gradient based Stochastic Approximation and Sample Average Approximation methods. The concept of stochastic gradient approximation of the true gradient can be successfully extended to deterministic problems. Methods of this kind are presented for the data fitting and machine learning problems.

Soil trace gas fluxes along orthogonal precipitation and soil fertility gradients in tropical lowland forests of Panama

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. L. Matson

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Tropical lowland forest soils are significant sources and sinks of trace gases. In order to model soil trace gas flux for future climate scenarios, it is necessary to be able to predict changes in soil trace gas fluxes along natural gradients of soil fertility and climatic characteristics. We quantified trace gas fluxes in lowland forest soils at five locations in Panama, which encompassed orthogonal precipitation and soil fertility gradients. Soil trace gas fluxes were measured monthly for 1 (NO or 2 (CO2, CH4, N2O years (2010–2012 using vented dynamic (for NO only or static chambers with permanent bases. Across the five sites, annual fluxes ranged from 8.0 to 10.2 Mg CO2-C, −2.0 to −0.3 kg CH4-C, 0.4 to 1.3 kg N2O-N and −0.82 to −0.03 kg NO-N ha−1 yr−1. Soil CO2 emissions did not differ across sites, but they did exhibit clear seasonal differences and a parabolic pattern with soil moisture across sites. All sites were CH4 sinks; within-site fluxes were largely controlled by soil moisture, whereas fluxes across sites were positively correlated with an integrated index of soil fertility. Soil N2O fluxes were low throughout the measurement years, but the highest emissions occurred at a mid-precipitation site with high soil N availability. Net negative NO fluxes at the soil surface occurred at all sites, with the most negative fluxes at the low-precipitation site closest to Panama City; this was likely due to high ambient NO concentrations from anthropogenic sources. Our study highlights the importance of both short-term (climatic and long-term (soil and site characteristics factors in predicting soil trace gas fluxes.

An Improved Local Gradient Method for Sea Surface Wind Direction Retrieval from SAR Imagery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lizhang Zhou

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Sea surface wind affects the fluxes of energy, mass and momentum between the atmosphere and ocean, and therefore regional and global weather and climate. With various satellite microwave sensors, sea surface wind can be measured with large spatial coverage in almost all-weather conditions, day or night. Like any other remote sensing measurements, sea surface wind measurement is also indirect. Therefore, it is important to develop appropriate wind speed and direction retrieval models for different types of microwave instruments. In this paper, a new sea surface wind direction retrieval method from synthetic aperture radar (SAR imagery is developed. In the method, local gradients are computed in frequency domain by combining the operation of smoothing and computing local gradients in one step to simplify the process and avoid the difference approximation. This improved local gradients (ILG method is compared with the traditional two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (2D FFT method and local gradients (LG method, using interpolating wind directions from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF reanalysis data and the Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform (CCMP wind vector product. The sensitivities to the salt-and-pepper noise, the additive noise and the multiplicative noise are analyzed. The ILG method shows a better performance of retrieval wind directions than the other two methods.

Fission track dating method: I. Study of neutron flux uniformity in some irradiation positions of IEA-R1 reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Osorio, A.M.; Hadler, J.C.; Iunes, P.J.; Paulo, S.R. de

1993-06-01

In order to use the fission track dating method the flux gradient was verified within the sample holder, in some irradiation positions of the IEA-R1 reactor at IPEN/CNEN, Sao Paulo. The fission track dating method considers only the thermal neutron fission tracks, to subtract the other contributions sample irradiations with a cadmium cover was performed. The neutron flux cadmium influence was studied. (author)

Dependence of trapped-flux-induced surface resistance of a large-grain Nb superconducting radio-frequency cavity on spatial temperature gradient during cooldown through T_{c}

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shichun Huang

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Recent studies by Romanenko et al. revealed that cooling down a superconducting cavity under a large spatial temperature gradient decreases the amount of trapped flux and leads to reduction of the residual surface resistance. In the present paper, the flux expulsion ratio and the trapped-flux-induced surface resistance of a large-grain cavity cooled down under a spatial temperature gradient up to 80  K/m are studied under various applied magnetic fields from 5 to 20  μT. We show the flux expulsion ratio improves as the spatial temperature gradient increases, independent of the applied magnetic field: our results support and enforce the previous studies. We then analyze all rf measurement results obtained under different applied magnetic fields together by plotting the trapped-flux-induced surface resistance normalized by the applied magnetic field as a function of the spatial temperature gradient. All the data can be fitted by a single curve, which defines an empirical formula for the trapped-flux-induced surface resistance as a function of the spatial temperature gradient and applied magnetic field. The formula can fit not only the present results but also those obtained by Romanenko et al. previously. The sensitivity r_{fl} of surface resistance from trapped magnetic flux of fine-grain and large-grain niobium cavities and the origin of dT/ds dependence of R_{fl}/B_{a} are also discussed.

Effect of stable-density stratification on counter gradient flux of a homogeneous shear flow

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lida, Oaki; Nagano, Yasutaka [Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokiso-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya (Japan). Department of Mechanical Engineering

2007-01-15

We performed direct numerical simulations of homogeneous shear flow under stable-density stratification to study the buoyancy effects on the heat and momentum transfer. These numerical data were compared with those of a turbulent channel flow to investigate the similarity between the near-wall turbulence and the homogeneous shear flow. We also investigated the generation mechanism of the persistent CGFs (counter gradient fluxes) appearing at the higher wavenumbers of the cospectrum, and lasting over a long time without oscillation. Spatially, the persistent CGFs are associated with the longitudinal vortical structure, which is elongated in the streamwise direction and typically observed in both homogeneous shear flow and near-wall turbulence. The CGFs appear at both the top and bottom of this longitudinal vortical structure, and expand horizontally with an increase in the Richardson number. It was found that the production and turbulent-diffusion terms are responsible for the distribution of the Reynolds shear stress including the persistent CGFs. The buoyancy term, combined with the swirling motion of the vortex, contributes to expand the persistent CGF regions and decrease the down gradient fluxes. (author)

Large Airborne Full Tensor Gradient Data Inversion Based on a Non-Monotone Gradient Method

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Yong; Meng, Zhaohai; Li, Fengting

2018-03-01

Following the development of gravity gradiometer instrument technology, the full tensor gravity (FTG) data can be acquired on airborne and marine platforms. Large-scale geophysical data can be obtained using these methods, making such data sets a number of the "big data" category. Therefore, a fast and effective inversion method is developed to solve the large-scale FTG data inversion problem. Many algorithms are available to accelerate the FTG data inversion, such as conjugate gradient method. However, the conventional conjugate gradient method takes a long time to complete data processing. Thus, a fast and effective iterative algorithm is necessary to improve the utilization of FTG data. Generally, inversion processing is formulated by incorporating regularizing constraints, followed by the introduction of a non-monotone gradient-descent method to accelerate the convergence rate of FTG data inversion. Compared with the conventional gradient method, the steepest descent gradient algorithm, and the conjugate gradient algorithm, there are clear advantages of the non-monotone iterative gradient-descent algorithm. Simulated and field FTG data were applied to show the application value of this new fast inversion method.

Nonlinear conjugate gradient methods in micromagnetics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Fischbacher

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Conjugate gradient methods for energy minimization in micromagnetics are compared. The comparison of analytic results with numerical simulation shows that standard conjugate gradient method may fail to produce correct results. A method that restricts the step length in the line search is introduced, in order to avoid this problem. When the step length in the line search is controlled, conjugate gradient techniques are a fast and reliable way to compute the hysteresis properties of permanent magnets. The method is applied to investigate demagnetizing effects in NdFe12 based permanent magnets. The reduction of the coercive field by demagnetizing effects is μ0ΔH = 1.4 T at 450 K.

The effects of sea surface temperature gradients on surface turbulent fluxes

Science.gov (United States)

Steffen, John

A positive correlation between sea surface temperature (SST) and wind stress perturbation near strong SST gradients (DeltaSST) has been observed in different parts of the world ocean, such as the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic and the Kuroshio Extension east of Japan. These changes in winds and SSTs can modify near-surface stability, surface stress, and latent and sensible heat fluxes. In general, these small scale processes are poorly modeled in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and climate models. Failure to account for these air--sea interactions produces inaccurate values of turbulent fluxes, and therefore a misrepresentation of the energy, moisture, and momentum budgets. Our goal is to determine the change in these surface turbulent fluxes due to overlooking the correlated variability in winds, SSTs, and related variables. To model these air--sea interactions, a flux model was forced with and without SST--induced changes to the surface wind fields. The SST modification to the wind fields is based on a baroclinic argument as implemented by the University of Washington Planetary Boundary-Layer (UWPBL) model. Other input parameters include 2-m air temperature, 2-m dew point temperature, surface pressure (all from ERA--interim), and Reynolds Daily Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST). Flux model runs are performed every 6 hours starting in December 2002 and ending in November 2003. From these model outputs, seasonal, monthly, and daily means of the difference between DeltaSST and no DeltaSST effects on sensible heat flux (SHF), latent heat flux (LHF), and surface stress are calculated. Since the greatest impacts occur during the winter season, six additional December-January-February (DJF) seasons were analyzed for 1987--1990 and 1999--2002. The greatest differences in surface turbulent fluxes are concentrated near strong SST fronts associated with the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio Extension. On average, 2002---2003 DJF seasonal differences in SHF

Modified conjugate gradient method for diagonalizing large matrices.

Science.gov (United States)

Jie, Quanlin; Liu, Dunhuan

2003-11-01

We present an iterative method to diagonalize large matrices. The basic idea is the same as the conjugate gradient (CG) method, i.e, minimizing the Rayleigh quotient via its gradient and avoiding reintroducing errors to the directions of previous gradients. Each iteration step is to find lowest eigenvector of the matrix in a subspace spanned by the current trial vector and the corresponding gradient of the Rayleigh quotient, as well as some previous trial vectors. The gradient, together with the previous trial vectors, play a similar role as the conjugate gradient of the original CG algorithm. Our numeric tests indicate that this method converges significantly faster than the original CG method. And the computational cost of one iteration step is about the same as the original CG method. It is suitable for first principle calculations.

Approximate error conjugation gradient minimization methods

Science.gov (United States)

Kallman, Jeffrey S

2013-05-21

In one embodiment, a method includes selecting a subset of rays from a set of all rays to use in an error calculation for a constrained conjugate gradient minimization problem, calculating an approximate error using the subset of rays, and calculating a minimum in a conjugate gradient direction based on the approximate error. In another embodiment, a system includes a processor for executing logic, logic for selecting a subset of rays from a set of all rays to use in an error calculation for a constrained conjugate gradient minimization problem, logic for calculating an approximate error using the subset of rays, and logic for calculating a minimum in a conjugate gradient direction based on the approximate error. In other embodiments, computer program products, methods, and systems are described capable of using approximate error in constrained conjugate gradient minimization problems.

Preconditioning the modified conjugate gradient method ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this paper, the convergence analysis of the conventional conjugate Gradient method was reviewed. And the convergence analysis of the modified conjugate Gradient method was analysed with our extension on preconditioning the algorithm. Convergence of the algorithm is a function of the condition number of M-1A.

Collisional transport in a plasma with steep gradients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, W.; Okamoto, M.; Nakajima, N.; Murakami, S.

1999-06-01

The validity is given to the newly proposed two δf method for neoclassical transport calculation, which can be solve the drift kinetic equation considering effects of steep plasma gradients, large radial electric field, finite banana width, and an orbit topology near the axis. The new method is applied to the study of ion transport with steep plasma gradients. It is found that the ion thermal diffusivity decreases as the scale length of density gradient decreases, while the ion particle flux due to ion-ion self collisions increases with increasing gradient. (author)

Sea-to-air flux of dimethyl sulfide in the South and North Pacific Ocean as measured by proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry coupled with the gradient flux technique

Science.gov (United States)

Omori, Yuko; Tanimoto, Hiroshi; Inomata, Satoshi; Ikeda, Kohei; Iwata, Toru; Kameyama, Sohiko; Uematsu, Mitsuo; Gamo, Toshitaka; Ogawa, Hiroshi; Furuya, Ken

2017-07-01

Exchange of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) between the surface ocean and the lower atmosphere was examined by using proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry coupled with the gradient flux (PTR-MS/GF) system. We deployed the PTR-MS/GF system and observed vertical gradients of atmospheric DMS just above the sea surface in the subtropical and transitional South Pacific Ocean and the subarctic North Pacific Ocean. In total, we obtained 370 in situ profiles, and of these we used 46 data sets to calculate the sea-to-air flux of DMS. The DMS flux determined was in the range from 1.9 to 31 μmol m-2 d-1 and increased with wind speed and biological activity, in reasonable accordance with previous observations in the open ocean. The gas transfer velocity of DMS derived from the PTR-MS/GF measurements was similar to either that of DMS determined by the eddy covariance technique or that of insoluble gases derived from the dual tracer experiments, depending on the observation sites located in different geographic regions. When atmospheric conditions were strongly stable during the daytime in the subtropical ocean, the PTR-MS/GF observations captured a daytime versus nighttime difference in DMS mixing ratios in the surface air overlying the ocean surface. The difference was mainly due to the sea-to-air DMS emissions and stable atmospheric conditions, thus affecting the gradient of DMS. This indicates that the DMS gradient is strongly controlled by diurnal variations in the vertical structure of the lower atmosphere above the ocean surface.

A method for easily customizable gradient gel electrophoresis.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Andrew J; Roman, Brandon; Norstrom, Eric

2016-09-15

Gradient polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis is a powerful tool for the resolution of polypeptides by relative mobility. Here, we present a simplified method for generating polyacrylamide gradient gels for routine analysis without the need for specialized mixing equipment. The method allows for easily customizable gradients which can be optimized for specific polypeptide resolution requirements. Moreover, the method eliminates the possibility of buffer cross contamination in mixing equipment, and the time and resources saved with this method in place of traditional gradient mixing, or the purchase of pre-cast gels, are noteworthy given the frequency with which many labs use gradient gel SDS-PAGE. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Average electron content gradients and nighttime electron fluxes in the mid-latitude ionosphere

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebel, A.; Schmidt, G.; Tauriainen, A.

1976-01-01

Observations of the total electron content (TEC) made at Lindau (52 0 N, 10 0 E) by means of low orbiting satellites during the period March 1970 to December 1972 enabled evaluation of the meridional component of the TEC gradient over the station. The behaviour of this component is investigated in connection with the temporal TEC changes using the medians of both quantities. The gradient reflects well known seasonal changes in the ionosphere such as the semiannual anomaly around noon which leads to relatively strong TEC increases towards the south (up to 9 x 10 15 m -2 degree -1 ). For the time shortly after midnight, a second semiannual variation of the gradient shows up with enhanced southward TEC increases. Regular northward ionization increases are found near sunrise in summer. Average TEC increases or markedly reduced decreases during the night were obtained for almost every month during the observation period. This special phenomenon of the nighttime ionosphere is discussed with respect to maximum input fluxes of different kinds, which would be necessary to produce the observed effects. Under normal nighttime conditions, the TEC gradients can lead to changes in the ionization of up to 3 x 10 12 m -2 s -1 due to horizontal plasma transport, when electric fields of reasonable strength (approximately 2 mV/m) are present. (author)

Regularized variable metric method versus the conjugate gradient method in solution of radiative boundary design problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kowsary, F.; Pooladvand, K.; Pourshaghaghy, A.

2007-01-01

In this paper, an appropriate distribution of the heating elements' strengths in a radiation furnace is estimated using inverse methods so that a pre-specified temperature and heat flux distribution is attained on the design surface. Minimization of the sum of the squares of the error function is performed using the variable metric method (VMM), and the results are compared with those obtained by the conjugate gradient method (CGM) established previously in the literature. It is shown via test cases and a well-founded validation procedure that the VMM, when using a 'regularized' estimator, is more accurate and is able to reach at a higher quality final solution as compared to the CGM. The test cases used in this study were two-dimensional furnaces filled with an absorbing, emitting, and scattering gas

Comparison of genetic algorithms with conjugate gradient methods

Science.gov (United States)

Bosworth, J. L.; Foo, N. Y.; Zeigler, B. P.

1972-01-01

Genetic algorithms for mathematical function optimization are modeled on search strategies employed in natural adaptation. Comparisons of genetic algorithms with conjugate gradient methods, which were made on an IBM 1800 digital computer, show that genetic algorithms display superior performance over gradient methods for functions which are poorly behaved mathematically, for multimodal functions, and for functions obscured by additive random noise. Genetic methods offer performance comparable to gradient methods for many of the standard functions.

Electron thermal energy transport research based on dynamical relationship between heat flux and temperature gradient

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Notake, Takashi; Inagaki, Shigeru; Tamura, Naoki

2008-01-01

In the nuclear fusion plasmas, both of thermal energy and particle transport governed by turbulent flow are anomalously enhanced more than neoclassical levels. Thus, to clarify a relationship between the turbulent flow and the anomalous transports has been the most worthwhile work. There are experimental results that the turbulent flow induces various phenomena on transport processes such as non-linearity, transition, hysteresis, multi-branches and non-locality. We are approaching these complicated problems by analyzing not conventional power balance but these phenomena directly. They are recognized as dynamical trajectories in the flux and gradient space and must be a clue to comprehend a physical mechanism of arcane anomalous transport. Especially, to elucidate the mechanism for electron thermal energy transport is critical in the fusion plasma researches because the burning plasmas will be sustained by alpha-particle heating. In large helical device, the dynamical relationships between electron thermal energy fluxes and electron temperature gradients are investigated by using modulated electron cyclotron resonance heating and modern electron cyclotron emission diagnostic systems. Some trajectories such as hysteresis loop or line segments with steep slope which represent non-linear property are observed in the experiment. (author)

Modeling chemical gradients in sediments under losing and gaining flow conditions: The GRADIENT code

Science.gov (United States)

Boano, Fulvio; De Falco, Natalie; Arnon, Shai

2018-02-01

Interfaces between sediments and water bodies often represent biochemical hotspots for nutrient reactions and are characterized by steep concentration gradients of different reactive solutes. Vertical profiles of these concentrations are routinely collected to obtain information on nutrient dynamics, and simple codes have been developed to analyze these profiles and determine the magnitude and distribution of reaction rates within sediments. However, existing publicly available codes do not consider the potential contribution of water flow in the sediments to nutrient transport, and their applications to field sites with significant water-borne nutrient fluxes may lead to large errors in the estimated reaction rates. To fill this gap, the present work presents GRADIENT, a novel algorithm to evaluate distributions of reaction rates from observed concentration profiles. GRADIENT is a Matlab code that extends a previously published framework to include the role of nutrient advection, and provides robust estimates of reaction rates in sediments with significant water flow. This work discusses the theoretical basis of the method and shows its performance by comparing the results to a series of synthetic data and to laboratory experiments. The results clearly show that in systems with losing or gaining fluxes, the inclusion of such fluxes is critical for estimating local and overall reaction rates in sediments.

A new method for mapping variability in vertical seepage flux in streambeds

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xunhong; Song, Jinxi; Cheng, Cheng; Wang, Deming; Lackey, Susan O.

2009-05-01

A two-step approach was used to measure the flux across the water-sediment interface in river channels. A hollow tube was pressed into the streambed and an in situ sediment column of the streambed was created inside the tube. The hydraulic gradient between the two ends of the sediment column was measured. The vertical hydraulic conductivity of the sediment column was determined using a falling-head permeameter test in the river. Given the availability of the hydraulic gradient and vertical hydraulic conductivity of the streambed, Darcy’s law was used to calculate the specific discharge. This approach was applied to the Elkhorn River and one tributary in northeastern Nebraska, USA. The results suggest that the magnitude of the vertical flux varied greatly within a short distance. Furthermore, the flux can change direction from downward to upward between two locations only several meters apart. This spatial pattern of variation probably represents the inflow and outflow within the hyporheic zone, not the regional ambient flow systems. In this study, a thermal infrared camera was also used to detect the discharge locations of groundwater in the streambed. After the hydraulic gradient and the vertical hydraulic conductivity were estimated from the groundwater spring, the discharge rate was calculated.

Measurement of the dry deposition flux of NH3 on to coniferous forest

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duyzer, J.H.; Verhagen, H.L.M.; Weststrate, J.H.; Bosveld, F.C.

1992-01-01

The dry deposition flux of NH3 to coniferous forest was determined by the micrometeorological gradient method using a 36m high tower. Aerodynamic characteristics of the site were studied, using a second tower erected in the forest 100m from the first. Fluxes and gradients of heat and momentum

Methane fluxes along a salinity gradient on a restored salt marsh, Harpswell, ME

Science.gov (United States)

Gunn, Cailene; Johnson, Beverly, ,, Dr.; Dostie, Phil; Bohlen, Curtis; Craig, Matthew

2016-04-01

This study functions as a pilot project to understand the relationship between salinity and methane emissions on a recently restored salt marsh in Casco Bay, Maine. Salt marshes are dynamic and highly productive ecosystems that provide a multitude of ecosystem services including nutrient filtration, storm-water buffering and carbon sequestration. These ecosystems are highly susceptible to anthropogenic alteration. The emplacement of causeways and narrow culverts, restricts tidal flow and leads to loss of healthy salinity gradients. Consequently, numerous salt marshes have experienced increases in freshwater vegetation growth as a result of coastal population expansion. Recent restoration efforts on Long Marsh, Harpswell, ME replaced a severely undersized culvert with a larger one in February, 2014. The salinity gradient has since been restored along much of the marsh, and freshwater vegetation that encroached on the marsh platform has died back. Vegetation and salinity are key indicators and drivers of CH4 emissions on salt marshes. Using static gas chambers, we quantified CH4 fluxes along two transects at five diverse sites ranging from healthy marsh (salinity of 27 to 31 psu) with Spartina vegetation, to regions invaded by Typha and other freshwater vegetation (salinity of 0 to 4 psu). Sampling was executed in the months of July, August and October. CH4 concentrations were determined using a gas chromatograph with a flame-ionization detector. Preliminary findings suggest reintroduction of healthy tidal flows into the marsh inhibits CH4 production, where the lowest fluxes with least variability were observed at the most saline sites with Spartina vegetation. The largest range of CH4 fluxes exhibited emissions from 0.75 μmol CH4/m2/hr to 518.4 μmol CH4/m2/hr at the Typha dominated sites from July to October. Fluxes at the saltwater and brackish regions were far less variable with ranges from 0.94 μmol CH4/m2/hr to 8.2 μmol CH4/m2/hr and 2.6 to 9.5 μmol CH4/m2

Application of the Galerkin's method to the solution of the one-dimensional integral transport equation: generalized collision probabilities taken in account the flux gradient and the linearly anisotropic scattering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanchez, Richard.

1975-04-01

For the one-dimensional geometries, the transport equation with linearly anisotropic scattering can be reduced to a single integral equation; this is a singular-kernel FREDHOLM equation of the second kind. When applying a conventional projective method that of GALERKIN, to the solution of this equation the well-known collision probability algorithm is obtained. Piecewise polynomial expansions are used to represent the flux. In the ANILINE code, the flux is supposed to be linear in plane geometry and parabolic in both cylindrical and spherical geometries. An integral relationship was found between the one-dimensional isotropic and anisotropic kernels; this allows to reduce the new matrix elements (issuing from the anisotropic kernel) to classic collision probabilities of the isotropic scattering equation. For cylindrical and spherical geometries used an approximate representation of the current was used to avoid an additional numerical integration. Reflective boundary conditions were considered; in plane geometry the reflection is supposed specular, for the other geometries the isotropic reflection hypothesis has been adopted. Further, the ANILINE code enables to deal with an incoming isotropic current. Numerous checks were performed in monokinetic theory. Critical radii and albedos were calculated for homogeneous slabs, cylinders and spheres. For heterogeneous media, the thermal utilization factor obtained by this method was compared with the theoretical result based upon a formula by BENOIST. Finally, ANILINE was incorporated into the multigroup APOLLO code, which enabled to analyse the MINERVA experimental reactor in transport theory with 99 groups. The ANILINE method is particularly suited to the treatment of strongly anisotropic media with considerable flux gradients. It is also well adapted to the calculation of reflectors, and in general, to the exact analysis of anisotropic effects in large-sized media [fr

The multigrid preconditioned conjugate gradient method

Science.gov (United States)

Tatebe, Osamu

1993-01-01

A multigrid preconditioned conjugate gradient method (MGCG method), which uses the multigrid method as a preconditioner of the PCG method, is proposed. The multigrid method has inherent high parallelism and improves convergence of long wavelength components, which is important in iterative methods. By using this method as a preconditioner of the PCG method, an efficient method with high parallelism and fast convergence is obtained. First, it is considered a necessary condition of the multigrid preconditioner in order to satisfy requirements of a preconditioner of the PCG method. Next numerical experiments show a behavior of the MGCG method and that the MGCG method is superior to both the ICCG method and the multigrid method in point of fast convergence and high parallelism. This fast convergence is understood in terms of the eigenvalue analysis of the preconditioned matrix. From this observation of the multigrid preconditioner, it is realized that the MGCG method converges in very few iterations and the multigrid preconditioner is a desirable preconditioner of the conjugate gradient method.

Migration of inclusions in solids in stress gradients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Olander, D.R.

1980-01-01

A theoretical method of assessing the influence of stress and temperature gradients on the motion of inclusions in solids is developed. In nonuniform stress fields, the stress distribution on the surface of the cavity must be calculated and transformed to a potential gradient for driving a surface atom flux. The bubble migration velocity is the first Legendre coefficient of the surface flux. Higher order components represent distortion. The stress gradient effect appears only in small-magnitude terms in the surface chemical potential, specifically in the stress effect on the solid atomic volume and in the elastic energy density. The migration velocities of spherical and faceted bubbles in solids are computed and the extent of distortion of a spherical bubble is estimated. The role of vacancy exchange with the bulk solid on the migration velocity is assessed. (author)

Use of Plant Hydraulic Theory to Predict Ecosystem Fluxes Across Mountainous Gradients in Environmental Controls and Insect Disturbances

Science.gov (United States)

Ewers, B. E.; Pendall, E.; Reed, D. E.; Barnard, H. R.; Whitehouse, F.; Frank, J. M.; Massman, W. J.; Brooks, P. D.; Biederman, J. A.; Harpold, A. A.; Naithani, K. J.; Mitra, B.; Mackay, D. S.; Norton, U.; Borkhuu, B.

2011-12-01

While mountainous areas are critical for providing numerous ecosystem benefits at the regional scale, the strong gradients in environmental controls make predictions difficult. A key part of the problem is quantifying and predicting the feedback between mountain gradients and plant function which then controls ecosystem cycling. The emerging theory of plant hydraulics provides a rigorous yet simple platform from which to generate testable hypotheses and predictions of ecosystem pools and fluxes. Plant hydraulic theory predicts that plant controls over carbon, water, energy and nutrient fluxes can be derived from the limitation of plant water transport from the soil through xylem and out of stomata. In addition, the limit to plant water transport can be predicted by combining plant structure (e.g. xylem diameters or root-to-shoot ratios) and plant function (response of stomatal conductance to vapor pressure deficit or root vulnerability to cavitation). We evaluate the predictions of the plant hydraulic theory by testing it against data from a mountain gradient encompassing sagebrush steppe through subalpine forests (2700 to 3400 m). We further test the theory by predicting the carbon, water and nutrient exchanges from several coniferous trees in the same gradient that are dying from xylem dysfunction caused by blue-stain fungi carried by bark beetles. The common theme of both of these data sets is a change in water limitation caused by either changing precipitation along the mountainous gradient or lack of access to soil water from xylem-occluding fungi. Across all of the data sets which range in scale from individual plants to hillslopes, the data fit the predictions of plant hydraulic theory. Namely, there was a proportional tradeoff between the reference canopy stomatal conductance to water vapor and the sensitivity of that conductance to vapor pressure deficit that quantitatively fits the predictions of plant hydraulic theory. Incorporating this result into

Application of the conjugate-gradient method to ground-water models

Science.gov (United States)

Manteuffel, T.A.; Grove, D.B.; Konikow, Leonard F.

1984-01-01

The conjugate-gradient method can solve efficiently and accurately finite-difference approximations to the ground-water flow equation. An aquifer-simulation model using the conjugate-gradient method was applied to a problem of ground-water flow in an alluvial aquifer at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Denver, Colorado. For this application, the accuracy and efficiency of the conjugate-gradient method compared favorably with other available methods for steady-state flow. However, its efficiency relative to other available methods depends on the nature of the specific problem. The main advantage of the conjugate-gradient method is that it does not require the use of iteration parameters, thereby eliminating this partly subjective procedure. (USGS)

Discrete gradient methods for solving variational image regularisation models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grimm, V; McLachlan, Robert I; McLaren, David I; Quispel, G R W; Schönlieb, C-B

2017-01-01

Discrete gradient methods are well-known methods of geometric numerical integration, which preserve the dissipation of gradient systems. In this paper we show that this property of discrete gradient methods can be interesting in the context of variational models for image processing, that is where the processed image is computed as a minimiser of an energy functional. Numerical schemes for computing minimisers of such energies are desired to inherit the dissipative property of the gradient system associated to the energy and consequently guarantee a monotonic decrease of the energy along iterations, avoiding situations in which more computational work might lead to less optimal solutions. Under appropriate smoothness assumptions on the energy functional we prove that discrete gradient methods guarantee a monotonic decrease of the energy towards stationary states, and we promote their use in image processing by exhibiting experiments with convex and non-convex variational models for image deblurring, denoising, and inpainting. (paper)

Gradient-type methods in inverse parabolic problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kabanikhin, Sergey; Penenko, Aleksey

2008-01-01

This article is devoted to gradient-based methods for inverse parabolic problems. In the first part, we present a priori convergence theorems based on the conditional stability estimates for linear inverse problems. These theorems are applied to backwards parabolic problem and sideways parabolic problem. The convergence conditions obtained coincide with sourcewise representability in the self-adjoint backwards parabolic case but they differ in the sideways case. In the second part, a variational approach is formulated for a coefficient identification problem. Using adjoint equations, a formal gradient of an objective functional is constructed. A numerical test illustrates the performance of conjugate gradient algorithm with the formal gradient.

Continuous spray forming of functionally gradient materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McKechnie, T.N.; Richardson, E.H.

1995-01-01

Researchers at Plasma Processes Inc. have produced a Functional Gradient Material (FGM) through advanced vacuum plasma spray processing for high heat flux applications. Outlined in this paper are the manufacturing methods used to develop a four component functional gradient material of copper, tungsten, boron, and boron nitride. The FGM was formed with continuous gradients and integral cooling channels eliminating bondlines and providing direct heat transfer from the high temperature exposed surface to a cooling medium. Metallurgical and x-ray diffraction analyses of the materials formed through innovative VPS (vacuum plasma spray) processing are also presented. Applications for this functional gradient structural material range from fusion reactor plasma facing components to missile nose cones to boilers

Millennial-scale changes in atmospheric CO2 levels linked to the Southern Ocean carbon isotope gradient and dust flux

Science.gov (United States)

Ziegler, Martin; Diz, Paula; Hall, Ian R.; Zahn, Rainer

2013-06-01

The rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations observed at the end of glacial periods has, at least in part, been attributed to the upwelling of carbon-rich deep water in the Southern Ocean. The magnitude of outgassing of dissolved CO2, however, is influenced by the biological fixation of upwelled inorganic carbon and its transfer back to the deep sea as organic carbon. The efficiency of this biological pump is controlled by the extent of nutrient utilization, which can be stimulated by the delivery of iron by atmospheric dust particles. Changes in nutrient utilization should be reflected in the δ13C gradient between intermediate and deep waters. Here we use the δ13C values of intermediate- and bottom-dwelling foraminifera to reconstruct the carbon isotope gradient between thermocline and abyssal water in the subantarctic zone of the South Atlantic Ocean over the past 360,000 years. We find millennial-scale oscillations of the carbon isotope gradient that correspond to changes in dust flux and atmospheric CO2 concentrations as reported from Antarctic ice cores. We interpret this correlation as a relationship between the efficiency of the biological pump and fertilization by dust-borne iron. As the correlation is exponential, we suggest that the sensitivity of the biological pump to dust-borne iron fertilization may be increased when the background dust flux is low.

a Borehole-Dilution Method for Quantifying Vertical Darcy Fluxes in the Hyporheic Zone

Science.gov (United States)

Augustine, S. D.; Annable, M. D.; Cho, J.

2017-12-01

The borehole dilution method has consistently and successfully been used for estimating local water fluxes, however, this method can be relatively labor intensive and expensive. The focus of this research is aimed at developing a low-cost, borehole dilution method for quantifying vertical water fluxes in the hyporheic zone at the surface-groundwater interface. This would allow for the deployment of multiple units within a targeted surface water body and thus produce high-resolution, spatially distributed data on the infiltration rates over a short period of time with minimal set-up requirements. The device consists of a 2-inch, inner diameter PVC pipe containing short, screened sections in its upper and lower segments. The working unit is driven into the sediment and acts as a continuous flow reactor creating a pathway between the subsurface pore-water and the overlying surface water where the presence of a hydraulic gradient facilitates vertical movement. We developed a simple electrode and tracer-injection system housed within the unit to inject and measure salt tracer concentrations at the desired intervals while monitoring and storing those measurements using open-source Arduino technology. Preliminary lab and field scale trials provided data that was fit to both zero and first order reaction rate functions for analysis. The field test was conducted over approximately one day within a wet retention basin. The initial results estimated a vertical Darcy flux of 113.5 cm/d. Additional testing over a range of expected Darcy fluxes will be presented along with an evaluation considering enhanced water flow due to the high hydraulic conductivity of the device.

Minimum weight protection - Gradient method; Protection de poids minimum - Methode du gradient

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Danon, R.

1958-12-15

After having recalled that, when considering a mobile installation, total weight has a crucial importance, and that, in the case of a nuclear reactor, a non neglectable part of weight is that of protection, this note presents an iterative method which results, for a given protection, to a configuration with a minimum weight. After a description of the problem, the author presents the theoretical formulation of the gradient method as it is applied to the concerned case. This application is then discussed, as well as its validity in terms of convergence and uniqueness. Its actual application is then reported, and possibilities of practical applications are evoked.

Flux-induced Nernst effect in low-dimensional superconductors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berger, Jorge

2017-01-01

Highlights: • The Nernst effect tells us that the presence of a magnetic field and a temperature gradient in a conductor yields a transverse voltage. • The Nernst effect in superconductors, especially above their critical temperature, has been a hot topic of research during the last decades. • I predict a new effect in which a transverse voltage arises, not because of the magnetic field, but rather because of the magnetic flux enclosed by a loop with non-uniform temperature. - Abstract: A method is available that enables consistent study of the stochastic behavior of a system that obeys purely diffusive evolution equations. This method has been applied to a superconducting loop with nonuniform temperature, with average temperature close to T_c. It is found that a flux-dependent average potential difference arises along the loop, proportional to the temperature gradient and most pronounced in the direction perpendicular to this gradient. The largest voltages were obtained for fluxes close to 0.3Φ_0, average temperatures slightly below the critical temperature, thermal coherence length of the order of the perimeter of the ring, BCS coherence length that is not negligible in comparison to the thermal coherence length, and short inelastic scattering time. This effect is entirely due to thermal fluctuations. It differs essentially from the usual Nernst effect in bulk superconductors, that is induced by magnetic field rather than by magnetic flux. We also study the effect of confinement in a 2D mesoscopic film.

New Conjugacy Conditions and Related Nonlinear Conjugate Gradient Methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dai, Y.-H.; Liao, L.-Z.

2001-01-01

Conjugate gradient methods are a class of important methods for unconstrained optimization, especially when the dimension is large. This paper proposes a new conjugacy condition, which considers an inexact line search scheme but reduces to the old one if the line search is exact. Based on the new conjugacy condition, two nonlinear conjugate gradient methods are constructed. Convergence analysis for the two methods is provided. Our numerical results show that one of the methods is very efficient for the given test problems

A new method of determining moisture gradient in wood

Science.gov (United States)

Zhiyong Cai

2008-01-01

Moisture gradient in wood and wood composites is one of most important factors that affects both physical stability and mechanical performance. This paper describes a method for measuring moisture gradient in lumber and engineering wood composites as it varies across material thickness. This innovative method employs a collimated radiation beam (x rays or [gamma] rays...

Spherical gradient-index lenses as perfect imaging and maximum power transfer devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, J M

2000-08-01

Gradient-index lenses can be viewed from the perspectives of both imaging and nonimaging optics, that is, in terms of both image fidelity and achievable flux concentration. The simple class of gradient-index lenses with spherical symmetry, often referred to as modified Luneburg lenses, is revisited. An alternative derivation for established solutions is offered; the method of Fermat's strings and the principle of skewness conservation are invoked. Then these nominally perfect imaging devices are examined from the additional vantage point of power transfer, and the degree to which they realize the thermodynamic limit to flux concentration is determined. Finally, the spherical gradient-index lens of the fish eye is considered as a modified Luneburg lens optimized subject to material constraints.

The Role of the Velocity Gradient in Laminar Convective Heat Transfer through a Tube with a Uniform Wall Heat Flux

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Liang-Bi; Zhang, Qiang; Li, Xiao-Xia

2009-01-01

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of convective heat transfer. For this purpose, the reason why thermal diffusivity should be placed before the Laplacian operator of the heat flux, and the role of the velocity gradient in convective heat transfer are analysed. The background to these analyses is that, when the energy…

Microbial and environmental controls of methane fluxes along a soil moisture gradient in a Pacific coastal temperate rainforest

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Jesper Riis; Levy-Booth, David; Prescott, Cindy E.

2016-01-01

, and nutrient availability in three typical forest types across a soil moisture gradient. CH4 displayed a spatial variability changing from a net uptake in the upland soils (3.9–46 µmol CH4 m−2 h−1) to a net emission in the wetter soils (0–90 μmol CH4 m−2 h−1). Seasonal variations of CH4 fluxes were related......Most studies of greenhouse gas fluxes from forest soils in the coastal rainforest have considered carbon dioxide (CO2), whereas methane (CH4) has not received the same attention. Soil hydrology is a key driver of CH4 dynamics in ecosystems, but the impact on the function and distribution...... of the underlying microbial communities involved in CH4 cycling and the resultant net CH4 exchange is not well understood at this scale. We studied the growing season variations of in situ CH4 fluxes, microbial gene abundances of methanotrophs (CH4 oxidizers) and methanogens (CH4 producers), soil hydrology...

Sensors for Metering Heat Flux Area Density and Metrological Equipment for the Heat Flux Density Measurement

Science.gov (United States)

Doronin, D. O.

2018-04-01

The demand in measuring and studies of heat conduction of various media is very urgent now. This article considers the problem of heat conduction monitoring and measurement in various media and materials in any industries and branches of science as well as metrological support of the heat flux measurement equipment. The main study objects are both the sensors manufactured and facilities onto which these sensors will be installed: different cladding structures of the buildings, awnings, rocket fairings, boiler units, internal combustion engines. The Company develops and manufactures different types of heat flux sensors: thermocouple, thin-film, heterogeneous gradient as well as metrological equipment for the gauging calibration of the heat flux density measurement. The calibration shall be performed using both referencing method in the unit and by fixed setting of the heat flux in the unit. To manufacture heterogeneous heat flux gradient sensors (HHFGS) the Company developed and designed a number of units: diffusion welding unit, HHFGS cutting unit. Rather good quality HHFGS prototypes were obtained. At this stage the factory tests on the equipment for the heat flux density measurement equipment are planned. A high-sensitivity heat flux sensor was produced, now it is tested at the Construction Physics Research Institute (Moscow). It became possible to create thin-film heat flux sensors with the sensitivity not worse than that of the sensors manufactured by Captec Company (France). The Company has sufficient premises to supply the market with a wide range of sensors, to master new sensor manufacture technologies which will enable their application range.

Gradient High Performance Liquid Chromatography Method ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Purpose: To develop a gradient high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the simultaneous determination of phenylephrine (PHE) and ibuprofen (IBU) in solid ..... nimesulide, phenylephrine. Hydrochloride, chlorpheniramine maleate and caffeine anhydrous in pharmaceutical dosage form. Acta Pol.

Novel, cyclic heat dissipation method for the correction of natural temperature gradients in sap flow measurements. Part 2. Laboratory validation.

Science.gov (United States)

Reyes-Acosta, J Leonardo; Vandegehuchte, Maurits W; Steppe, Kathy; Lubczynski, Maciek W

2012-07-01

Sap flow measurements conducted with thermal dissipation probes (TDPs) are vulnerable to natural temperature gradient (NTG) bias. Few studies, however, attempted to explain the dynamics underlying the NTG formation and its influence on the sensors' signal. This study focused on understanding how the TDP signals are affected by negative and positive temperature influences from NTG and tested the novel cyclic heat dissipation (CHD) method to filter out the NTG bias. A series of three experiments were performed in which gravity-driven water flow was enforced on freshly cut stem segments of Fagus sylvatica L., while an artificial temperature gradient (ATG) was induced. The first experiment sought to confirm the incidence of the ATG on sensors. The second experiment established the mis-estimations caused by the biasing effect of the ATG on standard TDP measurements. The third experiment tested the accuracy of the CHD method to account for the ATG biasing effect, as compared with other cyclic correction methods. During experiments, sap flow measured by TDP was assessed against gravimetric measurements. The results show that negative and positive ATGs were comparable in pattern but substantially larger than field NTGs. Second, the ATG bias caused an overestimation of the standard TDP sap flux density of ∼17 cm(3) cm(-2) h(-1) by 76%, and the sap flux density of ∼2 cm(3) cm(-2) h(-1) by over 800%. Finally, the proposed CHD method successfully reduced the max. ATG bias to 25% at ∼11 cm(3) cm(-2) h(-1) and to 40% at ∼1 cm(3) cm(-2) h(-1). We concluded that: (i) the TDP method is susceptible to NTG especially at low flows; (ii) the CHD method successfully corrected the TDP signal and resulted in generally more accurate sap flux density estimates (mean absolute percentage error ranging between 11 and 21%) than standard constant power TDP method and other cyclic power methods; and (iii) the ATG enforcing system is a suitable way of re-creating NTG for future tests.

Contrasting Convective Flux Gradients in the U.S. Corn Belt as a Result of Vegetation Land Cover Type

Science.gov (United States)

Hiestand, M.

2017-12-01

Phenological differences between extensive croplands and remnant forests in the U.S. Corn Belt have been suggested as enhancing spatial gradients of latent and sensible heat fluxes that contribute to the distribution and amounts of convective rainfall on mesoscales. However, the exact magnitude of the intra-seasonal variability in convective fluxes between these two land-cover types has yet to be quantified. Previous work suggesting that non-classical mesoscale circulations operate within the Corn Belt has not involved direct flux observations obtained using the eddy flux covariance technique. This study compares five day running means of daily heat fluxes between two Ameriflux towers (US-Bo1 in Illinois and US-MMS in Indiana) representing rain-fed cropland and remnant forest, respectively for the growing seasons of 1999-2008. Latent heat values normalized to the net radiation show higher rates of evapotranspiration at the forested site than over the cropland during the start of the growing season. However, toward the end of the growing season, latent heat fluxes from the forest decrease and the cropland becomes the dominate source of evapotranspiration. Conversely, croplands dominate sensible heat fluxes at the start of the growing season whereas the remnant forests are associated with strong sensible heat fluxes in late summer. These intra-seasonal spatial differences of latent and sensible heat fluxes across the Corn Belt imply differences in moisture pooling that are suggested as enhancing atmospheric convection during favorable synoptic conditions, especially near the boundaries of these two land cover types. Understanding the physical mechanisms by which the spatial distribution of vegetated land cover can generate contrasting latent and sensible heat fluxes will lay the groundwork for improving mesoscale precipitation forecasts in the Corn Belt, and determining the possible impacts of ongoing land-cover and climate changes there.

Gravitational Contribution to the Heat Flux in a Simple Dilute Fluid: An Approach Based on General Relativistic Kinetic Theory to First Order in the Gradients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dominique Brun-Battistini

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Richard C. Tolman analyzed the relation between a temperature gradient and a gravitational field in an equilibrium situation. In 2012, Tolman’s law was generalized to a non-equilibrium situation for a simple dilute relativistic fluid. The result in that scenario, obtained by introducing the gravitational force through the molecular acceleration, couples the heat flux with the metric coefficients and the gradients of the state variables. In the present paper it is shown, by explicitly describing the single particle orbits as geodesics in Boltzmann’s equation, that a gravitational field drives a heat flux in this type of system. The calculation is devoted solely to the gravitational field contribution to this heat flux in which a Newtonian limit to the Schwarzschild metric is assumed. The corresponding transport coefficient, which is obtained within a relaxation approximation, corresponds to the dilute fluid in a weak gravitational field. The effect is negligible in the non-relativistic regime, as evidenced by the direct evaluation of the corresponding limit.

Gradient-based methods for production optimization of oil reservoirs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Suwartadi, Eka

2012-07-01

Production optimization for water flooding in the secondary phase of oil recovery is the main topic in this thesis. The emphasis has been on numerical optimization algorithms, tested on case examples using simple hypothetical oil reservoirs. Gradientbased optimization, which utilizes adjoint-based gradient computation, is used to solve the optimization problems. The first contribution of this thesis is to address output constraint problems. These kinds of constraints are natural in production optimization. Limiting total water production and water cut at producer wells are examples of such constraints. To maintain the feasibility of an optimization solution, a Lagrangian barrier method is proposed to handle the output constraints. This method incorporates the output constraints into the objective function, thus avoiding additional computations for the constraints gradient (Jacobian) which may be detrimental to the efficiency of the adjoint method. The second contribution is the study of the use of second-order adjoint-gradient information for production optimization. In order to speedup convergence rate in the optimization, one usually uses quasi-Newton approaches such as BFGS and SR1 methods. These methods compute an approximation of the inverse of the Hessian matrix given the first-order gradient from the adjoint method. The methods may not give significant speedup if the Hessian is ill-conditioned. We have developed and implemented the Hessian matrix computation using the adjoint method. Due to high computational cost of the Newton method itself, we instead compute the Hessian-timesvector product which is used in a conjugate gradient algorithm. Finally, the last contribution of this thesis is on surrogate optimization for water flooding in the presence of the output constraints. Two kinds of model order reduction techniques are applied to build surrogate models. These are proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and the discrete empirical interpolation method (DEIM

Flux-induced Nernst effect in low-dimensional superconductors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berger, Jorge, E-mail: jorge.berger@braude.ac.il

2017-02-15

Highlights: • The Nernst effect tells us that the presence of a magnetic field and a temperature gradient in a conductor yields a transverse voltage. • The Nernst effect in superconductors, especially above their critical temperature, has been a hot topic of research during the last decades. • I predict a new effect in which a transverse voltage arises, not because of the magnetic field, but rather because of the magnetic flux enclosed by a loop with non-uniform temperature. - Abstract: A method is available that enables consistent study of the stochastic behavior of a system that obeys purely diffusive evolution equations. This method has been applied to a superconducting loop with nonuniform temperature, with average temperature close to T{sub c}. It is found that a flux-dependent average potential difference arises along the loop, proportional to the temperature gradient and most pronounced in the direction perpendicular to this gradient. The largest voltages were obtained for fluxes close to 0.3Φ{sub 0}, average temperatures slightly below the critical temperature, thermal coherence length of the order of the perimeter of the ring, BCS coherence length that is not negligible in comparison to the thermal coherence length, and short inelastic scattering time. This effect is entirely due to thermal fluctuations. It differs essentially from the usual Nernst effect in bulk superconductors, that is induced by magnetic field rather than by magnetic flux. We also study the effect of confinement in a 2D mesoscopic film.

Several Guaranteed Descent Conjugate Gradient Methods for Unconstrained Optimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

San-Yang Liu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates a general form of guaranteed descent conjugate gradient methods which satisfies the descent condition gkTdk≤-1-1/4θkgk2  θk>1/4 and which is strongly convergent whenever the weak Wolfe line search is fulfilled. Moreover, we present several specific guaranteed descent conjugate gradient methods and give their numerical results for large-scale unconstrained optimization.

M-step preconditioned conjugate gradient methods

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, L.

1983-01-01

Preconditioned conjugate gradient methods for solving sparse symmetric and positive finite systems of linear equations are described. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for when these preconditioners can be used and an analysis of their effectiveness is given. Efficient computer implementations of these methods are discussed and results on the CYBER 203 and the Finite Element Machine under construction at NASA Langley Research Center are included.

Accelerated gradient methods for total-variation-based CT image reconstruction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Joergensen, Jakob H.; Hansen, Per Christian [Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark). Dept. of Informatics and Mathematical Modeling; Jensen, Tobias L.; Jensen, Soeren H. [Aalborg Univ. (Denmark). Dept. of Electronic Systems; Sidky, Emil Y.; Pan, Xiaochuan [Chicago Univ., Chicago, IL (United States). Dept. of Radiology

2011-07-01

Total-variation (TV)-based CT image reconstruction has shown experimentally to be capable of producing accurate reconstructions from sparse-view data. In particular TV-based reconstruction is well suited for images with piecewise nearly constant regions. Computationally, however, TV-based reconstruction is demanding, especially for 3D imaging, and the reconstruction from clinical data sets is far from being close to real-time. This is undesirable from a clinical perspective, and thus there is an incentive to accelerate the solution of the underlying optimization problem. The TV reconstruction can in principle be found by any optimization method, but in practice the large scale of the systems arising in CT image reconstruction preclude the use of memory-intensive methods such as Newton's method. The simple gradient method has much lower memory requirements, but exhibits prohibitively slow convergence. In the present work we address the question of how to reduce the number of gradient method iterations needed to achieve a high-accuracy TV reconstruction. We consider the use of two accelerated gradient-based methods, GPBB and UPN, to solve the 3D-TV minimization problem in CT image reconstruction. The former incorporates several heuristics from the optimization literature such as Barzilai-Borwein (BB) step size selection and nonmonotone line search. The latter uses a cleverly chosen sequence of auxiliary points to achieve a better convergence rate. The methods are memory efficient and equipped with a stopping criterion to ensure that the TV reconstruction has indeed been found. An implementation of the methods (in C with interface to Matlab) is available for download from http://www2.imm.dtu.dk/~pch/TVReg/. We compare the proposed methods with the standard gradient method, applied to a 3D test problem with synthetic few-view data. We find experimentally that for realistic parameters the proposed methods significantly outperform the standard gradient method. (orig.)

Probability density function method for variable-density pressure-gradient-driven turbulence and mixing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bakosi, Jozsef; Ristorcelli, Raymond J.

2010-01-01

Probability density function (PDF) methods are extended to variable-density pressure-gradient-driven turbulence. We apply the new method to compute the joint PDF of density and velocity in a non-premixed binary mixture of different-density molecularly mixing fluids under gravity. The full time-evolution of the joint PDF is captured in the highly non-equilibrium flow: starting from a quiescent state, transitioning to fully developed turbulence and finally dissipated by molecular diffusion. High-Atwood-number effects (as distinguished from the Boussinesq case) are accounted for: both hydrodynamic turbulence and material mixing are treated at arbitrary density ratios, with the specific volume, mass flux and all their correlations in closed form. An extension of the generalized Langevin model, originally developed for the Lagrangian fluid particle velocity in constant-density shear-driven turbulence, is constructed for variable-density pressure-gradient-driven flows. The persistent small-scale anisotropy, a fundamentally 'non-Kolmogorovian' feature of flows under external acceleration forces, is captured by a tensorial diffusion term based on the external body force. The material mixing model for the fluid density, an active scalar, is developed based on the beta distribution. The beta-PDF is shown to be capable of capturing the mixing asymmetry and that it can accurately represent the density through transition, in fully developed turbulence and in the decay process. The joint model for hydrodynamics and active material mixing yields a time-accurate evolution of the turbulent kinetic energy and Reynolds stress anisotropy without resorting to gradient diffusion hypotheses, and represents the mixing state by the density PDF itself, eliminating the need for dubious mixing measures. Direct numerical simulations of the homogeneous Rayleigh-Taylor instability are used for model validation.

Advances in the Surface Renewal Flux Measurement Method

Science.gov (United States)

Shapland, T. M.; McElrone, A.; Paw U, K. T.; Snyder, R. L.

2011-12-01

The measurement of ecosystem-scale energy and mass fluxes between the planetary surface and the atmosphere is crucial for understanding geophysical processes. Surface renewal is a flux measurement technique based on analyzing the turbulent coherent structures that interact with the surface. It is a less expensive technique because it does not require fast-response velocity measurements, but only a fast-response scalar measurement. It is therefore also a useful tool for the study of the global cycling of trace gases. Currently, surface renewal requires calibration against another flux measurement technique, such as eddy covariance, to account for the linear bias of its measurements. We present two advances in the surface renewal theory and methodology that bring the technique closer to becoming a fully independent flux measurement method. The first advance develops the theory of turbulent coherent structure transport associated with the different scales of coherent structures. A novel method was developed for identifying the scalar change rate within structures at different scales. Our results suggest that for canopies less than one meter in height, the second smallest coherent structure scale dominates the energy and mass flux process. Using the method for resolving the scalar exchange rate of the second smallest coherent structure scale, calibration is unnecessary for surface renewal measurements over short canopies. This study forms the foundation for analysis over more complex surfaces. The second advance is a sensor frequency response correction for measuring the sensible heat flux via surface renewal. Inexpensive fine-wire thermocouples are frequently used to record high frequency temperature data in the surface renewal technique. The sensible heat flux is used in conjunction with net radiation and ground heat flux measurements to determine the latent heat flux as the energy balance residual. The robust thermocouples commonly used in field experiments

Analytical Energy Gradients for Excited-State Coupled-Cluster Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Wladyslawski, Mark; Nooijen, Marcel

The equation-of-motion coupled-cluster (EOM-CC) and similarity transformed equation-of-motion coupled-cluster (STEOM-CC) methods have been firmly established as accurate and routinely applicable extensions of single-reference coupled-cluster theory to describe electronically excited states. An overview of these methods is provided, with emphasis on the many-body similarity transform concept that is the key to a rationalization of their accuracy. The main topic of the paper is the derivation of analytical energy gradients for such non-variational electronic structure approaches, with an ultimate focus on obtaining their detailed algebraic working equations. A general theoretical framework using Lagrange's method of undetermined multipliers is presented, and the method is applied to formulate the EOM-CC and STEOM-CC gradients in abstract operator terms, following the previous work in [P.G. Szalay, Int. J. Quantum Chem. 55 (1995) 151] and [S.R. Gwaltney, R.J. Bartlett, M. Nooijen, J. Chem. Phys. 111 (1999) 58]. Moreover, the systematics of the Lagrange multiplier approach is suitable for automation by computer, enabling the derivation of the detailed derivative equations through a standardized and direct procedure. To this end, we have developed the SMART (Symbolic Manipulation and Regrouping of Tensors) package of automated symbolic algebra routines, written in the Mathematica programming language. The SMART toolkit provides the means to expand, differentiate, and simplify equations by manipulation of the detailed algebraic tensor expressions directly. The Lagrangian multiplier formulation establishes a uniform strategy to perform the automated derivation in a standardized manner: A Lagrange multiplier functional is constructed from the explicit algebraic equations that define the energy in the electronic method; the energy functional is then made fully variational with respect to all of its parameters, and the symbolic differentiations directly yield the explicit

The role of the velocity gradient in laminar convective heat transfer through a tube with a uniform wall heat flux

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Liangbi; Zhang Qiang; Li Xiaoxia

2009-01-01

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of convective heat transfer. For this purpose, the reason why thermal diffusivity should be placed before the Laplacian operator of the heat flux, and the role of the velocity gradient in convective heat transfer are analysed. The background to these analyses is that, when the energy conservation equation of convective heat transfer is used to explain convective heat transfer there are two points that are difficult for teachers to explain and for undergraduates to understand: thermal diffusivity is placed before the Laplacian operator of temperature; on the wall surface (the fluid side) the velocity is zero, a diffusion equation of temperature is gained from energy conservation equation, however, temperature cannot be transported. Consequently, the real physical meaning of thermal diffusivity is not clearly reflected in the energy conservation equation, and whether heat transfer occurs through a diffusion process or a convection process on the wall surface is not clear. Through a simple convective heat transfer case: laminar convective heat transfer in a tube with a uniform wall heat flux on the tube wall, this paper explains these points more clearly. The results declare that it is easier for teachers to explain and for undergraduates to understand these points when a description of heat transfer in terms of the heat flux is used. In this description, thermal diffusivity is placed before the Laplacian operator of the heat flux; the role of the velocity gradient in convective heat transfer appears, on the wall surface, the fact whether heat transfer occurs through a diffusion process or a convection process can be explained and understood easily. The results are not only essential for teachers to improve the efficiency of university-level physics education regarding heat transfer, but they also enrich the theories for understanding heat transfer

Gradient porous hydroxyapatite ceramics fabricated by freeze casting method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zuo Kaihui; Zhang Yuan; Jiang Dongliang; Zeng Yuping

2011-01-01

By controlling the cooling rates and the composition of slurries, the gradient porous hydroxyapatite ceramics are fabricated by the freeze casting method. According to the different cooling rate, the pores of HAP ceramics fabricated by gradient freeze casting are divided into three parts: one is lamellar pores, another is column pore and the last one is fine round pores. The laminated freeze casting is in favour of obtaining the gradient porous ceramics composed of different materials and the ceramics have unclear interfaces.

A gradient-based method for segmenting FDG-PET images: methodology and validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geets, Xavier; Lee, John A.; Gregoire, Vincent; Bol, Anne; Lonneux, Max

2007-01-01

A new gradient-based method for segmenting FDG-PET images is described and validated. The proposed method relies on the watershed transform and hierarchical cluster analysis. To allow a better estimation of the gradient intensity, iteratively reconstructed images were first denoised and deblurred with an edge-preserving filter and a constrained iterative deconvolution algorithm. Validation was first performed on computer-generated 3D phantoms containing spheres, then on a real cylindrical Lucite phantom containing spheres of different volumes ranging from 2.1 to 92.9 ml. Moreover, laryngeal tumours from seven patients were segmented on PET images acquired before laryngectomy by the gradient-based method and the thresholding method based on the source-to-background ratio developed by Daisne (Radiother Oncol 2003;69:247-50). For the spheres, the calculated volumes and radii were compared with the known values; for laryngeal tumours, the volumes were compared with the macroscopic specimens. Volume mismatches were also analysed. On computer-generated phantoms, the deconvolution algorithm decreased the mis-estimate of volumes and radii. For the Lucite phantom, the gradient-based method led to a slight underestimation of sphere volumes (by 10-20%), corresponding to negligible radius differences (0.5-1.1 mm); for laryngeal tumours, the segmented volumes by the gradient-based method agreed with those delineated on the macroscopic specimens, whereas the threshold-based method overestimated the true volume by 68% (p = 0.014). Lastly, macroscopic laryngeal specimens were totally encompassed by neither the threshold-based nor the gradient-based volumes. The gradient-based segmentation method applied on denoised and deblurred images proved to be more accurate than the source-to-background ratio method. (orig.)

Use of the preconditioned conjugate gradient method to accelerate S/sub n/ iterations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Derstine, K.L.; Gelbard, E.M.

1985-01-01

It is well known that specially tailored diffusion difference equations are required in the synthetic method. The tailoring process is not trivial, and for some S/sub n/ schemes (e.g., in hexagonal geometry) tailored diffusion operators are not available. The need for alternative acceleration methods has been noted by Larsen who has, in fact, proposed two alternatives. The proposed methods, however, do not converge to the S/sub n/ solution, and their accuracy is still largely unknown. Los Alamos acceleration methods are required to converge for any mesh, no matter how coarse. Since negative flux-fix ups (normally involved when mesh widths are large) may impede convergence, it is not clear that such a strict condition is really practical. Here a lesser objective is chosen. The authors wish to develop an acceleration method useful for a wide (though finite) range of mesh widths, but to avoid the use of special diffusion difference equations. It is shown that the conjugate gradient (CG) method, with the standard box-centered (BC) diffusion equation as a preconditioner, yields an algorithm that, for fixed-source problems with isotropic scattering, is mechanically very similar to the synthetic method; but, in two-dimensional test problems in various geometries, the CG method is substantially more stable

A Spectral Conjugate Gradient Method for Unconstrained Optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Birgin, E. G.; Martinez, J. M.

2001-01-01

A family of scaled conjugate gradient algorithms for large-scale unconstrained minimization is defined. The Perry, the Polak-Ribiere and the Fletcher-Reeves formulae are compared using a spectral scaling derived from Raydan's spectral gradient optimization method. The best combination of formula, scaling and initial choice of step-length is compared against well known algorithms using a classical set of problems. An additional comparison involving an ill-conditioned estimation problem in Optics is presented

Application of preconditioned conjugate gradient-like methods to reactor kinetics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, D.Y.; Chen, G.S.; Chou, H.P.

1993-01-01

Several conjugate gradient-like (CG-like) methods are applied to solve the nonsymmetric linear systems of equations derived from the time-dependent two-dimensional two-energy-group neutron diffusion equations by a finite difference approximation. The methods are: the generalized conjugate residual method; the generalized conjugate gradient least-square method; the generalized minimal residual method (GMRES); the conjugate gradient square method; and a variant of bi-conjugate gradient method (Bi-CGSTAB). In order to accelerate these methods, six preconditioning techniques are investigated. Two are based on pointwise incomplete factorization: the incomplete LU (ILU) and the modified incomplete LU (MILU) decompositions; two, based on the block tridiagonal structure of the coefficient matrix, are blockwise and modified blockwise incomplete factorizations, BILU and MBILU; two are the alternating-direction implicit and symmetric successive overrelaxation (SSOR) preconditioners, derived from the basic iterative schemes. Comparisons are made by using CG-like methods combined with different preconditioners to solve a sequence of time-step reactor transient problems. Numerical tests indicate that preconditioned BI-CGSTAB with the preconditioner MBILU requires less CPU time and fewer iterations than other methods. The preconditioned CG-like methods are less sensitive to the time-step size used than the Chebyshev semi-iteration method and line SOR method. The indication is that the CGS, Bi-CGSTAB and GMRES methods are, on average, better than the other methods in reactor kinetics computation and that a good preconditioner is more important than the choice of CG-like methods. The MILU decomposition based on the conventional row-sum criterion has difficulty yielding a convergent solution and an improved version is introduced. (author)

A feasible DY conjugate gradient method for linear equality constraints

Science.gov (United States)

LI, Can

2017-09-01

In this paper, we propose a feasible conjugate gradient method for solving linear equality constrained optimization problem. The method is an extension of the Dai-Yuan conjugate gradient method proposed by Dai and Yuan to linear equality constrained optimization problem. It can be applied to solve large linear equality constrained problem due to lower storage requirement. An attractive property of the method is that the generated direction is always feasible and descent direction. Under mild conditions, the global convergence of the proposed method with exact line search is established. Numerical experiments are also given which show the efficiency of the method.

A Modified Conjugacy Condition and Related Nonlinear Conjugate Gradient Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shengwei Yao

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The conjugate gradient (CG method has played a special role in solving large-scale nonlinear optimization problems due to the simplicity of their very low memory requirements. In this paper, we propose a new conjugacy condition which is similar to Dai-Liao (2001. Based on this condition, the related nonlinear conjugate gradient method is given. With some mild conditions, the given method is globally convergent under the strong Wolfe-Powell line search for general functions. The numerical experiments show that the proposed method is very robust and efficient.

A gradient activation method for direct methanol fuel cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Guicheng; Yang, Zhaoyi; Halim, Martin; Li, Xinyang; Wang, Manxiang; Kim, Ji Young; Mei, Qiwen; Wang, Xindong; Lee, Joong Kee

2017-01-01

Highlights: • A gradient activation method was reported firstly for direct methanol fuel cells. • The activity recovery of Pt-based catalyst was introduced into the novel activation process. • The new activation method led to prominent enhancement of DMFC performance. • DMFC performance was improved with the novel activation step by step within 7.5 h. - Abstract: To realize gradient activation effect and recover catalytic activity of catalyst in a short time, a gradient activation method has firstly been proposed for enhancing discharge performance and perfecting activation mechanism of the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). This method includes four steps, i.e. proton activation, activity recovery activation, H_2-O_2 mode activation and forced discharging activation. The results prove that the proposed method has gradually realized replenishment of water and protons, recovery of catalytic activity of catalyst, establishment of transfer channels for electrons, protons, and oxygen, and optimization of anode catalyst layer for methanol transfer in turn. Along with the novel activation process going on, the DMFC discharge performance has been improved, step by step, to more than 1.9 times higher than that of the original one within 7.5 h. This method provides a practicable activation way for the real application of single DMFCs and stacks.

How to choose methods for lake greenhouse gas flux measurements?

Science.gov (United States)

Bastviken, David

2017-04-01

Lake greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes are increasingly recognized as important for lake ecosystems as well as for large scale carbon and GHG budgets. However, many of our flux estimates are uncertain and it can be discussed if the presently available data is representative for the systems studied or not. Data are also very limited for some important flux pathways. Hence, many ongoing efforts try to better constrain fluxes and understand flux regulation. A fundamental challenge towards improved knowledge and when starting new studies is what methods to choose. A variety of approaches to measure aquatic GHG exchange is used and data from different methods and methodological approaches have often been treated as equally valid to create large datasets for extrapolations and syntheses. However, data from different approaches may cover different flux pathways or spatio-temporal domains and are thus not always comparable. Method inter-comparisons and critical method evaluations addressing these issues are rare. Emerging efforts to organize systematic multi-lake monitoring networks for GHG fluxes leads to method choices that may set the foundation for decades of data generation and therefore require fundamental evaluation of different approaches. The method choices do not only regard the equipment but also for example consideration of overall measurement design and field approaches, relevant spatial and temporal resolution for different flux components, and accessory variables to measure. In addition, consideration of how to design monitoring approaches being affordable, suitable for widespread (global) use, and comparable across regions is needed. Inspired by discussions with Prof. Dr. Cristian Blodau during the EGU General Assembly 2016, this presentation aims to (1) illustrate fundamental pros and cons for a number of common methods, (2) show how common methodological approaches originally adapted for other environments can be improved for lake flux measurements, (3) suggest

Application of Conjugate Gradient methods to tidal simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Barragy, E.; Carey, G.F.; Walters, R.A.

1993-01-01

A harmonic decomposition technique is applied to the shallow water equations to yield a complex, nonsymmetric, nonlinear, Helmholtz type problem for the sea surface and an accompanying complex, nonlinear diagonal problem for the velocities. The equation for the sea surface is linearized using successive approximation and then discretized with linear, triangular finite elements. The study focuses on applying iterative methods to solve the resulting complex linear systems. The comparative evaluation includes both standard iterative methods for the real subsystems and complex versions of the well known Bi-Conjugate Gradient and Bi-Conjugate Gradient Squared methods. Several Incomplete LU type preconditioners are discussed, and the effects of node ordering, rejection strategy, domain geometry and Coriolis parameter (affecting asymmetry) are investigated. Implementation details for the complex case are discussed. Performance studies are presented and comparisons made with a frontal solver. ?? 1993.

Magnetic flux reconstruction methods for shaped tokamaks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsui, Chi-Wa.

1993-12-01

The use of a variational method permits the Grad-Shafranov (GS) equation to be solved by reducing the problem of solving the 2D non-linear partial differential equation to the problem of minimizing a function of several variables. This high speed algorithm approximately solves the GS equation given a parameterization of the plasma boundary and the current profile (p' and FF' functions). The author treats the current profile parameters as unknowns. The goal is to reconstruct the internal magnetic flux surfaces of a tokamak plasma and the toroidal current density profile from the external magnetic measurements. This is a classic problem of inverse equilibrium determination. The current profile parameters can be evaluated by several different matching procedures. Matching of magnetic flux and field at the probe locations using the Biot-Savart law and magnetic Green's function provides a robust method of magnetic reconstruction. The matching of poloidal magnetic field on the plasma surface provides a unique method of identifying the plasma current profile. However, the power of this method is greatly compromised by the experimental errors of the magnetic signals. The Casing Principle provides a very fast way to evaluate the plasma contribution to the magnetic signals. It has the potential of being a fast matching method. The performance of this method is hindered by the accuracy of the poloidal magnetic field computed from the equilibrium solver. A flux reconstruction package has been implemented which integrates a vacuum field solver using a filament model for the plasma, a multi-layer perception neural network as an interface, and the volume integration of plasma current density using Green's functions as a matching method for the current profile parameters. The flux reconstruction package is applied to compare with the ASEQ and EFIT data. The results are promising

Complex controls on nitrous oxide flux across a large-elevation gradient in the tropical Peruvian Andes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Diem

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Current bottom–up process models suggest that montane tropical ecosystems are weak atmospheric sources of N2O, although recent empirical studies from the southern Peruvian Andes have challenged this idea. Here we report N2O flux from combined field and laboratory experiments that investigated the process-based controls on N2O flux from montane ecosystems across a large-elevation gradient (600–3700 m a.s.l. in the southern Peruvian Andes. Nitrous oxide flux and environmental variables were quantified in four major habitats (premontane forest, lower montane forest, upper montane forest and montane grassland at monthly intervals over a 30-month period from January 2011 to June 2013. The role of soil moisture content in regulating N2O flux was investigated through a manipulative, laboratory-based 15N-tracer experiment. The role of substrate availability (labile organic matter, NO3− in regulating N2O flux was examined through a field-based litter-fall manipulation experiment and a laboratory-based 15N–NO3− addition study, respectively. Ecosystems in this region were net atmospheric sources of N2O, with an unweighted mean flux of 0.27 ± 0.07 mg N–N2O m−2 d−1. Weighted extrapolations, which accounted for differences in land surface area among habitats and variations in flux between seasons, predicted a mean annual flux of 1.27 ± 0.33 kg N2O–N ha−1 yr−1. Nitrous oxide flux was greatest from premontane forest, with an unweighted mean flux of 0.75 ± 0.18 mg N–N2O m−2 d−1, translating to a weighted annual flux of 0.66 ± 0.16 kg N2O–N ha−1 yr−1. In contrast, N2O flux was significantly lower in other habitats. The unweighted mean fluxes for lower montane forest, montane grasslands, and upper montane forest were 0.46 ± 0.24 mg N–N2O m−2 d−1, 0.07 ± 0.08 mg N–N2O m−2 d−1, and 0.04 ± 0.07 mg N–N2O m−2 d−1

PRECONDITIONED BI-CONJUGATE GRADIENT METHOD FOR RADIATIVE TRANSFER IN SPHERICAL MEDIA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anusha, L. S.; Nagendra, K. N.; Paletou, F.; Leger, L.

2009-01-01

A robust numerical method called the Preconditioned Bi-Conjugate Gradient (Pre-BiCG) method is proposed for the solution of the radiative transfer equation in spherical geometry. A variant of this method called Stabilized Preconditioned Bi-Conjugate Gradient (Pre-BiCG-STAB) is also presented. These are iterative methods based on the construction of a set of bi-orthogonal vectors. The application of the Pre-BiCG method in some benchmark tests shows that the method is quite versatile, and can handle difficult problems that may arise in astrophysical radiative transfer theory.

Heat flux driven ion turbulence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garbet, X.

1998-01-01

This work is an analysis of an ion turbulence in a tokamak in the case where the thermal flux is fixed and the temperature profile is allowed to fluctuate. The system exhibits some features of Self-Organized Critical systems. In particular, avalanches are observed. Also the frequency spectrum of the thermal flux exhibits a structure similar to the one of a sand pile automaton, including a 1/f behavior. However, the time average temperature profile is found to be supercritical, i.e. the temperature gradient stays above the critical value. Moreover, the heat diffusivity is lower for a turbulence calculated at fixed flux than a fixed temperature gradient, with the same time average temperature. This behavior is attributed to a stabilizing effect of avalanches. (author)

Annual sediment flux estimates in a tidal strait using surrogate measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Ganju, N.K.; Schoellhamer, D.H.

2006-01-01

Annual suspended-sediment flux estimates through Carquinez Strait (the seaward boundary of Suisun Bay, California) are provided based on surrogate measurements for advective, dispersive, and Stokes drift flux. The surrogates are landward watershed discharge, suspended-sediment concentration at one location in the Strait, and the longitudinal salinity gradient. The first two surrogates substitute for tidally averaged discharge and velocity-weighted suspended-sediment concentration in the Strait, thereby providing advective flux estimates, while Stokes drift is estimated with suspended-sediment concentration alone. Dispersive flux is estimated using the product of longitudinal salinity gradient and the root-mean-square value of velocity-weighted suspended-sediment concentration as an added surrogate variable. Cross-sectional measurements validated the use of surrogates during the monitoring period. During high freshwater flow advective and dispersive flux were in the seaward direction, while landward dispersive flux dominated and advective flux approached zero during low freshwater flow. Stokes drift flux was consistently in the landward direction. Wetter than average years led to net export from Suisun Bay, while dry years led to net sediment import. Relatively low watershed sediment fluxes to Suisun Bay contribute to net export during the wet season, while gravitational circulation in Carquinez Strait and higher suspended-sediment concentrations in San Pablo Bay (seaward end of Carquinez Strait) are responsible for the net import of sediment during the dry season. Annual predictions of suspended-sediment fluxes, using these methods, will allow for a sediment budget for Suisun Bay, which has implications for marsh restoration and nutrient/contaminant transport. These methods also provide a general framework for estimating sediment fluxes in estuarine environments, where temporal and spatial variability of transport are large. ?? 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

A hybrid optimization method for biplanar transverse gradient coil design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qi Feng; Tang Xin; Jin Zhe; Jiang Zhongde; Shen Yifei; Meng Bin; Zu Donglin; Wang Weimin

2007-01-01

The optimization of transverse gradient coils is one of the fundamental problems in designing magnetic resonance imaging gradient systems. A new approach is presented in this paper to optimize the transverse gradient coils' performance. First, in the traditional spherical harmonic target field method, high order coefficients, which are commonly ignored, are used in the first stage of the optimization process to give better homogeneity. Then, some cosine terms are introduced into the series expansion of stream function. These new terms provide simulated annealing optimization with new freedoms. Comparison between the traditional method and the optimized method shows that the inhomogeneity in the region of interest can be reduced from 5.03% to 1.39%, the coil efficiency increased from 3.83 to 6.31 mT m -1 A -1 and the minimum distance of these discrete coils raised from 1.54 to 3.16 mm

An alternative method for the measurement of neutron flux

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

A simple and easy method for measuring the neutron flux is presented. This paper deals with the experimental verification of neutron dose rate–flux relationship for a non-dissipative medium. Though the neutron flux cannot be obtained from the dose rate in a dissipative medium, experimental result shows that for ...

Methods for Fabricating Gradient Alloy Articles with Multi-Functional Properties

Science.gov (United States)

Hofmann, Douglas C. (Inventor); Borgonia, John Paul C. (Inventor); Dillon, Robert P. (Inventor); Suh, Eric J. (Inventor); Mulder, Jerry L. (Inventor); Gardner, Paul B. (Inventor)

2015-01-01

Systems and methods for fabricating multi-functional articles comprised of additively formed gradient materials are provided. The fabrication of multi-functional articles using the additive deposition of gradient alloys represents a paradigm shift from the traditional way that metal alloys and metal/metal alloy parts are fabricated. Since a gradient alloy that transitions from one metal to a different metal cannot be fabricated through any conventional metallurgy techniques, the technique presents many applications. Moreover, the embodiments described identify a broad range of properties and applications.

Particle fluxes above forests: Observations, methodological considerations and method comparisons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pryor, S.C.; Larsen, S.E.; Sorensen, L.L.; Barthelmie, R.J.

2008-01-01

This paper reports a study designed to test, evaluate and compare micro-meteorological methods for determining the particle number flux above forest canopies. Half-hour average particle number fluxes above a representative broad-leaved forest in Denmark derived using eddy covariance range from -7 x 10 7 m -2 s -1 (1st percentile) to 5 x 10 7 m -2 s -1 (99th percentile), and have a median value of -1.6 x 10 6 m -2 s -1 . The statistical uncertainties associated with the particle number flux estimates are larger than those for momentum fluxes and imply that in this data set approximately half of the particle number fluxes are not statistically different to zero. Particle number fluxes from relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) and eddy covariance are highly correlated and of almost identical magnitude. Flux estimates from the co-spectral and dissipation methods are also correlated with those from eddy covariance but exhibit higher absolute magnitude of fluxes. - Number fluxes of ultra-fine particles over a forest computed using four micro-meteorological techniques are highly correlated but vary in magnitude

Ozone flux over a Norway spruce forest and correlation with net ecosystem production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zapletal, Milos; Cudlin, Pavel; Chroust, Petr; Urban, Otmar; Pokorny, Radek; Edwards-Jonasova, Magda; Czerny, Radek; Janous, Dalibor; Taufarova, Klara; Vecera, Zbynek; Mikuska, Pavel; Paoletti, Elena

2011-01-01

Daily ozone deposition flux to a Norway spruce forest in Czech Republic was measured using the gradient method in July and August 2008. Results were in good agreement with a deposition flux model. The mean daily stomatal uptake of ozone was around 47% of total deposition. Average deposition velocity was 0.39 cm s -1 and 0.36 cm s -1 by the gradient method and the deposition model, respectively. Measured and modelled non-stomatal uptake was around 0.2 cm s -1 . In addition, net ecosystem production (NEP) was measured by using Eddy Covariance and correlations with O 3 concentrations at 15 m a.g.l., total deposition and stomatal uptake were tested. Total deposition and stomatal uptake of ozone significantly decreased NEP, especially by high intensities of solar radiation. - Highlights: → We estimate ozone deposition flux to a Norway spruce forest using the gradient method and model. → The mean stomatal uptake of ozone is approximately 47% of the total deposition. → We measure net ecosystem production (NEP) using Eddy Covariance. → We test whether elevated total deposition and stomatal uptake of O 3 imply a reduction of NEP. → Deposition and stomatal uptake of O 3 decrease NEP, especially by high intensities of solar radiation. - Net ecosystem production of a Norway spruce forest decreases with increasing deposition and stomatal uptake of ozone.

Monte Carlo method for polarized radiative transfer in gradient-index media

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao, J.M.; Tan, J.Y.; Liu, L.H.

2015-01-01

Light transfer in gradient-index media generally follows curved ray trajectories, which will cause light beam to converge or diverge during transfer and induce the rotation of polarization ellipse even when the medium is transparent. Furthermore, the combined process of scattering and transfer along curved ray path makes the problem more complex. In this paper, a Monte Carlo method is presented to simulate polarized radiative transfer in gradient-index media that only support planar ray trajectories. The ray equation is solved to the second order to address the effect induced by curved ray trajectories. Three types of test cases are presented to verify the performance of the method, which include transparent medium, Mie scattering medium with assumed gradient index distribution, and Rayleigh scattering with realistic atmosphere refractive index profile. It is demonstrated that the atmospheric refraction has significant effect for long distance polarized light transfer. - Highlights: • A Monte Carlo method for polarized radiative transfer in gradient index media. • Effect of curved ray paths on polarized radiative transfer is considered. • Importance of atmospheric refraction for polarized light transfer is demonstrated

Strong solutions and instability for the fitness gradient system in evolutionary games between two populations

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Qiuju; Belmonte, Andrew; deForest, Russ; Liu, Chun; Tan, Zhong

2017-04-01

In this paper, we study a fitness gradient system for two populations interacting via a symmetric game. The population dynamics are governed by a conservation law, with a spatial migration flux determined by the fitness. By applying the Galerkin method, we establish the existence, regularity and uniqueness of global solutions to an approximate system, which retains most of the interesting mathematical properties of the original fitness gradient system. Furthermore, we show that a Turing instability occurs for equilibrium states of the fitness gradient system, and its approximations.

A critical analysis of some popular methods for the discretisation of the gradient operator in finite volume methods

Science.gov (United States)

Syrakos, Alexandros; Varchanis, Stylianos; Dimakopoulos, Yannis; Goulas, Apostolos; Tsamopoulos, John

2017-12-01

Finite volume methods (FVMs) constitute a popular class of methods for the numerical simulation of fluid flows. Among the various components of these methods, the discretisation of the gradient operator has received less attention despite its fundamental importance with regards to the accuracy of the FVM. The most popular gradient schemes are the divergence theorem (DT) (or Green-Gauss) scheme and the least-squares (LS) scheme. Both are widely believed to be second-order accurate, but the present study shows that in fact the common variant of the DT gradient is second-order accurate only on structured meshes whereas it is zeroth-order accurate on general unstructured meshes, and the LS gradient is second-order and first-order accurate, respectively. This is explained through a theoretical analysis and is confirmed by numerical tests. The schemes are then used within a FVM to solve a simple diffusion equation on unstructured grids generated by several methods; the results reveal that the zeroth-order accuracy of the DT gradient is inherited by the FVM as a whole, and the discretisation error does not decrease with grid refinement. On the other hand, use of the LS gradient leads to second-order accurate results, as does the use of alternative, consistent, DT gradient schemes, including a new iterative scheme that makes the common DT gradient consistent at almost no extra cost. The numerical tests are performed using both an in-house code and the popular public domain partial differential equation solver OpenFOAM.

Method to stimulate dose gradient in liquid media

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scarlat, F.

1993-01-01

The depth absorbed dose from electrons with energy higher than 10 MeV shows a distribution with a big-percentage absorbed dose at the entrance surface and a small dose gradient. This is due to the big distance between the virtual focus and irradiated liquid medium. In order to stimulate dose gradient and decrease the surface dose, this paper presents a method for obtaining the second focus by means of a magnetostatic planar wiggler. Preliminary calculations indicated that the absorbed dose rate increases two-three times at the reference plane in the irradiated liquid medium. (Author)

Flashed-feed VMD configuration as a novel method for eliminating temperature polarization effect and enhancing water vapor flux

KAUST Repository

Alsaadi, Ahmad Salem; Alpatova, Alla; Lee, Jung Gil; Francis, Lijo; Ghaffour, NorEddine

2018-01-01

The coupling of heat and mass transfer in membrane distillation (MD) process makes enhancing water vapor flux and determining MD membrane mass transfer coefficient (MTC) fairly challenging due to the development of temperature gradient near

Robust outer-selective thin-film composite polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes with low reverse salt flux for renewable salinity-gradient energy generation

KAUST Repository

Cheng, Zhen Lei; Li, Xue; Liu, Ying Da; Chung, Neal Tai-Shung

2016-01-01

This study reports outer-selective thin-film composite (TFC) hollow fiber membranes with extremely low reverse salt fluxes and robustness for harvesting salinity-gradient energy from pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) processes. Almost defect-free polyamide layers with impressive low salt permeabilities were synthesized on top of robust polyethersulfone porous supports. The newly developed TFC-II membrane shows a maximum power density of 7.81 W m−2 using 1 M NaCl and DI water as feeds at 20 bar. Reproducible data obtained in the 2nd and 3rd runs confirm its stability under high hydraulic pressure differences. Comparing to other PRO membranes reported in the literature, the newly developed membrane exhibits not only the smallest slope between water flux decline and ΔPΔP increase but also the lowest ratio of reverse salt flux to water flux. Thus, the effective osmotic driving force could be well maintained even under high pressure operations. For the first time, the effect of feed pressure buildup induced by feed flowrate was evaluated towards PRO performance. A slight increment in feed pressure buildup was found to be beneficial to water flux and power density up to 10.06 W m−2 without comprising the reverse salt flux. We believe this study may open up new perspectives on outer-selective PRO hollow fiber membranes and provide useful insights to understand and design next-generation outer-selective TFC hollow fiber membranes for osmotic power generation.

Robust outer-selective thin-film composite polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes with low reverse salt flux for renewable salinity-gradient energy generation

KAUST Repository

Cheng, Zhen Lei

2016-01-08

This study reports outer-selective thin-film composite (TFC) hollow fiber membranes with extremely low reverse salt fluxes and robustness for harvesting salinity-gradient energy from pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) processes. Almost defect-free polyamide layers with impressive low salt permeabilities were synthesized on top of robust polyethersulfone porous supports. The newly developed TFC-II membrane shows a maximum power density of 7.81 W m−2 using 1 M NaCl and DI water as feeds at 20 bar. Reproducible data obtained in the 2nd and 3rd runs confirm its stability under high hydraulic pressure differences. Comparing to other PRO membranes reported in the literature, the newly developed membrane exhibits not only the smallest slope between water flux decline and ΔPΔP increase but also the lowest ratio of reverse salt flux to water flux. Thus, the effective osmotic driving force could be well maintained even under high pressure operations. For the first time, the effect of feed pressure buildup induced by feed flowrate was evaluated towards PRO performance. A slight increment in feed pressure buildup was found to be beneficial to water flux and power density up to 10.06 W m−2 without comprising the reverse salt flux. We believe this study may open up new perspectives on outer-selective PRO hollow fiber membranes and provide useful insights to understand and design next-generation outer-selective TFC hollow fiber membranes for osmotic power generation.

Analytical characterization of selective benthic flux components in estuarine and coastal waters

Science.gov (United States)

King, Jeffrey N.

2011-01-01

Benthic flux is the rate of flow across the bed of a water body, per unit area of bed. It is forced by component mechanisms, which interact. For example, pressure gradients across the bed, forced by tide, surface gravity waves, density gradients, bed–current interaction, turbulence, and terrestrial hydraulic gradients, drive an advective benthic flux of water and constituents between estuarine and coastal waters, and surficial aquifers. Other mechanisms also force benthic flux, such as chemical gradients, bioturbation, and dispersion. A suite of component mechanisms force a total benthic flux at any given location, where each member of the suite contributes a component benthic flux. Currently, the types and characteristics of component interactions are not fully understood. For example, components may interact linearly or nonlinearly, and the interaction may be constructive or destructive. Benthic flux is a surface water–groundwater interaction process. Its discharge component to a marine water body is referred to, in some literature, as submarine groundwater discharge. Benthic flux is important in characterizing water and constituent budgets of estuarine and coastal systems. Analytical models to characterize selective benthic flux components are reviewed. Specifically, these mechanisms are for the component associated with the groundwater tidal prism, and forced by surface gravity wave setup, surface gravity waves on a plane bed, and the terrestrial hydraulic gradient. Analytical models are applied to the Indian River Lagoon, Florida; Great South Bay, New York; and the South Atlantic Bight in South Carolina and portions of North Carolina.

The disparate impact of the ion temperature gradient and the density gradient on edge transport and the low-high transition in tokamaks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kleva, Robert G.; Guzdar, Parvez N.

2009-01-01

Steepening of the ion temperature gradient in nonlinear fluid simulations of the edge region of a tokamak plasma causes a rapid degradation in confinement. As the density gradient steepens, there is a continuous improvement in confinement analogous to the low (L) to high (H) transition observed in tokamaks. In contrast, as the ion temperature gradient steepens, there is a rapid increase in the particle and energy fluxes and no L-H transition. For a given pressure gradient, confinement always improves when more of the pressure gradient arises from the density gradient, and less of the pressure gradient arises from the ion temperature gradient.

Total C and N Pools and fluxes vary with time, soil temperature, and moisture along an elevation, precipitation, and vegetation gradient in southern Appalachian Forests

Science.gov (United States)

Jennifer D. Knoepp; Craig R. See; James M. Vose; Chelcy F. Miniat; James S. Clark

2018-01-01

The interactions of terrestrial C pools and fluxes with spatial and temporal variation in climate are not well understood. We conducted this study in the southern Appalachian Mountains where complex topography provides variability in temperature, precipitation, and forest communities. In 1990, we established five large plots across an elevation gradient...

A three-term conjugate gradient method under the strong-Wolfe line search

Science.gov (United States)

Khadijah, Wan; Rivaie, Mohd; Mamat, Mustafa

2017-08-01

Recently, numerous studies have been concerned in conjugate gradient methods for solving large-scale unconstrained optimization method. In this paper, a three-term conjugate gradient method is proposed for unconstrained optimization which always satisfies sufficient descent direction and namely as Three-Term Rivaie-Mustafa-Ismail-Leong (TTRMIL). Under standard conditions, TTRMIL method is proved to be globally convergent under strong-Wolfe line search. Finally, numerical results are provided for the purpose of comparison.

Comparison of preconditioned generalized conjugate gradient methods to two-dimensional neutron and photon transport equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, G.S.

1997-01-01

We apply and compare the preconditioned generalized conjugate gradient methods to solve the linear system equation that arises in the two-dimensional neutron and photon transport equation in this paper. Several subroutines are developed on the basis of preconditioned generalized conjugate gradient methods for time-independent, two-dimensional neutron and photon transport equation in the transport theory. These generalized conjugate gradient methods are used. TFQMR (transpose free quasi-minimal residual algorithm), CGS (conjuage gradient square algorithm), Bi-CGSTAB (bi-conjugate gradient stabilized algorithm) and QMRCGSTAB (quasi-minimal residual variant of bi-conjugate gradient stabilized algorithm). These sub-routines are connected to computer program DORT. Several problems are tested on a personal computer with Intel Pentium CPU. (author)

Flux driven turbulence in tokamaks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garbet, X.; Ghendrih, P.; Ottaviani, M.; Sarazin, Y.; Beyer, P.; Benkadda, S.; Waltz, R.E.

1999-01-01

This work deals with tokamak plasma turbulence in the case where fluxes are fixed and profiles are allowed to fluctuate. These systems are intermittent. In particular, radially propagating fronts, are usually observed over a broad range of time and spatial scales. The existence of these fronts provide a way to understand the fast transport events sometimes observed in tokamaks. It is also shown that the confinement scaling law can still be of the gyroBohm type in spite of these large scale transport events. Some departure from the gyroBohm prediction is observed at low flux, i.e. when the gradients are close to the instability threshold. Finally, it is found that the diffusivity is not the same for a turbulence calculated at fixed flux than at fixed temperature gradient, with the same time averaged profile. (author)

Moving force identification based on modified preconditioned conjugate gradient method

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Zhen; Chan, Tommy H. T.; Nguyen, Andy

2018-06-01

This paper develops a modified preconditioned conjugate gradient (M-PCG) method for moving force identification (MFI) by improving the conjugate gradient (CG) and preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) methods with a modified Gram-Schmidt algorithm. The method aims to obtain more accurate and more efficient identification results from the responses of bridge deck caused by vehicles passing by, which are known to be sensitive to ill-posed problems that exist in the inverse problem. A simply supported beam model with biaxial time-varying forces is used to generate numerical simulations with various analysis scenarios to assess the effectiveness of the method. Evaluation results show that regularization matrix L and number of iterations j are very important influence factors to identification accuracy and noise immunity of M-PCG. Compared with the conventional counterpart SVD embedded in the time domain method (TDM) and the standard form of CG, the M-PCG with proper regularization matrix has many advantages such as better adaptability and more robust to ill-posed problems. More importantly, it is shown that the average optimal numbers of iterations of M-PCG can be reduced by more than 70% compared with PCG and this apparently makes M-PCG a preferred choice for field MFI applications.

A penalized linear and nonlinear combined conjugate gradient method for the reconstruction of fluorescence molecular tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Shang, Shang; Bai, Jing; Song, Xiaolei; Wang, Hongkai; Lau, Jaclyn

2007-01-01

Conjugate gradient method is verified to be efficient for nonlinear optimization problems of large-dimension data. In this paper, a penalized linear and nonlinear combined conjugate gradient method for the reconstruction of fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) is presented. The algorithm combines the linear conjugate gradient method and the nonlinear conjugate gradient method together based on a restart strategy, in order to take advantage of the two kinds of conjugate gradient methods and compensate for the disadvantages. A quadratic penalty method is adopted to gain a nonnegative constraint and reduce the illposedness of the problem. Simulation studies show that the presented algorithm is accurate, stable, and fast. It has a better performance than the conventional conjugate gradient-based reconstruction algorithms. It offers an effective approach to reconstruct fluorochrome information for FMT.

Final Technical Report: The effects of climate, forest age, and disturbance history on carbon and water processes at AmeriFlux sites across gradients in Pacific Northwest forests

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Law, Beverly E. [Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)

2016-12-03

Investigate the effects of disturbance and climate variables on processes controlling carbon and water processes at AmeriFlux cluster sites in semi-arid and mesic forests in Oregon. The observations were made at three existing and productive AmeriFlux research sites that represent climate and disturbance gradients as a natural experiment of the influence of climatic and hydrologic variability on carbon sequestration and resulting atmospheric CO₂ feedback that includes anomalies during the warm/ dry phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

Subspace Barzilai-Borwein Gradient Method for Large-Scale Bound Constrained Optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xiao Yunhai; Hu Qingjie

2008-01-01

An active set subspace Barzilai-Borwein gradient algorithm for large-scale bound constrained optimization is proposed. The active sets are estimated by an identification technique. The search direction consists of two parts: some of the components are simply defined; the other components are determined by the Barzilai-Borwein gradient method. In this work, a nonmonotone line search strategy that guarantees global convergence is used. Preliminary numerical results show that the proposed method is promising, and competitive with the well-known method SPG on a subset of bound constrained problems from CUTEr collection

A multiscale mortar multipoint flux mixed finite element method

KAUST Repository

Wheeler, Mary Fanett

2012-02-03

In this paper, we develop a multiscale mortar multipoint flux mixed finite element method for second order elliptic problems. The equations in the coarse elements (or subdomains) are discretized on a fine grid scale by a multipoint flux mixed finite element method that reduces to cell-centered finite differences on irregular grids. The subdomain grids do not have to match across the interfaces. Continuity of flux between coarse elements is imposed via a mortar finite element space on a coarse grid scale. With an appropriate choice of polynomial degree of the mortar space, we derive optimal order convergence on the fine scale for both the multiscale pressure and velocity, as well as the coarse scale mortar pressure. Some superconvergence results are also derived. The algebraic system is reduced via a non-overlapping domain decomposition to a coarse scale mortar interface problem that is solved using a multiscale flux basis. Numerical experiments are presented to confirm the theory and illustrate the efficiency and flexibility of the method. © EDP Sciences, SMAI, 2012.

A multiscale mortar multipoint flux mixed finite element method

KAUST Repository

Wheeler, Mary Fanett; Xue, Guangri; Yotov, Ivan

2012-01-01

In this paper, we develop a multiscale mortar multipoint flux mixed finite element method for second order elliptic problems. The equations in the coarse elements (or subdomains) are discretized on a fine grid scale by a multipoint flux mixed finite

Solving Optimal Control Problem of Monodomain Model Using Hybrid Conjugate Gradient Methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kin Wei Ng

2012-01-01

Full Text Available We present the numerical solutions for the PDE-constrained optimization problem arising in cardiac electrophysiology, that is, the optimal control problem of monodomain model. The optimal control problem of monodomain model is a nonlinear optimization problem that is constrained by the monodomain model. The monodomain model consists of a parabolic partial differential equation coupled to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations, which has been widely used for simulating cardiac electrical activity. Our control objective is to dampen the excitation wavefront using optimal applied extracellular current. Two hybrid conjugate gradient methods are employed for computing the optimal applied extracellular current, namely, the Hestenes-Stiefel-Dai-Yuan (HS-DY method and the Liu-Storey-Conjugate-Descent (LS-CD method. Our experiment results show that the excitation wavefronts are successfully dampened out when these methods are used. Our experiment results also show that the hybrid conjugate gradient methods are superior to the classical conjugate gradient methods when Armijo line search is used.

A density gradient theory based method for surface tension calculations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liang, Xiaodong; Michelsen, Michael Locht; Kontogeorgis, Georgios

2016-01-01

The density gradient theory has been becoming a widely used framework for calculating surface tension, within which the same equation of state is used for the interface and bulk phases, because it is a theoretically sound, consistent and computationally affordable approach. Based on the observation...... that the optimal density path from the geometric mean density gradient theory passes the saddle point of the tangent plane distance to the bulk phases, we propose to estimate surface tension with an approximate density path profile that goes through this saddle point. The linear density gradient theory, which...... assumes linearly distributed densities between the two bulk phases, has also been investigated. Numerical problems do not occur with these density path profiles. These two approximation methods together with the full density gradient theory have been used to calculate the surface tension of various...

Magnetic flux concentration methods for magnetic energy harvesting module

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wakiwaka Hiroyuki

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents magnetic flux concentration methods for magnetic energy harvesting module. The purpose of this study is to harvest 1 mW energy with a Brooks coil 2 cm in diameter from environmental magnetic field at 60 Hz. Because the harvesting power is proportional to the square of the magnetic flux density, we consider the use of a magnetic flux concentration coil and a magnetic core. The magnetic flux concentration coil consists of an air­core Brooks coil and a resonant capacitor. When a uniform magnetic field crossed the coil, the magnetic flux distribution around the coil was changed. It is found that the magnetic field in an area is concentrated larger than 20 times compared with the uniform magnetic field. Compared with the air­core coil, our designed magnetic core makes the harvested energy ten­fold. According to ICNIRP2010 guideline, the acceptable level of magnetic field is 0.2 mT in the frequency range between 25 Hz and 400 Hz. Without the two magnetic flux concentration methods, the corresponding energy is limited to 1 µW. In contrast, our experimental results successfully demonstrate energy harvesting of 1 mW from a magnetic field of 0.03 mT at 60 Hz.

An optimized target-field method for MRI transverse biplanar gradient coil design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Rui; Xu, Jing; Huang, Kefu; Zhang, Jue; Fang, Jing; Fu, Youyi; Li, Yangjing

2011-01-01

Gradient coils are essential components of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems. In this paper, we present an optimized target-field method for designing a transverse biplanar gradient coil with high linearity, low inductance and small resistance, which can well satisfy the requirements of permanent-magnet MRI systems. In this new method, the current density is expressed by trigonometric basis functions with unknown coefficients in polar coordinates. Following the standard procedures, we construct an objective function with respect to the total square errors of the magnetic field at all target-field points with the penalty items associated with the stored magnetic energy and the dissipated power. By adjusting the two penalty factors and minimizing the objective function, the appropriate coefficients of the current density are determined. Applying the stream function method to the current density, the specific winding patterns on the planes can be obtained. A novel biplanar gradient coil has been designed using this method to operate in a permanent-magnet MRI system. In order to verify the validity of the proposed approach, the gradient magnetic field generated by the resulted current density has been calculated via the Biot–Savart law. The results have demonstrated the effectiveness and advantage of this proposed method

Comparison between Evapotranspiration Fluxes Assessment Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Casola, A.; Longobardi, A.; Villani, P.

2009-11-01

Knowledge of hydrological processes acting in the water balance is determinant for a rational water resources management plan. Among these, the water losses as vapour, in the form of evapotranspiration, play an important role in the water balance and the heat transfers between the land surface and the atmosphere. Mass and energy interactions between soil, atmosphere and vegetation, in fact, influence all hydrological processes modificating rainfall interception, infiltration, evapotraspiration, surface runoff and groundwater recharge.A numbers of methods have been developed in scientific literature for modelling evapotranspiration. They can be divided in three main groups: i) traditional meteorological models, ii) energy fluxes balance models, considering interaction between vegetation and the atmosphere, and iii) remote sensing based models. The present analysis preliminary performs a study of fluxes directions and an evaluation of energy balance closure in a typical Mediterranean short vegetation area, using data series recorded from an eddy covariance station, located in the Campania region, Southern Italy. The analysis was performed on different seasons of the year with the aim to assess climatic forcing features impact on fluxes balance, to evaluate the smaller imbalance and to highlight influencing factors and sampling errors on balance closure. The present study also concerns evapotranspiration fluxes assessment at the point scale. Evapotranspiration is evaluated both from empirical relationships (Penmann-Montheit, Penmann F AO, Prestley&Taylor) calibrated with measured energy fluxes at mentioned experimental site, and from measured latent heat data scaled by the latent heat of vaporization. These results are compared with traditional and reliable well known models at the plot scale (Coutagne, Turc, Thorthwaite).

Problem of unstable pivots in the incomplete LU-conjugate gradient method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kershaw, D.S.

1978-01-01

Incomplete LU and incomplete-Cholesky conjugate gradient methods are becoming widely used in both laser and magnetic fusion research. In my original presentation of these methods, the problem of what to do if a pivot [L/sub ii/U/sub ii/) becomes very small or zero was raised and only partially answered by the suggestion that it be arbitrarily set to some non-zero value. In what follows it will be shown precisely how small the pivot can become before it must be fixed and precisely what value it should be set to in order to minimize the error in LU. Numerical examples will be given to show that not only does this prescription improve incomplete LU-conjugate gradient methods , but exact LU decomposition carried out with this prescription for handling small pivots and followed by a few linear or conjugate gradient iterations can be much faster than the permutations of rows and columns usually employed to circumvent small pivot problems

Tundish Cover Flux Thickness Measurement Method and Instrumentation Based on Computer Vision in Continuous Casting Tundish

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meng Lu

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Thickness of tundish cover flux (TCF plays an important role in continuous casting (CC steelmaking process. Traditional measurement method of TCF thickness is single/double wire methods, which have several problems such as personal security, easily affected by operators, and poor repeatability. To solve all these problems, in this paper, we specifically designed and built an instrumentation and presented a novel method to measure the TCF thickness. The instrumentation was composed of a measurement bar, a mechanical device, a high-definition industrial camera, a Siemens S7-200 programmable logic controller (PLC, and a computer. Our measurement method was based on the computer vision algorithms, including image denoising method, monocular range measurement method, scale invariant feature transform (SIFT, and image gray gradient detection method. Using the present instrumentation and method, images in the CC tundish can be collected by camera and transferred to computer to do imaging processing. Experiments showed that our instrumentation and method worked well at scene of steel plants, can accurately measure the thickness of TCF, and overcome the disadvantages of traditional measurement methods, or even replace the traditional ones.

Preconditioned conjugate-gradient methods for low-speed flow calculations

Science.gov (United States)

Ajmani, Kumud; Ng, Wing-Fai; Liou, Meng-Sing

1993-01-01

An investigation is conducted into the viability of using a generalized Conjugate Gradient-like method as an iterative solver to obtain steady-state solutions of very low-speed fluid flow problems. Low-speed flow at Mach 0.1 over a backward-facing step is chosen as a representative test problem. The unsteady form of the two dimensional, compressible Navier-Stokes equations is integrated in time using discrete time-steps. The Navier-Stokes equations are cast in an implicit, upwind finite-volume, flux split formulation. The new iterative solver is used to solve a linear system of equations at each step of the time-integration. Preconditioning techniques are used with the new solver to enhance the stability and convergence rate of the solver and are found to be critical to the overall success of the solver. A study of various preconditioners reveals that a preconditioner based on the Lower-Upper Successive Symmetric Over-Relaxation iterative scheme is more efficient than a preconditioner based on Incomplete L-U factorizations of the iteration matrix. The performance of the new preconditioned solver is compared with a conventional Line Gauss-Seidel Relaxation (LGSR) solver. Overall speed-up factors of 28 (in terms of global time-steps required to converge to a steady-state solution) and 20 (in terms of total CPU time on one processor of a CRAY-YMP) are found in favor of the new preconditioned solver, when compared with the LGSR solver.

Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient methods for low speed flow calculations

Science.gov (United States)

Ajmani, Kumud; Ng, Wing-Fai; Liou, Meng-Sing

1993-01-01

An investigation is conducted into the viability of using a generalized Conjugate Gradient-like method as an iterative solver to obtain steady-state solutions of very low-speed fluid flow problems. Low-speed flow at Mach 0.1 over a backward-facing step is chosen as a representative test problem. The unsteady form of the two dimensional, compressible Navier-Stokes equations are integrated in time using discrete time-steps. The Navier-Stokes equations are cast in an implicit, upwind finite-volume, flux split formulation. The new iterative solver is used to solve a linear system of equations at each step of the time-integration. Preconditioning techniques are used with the new solver to enhance the stability and the convergence rate of the solver and are found to be critical to the overall success of the solver. A study of various preconditioners reveals that a preconditioner based on the lower-upper (L-U)-successive symmetric over-relaxation iterative scheme is more efficient than a preconditioner based on incomplete L-U factorizations of the iteration matrix. The performance of the new preconditioned solver is compared with a conventional line Gauss-Seidel relaxation (LGSR) solver. Overall speed-up factors of 28 (in terms of global time-steps required to converge to a steady-state solution) and 20 (in terms of total CPU time on one processor of a CRAY-YMP) are found in favor of the new preconditioned solver, when compared with the LGSR solver.

Momentum-weighted conjugate gradient descent algorithm for gradient coil optimization.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Hanbing; Jesmanowicz, Andrzej; Li, Shi-Jiang; Hyde, James S

2004-01-01

MRI gradient coil design is a type of nonlinear constrained optimization. A practical problem in transverse gradient coil design using the conjugate gradient descent (CGD) method is that wire elements move at different rates along orthogonal directions (r, phi, z), and tend to cross, breaking the constraints. A momentum-weighted conjugate gradient descent (MW-CGD) method is presented to overcome this problem. This method takes advantage of the efficiency of the CGD method combined with momentum weighting, which is also an intrinsic property of the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, to adjust step sizes along the three orthogonal directions. A water-cooled, 12.8 cm inner diameter, three axis torque-balanced gradient coil for rat imaging was developed based on this method, with an efficiency of 2.13, 2.08, and 4.12 mT.m(-1).A(-1) along X, Y, and Z, respectively. Experimental data demonstrate that this method can improve efficiency by 40% and field uniformity by 27%. This method has also been applied to the design of a gradient coil for the human brain, employing remote current return paths. The benefits of this design include improved gradient field uniformity and efficiency, with a shorter length than gradient coil designs using coaxial return paths. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Effect of flux discontinuity on spatial approximations for discrete ordinates methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duo, J.I.; Azmy, Y.Y.

2005-01-01

This work presents advances on error analysis of the spatial approximation of the discrete ordinates method for solving the neutron transport equation. Error norms for different non-collided flux problems over a two dimensional pure absorber medium are evaluated using three numerical methods. The problems are characterized by the incoming flux boundary conditions to obtain solutions with different level of differentiability. The three methods considered are the Diamond Difference (DD) method, the Arbitrarily High Order Transport method of the Nodal type (AHOT-N), and of the Characteristic type (AHOT-C). The last two methods are employed in constant, linear and quadratic orders of spatial approximation. The cell-wise error is computed as the difference between the cell-averaged flux computed by each method and the exact value, then the L 1 , L 2 , and L ∞ error norms are calculated. The results of this study demonstrate that the level of differentiability of the exact solution profoundly affects the rate of convergence of the numerical methods' solutions. Furthermore, in the case of discontinuous exact flux the methods fail to converge in the maximum error norm, or in the pointwise sense, in accordance with previous local error analysis. (authors)

Classical convective energy transport in large gradient regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hinton, F.L.

1996-01-01

Large gradients in density and temperature occur near the edge in H-mode plasmas and in the core of tokamak plasmas with negative central shear. Transport in these regions may be comparable to neoclassical. Standard neoclassical theory does not apply when the gradient lengths are comparable to an ion orbit excursion, or banana width. A basic question for neoclassical transport in large gradient regions is: do ion-ion collisions drive particle transport? Near the plasma edge in H-mode, where ion orbit loss requires that the ion energy transport be convective, neoclassical particle transport due to ion-ion collisions may play an important role. In negative central shear plasmas, where transport is inferred to be near neoclassical, it is important to have accurate predictions for the neoclassical rate of energy and particle transport. A simple 2-D slab model has been used, with a momentum-conserving collision operator, to show that ion-ion collisions do drive particle transport. When the gradients are large, the open-quotes field particleclose quotes contribution to the particle flux is non-local, and does not cancel the open-quotes test particleclose quotes contribution, which is local. Solutions of the kinetic equation are found which show that the steepness of the density profile, for increasing particle flux, is limited by orbit averaging. The gradient length is limited by the thermal gyroradius, and the convective energy flux is independent of ion temperature. This will allow an ion thermal runaway to occur, if there are no other ion energy loss mechanisms

Comparison between different methods of measurement of momentum and sensible heat fluxes over canopies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marc Aubinet

1997-01-01

Full Text Available Différent methods of measurement of momentum and sensible heat flux densifies are presented and compared above a gras covered fallow. The aerodynamic (AD and eddy covariance (EC methods are presented and compared for both momentum and sensible heat measurements. In addition, the temperature fluctuation (TF method is compared to the HEC method for the sensible heat flux measurement. The AD and EC methods are in good agreement for the momentum flux measurements. For the sensible heat flux, the AD method is very sensible to temperature errors. So it is unusable during night and gives biased estimations during the day. The TF method gives only estimations of the sensible heat flux. It is in good agreement with the EC method during the day but diverges completely during night, being unable to disceming positive from négative fluxes. From the three methods, the EC method is the sole that allows to measure continuously both momentum and sensible heat flux but it requires a loud data treatment. We présent in this paper the algorithm used for this treatment.

Application of the gradient method to Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robledo, L. M.; Bertsch, G. F.

2011-01-01

A computer code is presented for solving the equations of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) theory by the gradient method, motivated by the need for efficient and robust codes to calculate the configurations required by extensions of the HFB theory, such as the generator coordinate method. The code is organized with a separation between the parts that are specific to the details of the Hamiltonian and the parts that are generic to the gradient method. This permits total flexibility in choosing the symmetries to be imposed on the HFB solutions. The code solves for both even and odd particle-number ground states, with the choice determined by the input data stream. Application is made to the nuclei in the sd shell using the universal sd-shell interaction B (USDB) shell-model Hamiltonian.

Accelerated gradient methods for constrained image deblurring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bonettini, S; Zanella, R; Zanni, L; Bertero, M

2008-01-01

In this paper we propose a special gradient projection method for the image deblurring problem, in the framework of the maximum likelihood approach. We present the method in a very general form and we give convergence results under standard assumptions. Then we consider the deblurring problem and the generality of the proposed algorithm allows us to add a energy conservation constraint to the maximum likelihood problem. In order to improve the convergence rate, we devise appropriate scaling strategies and steplength updating rules, especially designed for this application. The effectiveness of the method is evaluated by means of a computational study on astronomical images corrupted by Poisson noise. Comparisons with standard methods for image restoration, such as the expectation maximization algorithm, are also reported.

Application of conjugate gradient method to Commix-1B three-dimensional momentum equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

King, J.B.; Domanus, H.

1987-01-01

Conjugate gradient method which is a special case of the variational method was implemented in the momentum section of the COMMIX-1B thermal hydraulics code. The comparisons between this method and the conventional iterative method of Successive Over Relation (S.O.R.) were made. Using COMMIX-1B, three steady state problems were analyzed. These problems were flow distribution in a scaled model of the Clinch River Fast Breeder Reactor outlet plenum, flow of coolant in the cold leg and downcomer of a PWR and isothermal air flow through a partially blocked pipe. It was found that if the conjugate gradient method is used, the execution time required to solve the resulting COMMIX-1B system of equations can be reduced by a factor of about 2 for the first two problems. For the isothermal air flow problem, the conjugate gradient method did not improve the execution time

Vapor flux and recrystallization during dry snow metamorphism under a steady temperature gradient as observed by time-lapse micro-tomography

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. R. Pinzer

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Dry snow metamorphism under an external temperature gradient is the most common type of recrystallization of snow on the ground. The changes in snow microstructure modify the physical properties of snow, and therefore an understanding of this process is essential for many disciplines, from modeling the effects of snow on climate to assessing avalanche risk. We directly imaged the microstructural changes in snow during temperature gradient metamorphism (TGM under a constant gradient of 50 K m⁻¹, using in situ time-lapse X-ray micro-tomography. This novel and non-destructive technique directly reveals the amount of ice that sublimates and is deposited during metamorphism, in addition to the exact locations of these phase changes. We calculated the average time that an ice volume stayed in place before it sublimated and found a characteristic residence time of 2–3 days. This means that most of the ice changes its phase from solid to vapor and back many times in a seasonal snowpack where similar temperature conditions can be found. Consistent with such a short timescale, we observed a mass turnover of up to 60% of the total ice mass per day. The concept of hand-to-hand transport for the water vapor flux describes the observed changes very well. However, we did not find evidence for a macroscopic vapor diffusion enhancement. The picture of {temperature gradient metamorphism} produced by directly observing the changing microstructure sheds light on the micro-physical processes and could help to improve models that predict the physical properties of snow.

Self-similar solutions for multi-species plasma mixing by gradient driven transport

Science.gov (United States)

Vold, E.; Kagan, G.; Simakov, A. N.; Molvig, K.; Yin, L.

2018-05-01

Multi-species transport of plasma ions across an initial interface between DT and CH is shown to exhibit self-similar species density profiles under 1D isobaric conditions. Results using transport theory from recent studies and using a Maxwell–Stephan multi-species approximation are found to be in good agreement for the self-similar mix profiles of the four ions under isothermal and isobaric conditions. The individual ion species mass flux and molar flux profile results through the mixing layer are examined using transport theory. The sum over species mass flux is confirmed to be zero as required, and the sum over species molar flux is related to a local velocity divergence needed to maintain pressure equilibrium during the transport process. The light ion species mass fluxes are dominated by the diagonal coefficients of the diffusion transport matrix, while for the heaviest ion species (C in this case), the ion flux with only the diagonal term is reduced by about a factor two from that using the full diffusion matrix, implying the heavy species moves more by frictional collisions with the lighter species than by its own gradient force. Temperature gradient forces were examined by comparing profile results with and without imposing constant temperature gradients chosen to be of realistic magnitude for ICF experimental conditions at a fuel-capsule interface (10 μm scale length or greater). The temperature gradients clearly modify the relative concentrations of the ions, for example near the fuel center, however the mixing across the fuel-capsule interface appears to be minimally influenced by the temperature gradient forces within the expected compression and burn time. Discussion considers the application of the self-similar profiles to specific conditions in ICF.

Conjugate Gradient like methods and their application to fixed source neutron diffusion problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suetomi, Eiichi; Sekimoto, Hiroshi

1989-01-01

This paper presents a number of fast iterative methods for solving systems of linear equations appearing in fixed source problems for neutron diffusion. We employed the conjugate gradient and conjugate residual methods. In order to accelerate the conjugate residual method, we proposed the conjugate residual squared method by transforming the residual polynomial of the conjugate residual method. Since the convergence of these methods depends on the spectrum of coefficient matrix, we employed the incomplete Choleski (IC) factorization and the modified IC (MIC) factorization as preconditioners. These methods were applied to some neutron diffusion problems and compared with the successive overrelaxation (SOR) method. The results of these numerical experiments showed superior convergence characteristics of the conjugate gradient like method with MIC factorization to the SOR method, especially for a problem involving void region. The CPU time of the MICCG, MICCR and MICCRS methods showed no great difference. In order to vectorize the conjugate gradient like methods based on (M)IC factorization, the hyperplane method was used and implemented on the vector computers, the HITAC S-820/80 and ETA10-E (one processor mode). Significant decrease of the CPU times was observed on the S-820/80. Since the scaled conjugate gradient (SCG) method can be vectorized with no manipulation, it was also compared with the above methods. It turned out the SCG method was the fastest with respect to the CPU times on the ETA10-E. These results suggest that one should implement suitable algorithm for different vector computers. (author)

Ionospheric forecasting model using fuzzy logic-based gradient descent method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Venkata Ratnam

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Space weather phenomena cause satellite to ground or satellite to aircraft transmission outages over the VHF to L-band frequency range, particularly in the low latitude region. Global Positioning System (GPS is primarily susceptible to this form of space weather. Faulty GPS signals are attributed to ionospheric error, which is a function of Total Electron Content (TEC. Importantly, precise forecasts of space weather conditions and appropriate hazard observant cautions required for ionospheric space weather observations are limited. In this paper, a fuzzy logic-based gradient descent method has been proposed to forecast the ionospheric TEC values. In this technique, membership functions have been tuned based on the gradient descent estimated values. The proposed algorithm has been tested with the TEC data of two geomagnetic storms in the low latitude station of KL University, Guntur, India (16.44°N, 80.62°E. It has been found that the gradient descent method performs well and the predicted TEC values are close to the original TEC measurements.

Quantitative comparison of in situ soil CO2 flux measurement methods

Science.gov (United States)

Jennifer D. Knoepp; James M. Vose

2002-01-01

Development of reliable regional or global carbon budgets requires accurate measurement of soil CO2 flux. We conducted laboratory and field studies to determine the accuracy and comparability of methods commonly used to measure in situ soil CO2 fluxes. Methods compared included CO2...

The higher order flux mapping method in large size PHWRs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kulkarni, A.K.; Balaraman, V.; Purandare, H.D.

1997-01-01

A new higher order method is proposed for obtaining flux map using single set of expansion mode. In this procedure, one can make use of the difference between predicted value of detector reading and their actual values for determining the strength of local fluxes around detector site. The local fluxes are arising due to constant perturbation changes (both extrinsic and intrinsic) taking place in the reactor. (author)

Optimization of gadolinium burnable poison loading by the conjugate gradients method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drumm, C.R.

1984-01-01

Improved use of burnable poison is suggested for pressurized water reactors (PWR's) to insure a sufficiently negative moderator temperature coefficient of reactivity for extended burnup cycles and low leakage refueling patterns. The use of gadolinium as a burnable poison can lead to large axial fluctuations in the power distribution through the cycle. The goal of this work is to determine the optimal axial distribution of gadolinium burnable poison in a PWR to overcome the axial fluctuations, yielding an improved power distribution. The conjugate gradients optimization method is used in this work because of the high degree of nonlinearity of the problem. The neutron diffusion and depletion equations are solved for a one-dimensional one-group core model. The state variables are the flux, the critical soluble boron concentration, and the burnup. The control variables are the number of gadolinium pins per assembly and the beginning-of-cycle gadolinium concentration, which determine the gadolinium cross section. Two separate objectives are considered: 1) to minimize the power peaking factor, which will minimize the capital cost of the plant; and 2) to maximize the cycle length, which will minimize the fuel cost for the plant. It is shown in this work that optimizing the gadolinium distribution can yield an improved power distribution

Ultrasonic wave propagation through aberrating layers: experimental verification of the conjugate gradient Rayleigh method

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ledoux, L.A.F.; Berkhoff, Arthur P.; Thijssen, J.M.

The Conjugate Gradient Rayleigh method for the calculation of acoustic reflection and transmission at a rough interface between two media was experimentally verified. The method is based on a continuous version of the conjugate gradient technique and plane-wave expansions. We measured the beam

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a conjugate gradient method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faber, V.; Manteuffel, T.

1984-01-01

The authors characterize the class CG(s) of matrices A for which the linear system Ax = b can be solved by an s-term conjugate gradient method. The authors show that, except for a few anomalies, the class CG(s) consists of matrices A for which conjugate gradient methods are already known. These matrices are the Hermitian matrices, A* = A, and the matrices of the form A = e/sup i theta/(dI + B), with B* = -B. 7 references

An analytical transport theory method for calculating flux distribution in slab cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdel Krim, M.S.

2001-01-01

A transport theory method for calculating flux distributions in slab fuel cell is described. Two coupled integral equations for flux in fuel and moderator are obtained; assuming partial reflection at moderator external boundaries. Galerkin technique is used to solve these equations. Numerical results for average fluxes in fuel and moderator and the disadvantage factor are given. Comparison with exact numerical methods, that is for total reflection moderator outer boundaries, show that the Galerkin technique gives accurate results for the disadvantage factor and average fluxes. (orig.)

Theoretical simulation of the dual-heat-flux method in deep body temperature measurements.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Ming; Chen, Wenxi

2010-01-01

Deep body temperature reveals individual physiological states, and is important in patient monitoring and chronobiological studies. An innovative dual-heat-flux method has been shown experimentally to be competitive with the conventional zero-heat-flow method in its performance, in terms of measurement accuracy and step response to changes in the deep temperature. We have utilized a finite element method to model and simulate the dynamic process of a dual-heat-flux probe in deep body temperature measurements to validate the fundamental principles of the dual-heat-flux method theoretically, and to acquire a detailed quantitative description of the thermal profile of the dual-heat-flux probe. The simulation results show that the estimated deep body temperature is influenced by the ambient temperature (linearly, at a maximum rate of 0.03 °C/°C) and the blood perfusion rate. The corresponding depth of the estimated temperature in the skin and subcutaneous tissue layer is consistent when using the dual-heat-flux probe. Insights in improving the performance of the dual-heat-flux method were discussed for further studies of dual-heat-flux probes, taking into account structural and geometric considerations.

Local structure of scalar flux in turbulent passive scalar mixing

Science.gov (United States)

Konduri, Aditya; Donzis, Diego

2012-11-01

Understanding the properties of scalar flux is important in the study of turbulent mixing. Classical theories suggest that it mainly depends on the large scale structures in the flow. Recent studies suggest that the mean scalar flux reaches an asymptotic value at high Peclet numbers, independent of molecular transport properties of the fluid. A large DNS database of isotropic turbulence with passive scalars forced with a mean scalar gradient with resolution up to 40963, is used to explore the structure of scalar flux based on the local topology of the flow. It is found that regions of small velocity gradients, where dissipation and enstrophy are small, constitute the main contribution to scalar flux. On the other hand, regions of very small scalar gradient (and scalar dissipation) become less important to the scalar flux at high Reynolds numbers. The scaling of the scalar flux spectra is also investigated. The k - 7 / 3 scaling proposed by Lumley (1964) is observed at high Reynolds numbers, but collapse is not complete. A spectral bump similar to that in the velocity spectrum is observed close to dissipative scales. A number of features, including the height of the bump, appear to reach an asymptotic value at high Schmidt number.

A new smoothing modified three-term conjugate gradient method for [Formula: see text]-norm minimization problem.

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Shouqiang; Chen, Miao

2018-01-01

We consider a kind of nonsmooth optimization problems with [Formula: see text]-norm minimization, which has many applications in compressed sensing, signal reconstruction, and the related engineering problems. Using smoothing approximate techniques, this kind of nonsmooth optimization problem can be transformed into a general unconstrained optimization problem, which can be solved by the proposed smoothing modified three-term conjugate gradient method. The smoothing modified three-term conjugate gradient method is based on Polak-Ribière-Polyak conjugate gradient method. For the Polak-Ribière-Polyak conjugate gradient method has good numerical properties, the proposed method possesses the sufficient descent property without any line searches, and it is also proved to be globally convergent. Finally, the numerical experiments show the efficiency of the proposed method.

A Spatial-Temporal Comparison of Lake Mendota CO2 Fluxes and Collection Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Baldocchi, A. K.; Reed, D. E.; Desai, A. R.; Loken, L. C.; Schramm, P.; Stanley, E. H.

2017-12-01

Monitoring of carbon fluxes at the lake/atmosphere interface can help us determine baselines from which to understand responses in both space and time that may result from our warming climate or increasing nutrient inputs. Since recent research has shown lakes to be hotspots of global carbon cycling, it is important to quantify carbon sink and source dynamics as well as to verify observations between multiple methods in the context of long-term data collection efforts. Here we evaluate a new method for measuring space and time variation in CO2 fluxes based on novel speedboat-based collection method of aquatic greenhouse gas concentrations and a flux computation and interpolation algorithm. Two-hundred and forty-nine consecutive days of spatial flux maps over the 2016 open ice period were compared to ongoing eddy covariance tower flux measurements on the shore of Lake Mendota, Wisconsin US using a flux footprint analysis. Spatial and temporal alignments of the fluxes from these two observational datasets revealed both similar trends from daily to seasonal timescales as well as biases between methods. For example, throughout the Spring carbon fluxes showed strong correlation although off by an order of magnitude. Isolating physical patterns of agreement between the two methods of the lake/atmosphere CO2 fluxes allows us to pinpoint where biology and physical drivers contribute to the global carbon cycle and help improve modelling of lakes and utilize lakes as leading indicators of climate change.

A punctual flux estimator and reactions rates optimization in neutral particles transport calculus by the Monte Carlo method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Authier, N.

1998-12-01

One of the questions asked in radiation shielding problems is the estimation of the radiation level in particular to determine accessibility of working persons in controlled area (nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel reprocessing plants) or to study the dose gradients encountered in material (iron nuclear vessel, medical therapy, electronics in satellite). The flux and reaction rate estimators used in Monte Carlo codes give average values in volumes or on surfaces of the geometrical description of the system. But in certain configurations, the knowledge of punctual deposited energy and dose estimates are necessary. The Monte Carlo estimate of the flux at a point of interest is a calculus which presents an unbounded variance. The central limit theorem cannot be applied thus no easy confidence level may be calculated. The convergence rate is then very poor. We propose in this study a new solution for the photon flux at a point estimator. The method is based on the 'once more collided flux estimator' developed earlier for neutron calculations. It solves the problem of the unbounded variance and do not add any bias to the estimation. We show however that our new sampling schemes specially developed to treat the anisotropy of the photon coherent scattering is necessary for a good and regular behavior of the estimator. This developments integrated in the TRIPOLI-4 Monte Carlo code add the possibility of an unbiased punctual estimate on media interfaces. (author)

HIRFL-SSC trim coil currents calculation by conjugate gradients method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, W.

2005-01-01

For accelerating different kinds of ions to various energies, the HIRFL-SSC should form the corresponding isochronous magnetic field by its main coil and trim coils. Previously, there were errors in fitting the theoretical isochronous magnetic field in the small radius region, which led to some operation difficulties for ion acceleration in the inject region. After further investigation of the restrictive condition of the maximum current limitation, the trim coil currents for fitting the theoretical isochronous magnetic field were recalculated by the conjugate gradients method. Better results were obtained in the operation of HIRFL-SSC. This article introduces the procedure to calculate the trim coil currents. The calculation method of conjugate gradients is introduced and the fitting error is analysed. (author)

Fluxes of Nitrous Acid (HONO) above an Agricultural Field Side near Paris

Science.gov (United States)

Laufs, S.; Cazaunau, M.; Stella, P.; Loubet, B.; Kurtenbach, R.; Cellier, P.; Mellouki, W.; Kleffmann, J.

2012-04-01

HONO is an important precursor of the OH radical, the detergent of the atmosphere. Field measurements show high diurnal HONO mixing ratios that cannot be explained by chemical models with known gas phase chemistry. Therefore, daytime sources of HONO are still under discussion. During the last decade many experimental investigation were performed to study heterogeneous production of HONO like the photo enhanced reduction of NO2 on humic acids or photolysis of HNO3 on surfaces. Recently, nitrite produced by bacteria, present in soil, was discussed as a source of HONO as well. In addition gas phase sources like the photolysis of nitrophenols, or the reaction of excited NO2 are discussed. Gradient measurements show high mixing ratios of HONO even above the boundary layer. However, beside intensive investigations on the sources of HONO, it is still an open question whether heterogeneous or gas phase sources are more important in the atmosphere. Flux measurements could represent a method to find the origin of missing sources of HONO. Until now instruments are not sensitive and fast enough to do Eddy correlation measurements for HONO. Alternatively, HONO fluxes are estimated by the Aerodynamic Gradient (AGM), or Relaxed Eddy Accumulation (REA) methods. Here we present HONO fluxes estimated by AGM and the LOPAP technique (Long Path Absorption Photometer) above an agricultural field in Grignon, Paris (48°51'N, 1°58'E). Fluxes during different seasons and different types of vegetations including bare soil will be presented and compared with chemical corrected fluxes of NO, NO2 and O3, or other parameters.

Accurate conjugate gradient methods for families of shifted systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eshof, J. van den; Sleijpen, G.L.G.

We present an efficient and accurate variant of the conjugate gradient method for solving families of shifted systems. In particular we are interested in shifted systems that occur in Tikhonov regularization for inverse problems since these problems can be sensitive to roundoff errors. The

Reduction of inward momentum flux by damped eigenmodes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terry, P. W.; Baver, D. A.; Hatch, D. R.

2009-01-01

The inward momentum flux driven by the off-diagonal pressure gradient in a fluid model for ion temperature gradient turbulence with large Richardson number is significantly reduced by the excitation of stable eigenmodes. This is accomplished primarily through the amplitude autocorrelation of the damped eigenmode, which, in the flux, directly counteracts the quasilinear contribution of the unstable eigenmode. Stable eigenmode cross correlations also contribute to the flux, but the symmetry of conjugate pairing of growing and damped eigenmodes leads to significant cancellations between cross correlation terms. Conjugate symmetry is a property of unstable wavenumbers but applies to the whole of the saturated state because damped eigenmodes in the unstable range prevent the spread of energy outside that range. The heat and momentum fluxes are nearly isomorphous when expressed in terms of the eigenmode correlations. Due to this similarity of form, the thermodynamic constraint, which keeps the heat flux outward even when significantly reduced by the damped eigenmode, results in a momentum flux that remains inward, even though it is also reduced by the damped eigenmode. The isomorphism is not perfect. When the contribution of stable eigenmode cross correlations to the flux do not cancel, the momentum flux can reverse sign and become outward.

Use of a preconditioned Bi-conjugate gradient method for hybrid plasma stability analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mikic, Z.; Morse, E.C.

1985-01-01

The numerical stability analysis of compact toroidal plasmas using implicit time differencing requires the solution of a set of coupled, 2-dimensional, elliptic partial differential equations for the field quantities at every timestep. When the equations are spatially finite-differenced and written in matrix form, the resulting matrix is large, sparse, complex, non-Hermitian, and indefinite. The use of the preconditioned bi-conjugate gradient method for solving these equations is discussed. The effect of block-diagonal preconditioning and incomplete block-LU preconditionig on the convergence of the method is investigated. For typical matrices arising in our studies, the eigenvalue spectra of the original and preconditioned matrices are calculated as an illustration of the effectiveness of the preconditioning. We show that the preconditioned bi-conjugate gradient method coverages more rapidly than the conjugate gradient method applied to the normal equations, and that it is an effective iterative method for the class of non-Hermitian, indefinite problems of interest

Multiobjective flux balancing using the NISE method for metabolic network analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Young-Gyun; Lee, Dong-Yup; Lee, Sang Yup; Park, Sunwon

2009-01-01

Flux balance analysis (FBA) is well acknowledged as an analysis tool of metabolic networks in the framework of metabolic engineering. However, FBA has a limitation for solving a multiobjective optimization problem which considers multiple conflicting objectives. In this study, we propose a novel multiobjective flux balance analysis method, which adapts the noninferior set estimation (NISE) method (Solanki et al., 1993) for multiobjective linear programming (MOLP) problems. NISE method can generate an approximation of the Pareto curve for conflicting objectives without redundant iterations of single objective optimization. Furthermore, the flux distributions at each Pareto optimal solution can be obtained for understanding the internal flux changes in the metabolic network. The functionality of this approach is shown by applying it to a genome-scale in silico model of E. coli. Multiple objectives for the poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) [P(3HB)] production are considered simultaneously, and relationships among them are identified. The Pareto curve for maximizing succinic acid production vs. maximizing biomass production is used for the in silico analysis of various combinatorial knockout strains. This proposed method accelerates the strain improvement in the metabolic engineering by reducing computation time of obtaining the Pareto curve and analysis time of flux distribution at each Pareto optimal solution. (c) 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2009.

Effect of chamber enclosure time on soil respiration flux: A comparison of linear and non-linear flux calculation methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kandel, Tanka P; Lærke, Poul Erik; Elsgaard, Lars

2016-01-01

One of the shortcomings of closed chamber methods for soil respiration (SR) measurements is the decreased CO2 diffusion rate from soil to chamber headspace that may occur due to increased chamber CO2 concentrations. This feedback on diffusion rate may lead to underestimation of pre-deployment flu......One of the shortcomings of closed chamber methods for soil respiration (SR) measurements is the decreased CO2 diffusion rate from soil to chamber headspace that may occur due to increased chamber CO2 concentrations. This feedback on diffusion rate may lead to underestimation of pre...... was placed on fixed collars, and CO2 concentration in the chamber headspace were recorded at 1-s intervals for 45 min. Fluxes were measured in different soil types (sandy, sandy loam and organic soils), and for various manipulations (tillage, rain and drought) and soil conditions (temperature and moisture......) to obtain a range of fluxes with different shapes of flux curves. The linear method provided more stable flux results during short enclosure times (few min) but underestimated initial fluxes by 15–300% after 45 min deployment time. Non-linear models reduced the underestimation as average underestimation...

The annual ammonia budget of fertilised cut grassland – Part 1: Micrometeorological flux measurements and emissions after slurry application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Spirig

2010-02-01

Full Text Available Two commercial ammonia (NH₃ analysers were customised to allow continuous measurements of vertical concentration gradients. The gradients were used to derive ammonia exchange fluxes above a managed grassland site at Oensingen (Switzerland by application of the aerodynamic gradient method. The measurements from July 2006 to October 2007 covered five complete growth-cut cycles and included six applications of liquid cattle slurry. The average accuracy of the flux measurements during unstable and near-neutral conditions was 20% and the detection limit was 10 ng NH₃ m⁻² s⁻¹. Hence the flux measurements are considered sufficiently accurate for studying typical NH₃ deposition rates over growing vegetation. Quantifying the overall emissions after slurry applications required the application of elaborate interpolations because of difficulties capturing the initial emissions during broadspreading of liquid manure. The emissions were also calculated with a mass balance method yielding similar fluxes. NH₃ losses after slurry application expressed as percentage of emitted nitrogen versus applied total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN varied between 4 and 19%, which is roughly a factor of three lower than the values for broadspreading of liquid manure in emission inventories. The comparatively low emission factors appear to be a consequence of the low dry matter content of the applied slurry and soil properties favouring ammonium adsorption.

Proton gradients and proton-dependent transport processes in the chloroplast

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricarda eHöhner

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Proton gradients are fundamental to chloroplast function. Across thylakoid membranes, the light induced proton gradient is essential for ATP synthesis. As a result of proton pumping into the thylakoid lumen, an alkaline stromal pH develops, which is required for full activation of pH-dependent Calvin Benson cycle enzymes. This implies that a pH gradient between the cytosol (pH 7 and the stroma (pH 8 is established upon illumination. To maintain this pH gradient chloroplasts actively extrude protons. More than 30 years ago it was already established that these proton fluxes are electrically counterbalanced by Mg2+, K+ or Cl- fluxes, but only recently the first transport systems that regulate the pH gradient were identified. Notably several (Na+,K+/H+ antiporter systems where identified, that play a role in pH gradient regulation, ion homeostasis, osmoregulation, or coupling of secondary active transport. The established pH gradients are important to drive uptake of essential ions and solutes, but not many transporters involved have been identified to date. In this mini review we summarize the current status in the field and the open questions that need to be addressed in order to understand how pH gradients are maintained, how this is interconnected with other transport processes and what this means for chloroplast function.

Improved vertical streambed flux estimation using multiple diurnal temperature methods in series

Science.gov (United States)

Irvine, Dylan J.; Briggs, Martin A.; Cartwright, Ian; Scruggs, Courtney; Lautz, Laura K.

2017-01-01

Analytical solutions that use diurnal temperature signals to estimate vertical fluxes between groundwater and surface water based on either amplitude ratios (Ar) or phase shifts (Δϕ) produce results that rarely agree. Analytical solutions that simultaneously utilize Ar and Δϕ within a single solution have more recently been derived, decreasing uncertainty in flux estimates in some applications. Benefits of combined (ArΔϕ) methods also include that thermal diffusivity and sensor spacing can be calculated. However, poor identification of either Ar or Δϕ from raw temperature signals can lead to erratic parameter estimates from ArΔϕ methods. An add-on program for VFLUX 2 is presented to address this issue. Using thermal diffusivity selected from an ArΔϕ method during a reliable time period, fluxes are recalculated using an Ar method. This approach maximizes the benefits of the Ar and ArΔϕ methods. Additionally, sensor spacing calculations can be used to identify periods with unreliable flux estimates, or to assess streambed scour. Using synthetic and field examples, the use of these solutions in series was particularly useful for gaining conditions where fluxes exceeded 1 m/d.

3-D numerical investigation of subsurface flow in anisotropic porous media using multipoint flux approximation method

KAUST Repository

Negara, Ardiansyah

2013-01-01

Anisotropy of hydraulic properties of subsurface geologic formations is an essential feature that has been established as a consequence of the different geologic processes that they undergo during the longer geologic time scale. With respect to petroleum reservoirs, in many cases, anisotropy plays significant role in dictating the direction of flow that becomes no longer dependent only on the pressure gradient direction but also on the principal directions of anisotropy. Furthermore, in complex systems involving the flow of multiphase fluids in which the gravity and the capillarity play an important role, anisotropy can also have important influences. Therefore, there has been great deal of motivation to consider anisotropy when solving the governing conservation laws numerically. Unfortunately, the two-point flux approximation of finite difference approach is not capable of handling full tensor permeability fields. Lately, however, it has been possible to adapt the multipoint flux approximation that can handle anisotropy to the framework of finite difference schemes. In multipoint flux approximation method, the stencil of approximation is more involved, i.e., it requires the involvement of 9-point stencil for the 2-D model and 27-point stencil for the 3-D model. This is apparently challenging and cumbersome when making the global system of equations. In this work, we apply the equation-type approach, which is the experimenting pressure field approach that enables the solution of the global problem breaks into the solution of multitude of local problems that significantly reduce the complexity without affecting the accuracy of numerical solution. This approach also leads in reducing the computational cost during the simulation. We have applied this technique to a variety of anisotropy scenarios of 3-D subsurface flow problems and the numerical results demonstrate that the experimenting pressure field technique fits very well with the multipoint flux approximation

Tabular method of critical heat flux description in square packing rod bundles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bobkov, V.P.; Smogalev, I.P.

2003-01-01

Elaborations of harnessing tabular method for the description and calculation of critical heat fluxes in square packing rod bundles are presented. The tabular method for fuel rod triangular assemblies derived from using basic table for critical heat fluxes in triangular fuel assemblies demonstrates good results. For the harnessing tabular method in square packing rod bundles correction functions reflecting specific geometry were found. Comparative evaluations of calculated values for the critical heat fluxes with experimental ones are presented. Good agreement of calculations with experiments is noted in all range of parameters [ru

Digital signal processing control of induction machine`s torque and stator flux utilizing the direct stator flux field orientation method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Seiz, Julie Burger [Union College, Schenectady, NY (United States)

1997-04-01

This paper presents a review of the Direct Stator Flux Field Orientation control method. This method can be used to control an induction motor`s torque and flux directly and is the application of interest for this thesis. This control method is implemented without the traditional feedback loops and associated hardware. Predictions are made, by mathematical calculations, of the stator voltage vector. The voltage vector is determined twice a switching period. The switching period is fixed throughout the analysis. The three phase inverter duty cycle necessary to control the torque and flux of the induction machine is determined by the voltage space vector Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technique. Transient performance of either the flux or torque requires an alternate modulation scheme which is also addressed in this thesis. A block diagram of this closed loop system is provided. 22 figs., 7 tabs.

General Method to Determine the Flux of Charged Molecules through Nanopores Applied to β-Lactamase Inhibitors and OmpF.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghai, Ishan; Pira, Alessandro; Scorciapino, Mariano Andrea; Bodrenko, Igor; Benier, Lorraine; Ceccarelli, Matteo; Winterhalter, Mathias; Wagner, Richard

2017-03-16

A major challenge in the discovery of the new antibiotics against Gram-negative bacteria is to achieve sufficiently fast permeation in order to avoid high doses causing toxic side effects. So far, suitable assays for quantifying the uptake of charged antibiotics into bacteria are lacking. We apply an electrophysiological zero-current assay using concentration gradients of β-lactamase inhibitors combined with single-channel conductance to quantify their flux rates through OmpF. Molecular dynamic simulations provide in addition details on the interactions between the nanopore wall and the charged solutes. In particular, the interaction barrier for three β-lactamase inhibitors is surprisingly as low as 3-5 kcal/mol and only slightly above the diffusion barrier of ions such as chloride. Within our macroscopic constant field model, we determine that at a zero-membrane potential a concentration gradient of 10 μM of avibactam, sulbactam, or tazobactam can create flux rates of roughly 620 molecules/s per OmpF trimer.

A new gradient monochromator for the IN13 back-scattering spectrometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ciampolini, L.; Bove, L.E.; Mondelli, C.; Alianelli, L.; Labbe-Lavigne, S.; Natali, F.; Bee, M.; Deriu, A.

2005-01-01

We present new McStas simulations of the back-scattering thermal neutron spectrometer IN13 to evaluate the advantages of a new temperature gradient monochromator relative to a conventional one. The simulations show that a flux gain up to a factor 7 can be obtained with just a 10% loss in energy resolution and a 20% increase in beam spot size at the sample. The results also indicate that a moderate applied temperature gradient (ΔT∼16K) is sufficient to obtain this significant flux gain. n

Gradient augmented level set method for phase change simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Anumolu, Lakshman; Trujillo, Mario F.

2018-01-01

A numerical method for the simulation of two-phase flow with phase change based on the Gradient-Augmented-Level-set (GALS) strategy is presented. Sharp capturing of the vaporization process is enabled by: i) identification of the vapor-liquid interface, Γ (t), at the subgrid level, ii) discontinuous treatment of thermal physical properties (except for μ), and iii) enforcement of mass, momentum, and energy jump conditions, where the gradients of the dependent variables are obtained at Γ (t) and are consistent with their analytical expression, i.e. no local averaging is applied. Treatment of the jump in velocity and pressure at Γ (t) is achieved using the Ghost Fluid Method. The solution of the energy equation employs the sub-grid knowledge of Γ (t) to discretize the temperature Laplacian using second-order one-sided differences, i.e. the numerical stencil completely resides within each respective phase. To carefully evaluate the benefits or disadvantages of the GALS approach, the standard level set method is implemented and compared against the GALS predictions. The results show the expected trend that interface identification and transport are predicted noticeably better with GALS over the standard level set. This benefit carries over to the prediction of the Laplacian and temperature gradients in the neighborhood of the interface, which are directly linked to the calculation of the vaporization rate. However, when combining the calculation of interface transport and reinitialization with two-phase momentum and energy, the benefits of GALS are to some extent neutralized, and the causes for this behavior are identified and analyzed. Overall the additional computational costs associated with GALS are almost the same as those using the standard level set technique.

Boundary layers affected by different pressure gradients investigated computationally by a zonal RANS-LES method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roidl, B.; Meinke, M.; Schröder, W.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Reformulated synthetic turbulence generation method (RSTGM) is applied. • Zonal RANS-LES method is applied to boundary layers at pressure gradients. • Good agreement with the pure LES and other reference data is obtained. • The RSTGM is applicable to pressure gradient flows without modification. • RANS-to-LES boundary should be located where -1·10 6 6 is satisfied. -- Abstract: The reformulated synthetic turbulence generation (RSTG) method is used to compute by a fully coupled zonal RANS-LES approach turbulent non-zero-pressure gradient boundary layers. The quality of the RSTG method, which is based on the same shape functions and length scale distributions as in zero-pressure gradient flow, is discussed by comparing the zonal RANS-LES findings with pure LES, pure RANS, direct numerical simulation (DNS), and experimental data. For the favorable pressure gradient (FPG) simulation the RANS-to-LES transition occurs in the accelerated flow region and for the adverse pressure gradient (APG) case it is located in the decelerated flow region. The results of the time and spanwise averaged skin-friction distributions, velocity profiles, and Reynolds stress distributions of the zonal RANS-LES simulation show a satisfactory to good agreement with the pure LES, reference DNS, and experimental data. The quality of the findings shows that the rigorous formulation of the synthetic turbulence generation makes the RSTG method applicable without a priori knowledge of the flow properties but those determined by the RANS solution and without using additional control planes to regulate the shear stress budget to a wide range of Reynolds numbers and pressure gradients. The method is a promising approach to formulate embedded RANS-to-LES boundaries in flow regions where the Pohlhausen or acceleration parameter satisfies -1·10 -6 ⩽K⩽2·10 -6

Measurement of absolute neutron flux in LWSCR based on the nuclear track method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sadeghzadeh, J.; Nassiri Mofakham, N.; Khajehmiri, Z.

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Up to now the spectral parameters of thermal neutrons are measured with activation foils that are not always reliable in low flux systems. ► We applied a solid state nuclear track detector to measure the absolute neutron flux in the light water sub-critical reactor (LWSCR). ► Experiments concerning fission track detecting were performed and were investigated using the Monte Carlo code MCNP. ► The neutron fluxes obtained in experiment are in fairly good agreement with the results obtained by MCNP. - Abstract: In the present paper, a solid state nuclear track detector is applied to measure the absolute neutron flux in the light water sub-critical reactor (LWSCR) in Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute (NSTRI). Up to now, the spectral parameters of thermal neutrons have been measured with activation foils that are not always reliable in low flux systems. The method investigated here is the irradiation method. Experiments concerning fission track detecting were performed. The experiment including neutron flux calculation method has also been investigated using the Monte Carlo code MCNP. The analysis shows that the values of neutron flux obtained by experiment are in fairly good agreement with the results obtained by MCNP. Thus, this method may be able to predict the absolute value of neutron flux at LWSCR and other similar reactors.

Review of unfolding methods for neutron flux dosimetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stallmann, F.W.; Kam, F.B.K.

1975-01-01

The primary method in reactor dosimetry is the foil activation technique. To translate the activation measurements into neutron fluxes, a special data processing technique called unfolding is needed. Some general observations about the problems and the reliability of this approach to reactor dosimetry are presented. Current unfolding methods are reviewed. 12 references. (auth)

Two-wavelength Method Estimates Heat fluxes over Heterogeneous Surface in North-China

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, G.; Zheng, N.; Zhang, J.

2017-12-01

Heat fluxes is a key process of hydrological and heat transfer of soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (SPAC), and now it is becoming an important topic in meteorology, hydrology, ecology and other related research areas. Because the temporal and spatial variation of fluxes at regional scale is very complicated, it is still difficult to measure fluxes at the kilometer scale over a heterogeneous surface. A technique called "two-wavelength method" which combines optical scintillometer with microwave scintillometer is able to measure both sensible and latent heat fluxes over large spatial scales at the same time. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the fluxes over non-uniform terrain in North-China. Estimation of heat fluxes was carried out with the optical-microwave scintillometer and an eddy covariance (EC) system over heterogeneous surface in Tai Hang Mountains, China. EC method was set as a benchmark in the study. Structure parameters obtained from scintillometer showed that the typical measurement values of Cn2 are around 10-13 m-2/3 for microwave scintillometer, and values of Cn2 were around 10-15 m-2/3 for optical scintillometer. The correlation of heat fluxes (H) derived from scintillometer and EC system showed as a ratio of 1.05,and with R2=0.75, while the correlation of latent heat fluxes (LE) showed as 1.29 with R2=0.67. It was also found that heat fluxes derived from the two system showed good agreement (R2=0.9 for LE, R2=0.97 for H) when the Bowen ratio (β) was 1.03, while discrepancies showed significantly when β=0.75, and RMSD in H was 139.22 W/m2, 230.85 W/m2 in LE respectively.Experiment results in our research shows that, the two-wavelength method gives a larger heat fluxes over the study area, and a deeper study should be conduct. We expect that our investigate and analysis can be promoted the application of scintillometry method in regional evapotranspiration measurements and relevant disciplines.

Boundedness and convergence of online gradient method with penalty for feedforward neural networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Huisheng; Wu, Wei; Liu, Fei; Yao, Mingchen

2009-06-01

In this brief, we consider an online gradient method with penalty for training feedforward neural networks. Specifically, the penalty is a term proportional to the norm of the weights. Its roles in the method are to control the magnitude of the weights and to improve the generalization performance of the network. By proving that the weights are automatically bounded in the network training with penalty, we simplify the conditions that are required for convergence of online gradient method in literature. A numerical example is given to support the theoretical analysis.

An M-step preconditioned conjugate gradient method for parallel computation

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, L.

1983-01-01

This paper describes a preconditioned conjugate gradient method that can be effectively implemented on both vector machines and parallel arrays to solve sparse symmetric and positive definite systems of linear equations. The implementation on the CYBER 203/205 and on the Finite Element Machine is discussed and results obtained using the method on these machines are given.

Flux-limited diffusion models in radiation hydrodynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pomraning, G.C.; Szilard, R.H.

1993-01-01

The authors discuss certain flux-limited diffusion theories which approximately describe radiative transfer in the presence of steep spatial gradients. A new formulation is presented which generalizes a flux-limited description currently in widespread use for large radiation hydrodynamic calculations. This new formation allows more than one Case discrete mode to be described by a flux-limited diffusion equation. Such behavior is not extant in existing formulations. Numerical results predicted by these flux-limited diffusion models are presented for radiation penetration into an initially cold halfspace. 37 refs., 5 figs

Variationally derived coarse mesh methods using an alternative flux representation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wojtowicz, G.; Holloway, J.P.

1995-01-01

Investigation of a previously reported variational technique for the solution of the 1-D, 1-group neutron transport equation in reactor lattices has inspired the development of a finite element formulation of the method. Compared to conventional homogenization methods in which node homogenized cross sections are used, the coefficients describing this system take on greater spatial dependence. However, the methods employ an alternative flux representation which allows the transport equation to be cast into a form whose solution has only a slow spatial variation and, hence, requires relatively few variables to describe. This alternative flux representation and the stationary property of a variational principle define a class of coarse mesh discretizations of transport theory capable of achieving order of magnitude reductions of eigenvalue and pointwise scalar flux errors as compared with diffusion theory while retaining diffusion theory's relatively low cost. Initial results of a 1-D spectral element approach are reviewed and used to motivate the finite element implementation which is more efficient and almost as accurate; one and two group results of this method are described

Conjugate-gradient preconditioning methods for shift-variant PET image reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Fessler, J A; Booth, S D

1999-01-01

Gradient-based iterative methods often converge slowly for tomographic image reconstruction and image restoration problems, but can be accelerated by suitable preconditioners. Diagonal preconditioners offer some improvement in convergence rate, but do not incorporate the structure of the Hessian matrices in imaging problems. Circulant preconditioners can provide remarkable acceleration for inverse problems that are approximately shift-invariant, i.e., for those with approximately block-Toeplitz or block-circulant Hessians. However, in applications with nonuniform noise variance, such as arises from Poisson statistics in emission tomography and in quantum-limited optical imaging, the Hessian of the weighted least-squares objective function is quite shift-variant, and circulant preconditioners perform poorly. Additional shift-variance is caused by edge-preserving regularization methods based on nonquadratic penalty functions. This paper describes new preconditioners that approximate more accurately the Hessian matrices of shift-variant imaging problems. Compared to diagonal or circulant preconditioning, the new preconditioners lead to significantly faster convergence rates for the unconstrained conjugate-gradient (CG) iteration. We also propose a new efficient method for the line-search step required by CG methods. Applications to positron emission tomography (PET) illustrate the method.

Heat flux estimation in an infrared experimental furnace using an inverse method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Le Bideau, P.; Ploteau, J.P.; Glouannec, P.

2009-01-01

Infrared emitters are widely used in industrial furnaces for thermal treatment. In these processes, the knowledge of the incident heat flux on the surface of the product is a primary step to optimise the command emitters and for maintenance shift. For these reasons, it is necessary to develop autonomous flux meters that could provide an answer to these requirements. These sensors must give an in-line distribution of infrared irradiation in the tunnel furnace and must be able to measure high heat flux in severe thermal environments. In this paper we present a method for in-line assessments solving an inverse heat conduction problem. A metallic mass is instrumented by thermocouples and an inverse method allows the incident heat flux to be estimated. In the first part, attention is focused on a new design tool, which is a numerical code, for the evaluation of potential options during captor conception. In the second part we present the realization and the test of this 'indirect' flux meter and its associated inverse problem. 'Direct' detectors based on thermoelectric devices are compared with this new flux meter in the same conditions in the same furnace. Results prove that this technique is a reliable method, appropriate for high temperature ambiances. This technique can be applied to furnaces where the heat flux is inaccessible to 'direct' measurements.

Conjugate gradient type methods for linear systems with complex symmetric coefficient matrices

Science.gov (United States)

Freund, Roland

1989-01-01

We consider conjugate gradient type methods for the solution of large sparse linear system Ax equals b with complex symmetric coefficient matrices A equals A(T). Such linear systems arise in important applications, such as the numerical solution of the complex Helmholtz equation. Furthermore, most complex non-Hermitian linear systems which occur in practice are actually complex symmetric. We investigate conjugate gradient type iterations which are based on a variant of the nonsymmetric Lanczos algorithm for complex symmetric matrices. We propose a new approach with iterates defined by a quasi-minimal residual property. The resulting algorithm presents several advantages over the standard biconjugate gradient method. We also include some remarks on the obvious approach to general complex linear systems by solving equivalent real linear systems for the real and imaginary parts of x. Finally, numerical experiments for linear systems arising from the complex Helmholtz equation are reported.

Efficient two-level preconditionined conjugate gradient method on the GPU

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gupta, R.; Van Gijzen, M.B.; Vuik, K.

2011-01-01

We present an implementation of Two-Level Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient Method for the GPU. We investigate a Truncated Neumann Series based preconditioner in combination with deflation and compare it with Block Incomplete Cholesky schemes. This combination exhibits fine-grain parallelism and

Two-level preconditioned conjugate gradient methods with applications to bubbly flow problems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tang, J.M.

2008-01-01

The Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (PCG) method is one of the most popular iterative methods for solving large linear systems with a symmetric and positive semi-definite coefficient matrix. However, if the preconditioned coefficient matrix is ill-conditioned, the convergence of the PCG method

A scalar flux - oriented method for the transport equation in slab geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Budd, C.

1981-01-01

A new method for solving the neutron transport equation is described. An unusual feature of this method is that it deals principally with scalar fluxes rather than angular fluxes. An alternative approach in slab geometry promises to be cheaper to run and does not suffer from many of the problems of the discrete ordinates method. It also appears possible to extend the method to several dimensions and this is discussed. (U.K.)

A projection gradient method for computing ground state of spin-2 Bose–Einstein condensates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Hanquan, E-mail: hanquan.wang@gmail.com [School of Statistics and Mathematics, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming, Yunnan Province, 650221 (China); Yunnan Tongchang Scientific Computing and Data Mining Research Center, Kunming, Yunnan Province, 650221 (China)

2014-10-01

In this paper, a projection gradient method is presented for computing ground state of spin-2 Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC). We first propose the general projection gradient method for solving energy functional minimization problem under multiple constraints, in which the energy functional takes real functions as independent variables. We next extend the method to solve a similar problem, where the energy functional now takes complex functions as independent variables. We finally employ the method into finding the ground state of spin-2 BEC. The key of our method is: by constructing continuous gradient flows (CGFs), the ground state of spin-2 BEC can be computed as the steady state solution of such CGFs. We discretized the CGFs by a conservative finite difference method along with a proper way to deal with the nonlinear terms. We show that the numerical discretization is normalization and magnetization conservative and energy diminishing. Numerical results of the ground state and their energy of spin-2 BEC are reported to demonstrate the effectiveness of the numerical method.

A projection gradient method for computing ground state of spin-2 Bose–Einstein condensates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Hanquan

2014-01-01

In this paper, a projection gradient method is presented for computing ground state of spin-2 Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC). We first propose the general projection gradient method for solving energy functional minimization problem under multiple constraints, in which the energy functional takes real functions as independent variables. We next extend the method to solve a similar problem, where the energy functional now takes complex functions as independent variables. We finally employ the method into finding the ground state of spin-2 BEC. The key of our method is: by constructing continuous gradient flows (CGFs), the ground state of spin-2 BEC can be computed as the steady state solution of such CGFs. We discretized the CGFs by a conservative finite difference method along with a proper way to deal with the nonlinear terms. We show that the numerical discretization is normalization and magnetization conservative and energy diminishing. Numerical results of the ground state and their energy of spin-2 BEC are reported to demonstrate the effectiveness of the numerical method

Comparison of WindTrax and flux-gradient technique in determining PM10 emission rates from a beef cattle feedlot

Science.gov (United States)

Several emission estimation methods can be used to determine emission fluxes from ground-level area sources, including open-lot beef cattle feedlots. This research determined PM10 emission fluxes from a commercial cattle feedlot in Kansas using WindTrax, a backward Lagrangian stochastic-based atmosp...

A passive apparatus for controlled-flux delivery of biocides: hydrogen peroxide as an example

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Stefan Møller; Pedersen, L.T.; Dam-Johansen, Kim

2010-01-01

A new test method has been developed to estimate the required release rate of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to prevent marine biofouling. The technique exploits a well-defined concentration gradient of biocide across a cellulose acetate membrane. A controlled flux of H2O2, an environmentally friendly ...

Flux form Semi-Lagrangian methods for parabolic problems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bonaventura Luca

2016-09-01

Full Text Available A semi-Lagrangian method for parabolic problems is proposed, that extends previous work by the authors to achieve a fully conservative, flux-form discretization of linear and nonlinear diffusion equations. A basic consistency and stability analysis is proposed. Numerical examples validate the proposed method and display its potential for consistent semi-Lagrangian discretization of advection diffusion and nonlinear parabolic problems.

Accelerated gradient methods for total-variation-based CT image reconstruction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Jakob Heide; Jensen, Tobias Lindstrøm; Hansen, Per Christian

2011-01-01

incorporates several heuristics from the optimization literature such as Barzilai-Borwein (BB) step size selection and nonmonotone line search. The latter uses a cleverly chosen sequence of auxiliary points to achieve a better convergence rate. The methods are memory efficient and equipped with a stopping...... reconstruction can in principle be found by any optimization method, but in practice the large scale of the systems arising in CT image reconstruction preclude the use of memory-demanding methods such as Newton’s method. The simple gradient method has much lower memory requirements, but exhibits slow convergence...

On the solution of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov equations by the conjugate gradient method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Egido, J.L.; Robledo, L.M.

1995-01-01

The conjugate gradient method is formulated in the Hilbert space for density and non-density dependent Hamiltonians. We apply it to the solution of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov equations with constraints. As a numerical application we show calculations with the finite range density dependent Gogny force. The number of iterations required to reach convergence is reduced by a factor of three to four as compared with the standard gradient method. (orig.)

Quantitative method for measuring heat flux emitted from a cryogenic object

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, R.V.

1993-03-16

The present invention is a quantitative method for measuring the total heat flux, and of deriving the total power dissipation, of a heat-fluxing object which includes the steps of placing an electrical noise-emitting heat-fluxing object in a liquid helium bath and measuring the superfluid transition temperature of the bath. The temperature of the liquid helium bath is thereafter reduced until some measurable parameter, such as the electrical noise, exhibited by the heat-fluxing object or a temperature-dependent resistive thin film in intimate contact with the heat-fluxing object, becomes greatly reduced. The temperature of the liquid helum bath is measured at this point. The difference between the superfluid transition temperature of the liquid helium bath surrounding the heat-fluxing object, and the temperature of the liquid helium bath when the electrical noise emitted by the heat-fluxing object becomes greatly reduced, is determined. The total heat flux from the heat-fluxing object is determined as a function of this difference between these temperatures. In certain applications, the technique can be used to optimize thermal design parameters of cryogenic electronics, for example, Josephson junction and infrared sensing devices.

Quantitative method for measuring heat flux emitted from a cryogenic object

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duncan, R.V.

1993-01-01

The present invention is a quantitative method for measuring the total heat flux, and of deriving the total power dissipation, of a heat-fluxing object which includes the steps of placing an electrical noise-emitting heat-fluxing object in a liquid helium bath and measuring the superfluid transition temperature of the bath. The temperature of the liquid helium bath is thereafter reduced until some measurable parameter, such as the electrical noise, exhibited by the heat-fluxing object or a temperature-dependent resistive thin film in intimate contact with the heat-fluxing object, becomes greatly reduced. The temperature of the liquid helum bath is measured at this point. The difference between the superfluid transition temperature of the liquid helium bath surrounding the heat-fluxing object, and the temperature of the liquid helium bath when the electrical noise emitted by the heat-fluxing object becomes greatly reduced, is determined. The total heat flux from the heat-fluxing object is determined as a function of this difference between these temperatures. In certain applications, the technique can be used to optimize thermal design parameters of cryogenic electronics, for example, Josephson junction and infrared sensing devices

Flux-weakening control methods for hybrid excitation synchronous motor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mingming Huang

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The hybrid excitation synchronous motor (HESM, which aim at combining the advantages of permanent magnet motor and wound excitation motor, have the characteristics of low-speed high-torque hill climbing and wide speed range. Firstly, a new kind of HESM is presented in the paper, and its structure and mathematical model are illustrated. Then, based on a space voltage vector control, a novel flux-weakening method for speed adjustment in the high speed region is presented. The unique feature of the proposed control method is that the HESM driving system keeps the q-axis back-EMF components invariable during the flux-weakening operation process. Moreover, a copper loss minimization algorithm is adopted to reduce the copper loss of the HESM in the high speed region. Lastly, the proposed method is validated by the simulation and the experimental results.

Analysis and performance estimation of the Conjugate Gradient method on multiple GPUs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verschoor, M.; Jalba, A.C.

2012-01-01

The Conjugate Gradient (CG) method is a widely-used iterative method for solving linear systems described by a (sparse) matrix. The method requires a large amount of Sparse-Matrix Vector (SpMV) multiplications, vector reductions and other vector operations to be performed. We present a number of

Characteristics of low-frequency oscillation intensity of airsea turbulent heat fluxes over the northwest Pacific

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2009-01-01

Based on the daily turbulent heat fluxes and related meteorological variables datasets (1985-2006) from Objectively Analyzed air-sea Fluxes (OAFlux) Project of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), characteristics of low-frequency oscillation intensity of air-sea turbulent heat fluxes over the northwest Pacific are analyzed by linear perturbation method and correlation analysis. It can be concluded that: 1) the distribution of low-frequency oscillation intensity of latent heat flux (LHF) over the northwest Pacific is mainly affected by that of low-frequency oscillation intensity of anomalous air-sea humidity gradient (Δq′) as well as mean air-sea humidity gradient ( Δ q), while the distribution of low-frequency oscillation intensity of sensible heat flux (SHF) is mainly affected by that of low-frequency oscillation intensity of anomalous air-sea temperature gradient (ΔT′). 2) The low-frequency oscillation of turbulent heat fluxes over the northwest Pacific is the strongest in winter and the weakest in summer. And the seasonal transition of low-frequency oscillation intensity of LHF is jointly influenced by those of low-frequency oscillation intensity of Δq′, low-frequency oscillation intensity of anomalous wind speed (U′), Δ q and mean wind speed (U ), while the seasonal transition of low-frequency oscillation intensity of SHF is mainly influenced by those of low-frequency oscillation intensity of ΔT′ and U . 3) Over the tropical west Pacific and sea areas north of 20°N, the low-frequency oscillation of LHF (SHF) is mainly influenced by atmospheric variables qa′ (Ta′) and U′, indicating an oceanic response to overlying atmospheric forcing. In contrast, over the tropical eastern and central Pacific south of 20°N, qs′ (Ts′) also greatly influences the low-frequency oscillation of LHF (SHF).

Deflation in preconditioned conjugate gradient methods for Finite Element Problems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vermolen, F.J.; Vuik, C.; Segal, A.

2002-01-01

We investigate the influence of the value of deflation vectors at interfaces on the rate of convergence of preconditioned conjugate gradient methods applied to a Finite Element discretization for an elliptic equation. Our set-up is a Poisson problem in two dimensions with continuous or discontinuous

Gradient Calculation Methods on Arbitrary Polyhedral Unstructured Meshes for Cell-Centered CFD Solvers

Science.gov (United States)

Sozer, Emre; Brehm, Christoph; Kiris, Cetin C.

2014-01-01

A survey of gradient reconstruction methods for cell-centered data on unstructured meshes is conducted within the scope of accuracy assessment. Formal order of accuracy, as well as error magnitudes for each of the studied methods, are evaluated on a complex mesh of various cell types through consecutive local scaling of an analytical test function. The tests highlighted several gradient operator choices that can consistently achieve 1st order accuracy regardless of cell type and shape. The tests further offered error comparisons for given cell types, leading to the observation that the "ideal" gradient operator choice is not universal. Practical implications of the results are explored via CFD solutions of a 2D inviscid standing vortex, portraying the discretization error properties. A relatively naive, yet largely unexplored, approach of local curvilinear stencil transformation exhibited surprisingly favorable properties

Comparison of ecosystem water flux measured with the Eddy covariance- and the direct xylem sap flux method in a mountainous forest

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stefanicki, G; Geissbuehler, P; Siegwolf, R [Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland)

1999-08-01

The Eddy covariance technique allows to measure different components of turbulent air fluxes, including the flow of water vapour. Sap flux measurements determine directly the water flow in tree stems. We compared the water flux just above the crowns of trees in a forest by the technique of Eddy covariance and the water flux by the xylem sap flux method. These two completely different approaches showed a good qualitative correspondence. The correlation coefficient is 0.8. With an estimation of the crown diameter of the measured tree we also find a very good quantitative agreement. (author) 3 figs., 5 refs.

Extension of Modified Polak-Ribière-Polyak Conjugate Gradient Method to Linear Equality Constraints Minimization Problems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhifeng Dai

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Combining the Rosen gradient projection method with the two-term Polak-Ribière-Polyak (PRP conjugate gradient method, we propose a two-term Polak-Ribière-Polyak (PRP conjugate gradient projection method for solving linear equality constraints optimization problems. The proposed method possesses some attractive properties: (1 search direction generated by the proposed method is a feasible descent direction; consequently the generated iterates are feasible points; (2 the sequences of function are decreasing. Under some mild conditions, we show that it is globally convergent with Armijio-type line search. Preliminary numerical results show that the proposed method is promising.

Theoretical analysis of integral neutron transport equation using collision probability method with quadratic flux approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shafii, Mohammad Ali; Meidianti, Rahma; Wildian,; Fitriyani, Dian; Tongkukut, Seni H. J.; Arkundato, Artoto

2014-01-01

Theoretical analysis of integral neutron transport equation using collision probability (CP) method with quadratic flux approach has been carried out. In general, the solution of the neutron transport using the CP method is performed with the flat flux approach. In this research, the CP method is implemented in the cylindrical nuclear fuel cell with the spatial of mesh being conducted into non flat flux approach. It means that the neutron flux at any point in the nuclear fuel cell are considered different each other followed the distribution pattern of quadratic flux. The result is presented here in the form of quadratic flux that is better understanding of the real condition in the cell calculation and as a starting point to be applied in computational calculation

Theoretical analysis of integral neutron transport equation using collision probability method with quadratic flux approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shafii, Mohammad Ali, E-mail: mashafii@fmipa.unand.ac.id; Meidianti, Rahma, E-mail: mashafii@fmipa.unand.ac.id; Wildian,, E-mail: mashafii@fmipa.unand.ac.id; Fitriyani, Dian, E-mail: mashafii@fmipa.unand.ac.id [Department of Physics, Andalas University Padang West Sumatera Indonesia (Indonesia); Tongkukut, Seni H. J. [Department of Physics, Sam Ratulangi University Manado North Sulawesi Indonesia (Indonesia); Arkundato, Artoto [Department of Physics, Jember University Jember East Java Indonesia (Indonesia)

2014-09-30

Theoretical analysis of integral neutron transport equation using collision probability (CP) method with quadratic flux approach has been carried out. In general, the solution of the neutron transport using the CP method is performed with the flat flux approach. In this research, the CP method is implemented in the cylindrical nuclear fuel cell with the spatial of mesh being conducted into non flat flux approach. It means that the neutron flux at any point in the nuclear fuel cell are considered different each other followed the distribution pattern of quadratic flux. The result is presented here in the form of quadratic flux that is better understanding of the real condition in the cell calculation and as a starting point to be applied in computational calculation.

Structural complexity and land-surface energy exchange along a gradient from arctic tundra to boreal forest

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, C.; Beringer, J.; Chapin, F. S.; McGuire, A.D.

2004-01-01

Question: Current climate changes in the Alaskan Arctic, which are characterized by increases in temperature and length of growing season, could alter vegetation structure, especially through increases in shrub cover or the movement of treeline. These changes in vegetation structure have consequences for the climate system. What is the relationship between structural complexity and partitioning of surface energy along a gradient from tundra through shrub tundra to closed canopy forest? Location: Arctic tundra-boreal forest transition in the Alaskan Arctic. Methods: Along this gradient of increasing canopy complexity, we measured key vegetation characteristics, including community composition, biomass, cover, height, leaf area index and stem area index. We relate these vegetation characteristics to albedo and the partitioning of net radiation into ground, latent, and sensible heating fluxes. Results: Canopy complexity increased along the sequence from tundra to forest due to the addition of new plant functional types. This led to non-linear changes in biomass, cover, and height in the understory. The increased canopy complexity resulted in reduced ground heat fluxes, relatively conserved latent heat fluxes and increased sensible heat fluxes. The localized warming associated with increased sensible heating over more complex canopies may amplify regional warming, causing further vegetation change in the Alaskan Arctic.

Full magnetic gradient tensor from triaxial aeromagnetic gradient measurements: Calculation and application

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Yao; Wu, Mei-Ping; Wang, Ping; Duan, Shu-Ling; Liu, Hao-Jun; Wang, Jin-Long; An, Zhan-Feng

2015-09-01

The full magnetic gradient tensor (MGT) refers to the spatial change rate of the three field components of the geomagnetic field vector along three mutually orthogonal axes. The tensor is of use to geological mapping, resources exploration, magnetic navigation, and others. However, it is very difficult to measure the full magnetic tensor gradient using existing engineering technology. We present a method to use triaxial aeromagnetic gradient measurements for deriving the full MGT. The method uses the triaxial gradient data and makes full use of the variation of the magnetic anomaly modulus in three dimensions to obtain a self-consistent magnetic tensor gradient. Numerical simulations show that the full MGT data obtained with the proposed method are of high precision and satisfy the requirements of data processing. We selected triaxial aeromagnetic gradient data from the Hebei Province for calculating the full MGT. Data processing shows that using triaxial tensor gradient data allows to take advantage of the spatial rate of change of the total field in three dimensions and suppresses part of the independent noise in the aeromagnetic gradient. The calculated tensor components have improved resolution, and the transformed full tensor gradient satisfies the requirement of geological mapping and interpretation.

Diamagnetic flux measurement in Aditya tokamak

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kumar, Sameer; Jha, Ratneshwar; Lal, Praveen; Hansaliya, Chandresh; Gopalkrishna, M. V.; Kulkarni, Sanjay; Mishra, Kishore

2010-01-01

Measurements of diamagnetic flux in Aditya tokamak for different discharge conditions are reported for the first time. The measured diamagnetic flux in a typical discharge is less than 0.6 mWb and therefore it has required careful compensation for various kinds of pick-ups. The hardware and software compensations employed in this measurement are described. We introduce compensation of a pick-up due to plasma current of less than 20 kA in short duration discharges, in which plasma pressure gradient is supposed to be negligible. The flux measurement during radio frequency heating is also presented in order to validate compensation.

TORT/MCNP coupling method for the calculation of neutron flux around a core of BWR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kurosawa, M.

2005-01-01

For the analysis of BWR neutronics performance, accurate data are required for neutron flux distribution over the In-Reactor Pressure Vessel equipments taking into account the detailed geometrical arrangement. The TORT code can calculate neutron flux around a core of BWR in a three-dimensional geometry model, but has difficulties in fine geometrical modelling and lacks huge computer resource. On the other hand, the MCNP code enables the calculation of the neutron flux with a detailed geometry model, but requires very long sampling time to give enough number of particles. Therefore, a TORT/MCNP coupling method has been developed to eliminate the two problems mentioned above in each code. In this method, the TORT code calculates angular flux distribution on the core surface and the MCNP code calculates neutron spectrum at the points of interest using the flux distribution. The coupling method will be used as the DOT-DOMINO-MORSE code system. This TORT/MCNP coupling method was applied to calculate the neutron flux at points where induced radioactivity data were measured for 54 Mn and 60 Co and the radioactivity calculations based on the neutron flux obtained from the above method were compared with the measured data. (authors)

TORT/MCNP coupling method for the calculation of neutron flux around a core of BWR.

Science.gov (United States)

Kurosawa, Masahiko

2005-01-01

For the analysis of BWR neutronics performance, accurate data are required for neutron flux distribution over the In-Reactor Pressure Vessel equipments taking into account the detailed geometrical arrangement. The TORT code can calculate neutron flux around a core of BWR in a three-dimensional geometry model, but has difficulties in fine geometrical modelling and lacks huge computer resource. On the other hand, the MCNP code enables the calculation of the neutron flux with a detailed geometry model, but requires very long sampling time to give enough number of particles. Therefore, a TORT/MCNP coupling method has been developed to eliminate the two problems mentioned above in each code. In this method, the TORT code calculates angular flux distribution on the core surface and the MCNP code calculates neutron spectrum at the points of interest using the flux distribution. The coupling method will be used as the DOT-DOMINO-MORSE code system. This TORT/MCNP coupling method was applied to calculate the neutron flux at points where induced radioactivity data were measured for 54Mn and 60Co and the radioactivity calculations based on the neutron flux obtained from the above method were compared with the measured data.

Flux-based Enrichment Ratios of Throughfall and Stemflow Found to Vary Significantly within Urban Fragments and Along an Urban-to-Rural Gradient

Science.gov (United States)

Dowtin, A. L.; Levia, D. F., Jr.

2017-12-01

Throughfall and stemflow are important inputs of water and solutes to forest soils in both rural and urban forests. In metropolitan wooded ecosystems, a number of factors can affect flux-based enrichment ratios, including combustion of fossil fuels and proximity to industry. Use of flux-based enrichment ratios provides a means by which this modification of net precipitation chemistry can be quantified for both throughfall and stemflow, and allows for a characterization of the relative contributions of stemflow and throughfall in the delivery of nutrients and pollutants to forest soils. This study utilizes five mixed deciduous forest stands along an urban-to-rural gradient (3 urban fragments, 1 suburban fragment, and a portion of 1 contiguous rural forest) within a medium-sized metropolitan region of the United States' Northeast megalopolis, to determine how the size, shape, structure, and geographic context of remnant forest fragments determine hydrologic and solute fluxes within them. In situ observations of throughfall and stemflow (the latter of which is limited to Quercus rubra and Quercus alba) within each study plot allow for an identification and characterization of the spatial variability in solute fluxes within and between the respective sites. Preliminary observations indicate significant intra-site variability in solute concentrations as observed in both throughfall and stemflow, with higher concentrations along the respective windward edges of the study plots than at greater depths into their interiors. Higher flux-based stemflow enrichment ratios, for both Q. rubra and Q. alba, were also evident for certain ions (i.e., S2-, NO3-) in the urban forest fragments, with significantly lower ratios observed at the suburban and rural sites. Findings from this research are intended to aid in quantifying the spatial variability of the hydrologic and hydrochemical ecosystem service provisions of remnant metropolitan forest fragments. This research is supported in

A nonsmooth nonlinear conjugate gradient method for interactive contact force problems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Silcowitz, Morten; Abel, Sarah Maria Niebe; Erleben, Kenny

2010-01-01

of a nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP), which can be solved using an iterative splitting method, such as the projected Gauss–Seidel (PGS) method. We present a novel method for solving the NCP problem by applying a Fletcher–Reeves type nonlinear nonsmooth conjugate gradient (NNCG) type method. We analyze...... and present experimental convergence behavior and properties of the new method. Our results show that the NNCG method has at least the same convergence rate as PGS, and in many cases better....

A punctual flux estimator and reactions rates optimization in neutral particles transport calculus by the Monte Carlo method; Mise au point d'un estimateur ponctuel du flux et des taux de reactions dans les calculs de transport de particules neutres par la methode de monte carlo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Authier, N

1998-12-01

One of the questions asked in radiation shielding problems is the estimation of the radiation level in particular to determine accessibility of working persons in controlled area (nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel reprocessing plants) or to study the dose gradients encountered in material (iron nuclear vessel, medical therapy, electronics in satellite). The flux and reaction rate estimators used in Monte Carlo codes give average values in volumes or on surfaces of the geometrical description of the system. But in certain configurations, the knowledge of punctual deposited energy and dose estimates are necessary. The Monte Carlo estimate of the flux at a point of interest is a calculus which presents an unbounded variance. The central limit theorem cannot be applied thus no easy confidencelevel may be calculated. The convergence rate is then very poor. We propose in this study a new solution for the photon flux at a point estimator. The method is based on the 'once more collided flux estimator' developed earlier for neutron calculations. It solves the problem of the unbounded variance and do not add any bias to the estimation. We show however that our new sampling schemes specially developed to treat the anisotropy of the photon coherent scattering is necessary for a good and regular behavior of the estimator. This developments integrated in the TRIPOLI-4 Monte Carlo code add the possibility of an unbiased punctual estimate on media interfaces. (author)

A punctual flux estimator and reactions rates optimization in neutral particles transport calculus by the Monte Carlo method; Mise au point d'un estimateur ponctuel du flux et des taux de reactions dans les calculs de transport de particules neutres par la methode de monte carlo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Authier, N

1998-12-01

One of the questions asked in radiation shielding problems is the estimation of the radiation level in particular to determine accessibility of working persons in controlled area (nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel reprocessing plants) or to study the dose gradients encountered in material (iron nuclear vessel, medical therapy, electronics in satellite). The flux and reaction rate estimators used in Monte Carlo codes give average values in volumes or on surfaces of the geometrical description of the system. But in certain configurations, the knowledge of punctual deposited energy and dose estimates are necessary. The Monte Carlo estimate of the flux at a point of interest is a calculus which presents an unbounded variance. The central limit theorem cannot be applied thus no easy confidencelevel may be calculated. The convergence rate is then very poor. We propose in this study a new solution for the photon flux at a point estimator. The method is based on the 'once more collided flux estimator' developed earlier for neutron calculations. It solves the problem of the unbounded variance and do not add any bias to the estimation. We show however that our new sampling schemes specially developed to treat the anisotropy of the photon coherent scattering is necessary for a good and regular behavior of the estimator. This developments integrated in the TRIPOLI-4 Monte Carlo code add the possibility of an unbiased punctual estimate on media interfaces. (author)

$L_{0}$ Gradient Projection.

Science.gov (United States)

Ono, Shunsuke

2017-04-01

Minimizing L 0 gradient, the number of the non-zero gradients of an image, together with a quadratic data-fidelity to an input image has been recognized as a powerful edge-preserving filtering method. However, the L 0 gradient minimization has an inherent difficulty: a user-given parameter controlling the degree of flatness does not have a physical meaning since the parameter just balances the relative importance of the L 0 gradient term to the quadratic data-fidelity term. As a result, the setting of the parameter is a troublesome work in the L 0 gradient minimization. To circumvent the difficulty, we propose a new edge-preserving filtering method with a novel use of the L 0 gradient. Our method is formulated as the minimization of the quadratic data-fidelity subject to the hard constraint that the L 0 gradient is less than a user-given parameter α . This strategy is much more intuitive than the L 0 gradient minimization because the parameter α has a clear meaning: the L 0 gradient value of the output image itself, so that one can directly impose a desired degree of flatness by α . We also provide an efficient algorithm based on the so-called alternating direction method of multipliers for computing an approximate solution of the nonconvex problem, where we decompose it into two subproblems and derive closed-form solutions to them. The advantages of our method are demonstrated through extensive experiments.

New generalized conjugate gradient methods for the non-quadratic model in unconstrained optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Al-Bayati, A.

2001-01-01

This paper present two new conjugate gradient algorithms which use the non-quadratic model in unconstrained optimization. The first is a new generalized self-scaling variable metric algorithm based on the sloboda generalized conjugate gradient method which is invariant to a nonlinear scaling of a stricity convex quadratic function; the second is an interleaving between the generalized sloboda method and the first algorithm; all these algorithm use exact line searches. Numerical comparisons over twenty test functions show that the interleaving algorithm is best overall and requires only about half the function evaluations of the Sloboda method: interleaving algorithms are likely to be preferred when the dimensionality of the problem is increased. (author). 29 refs., 1 tab

A diffusion-theoretical method to calculate the neutron flux distribution in multisphere configurations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schuerrer, F.

1980-01-01

For characterizing heterogene configurations of pebble-bed reactors the fine structure of the flux distribution as well as the determination of the macroscopic neutronphysical quantities are of interest. When calculating system parameters of Wigner-Seitz-cells the usual codes for neutron spectra calculation always neglect the modulation of the neutron flux by the influence of neighbouring spheres. To judge the error arising from that procedure it is necessary to determinate the flux distribution in the surrounding of a spherical fuel element. In the present paper an approximation method to calculate the flux distribution in the two-sphere model is developed. This method is based on the exactly solvable problem of the flux determination of a point source of neutrons in an infinite medium, which contains a spherical perturbation zone eccentric to the point source. An iteration method allows by superposing secondary fields and alternately satisfying the conditions of continuity on the surface of each of the two fuel elements to advance to continually improving approximations. (orig.) 891 RW/orig. 892 CKA [de

A family of conjugate gradient methods for large-scale nonlinear equations.

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Dexiang; Sun, Min; Wang, Xueyong

2017-01-01

In this paper, we present a family of conjugate gradient projection methods for solving large-scale nonlinear equations. At each iteration, it needs low storage and the subproblem can be easily solved. Compared with the existing solution methods for solving the problem, its global convergence is established without the restriction of the Lipschitz continuity on the underlying mapping. Preliminary numerical results are reported to show the efficiency of the proposed method.

Characteristics of low-frequency oscillation intensity of air-sea turbulent heat fluxes over the northwest Pacific

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

LI Gen; REN BaoHua; ZHENG JianOiu; WANG Jun

2009-01-01

Based on the daily turbulent heat fluxes and related meteorological variables dataeets (1985-2006) from Objectively Analyzed air-sea Fluxes (OAFlux) Project of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), characteristics of low-frequency oscillation intensity of air-sea turbulent heat fluxes over the northwest Pacific are analyzed by linear perturbation method and correlation analysis. It can be concluded that: 1) the distribution of low-frequency oscillation intensity of latent heat flux (LHF) over the northwest Pacific is mainly affected by that of low-frequency oscillation intensity of anomalous air-eea humidity gradient (△q') as well as mean air-eea humidity gradient (△q), while the distribution of low-frequency oscillation Intensity of sensible heat flux (SHF) is mainly affected by that of low-frequency oscillation intensity of anomalous air-sea temperature gradient (△T'). 2) The low-frequency oscillation of turbulent heat fluxes over the northwest Pacific is the strongest in winter and the weakest in summer. And the seasonal transition of low-frequency oscillation intensity of LHF is jointly influenced by those of low-frequency oscillation intensity of △q', low-frequency oscillation intensity of anomalous wind speed (U'), △q and mean wind speed (U), while the seasonal transition of low-frequency oscillation intensity of SHF is mainly influenced by those of low-frequency oscillation Intensity of △T' and U. 3) Over the tropical west Pacific and sea areas north of 20ON, the low-frequency oscillation of LHF (SHF) is mainly influenced by atmospheric variables qa' (Ta') and U', indicating an oceanic response to overlying atmospheric forcing. In contrast, over the tropical eastern and central Pacific south of 20°N, qs' (Ts') also greatly influences the low-frequency oscillation of LHF (SHF).

Physics of Intrinsic Rotation in Flux-Driven ITG Turbulence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ku, S.; Abiteboul, J.; Dimond, P.H.; Dif-Pradalier, G.; Kwon, J.M.; Sarazin, Y.; Hahm, T.S.; Garbet, X.; Chang, C.S.; Latu, G.; Yoon, E.S.; Ghendrih, Ph.; Yi, S.; Strugarek, A.; Solomon, W.; Grandgirard, V.

2012-01-01

Global, heat flux-driven ITG gyrokinetic simulations which manifest the formation of macroscopic, mean toroidal flow profiles with peak thermal Mach number 0.05, are reported. Both a particle-in-cell (XGC1p) and a semi-Lagrangian (GYSELA) approach are utilized without a priori assumptions of scale-separation between turbulence and mean fields. Flux-driven ITG simulations with different edge flow boundary conditions show in both approaches the development of net unidirectional intrinsic rotation in the co-current direction. Intrinsic torque is shown to scale approximately linearly with the inverse scale length of the ion temperature gradient. External momentum input is shown to effectively cancel the intrinsic rotation profile, thus confirming the existence of a local residual stress and intrinsic torque. Fluctuation intensity, intrinsic torque and mean flow are demonstrated to develop inwards from the boundary. The measured correlations between residual stress and two fluctuation spectrum symmetry breakers, namely E x B shear and intensity gradient, are similar. Avalanches of (positive) heat flux, which propagate either outwards or inwards, are correlated with avalanches of (negative) parallel momentum flux, so that outward transport of heat and inward transport of parallel momentum are correlated and mediated by avalanches. The probability distribution functions of the outward heat flux and the inward momentum flux show strong structural similarity

Modifications of Steepest Descent Method and Conjugate Gradient Method Against Noise for Ill-posed Linear Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chein-Shan Liu

2012-04-01

Full Text Available It is well known that the numerical algorithms of the steepest descent method (SDM, and the conjugate gradient method (CGM are effective for solving well-posed linear systems. However, they are vulnerable to noisy disturbance for solving ill-posed linear systems. We propose the modifications of SDM and CGM, namely the modified steepest descent method (MSDM, and the modified conjugate gradient method (MCGM. The starting point is an invariant manifold defined in terms of a minimum functional and a fictitious time-like variable; however, in the final stage we can derive a purely iterative algorithm including an acceleration parameter. Through the Hopf bifurcation, this parameter indeed plays a major role to switch the situation of slow convergence to a new situation that the functional is stepwisely decreased very fast. Several numerical examples are examined and compared with exact solutions, revealing that the new algorithms of MSDM and MCGM have good computational efficiency and accuracy, even for the highly ill-conditioned linear equations system with a large noise being imposed on the given data.

Systems biology derived source-sink mechanism of BMP gradient formation.

Science.gov (United States)

Zinski, Joseph; Bu, Ye; Wang, Xu; Dou, Wei; Umulis, David; Mullins, Mary C

2017-08-09

A morphogen gradient of Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) signaling patterns the dorsoventral embryonic axis of vertebrates and invertebrates. The prevailing view in vertebrates for BMP gradient formation is through a counter-gradient of BMP antagonists, often along with ligand shuttling to generate peak signaling levels. To delineate the mechanism in zebrafish, we precisely quantified the BMP activity gradient in wild-type and mutant embryos and combined these data with a mathematical model-based computational screen to test hypotheses for gradient formation. Our analysis ruled out a BMP shuttling mechanism and a bmp transcriptionally-informed gradient mechanism. Surprisingly, rather than supporting a counter-gradient mechanism, our analyses support a fourth model, a source-sink mechanism, which relies on a restricted BMP antagonist distribution acting as a sink that drives BMP flux dorsally and gradient formation. We measured Bmp2 diffusion and found that it supports the source-sink model, suggesting a new mechanism to shape BMP gradients during development.

Performance comparison of a new hybrid conjugate gradient method under exact and inexact line searches

Science.gov (United States)

Ghani, N. H. A.; Mohamed, N. S.; Zull, N.; Shoid, S.; Rivaie, M.; Mamat, M.

2017-09-01

Conjugate gradient (CG) method is one of iterative techniques prominently used in solving unconstrained optimization problems due to its simplicity, low memory storage, and good convergence analysis. This paper presents a new hybrid conjugate gradient method, named NRM1 method. The method is analyzed under the exact and inexact line searches in given conditions. Theoretically, proofs show that the NRM1 method satisfies the sufficient descent condition with both line searches. The computational result indicates that NRM1 method is capable in solving the standard unconstrained optimization problems used. On the other hand, the NRM1 method performs better under inexact line search compared with exact line search.

Studying temporal and spatial variations of groundwater-surface water exchange flux for the Slootbeek (Belgium) using the LPML method

Science.gov (United States)

Anibas, Christian; Schneideweind, Uwe; Vandersteen, Gerd; Huysmans, Marijke; Batelaan, Okke

2015-04-01

Knowledge of groundwater-surface water interaction is important for the assessment of water resources and for the investigation of fate and transport of contaminants and nutrients. In streams and rivers exchange fluxes of water are sensitive to local and regional factors such as riverbed hydraulic conductivity and hydraulic gradients. Field monitoring in time and space is therefore indispensible for assessing the variability of groundwater-surface water interaction. Not only the complexity of the examined processes demand novel data processing and characterization tools, the amount of acquired data also urges for new modeling tools. These tools should be easily applicable, allow for a fast computation, and utilize the maximum amount of available data for detailed analysis, including uncertainties. Such analytical tools should be combined with modern field equipment, data processing tools, geographical information systems and geostatistics for best results. A simple and cost effective methodology to estimate groundwater-surface water interaction is the use of temperature as an environmental tracer (ANDERSON, 2005). LPML (VANDERSTEEN et al., 2014) is one of the most advanced analytical 1D coupled water flow and heat transport models, combining a local polynomial method with a maximum likelihood estimator. It is flexible, fast and able to create time series of exchange fluxes, as well as model quality and parameter uncertainty. LPML determines frequency response functions from measured temperature time series and an analytical model, and applies a non-linear optimization technique. With this tool the variability of groundwater-surface water interaction of the Belgian stream Slootbeek was assessed. Multilevel temperature sensors were placed in seven locations to obtain temperature-time series. Located at the streambed top and at six depths below, several months worth of data was collected and analyzed. Results identified a high spatial and temporal variability of

Research on n-γ discrimination method based on spectrum gradient analysis of signals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luo Xiaoliang; Liu Guofu; Yang Jun; Wang Yueke

2013-01-01

Having discovered that there are distinct differences between the spectrum gradient of the output neutron and γ-ray signal from liquid scintillator detectors, this paper presented a n-γ discrimination method called spectrum gradient analysis (SGA) based on frequency-domain features of the pulse signals. The basic principle and feasibility of SGA method were discussed and the validity of n-γ discrimination results of SGA was verified by the associated particle neutron flight experiment. The discrimination performance of SGA was evaluated under different conditions of sampling rates ranging from 5 G/s to 250 M/s. The results show that SGA method exhibits insensitivity to noise, strong anti-interference ability, stable discrimination performance and lower amount of calculation in contrast with time-domain n-γ discrimination methods. (authors)

MODIFIED ARMIJO RULE ON GRADIENT DESCENT AND CONJUGATE GRADIENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZURAIDAH FITRIAH

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Armijo rule is an inexact line search method to determine step size in some descent method to solve unconstrained local optimization. Modified Armijo was introduced to increase the numerical performance of several descent algorithms that applying this method. The basic difference of Armijo and its modified are in existence of a parameter and estimating the parameter that is updated in every iteration. This article is comparing numerical solution and time of computation of gradient descent and conjugate gradient hybrid Gilbert-Nocedal (CGHGN that applying modified Armijo rule. From program implementation in Matlab 6, it's known that gradient descent was applying modified Armijo more effectively than CGHGN from one side: iteration needed to reach some norm of the gradient  (input by the user. The amount of iteration was representing how long the step size of each algorithm in each iteration. In another side, time of computation has the same conclusion.

Inverse heat transfer analysis of a functionally graded fin to estimate time-dependent base heat flux and temperature distributions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Haw-Long; Chang, Win-Jin; Chen, Wen-Lih; Yang, Yu-Ching

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Time-dependent base heat flux of a functionally graded fin is inversely estimated. ► An inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle is applied. ► The distributions of temperature in the fin are determined as well. ► The influence of measurement error and measurement location upon the precision of the estimated results is also investigated. - Abstract: In this study, an inverse algorithm based on the conjugate gradient method and the discrepancy principle is applied to estimate the unknown time-dependent base heat flux of a functionally graded fin from the knowledge of temperature measurements taken within the fin. Subsequently, the distributions of temperature in the fin can be determined as well. It is assumed that no prior information is available on the functional form of the unknown base heat flux; hence the procedure is classified as the function estimation in inverse calculation. The temperature data obtained from the direct problem are used to simulate the temperature measurements. The influence of measurement errors and measurement location upon the precision of the estimated results is also investigated. Results show that an excellent estimation on the time-dependent base heat flux and temperature distributions can be obtained for the test case considered in this study.

Description of heat flux measurement methods used in hydrocarbon and propellant fuel fires at Sandia.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nakos, James Thomas

2010-12-01

The purpose of this report is to describe the methods commonly used to measure heat flux in fire applications at Sandia National Laboratories in both hydrocarbon (JP-8 jet fuel, diesel fuel, etc.) and propellant fires. Because these environments are very severe, many commercially available heat flux gauges do not survive the test, so alternative methods had to be developed. Specially built sensors include 'calorimeters' that use a temperature measurement to infer heat flux by use of a model (heat balance on the sensing surface) or by using an inverse heat conduction method. These specialty-built sensors are made rugged so they will survive the environment, so are not optimally designed for ease of use or accuracy. Other methods include radiometers, co-axial thermocouples, directional flame thermometers (DFTs), Sandia 'heat flux gauges', transpiration radiometers, and transverse Seebeck coefficient heat flux gauges. Typical applications are described and pros and cons of each method are listed.

A family of conjugate gradient methods for large-scale nonlinear equations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dexiang Feng

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract In this paper, we present a family of conjugate gradient projection methods for solving large-scale nonlinear equations. At each iteration, it needs low storage and the subproblem can be easily solved. Compared with the existing solution methods for solving the problem, its global convergence is established without the restriction of the Lipschitz continuity on the underlying mapping. Preliminary numerical results are reported to show the efficiency of the proposed method.

Global Convergence of a Spectral Conjugate Gradient Method for Unconstrained Optimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jinkui Liu

2012-01-01

Full Text Available A new nonlinear spectral conjugate descent method for solving unconstrained optimization problems is proposed on the basis of the CD method and the spectral conjugate gradient method. For any line search, the new method satisfies the sufficient descent condition gkTdk<−∥gk∥2. Moreover, we prove that the new method is globally convergent under the strong Wolfe line search. The numerical results show that the new method is more effective for the given test problems from the CUTE test problem library (Bongartz et al., 1995 in contrast to the famous CD method, FR method, and PRP method.

Tracking heat flux sensors for concentrating solar applications

Science.gov (United States)

Andraka, Charles E; Diver, Jr., Richard B

2013-06-11

Innovative tracking heat flux sensors located at or near the solar collector's focus for centering the concentrated image on a receiver assembly. With flux sensors mounted near a receiver's aperture, the flux gradient near the focus of a dish or trough collector can be used to precisely position the focused solar flux on the receiver. The heat flux sensors comprise two closely-coupled thermocouple junctions with opposing electrical polarity that are separated by a thermal resistor. This arrangement creates an electrical signal proportional to heat flux intensity, and largely independent of temperature. The sensors are thermally grounded to allow a temperature difference to develop across the thermal resistor, and are cooled by a heat sink to maintain an acceptable operating temperature.

Pellet by pellet neutron flux calculations coupled with nodal expansion method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aldo, Dall'Osso

2003-01-01

We present a technique whose aim is to replace 2-dimensional pin by pin de-homogenization, currently done in core reactor calculations with the nodal expansion method (NEM), by a 3-dimensional finite difference diffusion calculation. This fine calculation is performed as a zoom in each node taking as boundary conditions the results of the NEM calculations. The size of fine mesh is of the order of a fuel pellet. The coupling between fine and NEM calculations is realised by an albedo like boundary condition. Some examples are presented showing fine neutron flux shape near control rods or assembly grids. Other fine flux behaviour as the thermal flux rise in the fuel near the reflector is emphasised. In general the results show the interest of the method in conditions where the separability of radial and axial directions is not granted. (author)

Pilling evaluation of patterned fabrics based on a gradient field method

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Techniková, L.; Tunák, M.; Janáček, Jiří

2016-01-01

Roč. 41, č. 1 (2016), s. 97-101 ISSN 0971-0426 Institutional support: RVO:67985823 Keywords : 3D surface reconstruction * fabric pilling * gradient field method * patterned fabric * pills detection Subject RIV: JS - Reliability ; Quality Management, Testing Impact factor: 0.430, year: 2016

Flux schemes based finite volume method for internal transonic flow with condensation

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Halama, Jan; Benkhaldoun, F.; Fořt, J.

2011-01-01

Roč. 65, č. 8 (2011), s. 953-968 ISSN 0271-2091 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z20760514 Keywords : VFFC flux * SRNH flux * two-phase homogeneous flow * fractional step method * condensation Subject RIV: BK - Fluid Dynamics Impact factor: 1.176, year: 2011

Influence of displacement gradients on the interpretation of charged particle simulation experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garner, F.A.; Guthrie, G.L.

1975-08-01

Neutron flux and spectrum gradients are negligible within a single grain of structural materials in fusion reactors. In charged particle simulation, however, substantial gradients exist in the flux of displaced atoms (dpa) along the ion path, which is typically several microns or less in length. In interpretation of such experiments, one must account for the influence of variables that are atypical of the simulated environment. Experimental and modeling studies show that dpa gradients lead to gradients in microstructure, which in turn modify the effect of diffusion on the effective growth environment of voids and other defects. For some ions, these effects are overwhelmed by a phenomenon designated the ''internal temperature shift.'' Although the physical temperature is relatively invariant along the ion path, the temperature regime of swelling shifts as the displacement rate changes. The swelling vs. depth profile is altered substantially from that expected from the dpa profile, and the type of modification is dependent on the relation of the irradiation temperature to the peak swelling temperature at the mean displacement flux. Swelling profiles for a variety of simulations were analyzed and found to include the influence of surface denuded zones, incubation effects, diffusion, swelling-generated stresses and internal temperature shifts. The impact of the latter imposes restrictions on the interpretation of step height measurements and full range intercorrelations for high energy ions

Influence of displacement gradients on the interpretation of charged particle simulation experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garner, F.A.; Guthrie, G.L.

1976-01-01

Neutron flux and spectrum gradients are negligible within a single grain of structural materials in fusion reactors. In charged particle simulation, however, substantial gradients exist in the flux of displaced atoms (dpa) along the ion path, which is typically several microns or less in length. In interpretation of such experiments, one must account for the influence of variables that are atypical of the simulated environment. Experimental and modeling studies show that dpa gradients lead to gradients in microstructure, which in turn modify the effect of diffusion on the effective growth environment of voids and other defects. For some ions, these effects are overwhelmed by a phenomenon designated the ''internal temperature shift.'' Although the physical temperature is relatively invariant along the ion path, the temperature regime of swelling shifts as the displacement rate changes. The swelling vs. depth profile is altered substantially from that expected from the dpa profile, and the type of modification is dependent on the relation of the irradiation temperature to the peak swelling temperature at the mean displacement flux. Swelling profiles for a variety of simulations were analyzed and found to include the influence of surface denuded zones, incubation effects, diffusion, swelling-generated stresses and internal temperature shifts. The impact of the latter imposes restrictions on the interpretation of step height measurements and full range intercorrelations for high energy ions

Gas-Kinetic Theory Based Flux Splitting Method for Ideal Magnetohydrodynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Kun

1998-01-01

A gas-kinetic solver is developed for the ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations. The new scheme is based on the direct splitting of the flux function of the MHD equations with the inclusion of "particle" collisions in the transport process. Consequently, the artificial dissipation in the new scheme is much reduced in comparison with the MHD Flux Vector Splitting Scheme. At the same time, the new scheme is compared with the well-developed Roe-type MHD solver. It is concluded that the kinetic MHD scheme is more robust and efficient than the Roe- type method, and the accuracy is competitive. In this paper the general principle of splitting the macroscopic flux function based on the gas-kinetic theory is presented. The flux construction strategy may shed some light on the possible modification of AUSM- and CUSP-type schemes for the compressible Euler equations, as well as to the development of new schemes for a non-strictly hyperbolic system.

Comparison of sap flux, moisture flux tower and MODIS enhanced vegetation index methods for estimating riparian evapotranspiration

Science.gov (United States)

Nagler, Pamela L.; Glenn, Edward P.; Morino, Kiyomi; Neale, Christopher M.U; Cosh, Michael H.

2010-01-01

Riparian evapotranspiration (ET) was measured on a salt cedar (Tamarix spp.) dominated river terrace on the Lower Colorado River from 2007 to 2009 using tissue-heat-balance sap flux sensors at six sites representing very dense, medium dense, and sparse stands of plants. Salt cedar ET varied markedly across sites, and sap flux sensors showed that plants were subject to various degrees of stress, detected as mid-day depression of transpiration and stomatal conductance. Sap flux results were scaled from the leaf level of measurement to the stand level by measuring plant-specific leaf area index and fractional ground cover at each site. Results were compared to Bowen ratio moisture tower data available for three of the sites. Sap flux sensors and flux tower results ranked the sites the same and had similar estimates of ET. A regression equation, relating measured ET of salt cedar and other riparian plants and crops on the Lower Colorado River to the Enhanced Vegetation Index from the MODIS sensor on the Terra satellite and reference crop ET measured at meteorological stations, was able to predict actual ET with an accuracy or uncertainty of about 20%, despite between-site differences for salt cedar. Peak summer salt cedar ET averaged about 6 mm d-1 across sites and methods of measurement.

Temperature gradient driven electron transport in NSTX and Tore Supra

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horton, W.; Wong, H.V.; Morrison, P.J.; Wurm, A.; Kim, J.H.; Perez, J.C.; Pratt, J.; Hoang, G.T.; LeBlanc, B.P.; Ball, R.

2005-01-01

Electron thermal fluxes are derived from the power balance for Tore Supra (TS) and NSTX discharges with centrally deposited fast wave electron heating. Measurements of the electron temperature and density profiles, combined with ray tracing computations of the power absorption profiles, allow detailed interpretation of the thermal flux versus temperature gradient. Evidence supporting the occurrence of electron temperature gradient turbulent transport in the two confinement devices is found. With control of the magnetic rotational transform profile and the heating power, internal transport barriers are created in TS and NSTX discharges. These partial transport barriers are argued to be a universal feature of transport equations in the presence of invariant tori that are intrinsic to non-monotonic rotational transforms in dynamical systems

Micrometeorological measurement of the dry deposition flux of sulphate and nitrate aerosols to coniferous forest

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wyers, G.P.; Duyzer, J.H.

1997-01-01

Dry deposition fluxes of sulphate and nitrate have been determined over a coniferous canopy using the aerodynamic gradient technique. Vertical concentration gradients of sulphate and nitrate were measured with filters; the gradient of ammonium bisulphate was measured with thermodenuders. Filter

And still, a new beginning: the Galerkin least-squares gradient method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Franca, L.P.; Carmo, E.G.D. do

1988-08-01

A finite element method is proposed to solve a scalar singular diffusion problem. The method is constructed by adding to the standard Galerkin a mesh-dependent term obtained by taking the gradient of the Euler-lagrange equation and multiplying it by its least-squares. For the one-dimensional homogeneous problem the method is designed to develop nodal exact solution. An error estimate shows that the method converges optimaly for any value of the singular parameter. Numerical results demonstrate the good stability and accuracy properties of the method. (author) [pt

Sufficient Descent Conjugate Gradient Methods for Solving Convex Constrained Nonlinear Monotone Equations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

San-Yang Liu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Two unified frameworks of some sufficient descent conjugate gradient methods are considered. Combined with the hyperplane projection method of Solodov and Svaiter, they are extended to solve convex constrained nonlinear monotone equations. Their global convergence is proven under some mild conditions. Numerical results illustrate that these methods are efficient and can be applied to solve large-scale nonsmooth equations.

Monomers and polymers in a centrifugal field : a new method to produce refractive-index gradients in polymers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duijnhoven, van F.G.H.; Bastiaansen, C.W.M.

1999-01-01

A new method is presented to generate and to fixate compositional gradients in blends of two miscible and amorphous polymers. A compositional gradient is introduced into a solution of a polymer in a monomer by use of a centrifugal field, and this gradient is subsequently fixated by polymerization of

Efficient method to design RF pulses for parallel excitation MRI using gridding and conjugate gradient.

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Shuo; Ji, Jim

2014-04-01

Parallel excitation (pTx) techniques with multiple transmit channels have been widely used in high field MRI imaging to shorten the RF pulse duration and/or reduce the specific absorption rate (SAR). However, the efficiency of pulse design still needs substantial improvement for practical real-time applications. In this paper, we present a detailed description of a fast pulse design method with Fourier domain gridding and a conjugate gradient method. Simulation results of the proposed method show that the proposed method can design pTx pulses at an efficiency 10 times higher than that of the conventional conjugate-gradient based method, without reducing the accuracy of the desirable excitation patterns.

Evaluation of Latent Heat Flux Fields from Satellites and Models during SEMAPHORE.

Science.gov (United States)

Bourras, Denis; Liu, W. Timothy; Eymard, Laurence; Tang, Wenqing

2003-02-01

Latent heat fluxes were derived from satellite observations in the region of Structure des Echanges Mer-Atmosphère, Propriétés des Hétérogénéités Océaniques: Recherche Expérimentale (SEMAPHORE), which was conducted near the Azores islands in the North Atlantic Ocean in autumn of 1993. The satellite fluxes were compared with output fields of two atmospheric circulation models and in situ measurements. The rms error of the instantaneous satellite fluxes is between 35 and 40 W m-2 and the bias is 60-85 W m-2. The large bias is mainly attributed to a bias in satellite-derived atmospheric humidity and is related to the particular shape of the vertical humidity profiles during SEMAPHORE. The bias in humidity implies that the range of estimated fluxes is smaller than the range of ship fluxes, by 34%-38%. The rms errors for fluxes from models are 30-35 W m-2, and the biases are smaller than the biases in satellite fluxes (14-18 W m-2). Two case studies suggest that the satellites detect horizontal gradients of wind speed and specific humidity if the magnitude of the gradients exceeds a detection threshold, which is 1.27 g kg-1 (100 km)-1 for specific humidity and between 0.35 and 0.82 m s-1 (30 km)-1 for wind speed. In contrast, the accuracy of the spatial gradients of bulk variables from models always varies as a function of the location and number of assimilated observations. A comparison between monthly fluxes from satellites and models reveals that satellite-derived flux anomaly fields are consistent with reanalyzed fields, whereas operational model products lack part of the mesoscale structures present in the satellite fields.

Asynchronous Gossip-Based Gradient-Free Method for Multiagent Optimization

OpenAIRE

Deming Yuan

2014-01-01

This paper considers the constrained multiagent optimization problem. The objective function of the problem is a sum of convex functions, each of which is known by a specific agent only. For solving this problem, we propose an asynchronous distributed method that is based on gradient-free oracles and gossip algorithm. In contrast to the existing work, we do not require that agents be capable of computing the subgradients of their objective functions and coordinating their...

Testing an inversion method for estimating electron energy fluxes from all-sky camera images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Partamies

2004-06-01

Full Text Available An inversion method for reconstructing the precipitating electron energy flux from a set of multi-wavelength digital all-sky camera (ASC images has recently been developed by tomografia. Preliminary tests suggested that the inversion is able to reconstruct the position and energy characteristics of the aurora with reasonable accuracy. This study carries out a thorough testing of the method and a few improvements for its emission physics equations. We compared the precipitating electron energy fluxes as estimated by the inversion method to the energy flux data recorded by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP satellites during four passes over auroral structures. When the aurorae appear very close to the local zenith, the fluxes inverted from the blue (427.8nm filtered ASC images or blue and green line (557.7nm images together give the best agreement with the measured flux values. The fluxes inverted from green line images alone are clearly larger than the measured ones. Closer to the horizon the quality of the inversion results from blue images deteriorate to the level of the ones from green images. In addition to the satellite data, the precipitating electron energy fluxes were estimated from the electron density measurements by the EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR. These energy flux values were compared to the ones of the inversion method applied to over 100 ASC images recorded at the nearby ASC station in Longyearbyen. The energy fluxes deduced from these two types of data are in general of the same order of magnitude. In 35% of all of the blue and green image inversions the relative errors were less than 50% and in 90% of the blue and green image inversions less than 100%. This kind of systematic testing of the inversion method is the first step toward using all-sky camera images in the way in which global UV images have recently been used to estimate the energy fluxes. The advantages of ASCs, compared to the space-born imagers, are

Analysis of the neutron flux in an annular pulsed reactor by using finite volume method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Silva, Mário A.B. da; Narain, Rajendra; Bezerra, Jair de L., E-mail: mabs500@gmail.com, E-mail: narain@ufpe.br, E-mail: jairbezerra@gmail.com [Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, PE (Brazil). Centro de Tecnologia e Geociências. Departamento de Energia Nuclear

2017-07-01

Production of very intense neutron sources is important for basic nuclear physics and for material testing and isotope production. Nuclear reactors have been used as sources of intense neutron fluxes, although the achievement of such levels is limited by the inability to remove fission heat. Periodic pulsed reactors provide very intense fluxes by a rotating modulator near a subcritical core. A concept for the production of very intense neutron fluxes that combines features of periodic pulsed reactors and steady state reactors was proposed by Narain (1997). Such a concept is known as Very Intense Continuous High Flux Pulsed Reactor (VICHFPR) and was analyzed by using diffusion equation with moving boundary conditions and Finite Difference Method with Crank-Nicolson formalism. This research aims to analyze the flux distribution in the Very Intense Continuous Flux High Pulsed Reactor (VICHFPR) by using the Finite Volume Method and compares its results with those obtained by the previous computational method. (author)

Analysis of the neutron flux in an annular pulsed reactor by using finite volume method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, Mário A.B. da; Narain, Rajendra; Bezerra, Jair de L.

2017-01-01

Production of very intense neutron sources is important for basic nuclear physics and for material testing and isotope production. Nuclear reactors have been used as sources of intense neutron fluxes, although the achievement of such levels is limited by the inability to remove fission heat. Periodic pulsed reactors provide very intense fluxes by a rotating modulator near a subcritical core. A concept for the production of very intense neutron fluxes that combines features of periodic pulsed reactors and steady state reactors was proposed by Narain (1997). Such a concept is known as Very Intense Continuous High Flux Pulsed Reactor (VICHFPR) and was analyzed by using diffusion equation with moving boundary conditions and Finite Difference Method with Crank-Nicolson formalism. This research aims to analyze the flux distribution in the Very Intense Continuous Flux High Pulsed Reactor (VICHFPR) by using the Finite Volume Method and compares its results with those obtained by the previous computational method. (author)

Universal field matching in craniospinal irradiation by a background-dose gradient-optimized method.

Science.gov (United States)

Traneus, Erik; Bizzocchi, Nicola; Fellin, Francesco; Rombi, Barbara; Farace, Paolo

2018-01-01

The gradient-optimized methods are overcoming the traditional feathering methods to plan field junctions in craniospinal irradiation. In this note, a new gradient-optimized technique, based on the use of a background dose, is described. Treatment planning was performed by RayStation (RaySearch Laboratories, Stockholm, Sweden) on the CT scans of a pediatric patient. Both proton (by pencil beam scanning) and photon (by volumetric modulated arc therapy) treatments were planned with three isocenters. An 'in silico' ideal background dose was created first to cover the upper-spinal target and to produce a perfect dose gradient along the upper and lower junction regions. Using it as background, the cranial and the lower-spinal beams were planned by inverse optimization to obtain dose coverage of their relevant targets and of the junction volumes. Finally, the upper-spinal beam was inversely planned after removal of the background dose and with the previously optimized beams switched on. In both proton and photon plans, the optimized cranial and the lower-spinal beams produced a perfect linear gradient in the junction regions, complementary to that produced by the optimized upper-spinal beam. The final dose distributions showed a homogeneous coverage of the targets. Our simple technique allowed to obtain high-quality gradients in the junction region. Such technique universally works for photons as well as protons and could be applicable to the TPSs that allow to manage a background dose. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Determining Accuracy of Thermal Dissipation Methods-based Sap Flux in Japanese Cedar Trees

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Man-Ping; Shinohara, Yoshinori; Laplace, Sophie; Lin, Song-Jin; Kume, Tomonori

2017-04-01

Thermal dissipation method, one kind of sap flux measurement method that can estimate individual tree transpiration, have been widely used because of its low cost and uncomplicated operation. Although thermal dissipation method is widespread, the accuracy of this method is doubted recently because some tree species materials in previous studies were not suitable for its empirical formula from Granier due to difference of wood characteristics. In Taiwan, Cryptomeria japonica (Japanese cedar) is one of the dominant species in mountainous area, quantifying the transpiration of Japanese cedar trees is indispensable to understand water cycling there. However, no one have tested the accuracy of thermal dissipation methods-based sap flux for Japanese cedar trees in Taiwan. Thus, in this study we conducted calibration experiment using twelve Japanese cedar stem segments from six trees to investigate the accuracy of thermal dissipation methods-based sap flux in Japanese cedar trees in Taiwan. By pumping water from segment bottom to top and inserting probes into segments to collect data simultaneously, we compared sap flux densities calculated from real water uptakes (Fd_actual) and empirical formula (Fd_Granier). Exact sapwood area and sapwood depth of each sample were obtained from dying segment with safranin stain solution. Our results showed that Fd_Granier underestimated 39 % of Fd_actual across sap flux densities ranging from 10 to 150 (cm3m-2s-1); while applying sapwood depth corrected formula from Clearwater, Fd_Granier became accurately that only underestimated 0.01 % of Fd_actual. However, when sap flux densities ranging from 10 to 50 (cm3m-2s-1)which is similar with the field data of Japanese cedar trees in a mountainous area of Taiwan, Fd_Granier underestimated 51 % of Fd_actual, and underestimated 26 % with applying Clearwater sapwood depth corrected formula. These results suggested sapwood depth significantly impacted on the accuracy of thermal dissipation

A method to calculate flux distribution in reactor systems containing materials with grain structure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stepanek, J.

1980-01-01

A method is proposed to compute the neutron flux spatial distribution in slab, spherical or cylindrical systems containing zones with close grain structure of material. Several different types of equally distributed particles embedded in the matrix material are allowed in one or more zones. The multi-energy group structure of the flux is considered. The collision probability method is used to compute the fluxes in the grains and in an ''effective'' part of the matrix material. Then the overall structure of the flux distribution in the zones with homogenized materials is determined using the DPN ''surface flux'' method. Both computations are connected using the balance equation during the outer iterations. The proposed method is written in the code SURCU-DH. Two testcases are computed and discussed. One testcase is the computation of the eigenvalue in simplified slab geometry of an LWR container of one zone with boral grains equally distributed in an aluminium matrix. The second is the computation of the eigenvalue in spherical geometry of the HTR pebble-bed cell with spherical particles embedded in a graphite matrix. The results are compared to those obtained by repeated use of the WIMS Code. (author)

Advances on geometric flux optical design method

Science.gov (United States)

García-Botella, Ángel; Fernández-Balbuena, Antonio Álvarez; Vázquez, Daniel

2017-09-01

Nonimaging optics is focused on the study of methods to design concentrators or illuminators systems. It can be included in the area of photometry and radiometry and it is governed by the laws of geometrical optics. The field vector method, which starts with the definition of the irradiance vector E, is one of the techniques used in nonimaging optics. Called "Geometrical flux vector" it has provide ideal designs. The main property of this model is, its ability to estimate how radiant energy is transferred by the optical system, from the concepts of field line, flux tube and pseudopotential surface, overcoming traditional raytrace methods. Nevertheless this model has been developed only at an academic level, where characteristic optical parameters are ideal not real and the studied geometries are simple. The main objective of the present paper is the application of the vector field method to the analysis and design of real concentration and illumination systems. We propose the development of a calculation tool for optical simulations by vector field, using algorithms based on Fermat`s principle, as an alternative to traditional tools for optical simulations by raytrace, based on reflection and refraction law. This new tool provides, first, traditional simulations results: efficiency, illuminance/irradiance calculations, angular distribution of light- with lower computation time, photometrical information needs about a few tens of field lines, in comparison with million rays needed nowadays. On the other hand the tool will provides new information as vector field maps produced by the system, composed by field lines and quasipotential surfaces. We show our first results with the vector field simulation tool.

High heat flux x-ray monochromators: What are the limits?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogers, C.S.

1997-06-01

First optical elements at third-generation, hard x-ray synchrotrons, such as the Advanced Photon Source (APS), are subjected to immense heat fluxes. The optical elements include crystal monochromators, multilayers and mirrors. This paper presents a mathematical model of the thermal strain of a three-layer (faceplate, heat exchanger, and baseplate), cylindrical optic subjected to narrow beam of uniform heat flux. This model is used to calculate the strain gradient of a liquid-gallium-cooled x-ray monochromator previously tested on an undulator at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS). The resulting thermally broadened rocking curves are calculated and compared to experimental data. The calculated rocking curve widths agree to within a few percent of the measured values over the entire current range tested (0 to 60 mA). The thermal strain gradient under the beam footprint varies linearly with the heat flux and the ratio of the thermal expansion coefficient to the thermal conductivity. The strain gradient is insensitive to the heat exchanger properties and the optic geometry. This formulation provides direct insight into the governing parameters, greatly reduces the analysis time, and provides a measure of the ultimate performance of a given monochromator

Assimilation of temperature and hydraulic gradients for quantifying the spatial variability of streambed hydraulics

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Xiang; Andrews, Charles B.; Liu, Jie; Yao, Yingying; Liu, Chuankun; Tyler, Scott W.; Selker, John S.; Zheng, Chunmiao

2016-08-01

Understanding the spatial and temporal characteristics of water flux into or out of shallow aquifers is imperative for water resources management and eco-environmental conservation. In this study, the spatial variability in the vertical specific fluxes and hydraulic conductivities in a streambed were evaluated by integrating distributed temperature sensing (DTS) data and vertical hydraulic gradients into an ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) and smoother (EnKS) and an empirical thermal-mixing model. The formulation of the EnKF/EnKS assimilation scheme is based on a discretized 1D advection-conduction equation of heat transfer in the streambed. We first systematically tested a synthetic case and performed quantitative and statistical analyses to evaluate the performance of the assimilation schemes. Then a real-world case was evaluated to calculate assimilated specific flux. An initial estimate of the spatial distributions of the vertical hydraulic gradients was obtained from an empirical thermal-mixing model under steady-state conditions using a constant vertical hydraulic conductivity. Then, this initial estimate was updated by repeatedly dividing the assimilated specific flux by estimates of the vertical hydraulic gradients to obtain a refined spatial distribution of vertical hydraulic gradients and vertical hydraulic conductivities. Our results indicate that optimal parameters can be derived with fewer iterations but greater simulation effort using the EnKS compared with the EnKF. For the field application in a stream segment of the Heihe River Basin in northwest China, the average vertical hydraulic conductivities in the streambed varied over three orders of magnitude (5 × 10-1 to 5 × 102 m/d). The specific fluxes ranged from near zero (qz < ±0.05 m/d) to ±1.0 m/d, while the vertical hydraulic gradients were within the range of -0.2 to 0.15 m/m. The highest and most variable fluxes occurred adjacent to a debris-dam and bridge pier. This phenomenon is very likely

Investigating profile stiffness and critical gradients in shaped TCV discharges using local gyrokinetic simulations of turbulent transport

Science.gov (United States)

Merlo, G.; Brunner, S.; Sauter, O.; Camenen, Y.; Görler, T.; Jenko, F.; Marinoni, A.; Told, D.; Villard, L.

2015-05-01

The experimental observation made on the TCV tokamak of a significant confinement improvement in plasmas with negative triangularity (δ TEMs) and electron temperature gradient (ETG) modes are the dominant microinstabilities, with the latter providing a significant contribution to the non-linear electron heat fluxes near the plasma edge. Two series of simulations with different levels of realism are performed, addressing the question of profile stiffness at various radial locations. Retaining finite collisionality, impurities and electromagnetic effects, as well as the physical electron-to-ion mass ratio are all necessary in order to approach the experimental flux measurements. However, flux-tube simulations are unable to fully reproduce the TCV results, pointing towards the need to carry out radially nonlocal (global) simulations, i.e. retaining finite machine size effects, in a future study. Some conclusions about the effect of triangularity can nevertheless be drawn based on the flux-tube results. In particular, the importance of considering the sensitivity to both temperature and density gradient is shown. The flux tube results show an increase of the critical gradients towards the edge, further enhanced when δ < 0, and they also appear to indicate a reduction of profile stiffness towards plasma edge.

A Family of Multipoint Flux Mixed Finite Element Methods for Elliptic Problems on General Grids

KAUST Repository

Wheeler, Mary F.; Xue, Guangri; Yotov, Ivan

2011-01-01

In this paper, we discuss a family of multipoint flux mixed finite element (MFMFE) methods on simplicial, quadrilateral, hexahedral, and triangular-prismatic grids. The MFMFE methods are locally conservative with continuous normal fluxes, since

New hybrid conjugate gradient methods with the generalized Wolfe line search.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Xiao; Kong, Fan-Yu

2016-01-01

The conjugate gradient method was an efficient technique for solving the unconstrained optimization problem. In this paper, we made a linear combination with parameters β k of the DY method and the HS method, and putted forward the hybrid method of DY and HS. We also proposed the hybrid of FR and PRP by the same mean. Additionally, to present the two hybrid methods, we promoted the Wolfe line search respectively to compute the step size α k of the two hybrid methods. With the new Wolfe line search, the two hybrid methods had descent property and global convergence property of the two hybrid methods that can also be proved.

Pyrolytic graphite gauge for measuring heat flux

Science.gov (United States)

Bunker, Robert C. (Inventor); Ewing, Mark E. (Inventor); Shipley, John L. (Inventor)

2002-01-01

A gauge for measuring heat flux, especially heat flux encountered in a high temperature environment, is provided. The gauge includes at least one thermocouple and an anisotropic pyrolytic graphite body that covers at least part of, and optionally encases the thermocouple. Heat flux is incident on the anisotropic pyrolytic graphite body by arranging the gauge so that the gauge surface on which convective and radiative fluxes are incident is perpendicular to the basal planes of the pyrolytic graphite. The conductivity of the pyrolytic graphite permits energy, transferred into the pyrolytic graphite body in the form of heat flux on the incident (or facing) surface, to be quickly distributed through the entire pyrolytic graphite body, resulting in small substantially instantaneous temperature gradients. Temperature changes to the body can thereby be measured by the thermocouple, and reduced to quantify the heat flux incident to the body.

Biogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds from gorse (Ulex europaeus): Diurnal emission fluxes at Kelling Heath, England

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, X.-L.; Boissard, C.; Juan, A. J.; Hewitt, C. N.; Gallagher, M.

1997-08-01

Volatile organic compound (VOC) emission fluxes from Gorse (Ulex europaeus) were measured during May 30-31, 1995 at Kelling Heath in eastern England by using bag enclosure and gradient methods simultaneously. The enclosure measurements were made from branches at different stages of physiological development (flowering, after flowering, and mixed). Isoprene was found to represent 90% of the total VOC emissions, and its emission rates fluctuated from 6 ng (g dwt)-1 h-1 in the early morning to about 9700 ng(g dwt)-1 h-1 at midday. Averaged emission rates standardized to 20°C were 1625, 2120, and 3700 ng (g dwt)-1 h-1 for the new grown, "mixed," and flowering branch, respectively. Trans-ocimene and α-pinene were the main monoterpenes emitted and represented, on average, 47.6% and 36.9% of the total monoterpenes. Other monoterpenes, camphene, sabinene, β-pinene, myrcene, limonene and γ-terpinene, were positively identified but together represented less than 1.5% of the total VOC emissions from gorse. Maximum isoprene concentrations in air at the site were measured around midday at 2 m (174 parts per trillion by volume, or pptv) and 6 m (149 pptv), and minimum concentrations were measured during the night (8 pptv at both heights). Mean daytime α-pinene air concentrations of 141 and 60 pptv at 2 and 6 m height were determined, but trans-ocimene concentrations were less than the analytical detection limit (4 pptv), suggesting rapid chemical removal of this compound from air. The isoprene fluxes calculated by the micrometeorological gradient method showed a pattern similar to that of those calculated by the enclosure method, with isoprene emission rates maximum at midday (100 μg m-2 h-1) and not detectable during the nighttime. Assessment of the fraction of the site covered by gorse plants enabled an extrapolation of emission fluxes from the enclosure measurements. When averaged over the 2 day experiment, isoprene fluxes of 29.8 and 27.8 μg m-2 h-1 were obtained from

A multipoint flux approximation of the steady-state heat conduction equation in anisotropic media

KAUST Repository

Salama, Amgad; Sun, Shuyu; El-Amin, M. F.

2013-01-01

In this work, we introduce multipoint flux (MF) approximation method to the problem of conduction heat transfer in anisotropic media. In such media, the heat flux vector is no longer coincident with the temperature gradient vector. In this case, thermal conductivity is described as a second order tensor that usually requires, at least, six quantities to be fully defined in general three-dimensional problems. The two-point flux finite differences approximation may not handle such anisotropy and essentially more points need to be involved to describe the heat flux vector. In the framework of mixed finite element method (MFE), the MFMFE methods are locally conservative with continuous normal fluxes. We consider the lowest order Brezzi-Douglas-Marini (BDM) mixed finite element method with a special quadrature rule that allows for nodal velocity elimination resulting in a cell-centered system for the temperature. We show comparisons with some analytical solution of the problem of conduction heat transfer in anisotropic long strip. We also consider the problem of heat conduction in a bounded, rectangular domain with different anisotropy scenarios. It is noticed that the temperature field is significantly affected by such anisotropy scenarios. Also, the technique used in this work has shown that it is possible to use the finite difference settings to handle heat transfer in anisotropic media. In this case, heat flux vectors, for the case of rectangular mesh, generally require six points to be described. Copyright © 2013 by ASME.

A multipoint flux approximation of the steady-state heat conduction equation in anisotropic media

KAUST Repository

Salama, Amgad

2013-03-20

In this work, we introduce multipoint flux (MF) approximation method to the problem of conduction heat transfer in anisotropic media. In such media, the heat flux vector is no longer coincident with the temperature gradient vector. In this case, thermal conductivity is described as a second order tensor that usually requires, at least, six quantities to be fully defined in general three-dimensional problems. The two-point flux finite differences approximation may not handle such anisotropy and essentially more points need to be involved to describe the heat flux vector. In the framework of mixed finite element method (MFE), the MFMFE methods are locally conservative with continuous normal fluxes. We consider the lowest order Brezzi-Douglas-Marini (BDM) mixed finite element method with a special quadrature rule that allows for nodal velocity elimination resulting in a cell-centered system for the temperature. We show comparisons with some analytical solution of the problem of conduction heat transfer in anisotropic long strip. We also consider the problem of heat conduction in a bounded, rectangular domain with different anisotropy scenarios. It is noticed that the temperature field is significantly affected by such anisotropy scenarios. Also, the technique used in this work has shown that it is possible to use the finite difference settings to handle heat transfer in anisotropic media. In this case, heat flux vectors, for the case of rectangular mesh, generally require six points to be described. Copyright © 2013 by ASME.

Measuring Convective Mass Fluxes Over Tropical Oceans

Science.gov (United States)

Raymond, David

2017-04-01

Deep convection forms the upward branches of all large-scale circulations in the tropics. Understanding what controls the form and intensity of vertical convective mass fluxes is thus key to understanding tropical weather and climate. These mass fluxes and the corresponding conditions supporting them have been measured by recent field programs (TPARC/TCS08, PREDICT, HS3) in tropical disturbances considered to be possible tropical storm precursors. In reality, this encompasses most strong convection in the tropics. The measurements were made with arrays of dropsondes deployed from high altitude. In some cases Doppler radar provided additional measurements. The results are in some ways surprising. Three factors were found to control the mass flux profiles, the strength of total surface heat fluxes, the column-integrated relative humidity, and the low to mid-tropospheric moist convective instability. The first two act as expected, with larger heat fluxes and higher humidity producing more precipitation and stronger lower tropospheric mass fluxes. However, unexpectedly, smaller (but still positive) convective instability produces more precipitation as well as more bottom-heavy convective mass flux profiles. Furthermore, the column humidity and the convective instability are anti-correlated, at least in the presence of strong convection. On spatial scales of a few hundred kilometers, the virtual temperature structure appears to be in dynamic balance with the pattern of potential vorticity. Since potential vorticity typically evolves on longer time scales than convection, the potential vorticity pattern plus the surface heat fluxes then become the immediate controlling factors for average convective properties. All measurements so far have taken place in regions with relatively flat sea surface temperature (SST) distributions. We are currently seeking funding for a measurement program in the tropical east Pacific, a region that exhibits strong SST gradients and

Measurement of Critical Heat Flux Using the Transient Inverse Heat Conduction Method in Spray cooling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Yeung Chan [Andong Nat’l Univ., Andong (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

A study on the measurement of critical heat flux using the transient inverse heat conduction method in spray cooling was performed. The inverse heat conduction method estimates the surface heat flux or temperature using a measured interior temperature history. The effects of the measuring time interval and location of temperature measurement on the measurement of critical heat flux were primarily investigated. The following results were obtained. The estimated critical heat flux decreased as the time interval of temperature measurement increased. Meanwhile, the effect of measurement location on critical heat flux was not significant. It was also found, from the experimental results, that the critical superheat increased as the measurement location of thermocouple neared the heat transfer surface.

Measurement of Critical Heat Flux Using the Transient Inverse Heat Conduction Method in Spray cooling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Yeung Chan

2016-01-01

A study on the measurement of critical heat flux using the transient inverse heat conduction method in spray cooling was performed. The inverse heat conduction method estimates the surface heat flux or temperature using a measured interior temperature history. The effects of the measuring time interval and location of temperature measurement on the measurement of critical heat flux were primarily investigated. The following results were obtained. The estimated critical heat flux decreased as the time interval of temperature measurement increased. Meanwhile, the effect of measurement location on critical heat flux was not significant. It was also found, from the experimental results, that the critical superheat increased as the measurement location of thermocouple neared the heat transfer surface.

Ross sea ice motion, area flux, and deformation

Science.gov (United States)

kwok, Ron

2005-01-01

The sea ice motion, area export, and deformation of the Ross Sea ice cover are examined with satellite passive microwave and RADARSAT observations. The record of high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, from 1998 and 2000, allows the estimation of the variability of ice deformation at the small scale (10 km) and to assess the quality of the longer record of passive microwave ice motion. Daily and subdaily deformation fields and RADARSAT imagery highlight the variability of motion and deformation in the Ross Sea. With the passive microwave ice motion, the area export at a flux gate positioned between Cape Adare and Land Bay is estimated. Between 1992 and 2003, a positive trend can be seen in the winter (March-November) ice area flux that has a mean of 990 x 103 km2 and ranges from a low of 600 x 103 km2 in 1992 to a peak of 1600 x 103 km2 in 2001. In the mean, the southern Ross Sea produces almost twice its own area of sea ice during the winter. Cross-gate sea level pressure (SLP) gradients explain 60% of the variance in the ice area flux. A positive trend in this gradient, from reanalysis products, suggests a 'spinup' of the Ross Sea Gyre over the past 12 yr. In both the NCEP-NCAR and ERA-40 surface pressure fields, longer-term trends in this gradient and mean SLP between 1979 and 2002 are explored along with positive anomalies in the monthly cross-gate SLP gradient associated with the positive phase of the Southern Hemisphere annular mode and the extrapolar Southern Oscillation.

OpenFLUX: efficient modelling software for 13C-based metabolic flux analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nielsen Lars K

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The quantitative analysis of metabolic fluxes, i.e., in vivo activities of intracellular enzymes and pathways, provides key information on biological systems in systems biology and metabolic engineering. It is based on a comprehensive approach combining (i tracer cultivation on 13C substrates, (ii 13C labelling analysis by mass spectrometry and (iii mathematical modelling for experimental design, data processing, flux calculation and statistics. Whereas the cultivation and the analytical part is fairly advanced, a lack of appropriate modelling software solutions for all modelling aspects in flux studies is limiting the application of metabolic flux analysis. Results We have developed OpenFLUX as a user friendly, yet flexible software application for small and large scale 13C metabolic flux analysis. The application is based on the new Elementary Metabolite Unit (EMU framework, significantly enhancing computation speed for flux calculation. From simple notation of metabolic reaction networks defined in a spreadsheet, the OpenFLUX parser automatically generates MATLAB-readable metabolite and isotopomer balances, thus strongly facilitating model creation. The model can be used to perform experimental design, parameter estimation and sensitivity analysis either using the built-in gradient-based search or Monte Carlo algorithms or in user-defined algorithms. Exemplified for a microbial flux study with 71 reactions, 8 free flux parameters and mass isotopomer distribution of 10 metabolites, OpenFLUX allowed to automatically compile the EMU-based model from an Excel file containing metabolic reactions and carbon transfer mechanisms, showing it's user-friendliness. It reliably reproduced the published data and optimum flux distributions for the network under study were found quickly ( Conclusion We have developed a fast, accurate application to perform steady-state 13C metabolic flux analysis. OpenFLUX will strongly facilitate and

A path flux analysis method for the reduction of detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sun, Wenting; Ju, Yiguang [Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States); Chen, Zheng [State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); Gou, Xiaolong [School of Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044 (China)

2010-07-15

A direct path flux analysis (PFA) method for kinetic mechanism reduction is proposed and validated by using high temperature ignition, perfect stirred reactors, and steady and unsteady flame propagations of n-heptane and n-decane/air mixtures. The formation and consumption fluxes of each species at multiple reaction path generations are analyzed and used to identify the important reaction pathways and the associated species. The formation and consumption path fluxes used in this method retain flux conservation information and are used to define the path indexes for the first and the second generation reaction paths related to a targeted species. Based on the indexes of each reaction path for the first and second generations, different sized reduced chemical mechanisms which contain different number of species are generated. The reduced mechanisms of n-heptane and n-decane obtained by using the present method are compared to those generated by the direct relation graph (DRG) method. The reaction path analysis for n-decane is conducted to demonstrate the validity of the present method. The comparisons of the ignition delay times, flame propagation speeds, flame structures, and unsteady spherical flame propagation processes showed that with either the same or significantly less number of species, the reduced mechanisms generated by the present PFA are more accurate than that of DRG in a broad range of initial pressures and temperatures. The method is also integrated with the dynamic multi-timescale method and a further increase of computation efficiency is achieved. (author)

A Projected Non-linear Conjugate Gradient Method for Interactive Inverse Kinematics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Engell-Nørregård, Morten; Erleben, Kenny

2009-01-01

Inverse kinematics is the problem of posing an articulated figure to obtain a wanted goal, without regarding inertia and forces. Joint limits are modeled as bounds on individual degrees of freedom, leading to a box-constrained optimization problem. We present A projected Non-linear Conjugate...... Gradient optimization method suitable for box-constrained optimization problems for inverse kinematics. We show application on inverse kinematics positioning of a human figure. Performance is measured and compared to a traditional Jacobian Transpose method. Visual quality of the developed method...

Strong source heat transfer simulations based on a GalerKin/Gradient - least - squares method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Franca, L.P.; Carmo, E.G.D. do.

1989-05-01

Heat conduction problems with temperature-dependent strong sources are modeled by an equation with a laplacian term, a linear term and a given source distribution term. When the linear-temperature-dependent source term is much larger than the laplacian term, we have a singular perturbation problem. In this case, boundary layers are formed to satisfy the Dirichlet boundary conditions. Although this is an elliptic equation, the standard Galerkin method solution is contaminated by spurious oscillations in the neighborhood of the boundary layers. Herein we employ a Galerkin/Gradient-least-squares method which eliminates all pathological phenomena of the Galerkin method. The method is constructed by adding to the Galerkin method a mesh-dependent term obtained by the least-squares form of the gradient of the Euler-Lagrange equation. Error estimates, numerical simulations in one-and multi-dimensions are given that attest the good stability and accuracy properties of the method [pt

Field of first magnetic flux entry and pinning strength of superconductors for rf application measured with muon spin rotation

Science.gov (United States)

Junginger, T.; Abidi, S. H.; Maffett, R. D.; Buck, T.; Dehn, M. H.; Gheidi, S.; Kiefl, R.; Kolb, P.; Storey, D.; Thoeng, E.; Wasserman, W.; Laxdal, R. E.

2018-03-01

The performance of superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities used for particle accelerators depends on two characteristic material parameters: field of first flux entry Hentry and pinning strength. The former sets the limit for the maximum achievable accelerating gradient, while the latter determines how efficiently flux can be expelled related to the maximum achievable quality factor. In this paper, a method based on muon spin rotation (μ SR ) is developed to probe these parameters on samples. It combines measurements from two different spectrometers, one being specifically built for these studies and samples of different geometries. It is found that annealing at 1400 °C virtually eliminates all pinning. Such an annealed substrate is ideally suited to measure Hentry of layered superconductors, which might enable accelerating gradients beyond bulk niobium technology.

Gadolinium burnable absorber optimization by the method of conjugate gradients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drumm, C.R.; Lee, J.C.

1987-01-01

The optimal axial distribution of gadolinium burnable poison in a pressurized water reactor is determined to yield an improved power distribution. The optimization scheme is based on Pontryagin's maximum principle, with the objective function accounting for a target power distribution. The conjugate gradients optimization method is used to solve the resulting Euler-Lagrange equations iteratively, efficiently handling the high degree of nonlinearity of the problem

Lateral Temperature-Gradient Method for High-Throughput Characterization of Material Processing by Millisecond Laser Annealing.

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Robert T; Jacobs, Alan G; Sorg, Victoria C; Jung, Byungki; Hill, Megan O; Treml, Benjamin E; Thompson, Michael O

2016-09-12

A high-throughput method for characterizing the temperature dependence of material properties following microsecond to millisecond thermal annealing, exploiting the temperature gradients created by a lateral gradient laser spike anneal (lgLSA), is presented. Laser scans generate spatial thermal gradients of up to 5 °C/μm with peak temperatures ranging from ambient to in excess of 1400 °C, limited only by laser power and materials thermal limits. Discrete spatial property measurements across the temperature gradient are then equivalent to independent measurements after varying temperature anneals. Accurate temperature calibrations, essential to quantitative analysis, are critical and methods for both peak temperature and spatial/temporal temperature profile characterization are presented. These include absolute temperature calibrations based on melting and thermal decomposition, and time-resolved profiles measured using platinum thermistors. A variety of spatially resolved measurement probes, ranging from point-like continuous profiling to large area sampling, are discussed. Examples from annealing of III-V semiconductors, CdSe quantum dots, low-κ dielectrics, and block copolymers are included to demonstrate the flexibility, high throughput, and precision of this technique.

A Gradient Weighted Moving Finite-Element Method with Polynomial Approximation of Any Degree

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali R. Soheili

2009-01-01

Full Text Available A gradient weighted moving finite element method (GWMFE based on piecewise polynomial of any degree is developed to solve time-dependent problems in two space dimensions. Numerical experiments are employed to test the accuracy and effciency of the proposed method with nonlinear Burger equation.

Total variation superiorized conjugate gradient method for image reconstruction

Science.gov (United States)

Zibetti, Marcelo V. W.; Lin, Chuan; Herman, Gabor T.

2018-03-01

The conjugate gradient (CG) method is commonly used for the relatively-rapid solution of least squares problems. In image reconstruction, the problem can be ill-posed and also contaminated by noise; due to this, approaches such as regularization should be utilized. Total variation (TV) is a useful regularization penalty, frequently utilized in image reconstruction for generating images with sharp edges. When a non-quadratic norm is selected for regularization, as is the case for TV, then it is no longer possible to use CG. Non-linear CG is an alternative, but it does not share the efficiency that CG shows with least squares and methods such as fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithms (FISTA) are preferred for problems with TV norm. A different approach to including prior information is superiorization. In this paper it is shown that the conjugate gradient method can be superiorized. Five different CG variants are proposed, including preconditioned CG. The CG methods superiorized by the total variation norm are presented and their performance in image reconstruction is demonstrated. It is illustrated that some of the proposed variants of the superiorized CG method can produce reconstructions of superior quality to those produced by FISTA and in less computational time, due to the speed of the original CG for least squares problems. In the Appendix we examine the behavior of one of the superiorized CG methods (we call it S-CG); one of its input parameters is a positive number ɛ. It is proved that, for any given ɛ that is greater than the half-squared-residual for the least squares solution, S-CG terminates in a finite number of steps with an output for which the half-squared-residual is less than or equal to ɛ. Importantly, it is also the case that the output will have a lower value of TV than what would be provided by unsuperiorized CG for the same value ɛ of the half-squared residual.

Groundwater flux estimation in streams: A thermal equilibrium approach

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Yan; Fox, Garey A.; Miller, Ron B.; Mollenhauer, Robert; Brewer, Shannon

2018-06-01

Stream and groundwater interactions play an essential role in regulating flow, temperature, and water quality for stream ecosystems. Temperature gradients have been used to quantify vertical water movement in the streambed since the 1960s, but advancements in thermal methods are still possible. Seepage runs are a method commonly used to quantify exchange rates through a series of streamflow measurements but can be labor and time intensive. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a thermal equilibrium method as a technique for quantifying groundwater flux using monitored stream water temperature at a single point and readily available hydrological and atmospheric data. Our primary assumption was that stream water temperature at the monitored point was at thermal equilibrium with the combination of all heat transfer processes, including mixing with groundwater. By expanding the monitored stream point into a hypothetical, horizontal one-dimensional thermal modeling domain, we were able to simulate the thermal equilibrium achieved with known atmospheric variables at the point and quantify unknown groundwater flux by calibrating the model to the resulting temperature signature. Stream water temperatures were monitored at single points at nine streams in the Ozark Highland ecoregion and five reaches of the Kiamichi River to estimate groundwater fluxes using the thermal equilibrium method. When validated by comparison with seepage runs performed at the same time and reach, estimates from the two methods agreed with each other with an R2 of 0.94, a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.08 (m/d) and a Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) of 0.93. In conclusion, the thermal equilibrium method was a suitable technique for quantifying groundwater flux with minimal cost and simple field installation given that suitable atmospheric and hydrological data were readily available.

Greenhouse gas flux under warm-season perennial C4 grasses across different soil and climate gradients on the Islands of Hawaii

Science.gov (United States)

Pawlowski, M. N.; Crow, S. E.; Sumiyoshi, Y.; Wells, J.; Kikkawa, H. R.

2011-12-01

Agricultural soils can serve as either a sink or a source for atmospheric carbon (C) and other greenhouse gases (GHG). This is particularly true for tropical soils where influences from climate and soil gradients are wide ranging. Current estimates of GHG flux from soil are often under or overestimated due to high variability in sample sites and inconsistencies in land use and vegetation type, making extrapolation to new study systems difficult. This work aimed to identify patterns of trace fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) across two soil types and three species of warm season perennial C4 grasses: Pennisetum purpureum (Napier grass), Panicum maximum (Guinea grass) and Saccharum officinarum (sugar cane) on the islands of Oahu and Maui in Hawaii. Multiple static vented chambers were installed into replicate plots for each species; flux measurements were made during the growth, fertilization and harvest cycles at set time intervals for one hour and analyzed by gas chromatography. Initial results from Oahu indicate no significant differences in CO2 flux between the P. maximum and P. purpureum species after fertilization or at full growth. We observed an average flux of 143 mg m-2 h-1 and 155 mg m-2 h-1 for P. maximum and P. purpureum respectively at full growth for CO2 and 1.7 μg m-2 h-1and 0.3 μg m-2 h-1 for N2O. Additionally, N2O rates sampled after a typical fertilizer application were significantly greater than at full growth (p=0.0005) with flux rates of 25.2 μg m2h-1 and 30.3 μg m2h-1 for P. maximum and P. purpureum respectively. With a global warming potential of 310 for N2O, even short-term spikes following fertilizer application can cause long lasting effects of GHG emission from agricultural soils. CH4 flux was negligible for all species on the Oahu plots during these sample periods. Globally, water limitation is a major factor influencing the potential productivity of agricultural crops and the sustainability of

Critical flux determination by flux-stepping

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Beier, Søren; Jonsson, Gunnar Eigil

2010-01-01

In membrane filtration related scientific literature, often step-by-step determined critical fluxes are reported. Using a dynamic microfiltration device, it is shown that critical fluxes determined from two different flux-stepping methods are dependent upon operational parameters such as step...... length, step height, and.flux start level. Filtrating 8 kg/m(3) yeast cell suspensions by a vibrating 0.45 x 10(-6) m pore size microfiltration hollow fiber module, critical fluxes from 5.6 x 10(-6) to 1.2 x 10(-5) m/s have been measured using various step lengths from 300 to 1200 seconds. Thus......, such values are more or less useless in itself as critical flux predictors, and constant flux verification experiments have to be conducted to check if the determined critical fluxes call predict sustainable flux regimes. However, it is shown that using the step-by-step predicted critical fluxes as start...

Extension of the heat flux method to subatmospheric pressures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bosschaart, K.J.; Goey, de L.P.H.

2004-01-01

The heat flux method for measuring laminar burning velocities has been extended to subatmospheric pressures, down to 80mbar. The new setup is described and adaptations necessary for the new conditions are analyzed. This includes a new burner plate to compensate for the decrease of sensitivity of the

Improvement of GaN epilayer by gradient layer method with molecular-beam epitaxy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Yen-Liang; Lo, Ikai; Gau, Ming-Hong; Hsieh, Chia-Ho; Sham, Meng-Wei; Pang, Wen-Yuan; Hsu, Yu-Chi; Tsai, Jenn-Kai; Schuber, Ralf; Schaadt, Daniel

2012-01-01

We demonstrated a molecular beam epitaxy method to resolve the dilemma between structural and morphological quality in growth of the GaN epilayer. A gradient buffer layer was grown in such a way that the N/Ga ratio was gradually changed from nitrogen-rich to gallium-rich. The GaN epitaxial layer was then grown on the gradient buffer layer. In the X-ray diffraction analysis of GaN(002) rocking curves, we found that the full width at half-maximum was improved from 531.69″ to 59.43″ for the sample with a gradient buffer layer as compared to a purely gallium-rich grown sample. Atomic force microscopy analysis showed that the root-mean-square roughness of the surface was improved from 18.28 nm to 1.62 nm over an area of 5 × 5 μm 2 with respect to a purely nitrogen-rich grown sample. Raman scattering showed the presence of a slightly tilted plane in the gradient layer. Furthermore we showed that the gradient layer can also slash the strain force caused by either Ga-rich GaN epitaxial layer or AlN buffer layer. - Highlights: ► The samples were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. ► The GaN epilayer was grown on sapphire substrate. ► The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. ► The sample quality was improved by gradient buffer layer.

Inter-comparison of different direct and indirect methods to determine radon flux from soil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grossi, C.; Vargas, A.; Camacho, A.; Lopez-Coto, I.; Bolivar, J.P.; Xia Yu; Conen, F.

2011-01-01

The physical and chemical characteristics of radon gas make it a good tracer for use in the application of atmospheric transport models. For this purpose the radon source needs to be known on a global scale and this is difficult to achieve by only direct experimental methods. However, indirect methods can provide radon flux maps on larger scales, but their reliability has to be carefully checked. It is the aim of this work to compare radon flux values obtained by direct and indirect methods in a measurement campaign performed in the summer of 2008. Different systems to directly measure radon flux from the soil surface and to measure the related parameters terrestrial γ dose and 226 Ra activity in soil, for indirect estimation of radon flux, were tested. Four eastern Spanish sites with different geological and soil characteristics were selected: Teruel, Los Pedrones, Quintanar de la Orden and Madrid. The study shows the usefulness of both direct and indirect methods for obtaining radon flux data. Direct radon flux measurements by continuous and integrated monitors showed a coefficient of variation between 10% and 23%. At the same time, indirect methods based on correlations between 222 Rn and terrestrial γ dose rate, or 226 Ra activity in soil, provided results similar to the direct measurements, when these proxies were directly measured at the site. Larger discrepancies were found when proxy values were extracted from existing data bases. The participating members involved in the campaign study were the Institute of Energy Technology (INTE) of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Huelva University (UHU), and Basel University (BASEL).

Characterization of branchial transepithelial calcium fluxes in freshwater trout, Salmo gairdneri

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perry, S.F.; Flik, G.

1988-01-01

Experiments were performed to determine whether gill transepithelial calcium fluxes in the freshwater trout (Salmo gairdneri) are passive or require active transport and to characterize the mechanism involved. A comparison of the in vivo unidirectional flux ratios with the flux ratios calculated according to the transepithelial electrochemical gradients revealed that calcium uptake from the water requires active transport of Ca 2+ . The inhibition of calcium uptake by external lanthanum, the specific deposition of lanthanum on the apical surface of chloride cells, and the favorable electrochemical gradient for calcium across the apical membrane suggest that the initial step in branchial calcium uptake is the passive entry of calcium into the cytosol of chloride cells through apical channels that are permeable to calcium. The study of gill basolateral plasma membrane vesicles demonstrated the existence of a high-affinity calmodulin-dependent calcium-transporting system. This system actively transports calcium from the cytosol of chloride cells into the plasma against a sizeable electrochemical gradient, thereby completing the transepithelial uptake of calcium. Calcium efflux occurs passively through paracellular pathways between chloride cells and adjacent pavement cells or between neighboring pavement cells

A new characterization method of the microstructure by utilizing the macroscopic composition gradient in alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyazaki, T.; Koyama, T.; Kobayashi, S.

1996-01-01

A new experimental method to determine the phase boundary and phase equilibrium is accomplished by - means of analytical transmission electron microscopy for alloys with a macroscopic composition gradient. The various phase boundaries, i.e. the coherent binodal and spinodal lines, incoherent binodal line and order/disorder transformation line are distinctly determined for the Cu-Ti alloy and the other alloy systems. Furthermore, the equilibrium compositions at the interface of precipitate/matrix can experimentally be obtained for various particle sizes, and thus the Gibbs-Thomson's relation is verified. It is expected that the composition gradient method proposed in the present will become an important experimental method of the microstructural characterization

Iterative solution of the inverse Cauchy problem for an elliptic equation by the conjugate gradient method

Science.gov (United States)

Vasil'ev, V. I.; Kardashevsky, A. M.; Popov, V. V.; Prokopev, G. A.

2017-10-01

This article presents results of computational experiment carried out using a finite-difference method for solving the inverse Cauchy problem for a two-dimensional elliptic equation. The computational algorithm involves an iterative determination of the missing boundary condition from the override condition using the conjugate gradient method. The results of calculations are carried out on the examples with exact solutions as well as at specifying an additional condition with random errors are presented. Results showed a high efficiency of the iterative method of conjugate gradients for numerical solution

A priori study of subgrid-scale flux of a passive scalar in isotropic homogeneous turbulence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chumakov, Sergei

2008-01-01

We perform a direct numerical simulation (DNS) of forced homogeneous isotropic turbulence with a passive scalar that is forced by mean gradient. The DNS data are used to study the properties of subgrid-scale flux of a passive scalar in the framework of large eddy simulation (LES), such as alignment trends between the flux, resolved, and subgrid-scale flow structures. It is shown that the direction of the flux is strongly coupled with the subgrid-scale stress axes rather than the resolved flow quantities such as strain, vorticity, or scalar gradient. We derive an approximate transport equation for the subgrid-scale flux of a scalar and look at the relative importance of the terms in the transport equation. A particular form of LES tensor-viscosity model for the scalar flux is investigated, which includes the subgrid-scale stress. Effect of different models for the subgrid-scale stress on the model for the subgrid-scale flux is studied.

A priori study of subgrid-scale flux of a passive scalar in isotropic homogeneous turbulence.

Science.gov (United States)

Chumakov, Sergei G

2008-09-01

We perform a direct numerical simulation (DNS) of forced homogeneous isotropic turbulence with a passive scalar that is forced by mean gradient. The DNS data are used to study the properties of subgrid-scale flux of a passive scalar in the framework of large eddy simulation (LES), such as alignment trends between the flux, resolved, and subgrid-scale flow structures. It is shown that the direction of the flux is strongly coupled with the subgrid-scale stress axes rather than the resolved flow quantities such as strain, vorticity, or scalar gradient. We derive an approximate transport equation for the subgrid-scale flux of a scalar and look at the relative importance of the terms in the transport equation. A particular form of LES tensor-viscosity model for the scalar flux is investigated, which includes the subgrid-scale stress. Effect of different models for the subgrid-scale stress on the model for the subgrid-scale flux is studied.

Analytical free energy gradient for the molecular Ornstein-Zernike self-consistent-field method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N.Yoshida

2007-09-01

Full Text Available An analytical free energy gradient for the molecular Ornstein-Zernike self-consistent-field (MOZ-SCF method is presented. MOZ-SCF theory is one of the theories to considering the solvent effects on the solute electronic structure in solution. [Yoshida N. et al., J. Chem. Phys., 2000, 113, 4974] Molecular geometries of water, formaldehyde, acetonitrile and acetone in water are optimized by analytical energy gradient formula. The results are compared with those from the polarizable continuum model (PCM, the reference interaction site model (RISM-SCF and the three dimensional (3D RISM-SCF.

Methods and applications in high flux neutron imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ballhausen, H.

2007-01-01

This treatise develops new methods for high flux neutron radiography and high flux neutron tomography and describes some of their applications in actual experiments. Instead of single images, time series can be acquired with short exposure times due to the available high intensity. To best use the increased amount of information, new estimators are proposed, which extract accurate results from the recorded ensembles, even if the individual piece of data is very noisy and in addition severely affected by systematic errors such as an influence of gamma background radiation. The spatial resolution of neutron radiographies, usually limited by beam divergence and inherent resolution of the scintillator, can be significantly increased by scanning the sample with a pinhole-micro-collimator. This technique circumvents any limitations in present detector design and, due to the available high intensity, could be successfully tested. Imaging with scattered neutrons as opposed to conventional total attenuation based imaging determines separately the absorption and scattering cross sections within the sample. For the first time even coherent angle dependent scattering could be visualized space-resolved. New applications of high flux neutron imaging are presented, such as materials engineering experiments on innovative metal joints, time-resolved tomography on multilayer stacks of fuel cells under operation, and others. A new implementation of an algorithm for the algebraic reconstruction of tomography data executes even in case of missing information, such as limited angle tomography, and returns quantitative reconstructions. The setup of the world-leading high flux radiography and tomography facility at the Institut Laue-Langevin is presented. A comprehensive appendix covers the physical and technical foundations of neutron imaging. (orig.)

Gradient waveform synthesis for magnetic propulsion using MRI gradient coils

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han, B H; Lee, S Y; Park, S

2008-01-01

Navigating an untethered micro device in a living subject is of great interest for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Magnetic propulsion of an untethered device carrying a magnetic core in it is one of the promising methods to navigate the device. MRI gradients coils are thought to be suitable for navigating the device since they are capable of magnetic propulsion in any direction while providing magnetic resonance images. For precise navigation of the device, especially in the peripheral region of the gradient coils, the concomitant gradient fields, as well as the linear gradient fields in the main magnetic field direction, should be considered in driving the gradient coils. For simple gradient coil configurations, the Maxwell coil in the z-direction and the Golay coil in the x- and y-directions, we have calculated the magnetic force fields, which are not necessarily the same as the conventional linear gradient fields of MRI. Using the calculated magnetic force fields, we have synthesized gradient waveforms to navigate the device along a desired path

Flux-line-cutting losses in type-II superconductors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clem, J.R.

1982-01-01

Energy dissipation associated with flux-line cutting (intersection and cross-joining of adjacent nonparallel vortices) is considered theoretically. The flux-line-cutting contribution to the dissipation per unit volume, arising from mutual annihilation of transverse magnetic flux, is identified as J/sub parallel/xE/sub parallel/, where J/sub parallel/ and E/sub parallel/ are the components of the current density and the electric field parallel to the magnetic induction. The dynamical behavior of the magnetic structure at the flux-line-cutting threshold is shown to be governed by a special critical-state model similar to that proposed by previous authors. The resulting flux-line-cutting critical-state model, characterized in planar geometry by a parallel critical current density J/sub c/parallel or a critical angle gradient k/sub c/, is used to calculate predicted hysteretic ac flux-line-cutting losses in type-II superconductors in which the flux pinning is weak. The relation of the theory to previous experiments is discussed

Methanol and other VOC fluxes from a Danish beech forest during late springtime

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schade, Gunnar W.; Solomon, Sheena J.; Dellwik, Ebba

2011-01-01

In-canopy mixing ratio gradients and above-canopy fluxes of several volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were measured using a commercial proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) in a European beech (Fagus sylvatica) forest in Denmark. Fluxes of methanol were bidirectional: Emission...

Impact of snow deposition on major and trace element concentrations and elementary fluxes in surface waters of the Western Siberian Lowland across a 1700 km latitudinal gradient

Science.gov (United States)

Shevchenko, Vladimir P.; Pokrovsky, Oleg S.; Vorobyev, Sergey N.; Krickov, Ivan V.; Manasypov, Rinat M.; Politova, Nadezhda V.; Kopysov, Sergey G.; Dara, Olga M.; Auda, Yves; Shirokova, Liudmila S.; Kolesnichenko, Larisa G.; Zemtsov, Valery A.; Kirpotin, Sergey N.

2017-11-01

In order to better understand the chemical composition of snow and its impact on surface water hydrochemistry in the poorly studied Western Siberia Lowland (WSL), the surface layer of snow was sampled in February 2014 across a 1700 km latitudinal gradient (ca. 56.5 to 68° N). We aimed at assessing the latitudinal effect on both dissolved and particulate forms of elements in snow and quantifying the impact of atmospheric input to element storage and export fluxes in inland waters of the WSL. The concentration of dissolved+colloidal (metalloids (As, Sb), Mo and U in the discontinuous to continuous permafrost zone (64-68° N) can be explained solely by melting of accumulated snow. The impact of snow deposition on riverine fluxes of elements strongly increased northward, in discontinuous and continuous permafrost zones of frozen peat bogs. This was consistent with the decrease in the impact of rock lithology on river chemical composition in the permafrost zone of the WSL, relative to the permafrost-free regions. Therefore, the present study demonstrates significant and previously underestimated atmospheric input of many major and trace elements to their riverine fluxes during spring floods. A broader impact of this result is that current estimations of river water fluxes response to climate warming in high latitudes may be unwarranted without detailed analysis of winter precipitation.

Joining of Tungsten Armor Using Functional Gradients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

John Scott O'Dell

2006-01-01

The joining of low thermal expansion armor materials such as tungsten to high thermal expansion heat sink materials has been a major problem in plasma facing component (PFC) development. Conventional planar bonding techniques have been unable to withstand the high thermal induced stresses resulting from fabrication and high heat flux testing. During this investigation, innovative functional gradient joints produced using vacuum plasma spray forming techniques have been developed for joining tungsten armor to copper alloy heat sinks. A model was developed to select the optimum gradient architecture. Based on the modeling effort, a 2mm copper rich gradient was selected. Vacuum plasma pray parameters and procedures were then developed to produce the functional gradient joint. Using these techniques, dual cooling channel, medium scale mockups (32mm wide x 400mm length) were produced with vacuum plasma spray formed tungsten armor. The thickness of the tungsten armor was up to 5mm thick. No evidence of debonding at the interface between the heat sink and the vacuum plasma sprayed material was observed.

Conjugate gradient method for phase retrieval based on the Wirtinger derivative.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Zhun; Chen, Wen; Qiu, Cheng-Wei; Chen, Xudong

2017-05-01

A conjugate gradient Wirtinger flow (CG-WF) algorithm for phase retrieval is proposed in this paper. It is shown that, compared with recently reported Wirtinger flow and its modified methods, the proposed CG-WF algorithm is able to dramatically accelerate the convergence rate while keeping the dominant computational cost of each iteration unchanged. We numerically illustrate the effectiveness of our method in recovering 1D Gaussian signals and 2D natural color images under both Gaussian and coded diffraction pattern models.

Four-year measurement of methane flux over a temperate forest with a relaxed eddy accumulation method

Science.gov (United States)

Sakabe, A.; Kosugi, Y.; Ueyama, M.; Hamotani, K.; Takahashi, K.; Iwata, H.; Itoh, M.

2013-12-01

Forests are generally assumed to be an atmospheric methane (CH4) sink (Le Mer and Roger, 2001). However, under Asian monsoon climate, forests are subject to wide spatiotemporal range in soil water status, where forest soils often became water-saturated condition heterogeneously. In such warm and humid conditions, forests may act as a CH4 source and/or sink with considerable spatiotemporal variations. Micrometeorological methods such as eddy covariance (EC) method continuously measure spatially-representative flux at a canopy scale without artificial disturbance. In this study, we measured CH4 fluxes over a temperate forest during four-year period using a CH4 analyzer based on tunable diode laser spectroscopy detection with a relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) method (Hamotani et al., 1996, 2001). We revealed the amplitude and seasonal variations of canopy-scale CH4 fluxes. The REA method is the attractive alternative to the EC method to measure trace-gas flux because it allows the use of analyzers with an optimal integration time. We also conducted continuous chamber measurements on forest floor to reveal spatial variations in soil CH4 fluxes and its controlling processes. The observations were made in an evergreen coniferous forest in central Japan. The site has a warm temperate monsoon climate with wet summer. Some wetlands were located in riparian zones along streams within the flux footprint area. For the REA method, the sonic anemometer (SAT-550, Kaijo) was mounted on top of the 29-m-tall tower and air was sampled from just below the sonic anemometer to reservoirs according to the direction of vertical wind velocity (w). After accumulating air for 30 minutes, the air in the reservoirs was pulled into a CO2/H2O gas analyzer (LI-840, Li-Cor) and a CH4 analyzer (FMA-200, Los Gatos Research). Before entering the analyzers, the sampled air was dried using a gas dryer (PD-50 T-48; Perma Pure Inc.). The REA flux is obtained from the difference in the mean concentrations

Quantifying Fast and Slow Responses of Terrestrial Carbon Exchange across a Water Availability Gradient in North American Flux Sites

Science.gov (United States)

Biederman, J. A.; Scott, R. L.; Goulden, M.

2014-12-01

Climate change is predicted to increase the frequency and severity of water limitation, altering terrestrial ecosystems and their carbon exchange with the atmosphere. Here we compare site-level temporal sensitivity of annual carbon fluxes to interannual variations in water availability against cross-site spatial patterns over a network of 19 eddy covariance flux sites. This network represents one order of magnitude in mean annual productivity and includes western North American desert shrublands and grasslands, savannahs, woodlands, and forests with continuous records of 4 to 12 years. Our analysis reveals site-specific patterns not identifiable in prior syntheses that pooled sites. We interpret temporal variability as an indicator of ecosystem response to annual water availability due to fast-changing factors such as leaf stomatal response and microbial activity, while cross-site spatial patterns are used to infer ecosystem adjustment to climatic water availability through slow-changing factors such as plant community and organic carbon pools. Using variance decomposition, we directly quantify how terrestrial carbon balance depends on slow- and fast-changing components of gross ecosystem production (GEP) and total ecosystem respiration (TER). Slow factors explain the majority of variance in annual net ecosystem production (NEP) across the dataset, and their relative importance is greater at wetter, forest sites than desert ecosystems. Site-specific offsets from spatial patterns of GEP and TER explain one third of NEP variance, likely due to slow-changing factors not directly linked to water, such as disturbance. TER and GEP are correlated across sites as previously shown, but our site-level analysis reveals surprisingly consistent linear relationships between these fluxes in deserts and savannahs, indicating fast coupling of TER and GEP in more arid ecosystems. Based on the uncertainty associated with slow and fast factors, we suggest a framework for improved

Finite Volume Scheme for Double Convection-Diffusion Exchange of Solutes in Bicarbonate High-Flux Hollow-Fiber Dialyzer Therapy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kodwo Annan

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The efficiency of a high-flux dialyzer in terms of buffering and toxic solute removal largely depends on the ability to use convection-diffusion mechanism inside the membrane. A two-dimensional transient convection-diffusion model coupled with acid-base correction term was developed. A finite volume technique was used to discretize the model and to numerically simulate it using MATLAB software tool. We observed that small solute concentration gradients peaked and were large enough to activate solute diffusion process in the membrane. While CO2 concentration gradients diminished from their maxima and shifted toward the end of the membrane, concentration gradients peaked at the same position. Also, CO2 concentration decreased rapidly within the first 47 minutes while optimal concentration was achieved within 30 minutes of the therapy. Abnormally high diffusion fluxes were observed near the blood-membrane interface that increased diffusion driving force and enhanced the overall diffusive process. While convective flux dominated total flux during the dialysis session, there was a continuous interference between convection and diffusion fluxes that call for the need to seek minimal interference between these two mechanisms. This is critical for the effective design and operation of high-flux dialyzers.

Improvement of GaN epilayer by gradient layer method with molecular-beam epitaxy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, Yen-Liang [Department of Physics, Institute of Material Science and Engineering, Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan, ROC (China); Lo, Ikai, E-mail: ikailo@mail.phys.nsysu.edu.tw [Department of Physics, Institute of Material Science and Engineering, Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan, ROC (China); Gau, Ming-Hong; Hsieh, Chia-Ho; Sham, Meng-Wei; Pang, Wen-Yuan; Hsu, Yu-Chi [Department of Physics, Institute of Material Science and Engineering, Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan, ROC (China); Tsai, Jenn-Kai [Department of Electronics Engineering, National Formosa University, Hu-Wei, Yun-Lin County 63208, Taiwan, ROC (China); Schuber, Ralf; Schaadt, Daniel [Institute of Applied Physics/DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe (Germany)

2012-07-31

We demonstrated a molecular beam epitaxy method to resolve the dilemma between structural and morphological quality in growth of the GaN epilayer. A gradient buffer layer was grown in such a way that the N/Ga ratio was gradually changed from nitrogen-rich to gallium-rich. The GaN epitaxial layer was then grown on the gradient buffer layer. In the X-ray diffraction analysis of GaN(002) rocking curves, we found that the full width at half-maximum was improved from 531.69 Double-Prime to 59.43 Double-Prime for the sample with a gradient buffer layer as compared to a purely gallium-rich grown sample. Atomic force microscopy analysis showed that the root-mean-square roughness of the surface was improved from 18.28 nm to 1.62 nm over an area of 5 Multiplication-Sign 5 {mu}m{sup 2} with respect to a purely nitrogen-rich grown sample. Raman scattering showed the presence of a slightly tilted plane in the gradient layer. Furthermore we showed that the gradient layer can also slash the strain force caused by either Ga-rich GaN epitaxial layer or AlN buffer layer. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The samples were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The GaN epilayer was grown on sapphire substrate. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The sample quality was improved by gradient buffer layer.

Applicability of Stokes method for measuring viscosity of mixtures with concentration gradient

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César Medina

2017-12-01

Full Text Available After measuring density and viscosity of a mixture of glycerin and water contained in a vertical pipe, a variation of these properties according to depth is observed. These gradients are typical of non-equilibrium states related to the lower density of water and the fact that relatively long times are necessary to achieve homogeneity. In the same pipe, the falling velocity of five little spheres is measured as a function of depth, and then a numerical fit is performed which agrees very well with experimental data. Based on the generalization of these results, the applicability of Stokes method is discussed for measuring viscosity of mixtures with a concentration gradient.

Online In-Core Thermal Neutron Flux Measurement for the Validation of Computational Methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohamad Hairie Rabir; Muhammad Rawi Mohamed Zin; Yahya Ismail

2016-01-01

In order to verify and validate the computational methods for neutron flux calculation in RTP calculations, a series of thermal neutron flux measurement has been performed. The Self Powered Neutron Detector (SPND) was used to measure thermal neutron flux to verify the calculated neutron flux distribution in the TRIGA reactor. Measurements results obtained online for different power level of the reactor. The experimental results were compared to the calculations performed with Monte Carlo code MCNP using detailed geometrical model of the reactor. The calculated and measured thermal neutron flux in the core are in very good agreement indicating that the material and geometrical properties of the reactor core are modelled well. In conclusion one can state that our computational model describes very well the neutron flux distribution in the reactor core. Since the computational model properly describes the reactor core it can be used for calculations of reactor core parameters and for optimization of RTP utilization. (author)

A Family of Multipoint Flux Mixed Finite Element Methods for Elliptic Problems on General Grids

KAUST Repository

Wheeler, Mary F.

2011-01-01

In this paper, we discuss a family of multipoint flux mixed finite element (MFMFE) methods on simplicial, quadrilateral, hexahedral, and triangular-prismatic grids. The MFMFE methods are locally conservative with continuous normal fluxes, since they are developed within a variational framework as mixed finite element methods with special approximating spaces and quadrature rules. The latter allows for local flux elimination giving a cell-centered system for the scalar variable. We study two versions of the method: with a symmetric quadrature rule on smooth grids and a non-symmetric quadrature rule on rough grids. Theoretical and numerical results demonstrate first order convergence for problems with full-tensor coefficients. Second order superconvergence is observed on smooth grids. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

A Method for the neutron flux determination during the activation process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maayouf, R.M.A.; Khalil, M.I.

2000-01-01

The present work deals with an accurate method for determining the neutron flux coming out from a neutron source during the experimental measurements. Accordingly, a suitable detector, followed by preamplifier and amplifier, is connected to a data acquisition system designed specially for this purpose; and the number of neutrons detected during every sampling period is stored in the PC. The historical file can be used to compute the average or the integral flux during any time period; considering the detector efficiency, geometrical arrangement and the amplification gain

Neutron Flux Interpolation with Finite Element Method in the Nuclear Fuel Cell Calculation using Collision Probability Method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shafii, M. Ali; Su'ud, Zaki; Waris, Abdul; Kurniasih, Neny; Ariani, Menik; Yulianti, Yanti

2010-01-01

Nuclear reactor design and analysis of next-generation reactors require a comprehensive computing which is better to be executed in a high performance computing. Flat flux (FF) approach is a common approach in solving an integral transport equation with collision probability (CP) method. In fact, the neutron flux distribution is not flat, even though the neutron cross section is assumed to be equal in all regions and the neutron source is uniform throughout the nuclear fuel cell. In non-flat flux (NFF) approach, the distribution of neutrons in each region will be different depending on the desired interpolation model selection. In this study, the linear interpolation using Finite Element Method (FEM) has been carried out to be treated the neutron distribution. The CP method is compatible to solve the neutron transport equation for cylindrical geometry, because the angle integration can be done analytically. Distribution of neutrons in each region of can be explained by the NFF approach with FEM and the calculation results are in a good agreement with the result from the SRAC code. In this study, the effects of the mesh on the k eff and other parameters are investigated.

Method to eliminate flux linkage DC component in load transformer for static transfer switch.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Yu; Mao, Chengxiong; Lu, Jiming; Wang, Dan; Tian, Bing

2014-01-01

Many industrial and commercial sensitive loads are subject to the voltage sags and interruptions. The static transfer switch (STS) based on the thyristors is applied to improve the power quality and reliability. However, the transfer will result in severe inrush current in the load transformer, because of the DC component in the magnetic flux generated in the transfer process. The inrush current which is always 2 ~ 30 p.u. can cause the disoperation of relay protective devices and bring potential damage to the transformer. The way to eliminate the DC component is to transfer the related phases when the residual flux linkage of the load transformer and the prospective flux linkage of the alternate source are equal. This paper analyzes how the flux linkage of each winding in the load transformer changes in the transfer process. Based on the residual flux linkage when the preferred source is completely disconnected, the method to calculate the proper time point to close each phase of the alternate source is developed. Simulation and laboratory experiments results are presented to show the effectiveness of the transfer method.

Revisiting fracture gradient: Comments on “A new approaching method to estimate fracture gradient by correcting Matthew–Kelly and Eaton's stress ratio”

KAUST Repository

Hakiki, Farizal

2017-07-25

A study performed by Marbun et al. [1] claimed that “A new methodology to predict fracture pressure from former calculations, Matthew–Kelly and Eaton are proposed.” Also, Marbun et al.\\'s paper stated that “A new value of Poisson\\'s and a stress ratio of the formation were generated and the accuracy of fracture gradient was improved.” We found those all statements are incorrect and some misleading concepts are revealed. An attempt to expose the method of fracture gradient determination from industry practice also appears to solidify that our arguments are acceptable to against improper Marbun et al.\\'s claims.

Solvent Flux Method (SFM): A Case Study of Water Access to Candida antarctica Lipase B.

Science.gov (United States)

Benson, Sven P; Pleiss, Jürgen

2014-11-11

The solvent flux method (SFM) was developed to comprehensively characterize the influx of solvent molecules from the solvent environment into the active site of a protein in the framework of molecular dynamics simulations. This was achieved by introducing a solvent concentration gradient as well as partially reorienting and rescaling the velocity vector of all solvent molecules contained within a spherical volume enclosing the protein, thus inducing an accelerated solvent influx toward the active site. In addition to the detection of solvent access pathway within the protein structure, it is hereby possible to identify potential amino acid positions relevant to solvent-related enzyme engineering with high statistical significance. The method is particularly aimed at improving the reverse hydrolysis reaction rates in nonaqueous media. Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) binds to a triglyceride-water interface with its substrate entrance channel oriented toward the hydrophobic substrate interface. The lipase-triglyceride-water system served as a model system for SFM to evaluate the influx of water molecules to the active site. As a proof of principle for SFM, a previously known water access pathway in CALB was identified as the primary water channel. In addition, a secondary water channel and two pathways for water access which contribute to water leakage between the protein and the triglyceride-water interface were identified.

Plasma crowbars in cylindrical flux compression experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suter, L.J.

1979-01-01

We have done a series of one- and two-dimensional calculations of hard-core Z-pinch flux compression experiments in order to study the effect of a plasma on these systems. These calculations show that including a plasma can reduce the amount of flux lost during the compression. Flux losses to the outer wall of such experiments can be greatly reduced by a plasma conducting sheath which forms along the wall. This conducting sheath consists of a cold, dense high β, unmagnetized plasma which has enough pressure to balance a large field gradient. Flux which is lost into the center conductor is not effectively stopped by this plasma sheath until late in the implosion, at which time a layer similar to the one formed at the outer wall is created. Two-dimensionl simulations show that flux losses due to arching along the sliding contact of the experiment can be effectively stopped by the formation of a plasma conducting sheath

Development of Coincidence Method for Determination Thermal Neutron Flux on RSG-GAS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bakhri, Syaiful; Hamzah, Amir

2004-01-01

The research to develop detection radiation system using coincidence method has been done to determine thermal neutron flux in RS1 and RS2 irradiation facilities RSG-GAS. At this research has arranged beta-gamma coincidence equipment system and parameter of measurement according to Au-198 beta-gamma spectrum. Gold foils that have irradiated for period of time, counted, and the activities of radiation is analyzed to get neutron flux. Result of research indicate that systems measurement of absolute activity with gamma beta coincidence method functioning well and can be applied at activity measurement of gold foil for irradiation facility characterization. The results show that thermal neutron flux in RS1 and RS2, respectively is 2.007E+12 n/cm 2 s and 2.147E+12 n/cm 2 s. To examine the system performance, the result was compared to measure activity using high resolution of Hp Ge detector and achieved discrepancy is about 1.26% and 6.70%. (author)

Characterization of injection instabilities in electrohydrodynamics by numerical modelling: comparison of particle in cell and flux corrected transport methods for electroconvection between two plates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vazquez, P A; Georghiou, G E; Castellanos, A

2006-01-01

Numerical simulations are carried out for the characterization of injection instabilities in electrohydrodynamics and, in particular, the development of electroconvection between two parallel plates. The particle-in-cell and the finite element-flux corrected transport methods are used for the simulation of the test case, as they have proved very powerful and accurate in the solution of complex transport problems. Results are presented for unipolar injection (both strong and weak injections) between two plane electrodes immersed in a dielectric liquid, and the good agreement obtained by the two methods demonstrates not only their theoretical validity but also their practical ability to deal with transport problems in the presence of steep gradients. Some differences appear mainly in the prediction of small oscillations of the velocity and consequently of the electric current. These differences are highlighted and an explanation of their source is given

Using nuclear methods for analyzing materials and determining concentration gradients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Darras, R.

After reviewing the various type of nuclear chemical analysis methods, the possibilities of analysis by activation and direct observation of nuclear reactions are specifically described. These methods make it possible to effect analyses of trace-elements or impurities, even as traces, in materials, with selectivity, accuracy and great sensitivity. This latter property makes them advantageous too for determining major elements in small quantities of available matter. Furthermore, they lend themselves to carrying out superficial analyses and the determination of concentration gradients, given the careful choice of the nature and energy of the incident particles. The paper is illustrated with typical examples of analyses on steels, pure iron, refractory metals, etc [fr

A multigrid Newton-Krylov method for flux-limited radiation diffusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rider, W.J.; Knoll, D.A.; Olson, G.L.

1998-01-01

The authors focus on the integration of radiation diffusion including flux-limited diffusion coefficients. The nonlinear integration is accomplished with a Newton-Krylov method preconditioned with a multigrid Picard linearization of the governing equations. They investigate the efficiency of the linear and nonlinear iterative techniques

Three-Dimensional Induced Polarization Parallel Inversion Using Nonlinear Conjugate Gradients Method

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Huan Ma

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Four kinds of array of induced polarization (IP methods (surface, borehole-surface, surface-borehole, and borehole-borehole are widely used in resource exploration. However, due to the presence of large amounts of the sources, it will take much time to complete the inversion. In the paper, a new parallel algorithm is described which uses message passing interface (MPI and graphics processing unit (GPU to accelerate 3D inversion of these four methods. The forward finite differential equation is solved by ILU0 preconditioner and the conjugate gradient (CG solver. The inverse problem is solved by nonlinear conjugate gradients (NLCG iteration which is used to calculate one forward and two “pseudo-forward” modelings and update the direction, space, and model in turn. Because each source is independent in forward and “pseudo-forward” modelings, multiprocess modes are opened by calling MPI library. The iterative matrix solver within CULA is called in each process. Some tables and synthetic data examples illustrate that this parallel inversion algorithm is effective. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the joint inversion of surface and borehole data produces resistivity and chargeability results are superior to those obtained from inversions of individual surface data.

Santos Basin Geological Structures Mapped by Cross-gradient Method

Science.gov (United States)

Jilinski, P.; Fontes, S. L.

2011-12-01

Introduction We mapped regional-scale geological structures localized in offshore zone Santos Basin, South-East Brazilian Coast. The region is dominated by transition zone from oceanic to continental crust. Our objective was to determine the imprint of deeper crustal structures from correlation between bathymetric, gravity and magnetic anomaly maps. The region is extensively studied for oil and gas deposits including large tectonic sub-salt traps. Our method is based on gradient directions and their magnitudes product. We calculate angular differences and cross-product and access correlation between properties and map structures. Theory and Method We used angular differences and cross-product to determine correlated region between bathymetric, free-air gravity and magnetic anomaly maps. This gradient based method focuses on borders of anomalies and uses its morphological properties to access correlation between their sources. We generated maps of angles and cross-product distribution to locate correlated regions. Regional scale potential fields maps of FA and MA are a reflection of the overlaying and overlapping effects of the adjacent structures. Our interest was in quantifying and characterizing the relation between shapes of magnetic anomalies and gravity anomalies. Results Resulting maps show strong correlation between bathymetry and gravity anomaly and bathymetry and magnetic anomaly for large strictures including Serra do Mar, shelf, continental slope and rise. All maps display the regional dominance of NE-SW geological structures alignment parallel to the shore. Special interest is presented by structures transgressing this tendency. Magnetic, gravity anomaly and bathymetry angles map show large correlated region over the shelf zone and smaller scale NE-SW banded structures over abyssal plane. From our interpretation the large band of inverse correlation adjacent to the shore is generated by the gravity effect of Serra do Mar. Disrupting structures including

Reduced flux motion via flux creep annealing in high- Jc single-crystal Y1Ba2Cu3O7

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thompson, J.R.; Sun, Y.R.; Malozemoff, A.P.; Christen, D.K.; Kerchner, H.R.; Ossandon, J.G.; Marwick, A.D.; Holtzberg, F.

1991-01-01

We investigated the stabilization of magnetic flux in a high-temperature superconductor (a proton-irradiated Y 1 Ba 2 Cu 3 O 7 crystal), by operating with subcritical current density J. Using the thermal history to obtain an induced current density J≤J c , we observed a drastically reduced relaxation rate dM/dt (M=magnetization), after ''flux creep annealing.'' The results show that the field gradient ∼J∼M determined the relaxation rate, independent of the sample's H-T history, in agreement with recent theory

A blind deconvolution method based on L1/L2 regularization prior in the gradient space

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Ying; Shi, Yu; Hua, Xia

2018-02-01

In the process of image restoration, the result of image restoration is very different from the real image because of the existence of noise, in order to solve the ill posed problem in image restoration, a blind deconvolution method based on L1/L2 regularization prior to gradient domain is proposed. The method presented in this paper first adds a function to the prior knowledge, which is the ratio of the L1 norm to the L2 norm, and takes the function as the penalty term in the high frequency domain of the image. Then, the function is iteratively updated, and the iterative shrinkage threshold algorithm is applied to solve the high frequency image. In this paper, it is considered that the information in the gradient domain is better for the estimation of blur kernel, so the blur kernel is estimated in the gradient domain. This problem can be quickly implemented in the frequency domain by fast Fast Fourier Transform. In addition, in order to improve the effectiveness of the algorithm, we have added a multi-scale iterative optimization method. This paper proposes the blind deconvolution method based on L1/L2 regularization priors in the gradient space can obtain the unique and stable solution in the process of image restoration, which not only keeps the edges and details of the image, but also ensures the accuracy of the results.

Tight junction regulates epidermal calcium ion gradient and differentiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kurasawa, Masumi; Maeda, Tetsuo; Oba, Ai; Yamamoto, Takuya; Sasaki, Hiroyuki

2011-01-01

Research highlights: → We disrupted epidermal tight junction barrier in reconstructed epidermis. → It altered Ca 2+ distribution and consequentially differentiation state as well. → Tight junction should affect epidermal homeostasis by maintaining Ca 2+ gradient. -- Abstract: It is well known that calcium ions (Ca 2+ ) induce keratinocyte differentiation. Ca 2+ distributes to form a vertical gradient that peaks at the stratum granulosum. It is thought that the stratum corneum (SC) forms the Ca 2+ gradient since it is considered the only permeability barrier in the skin. However, the epidermal tight junction (TJ) in the granulosum has recently been suggested to restrict molecular movement to assist the SC as a secondary barrier. The objective of this study was to clarify the contribution of the TJ to Ca 2+ gradient and epidermal differentiation in reconstructed human epidermis. When the epidermal TJ barrier was disrupted by sodium caprate treatment, Ca 2+ flux increased and the gradient changed in ion-capture cytochemistry images. Alterations of ultrastructures and proliferation/differentiation markers revealed that both hyperproliferation and precocious differentiation occurred regionally in the epidermis. These results suggest that the TJ plays a crucial role in maintaining epidermal homeostasis by controlling the Ca 2+ gradient.

Sobolev gradients and differential equations

CERN Document Server

Neuberger, J W

2010-01-01

A Sobolev gradient of a real-valued functional on a Hilbert space is a gradient of that functional taken relative to an underlying Sobolev norm. This book shows how descent methods using such gradients allow a unified treatment of a wide variety of problems in differential equations. For discrete versions of partial differential equations, corresponding Sobolev gradients are seen to be vastly more efficient than ordinary gradients. In fact, descent methods with these gradients generally scale linearly with the number of grid points, in sharp contrast with the use of ordinary gradients. Aside from the first edition of this work, this is the only known account of Sobolev gradients in book form. Most of the applications in this book have emerged since the first edition was published some twelve years ago. What remains of the first edition has been extensively revised. There are a number of plots of results from calculations and a sample MatLab code is included for a simple problem. Those working through a fair p...

Temperature gradient method for lipid phase diagram construction using time-resolved x-ray diffraction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caffrey, M.; Hing, F.S.

1987-01-01

A method that enables temperature-composition phase diagram construction at unprecedented rates is described and evaluated. The method involves establishing a known temperature gradient along the length of a metal rod. Samples of different compositions contained in long, thin-walled capillaries are positioned lengthwise on the rod and equilibrated such that the temperature gradient is communicated into the sample. The sample is then moved through a focused, monochromatic synchrotron-derived x-ray beam and the image-intensified diffraction pattern from the sample is recorded on videotape continuously in live-time as a function of position and, thus, temperature. The temperature at which the diffraction pattern changes corresponds to a phase boundary, and the phase(s) existing (coexisting) on either side of the boundary can be identified on the basis of the diffraction pattern. Repeating the measurement on samples covering the entire composition range completes the phase diagram. These additional samples can be conveniently placed at different locations around the perimeter of the cylindrical rod and rotated into position for diffraction measurement. Temperature-composition phase diagrams for the fully hydrated binary mixtures, dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC)/dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DPPE)/DPPC, have been constructed using the new temperature gradient method. They agree well with and extend the results obtained by other techniques. In the DPPE/DPPC system structural parameters as a function of temperature in the various phases including the subgel phase are reported. The potential limitations of this steady-state method are discussed

Coherence properties in superconducting flux qubits

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Spilla, Samuele

2015-02-16

The research work discussed in this thesis deals with the study of superconducting Josephson qubits. Superconducting qubits are solid-state artificial atoms which are based on lithographically defined Josephson tunnel junctions properties. When sufficiently cooled, these superconducting devices exhibit quantized states of charge, flux or junction phase depending on their design parameters. This allows to observe coherent evolutions of their states. The results presented can be divided into two parts. In a first part we investigate operations of superconducting qubits based on the quantum coherence in superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID). We explain experimental data which has been observed in a SQUID subjected to fast, large-amplitude modifications of its effective potential shape. The motivations for this work come from the fact that in the past few years there have been attempts to interpret the supposed quantum behavior of physical systems, such as Josephson devices, within a classical framework. Moreover, we analyze the possibility of generating GHZ states, namely maximally entangled states, in a quantum system made out of three Josephson qubits. In particular, we investigate the possible limitations of the GHZ state generation due to coupling to bosonic baths. In the second part of the thesis we address a particular cause of decoherence of flux qubits which has been disregarded until now: thermal gradients, which can arise due to accidental non equilibrium quasiparticle distributions. The reason for these detrimental effects is that heat currents flowing through Josephson tunnel junctions in response to a temperature gradient are periodic functions of the phase difference between the electrodes. The phase dependence of the heat current comes from Andreev reflection, namely an interplay between the quasiparticles which carry heat and the superconducting condensate which is sensitive to the superconducting phase difference. Generally speaking

Improved collision probability method for thermal-neutron-flux calculation in a cylindrical reactor cell

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bosevski, T.

1986-01-01

An improved collision probability method for thermal-neutron-flux calculation in a cylindrical reactor cell has been developed. Expanding the neutron flux and source into a series of even powers of the radius, one' gets a convenient method for integration of the one-energy group integral transport equation. It is shown that it is possible to perform an analytical integration in the x-y plane in one variable and to use the effective Gaussian integration over another one. Choosing a convenient distribution of space points in fuel and moderator the transport matrix calculation and cell reaction rate integration were condensed. On the basis of the proposed method, the computer program DISKRET for the ZUSE-Z 23 K computer has been written. The suitability of the proposed method for the calculation of the thermal-neutron-flux distribution in a reactor cell can be seen from the test results obtained. Compared with the other collision probability methods, the proposed treatment excels with a mathematical simplicity and a faster convergence. (author)

Two Modified Three-Term Type Conjugate Gradient Methods and Their Global Convergence for Unconstrained Optimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhongbo Sun

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Two modified three-term type conjugate gradient algorithms which satisfy both the descent condition and the Dai-Liao type conjugacy condition are presented for unconstrained optimization. The first algorithm is a modification of the Hager and Zhang type algorithm in such a way that the search direction is descent and satisfies Dai-Liao’s type conjugacy condition. The second simple three-term type conjugate gradient method can generate sufficient decent directions at every iteration; moreover, this property is independent of the steplength line search. Also, the algorithms could be considered as a modification of the MBFGS method, but with different zk. Under some mild conditions, the given methods are global convergence, which is independent of the Wolfe line search for general functions. The numerical experiments show that the proposed methods are very robust and efficient.

Solvent effects in time-dependent self-consistent field methods. II. Variational formulations and analytical gradients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bjorgaard, J. A.; Velizhanin, K. A.; Tretiak, S.

2015-01-01

This study describes variational energy expressions and analytical excited state energy gradients for time-dependent self-consistent field methods with polarizable solvent effects. Linear response, vertical excitation, and state-specific solventmodels are examined. Enforcing a variational ground stateenergy expression in the state-specific model is found to reduce it to the vertical excitation model. Variational excited state energy expressions are then provided for the linear response and vertical excitation models and analytical gradients are formulated. Using semiempiricalmodel chemistry, the variational expressions are verified by numerical and analytical differentiation with respect to a static external electric field. Lastly, analytical gradients are further tested by performing microcanonical excited state molecular dynamics with p-nitroaniline

A Sea-Sky Line Detection Method for Unmanned Surface Vehicles Based on Gradient Saliency.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Bo; Su, Yumin; Wan, Lei

2016-04-15

Special features in real marine environments such as cloud clutter, sea glint and weather conditions always result in various kinds of interference in optical images, which make it very difficult for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to detect the sea-sky line (SSL) accurately. To solve this problem a saliency-based SSL detection method is proposed. Through the computation of gradient saliency the line features of SSL are enhanced effectively, while other interference factors are relatively suppressed, and line support regions are obtained by a region growing method on gradient orientation. The SSL identification is achieved according to region contrast, line segment length and orientation features, and optimal state estimation of SSL detection is implemented by introducing a cubature Kalman filter (CKF). In the end, the proposed method is tested on a benchmark dataset from the "XL" USV in a real marine environment, and the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is significantly superior to other state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy rate and real-time performance, and its accuracy and stability are effectively improved by the CKF.

A new method for simultaneous measurement of convective and radiative heat flux in car underhood applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khaled, M; Garnier, B; Peerhossaini, H; Harambat, F

2010-01-01

A new experimental technique is presented that allows simultaneous measurement of convective and radiative heat flux in the underhood. The goal is to devise an easily implemented and accurate experimental method for application in the vehicle underhood compartment. The new method is based on a technique for heat-flux measurement developed by the authors (Heat flow (flux) sensors for measurement of convection, conduction and radiation heat flow 27036-2, © Rhopoint Components Ltd, Hurst Green, Oxted, RH8 9AX, UK) that uses several thermocouples in the thickness of a thermal resistive layer (foil heat-flux sensor). The method proposed here uses a pair of these thermocouples with different radiative properties. Measurements validating this novel technique are carried out on a flat plate with a prescribed constant temperature in both natural- and forced-convection flow regimes. The test flat plate is instrumented by this new technique, and also with a different technique that is intrusive but very accurate, used as reference here (Bardon J P and Jarny Y 1994 Procédé et dispositif de mesure transitoire de température et flux surfacique Brevet n°94.011996, 22 February). Discrepancies between the measurements by the two techniques are less than 10% for both convective and radiative heat flux. Error identification and sensitivity analysis of the new method are also presented

Proposal for a new method of reactor neutron flux distribution determination

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Popic, V R [Institute of nuclear sciences Boris Kidric, Vinca, Beograd (Serbia and Montenegro)

1964-01-15

A method, based on the measurements of the activity produced in a medium flowing with variable velocity through a reactor, for the determination of the neutron flux distribution inside a reactor is considered theoretically (author)

Methods to assess high-resolution subsurface gas concentrations and gas fluxes in wetland ecosystems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elberling, Bo; Kühl, Michael; Glud, Ronnie Nøhr

2013-01-01

The need for measurements of soil gas concentrations and surface fluxes of greenhouse gases at high temporal and spatial resolution in wetland ecosystem has lead to the introduction of several new analytical techniques and methods. In addition to the automated flux chamber methodology for high-re...

Method and Apparatus of Implementing a Magnetic Shield Flux Sweeper

Science.gov (United States)

Sadleir, John E. (Inventor)

2018-01-01

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus of protecting magnetically sensitive devices with a shield, including: a non-superconducting metal or lower transition temperature (T.sub.c) material compared to a higher transition temperature material, disposed in a magnetic field; means for creating a spatially varying order parameter's |.PSI.(r,T)|.sup.2 in a non-superconducting metal or a lower transition temperature material; wherein a spatially varying order parameter is created by a proximity effect, such that the non-superconducting metal or the lower transition temperature material becomes superconductive as a temperature is lowered, creating a flux-free Meissner state at a center thereof, in order to sweep magnetic flux lines to the periphery.

Frequency domain optical tomography using a conjugate gradient method without line search

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Hyun Keol; Charette, Andre

2007-01-01

A conjugate gradient method without line search (CGMWLS) is presented. This method is used to retrieve the local maps of absorption and scattering coefficients inside the tissue-like test medium, with the synthetic data. The forward problem is solved with a discrete-ordinates finite-difference method based on the frequency domain formulation of radiative transfer equation. The inversion results demonstrate that the CGMWLS can retrieve simultaneously the spatial distributions of optical properties inside the medium within a reasonable accuracy, by reducing cross-talk between absorption and scattering coefficients

Spatial distribution of potential near surface moisture flux at Yucca Mountain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flint, A.L.; Flint, L.E.

1994-01-01

An estimate of the areal distribution of present-day surface liquid moisture flux at Yucca Mountain was made using field measured water contents and laboratory measured rock properties. Using available data for physical and hydrologic properties (porosity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, moisture retention functions) of the volcanic rocks, surface lithologic units that are hydrologically similar were delineated. Moisture retention and relative permeability functions were assigned to each surface unit based on the similarity of the mean porosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity of the surface unit to laboratory samples of the same lithology. The potential flux into the mountain was estimated for each surface hydrologic unit using the mean saturated hydraulic conductivity for each unit and assuming all matrix flow. Using measured moisture profiles for each of the surface units, estimates were made of the depth at which seasonal fluctuations diminish and steady state downward flux conditions are likely to exist. The hydrologic properties at that depth were used with the current relative saturation of the tuff, to estimate flux as the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. This method assumes a unit gradient. The range in estimated flux was 0.02 mm/yr for the welded Tiva Canyon to 13.4 mm/yr for the nonwelded Paintbrush Tuff. The areally averaged flux was 1.4 mm/yr. The major zones of high flux occur to the north of the potential repository boundary where the nonwelded tuffs are exposed in the major drainages

Spatial distribution of potential near surface moisture flux at Yucca Mountain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flint, A.L.; Flint, L.E.

1994-01-01

An estimate of the areal distribution of present-day surface liquid moisture flux at Yucca Mountain was made using field measured water contents and laboratory measured rock properties. Using available data for physical and hydrologic properties (porosity, saturated hydraulic conductivity moisture retention functions) of the volcanic rocks, surface lithologic units that are hydrologically similar were delineated. Moisture retention and relative permeability functions were assigned to each surface unit based on the similarity of the mean porosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity of the surface unit to laboratory samples of the same lithology. The potential flux into the mountain was estimated for each surface hydrologic unit using the mean saturated hydraulic conductivity for each unit and assuming all matrix flow. Using measured moisture profiles for each of the surface units, estimates were made of the depth at which seasonal fluctuations diminish and steady state downward flux conditions are likely to exist. The hydrologic properties at that depth were used with the current relative saturation of the tuff, to estimate flux as the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. This method assumes a unit gradient. The range in estimated flux was 0.02 mm/yr for the welded Tiva Canyon to 13.4 mm/yr for the nonwelded Paintbrush Tuff. The areally averaged flux was 1.4 mm/yr. The major zones of high flux occur to the north of the potential repository boundary where the nonwelded tuffs are exposed in the major drainages

A novel method for the in situ determination of concentration gradients in the electrolyte of Li-ion Batteries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhou, J.; Danilov, D.; Notten, P.H.L.

2006-01-01

An electrochemical method has been developed for the in situ determination of concentration gradients in the electrolyte of sealed Li-ion batteries by measuring the potential difference between microreference electrodes. Formulas relating the concentration gradient and the potential difference

Turbulent fluxes by "Conditional Eddy Sampling"

Science.gov (United States)

Siebicke, Lukas

2015-04-01

Turbulent flux measurements are key to understanding ecosystem scale energy and matter exchange, including atmospheric trace gases. While the eddy covariance approach has evolved as an invaluable tool to quantify fluxes of e.g. CO2 and H2O continuously, it is limited to very few atmospheric constituents for which sufficiently fast analyzers exist. High instrument cost, lack of field-readiness or high power consumption (e.g. many recent laser-based systems requiring strong vacuum) further impair application to other tracers. Alternative micrometeorological approaches such as conditional sampling might overcome major limitations. Although the idea of eddy accumulation has already been proposed by Desjardin in 1972 (Desjardin, 1977), at the time it could not be realized for trace gases. Major simplifications by Businger and Oncley (1990) lead to it's widespread application as 'Relaxed Eddy Accumulation' (REA). However, those simplifications (flux gradient similarity with constant flow rate sampling irrespective of vertical wind velocity and introduction of a deadband around zero vertical wind velocity) have degraded eddy accumulation to an indirect method, introducing issues of scalar similarity and often lack of suitable scalar flux proxies. Here we present a real implementation of a true eddy accumulation system according to the original concept. Key to our approach, which we call 'Conditional Eddy Sampling' (CES), is the mathematical formulation of conditional sampling in it's true form of a direct eddy flux measurement paired with a performant real implementation. Dedicated hardware controlled by near-real-time software allows full signal recovery at 10 or 20 Hz, very fast valve switching, instant vertical wind velocity proportional flow rate control, virtually no deadband and adaptive power management. Demonstrated system performance often exceeds requirements for flux measurements by orders of magnitude. The system's exceptionally low power consumption is ideal

Development of the CARS method for measurement of pressure and temperature gradients in centrifuges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeltmann, A.H.; Valentini, J.J.

1983-12-01

These experiments evaluated the feasibility of applying the CARS technique to the measurement of UF 6 concentrations and pressure gradients in a gas centrifuge. The resultant CARS signals were properly related to system parameters as suggested by theory. The results have been used to guide design of an apparatus for making CARS measurements in a UF 6 gas centrifuge. Ease of measurement is expected for pressures as low as 0.1 torr. Temperature gradients can be measured by this technique with changes in the data acquisition method. 16 references, 8 figures, 2 tables

Behavior of TPC`s in a high particle flux environment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Etkin, A.; Eiseman, S.E.; Foley, K.J.; Hackenburg, R.W.; Longacre, R.S.; Love, W.A.; Morris, T.W.; Platner, E.D.; Saulys, A.C.; Lindenbaum, S.J. [Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States); Chan, C.S.; Kramer, M.A.; Zhao, K.H.; Zhu, Y. [City College of New York, New York (United States); Hallman, T.J.; Madansky, L. [Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States); Ahmad, S.; Bonner, B.E.; Buchanan, J.A.; Chiou, C.N.; Clement, J.M.; Mutchler, G.S.; Roberts, J.B. [Bonner Nuclear Lab., Houston, TX (United States)

1991-12-31

TPC`s (Time Projection Chamber) used in E-810 at the TAGS (Alternating Gradient Synchrotron) were exposed to fluxes equivalent to more than 10 minimum ionizing particles per second to find if such high fluxes cause gain changes or distortions of the electric field. Initial results of these and other tests are presented and the consequences for the RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) TPC-based experiments are discussed.

Eddy-current inspection of high flux isotope reactor nuclear control rods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, J.H.; Chitwood, L.D.

1981-07-01

Inner control rods for the High Flux Isotope Reactor were nondestructively inspected for defects by eddy-current techniques. During these examinations aluminum cladding thickness and oxide thickness on the cladding were also measured. Special application techniques were required because of the high-radiation levels (approx. 10 5 R/h at 30 cm) present and the relatively large temperature gradients that occurred on the surface of the control rods. The techniques used to perform the eddy-current inspections and the methods used to reduce the associated data are described

A conjugate gradient method with descent properties under strong Wolfe line search

Science.gov (United States)

Zull, N.; ‘Aini, N.; Shoid, S.; Ghani, N. H. A.; Mohamed, N. S.; Rivaie, M.; Mamat, M.

2017-09-01

The conjugate gradient (CG) method is one of the optimization methods that are often used in practical applications. The continuous and numerous studies conducted on the CG method have led to vast improvements in its convergence properties and efficiency. In this paper, a new CG method possessing the sufficient descent and global convergence properties is proposed. The efficiency of the new CG algorithm relative to the existing CG methods is evaluated by testing them all on a set of test functions using MATLAB. The tests are measured in terms of iteration numbers and CPU time under strong Wolfe line search. Overall, this new method performs efficiently and comparable to the other famous methods.

Gravity gradient preprocessing at the GOCE HPF

Science.gov (United States)

Bouman, J.; Rispens, S.; Gruber, T.; Schrama, E.; Visser, P.; Tscherning, C. C.; Veicherts, M.

2009-04-01

One of the products derived from the GOCE observations are the gravity gradients. These gravity gradients are provided in the Gradiometer Reference Frame (GRF) and are calibrated in-flight using satellite shaking and star sensor data. In order to use these gravity gradients for application in Earth sciences and gravity field analysis, additional pre-processing needs to be done, including corrections for temporal gravity field signals to isolate the static gravity field part, screening for outliers, calibration by comparison with existing external gravity field information and error assessment. The temporal gravity gradient corrections consist of tidal and non-tidal corrections. These are all generally below the gravity gradient error level, which is predicted to show a 1/f behaviour for low frequencies. In the outlier detection the 1/f error is compensated for by subtracting a local median from the data, while the data error is assessed using the median absolute deviation. The local median acts as a high-pass filter and it is robust as is the median absolute deviation. Three different methods have been implemented for the calibration of the gravity gradients. All three methods use a high-pass filter to compensate for the 1/f gravity gradient error. The baseline method uses state-of-the-art global gravity field models and the most accurate results are obtained if star sensor misalignments are estimated along with the calibration parameters. A second calibration method uses GOCE GPS data to estimate a low degree gravity field model as well as gravity gradient scale factors. Both methods allow to estimate gravity gradient scale factors down to the 10-3 level. The third calibration method uses high accurate terrestrial gravity data in selected regions to validate the gravity gradient scale factors, focussing on the measurement band. Gravity gradient scale factors may be estimated down to the 10-2 level with this method.

Conjugate-gradient optimization method for orbital-free density functional calculations.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Hong; Yang, Weitao

2004-08-01

Orbital-free density functional theory as an extension of traditional Thomas-Fermi theory has attracted a lot of interest in the past decade because of developments in both more accurate kinetic energy functionals and highly efficient numerical methodology. In this paper, we developed a conjugate-gradient method for the numerical solution of spin-dependent extended Thomas-Fermi equation by incorporating techniques previously used in Kohn-Sham calculations. The key ingredient of the method is an approximate line-search scheme and a collective treatment of two spin densities in the case of spin-dependent extended Thomas-Fermi problem. Test calculations for a quartic two-dimensional quantum dot system and a three-dimensional sodium cluster Na216 with a local pseudopotential demonstrate that the method is accurate and efficient. (c) 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Neutron flux calculation by means of Monte Carlo methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barz, H.U.; Eichhorn, M.

1988-01-01

In this report a survey of modern neutron flux calculation procedures by means of Monte Carlo methods is given. Due to the progress in the development of variance reduction techniques and the improvements of computational techniques this method is of increasing importance. The basic ideas in application of Monte Carlo methods are briefly outlined. In more detail various possibilities of non-analog games and estimation procedures are presented, problems in the field of optimizing the variance reduction techniques are discussed. In the last part some important international Monte Carlo codes and own codes of the authors are listed and special applications are described. (author)

Estimate of the latent flux by the energy balance in protected cultivation of sweet pepper

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cunha, A.R. da; Escobedo, J.F.; Klosowski, E.S.

2002-01-01

The aim of this work was to characterize and bring into relationship the net radiation with the latent heat flux equivalent to water mm, in sweet pepper crops in the field and in protected cultivation. The estimate of latent heat flux was made by the energy balance method through the Bowen ratio. Instantaneous measures were made of net radiation (Rn), sensitive (H) and latent (LE) heat fluxes, heat flux into the soil (G), and of psychrometers gradients in the crop canopy. In protected cultivation, the conversion of the available net radiation in total dry matter and fruit productivity was more efficient than in the field, in spite of lower amounts of global solar radiation received by the crop. Ratios of G/Rn and LE/Rn were lower, and that of H/Rn was higher in protected cultivation, with an equivalent latent heat flux in millimeters, 45.43% lower than that determined in the field. Available net radiation and energy losses were also lower in protected cultivation, showing a higher water use efficiency. (author) [pt

SAGRAD: A Program for Neural Network Training with Simulated Annealing and the Conjugate Gradient Method.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernal, Javier; Torres-Jimenez, Jose

2015-01-01

SAGRAD (Simulated Annealing GRADient), a Fortran 77 program for computing neural networks for classification using batch learning, is discussed. Neural network training in SAGRAD is based on a combination of simulated annealing and Møller's scaled conjugate gradient algorithm, the latter a variation of the traditional conjugate gradient method, better suited for the nonquadratic nature of neural networks. Different aspects of the implementation of the training process in SAGRAD are discussed, such as the efficient computation of gradients and multiplication of vectors by Hessian matrices that are required by Møller's algorithm; the (re)initialization of weights with simulated annealing required to (re)start Møller's algorithm the first time and each time thereafter that it shows insufficient progress in reaching a possibly local minimum; and the use of simulated annealing when Møller's algorithm, after possibly making considerable progress, becomes stuck at a local minimum or flat area of weight space. Outlines of the scaled conjugate gradient algorithm, the simulated annealing procedure and the training process used in SAGRAD are presented together with results from running SAGRAD on two examples of training data.

Estimates of the temperature flux-temperature gradient relation above a sea floor

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cimatoribus, A.; van Haren, H.

2016-01-01

The relation between the ux of temperature (or buoyancy), the verti-cal temperature gradient and the height above the bottom, is investigatedin an oceanographic context, using high-resolution temperature measure-ments. The model for the evolution of a strati?ed layer by Balmforthet al. (1998) is

Representing Matrix Cracks Through Decomposition of the Deformation Gradient Tensor in Continuum Damage Mechanics Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Leone, Frank A., Jr.

2015-01-01

A method is presented to represent the large-deformation kinematics of intraply matrix cracks and delaminations in continuum damage mechanics (CDM) constitutive material models. The method involves the additive decomposition of the deformation gradient tensor into 'crack' and 'bulk material' components. The response of the intact bulk material is represented by a reduced deformation gradient tensor, and the opening of an embedded cohesive interface is represented by a normalized cohesive displacement-jump vector. The rotation of the embedded interface is tracked as the material deforms and as the crack opens. The distribution of the total local deformation between the bulk material and the cohesive interface components is determined by minimizing the difference between the cohesive stress and the bulk material stress projected onto the cohesive interface. The improvements to the accuracy of CDM models that incorporate the presented method over existing approaches are demonstrated for a single element subjected to simple shear deformation and for a finite element model of a unidirectional open-hole tension specimen. The material model is implemented as a VUMAT user subroutine for the Abaqus/Explicit finite element software. The presented deformation gradient decomposition method reduces the artificial load transfer across matrix cracks subjected to large shearing deformations, and avoids the spurious secondary failure modes that often occur in analyses based on conventional progressive damage models.

Variability and budget of CO2 in Europe: analysis of the CAATER airborne campaigns - Part 2: Comparison of CO2 vertical variability and fluxes between observations and a modeling framework

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xueref-Remy, I.; Bousquet, P.; Rivier, L.; Ciais, P.; Carouge, C.

2011-01-01

Our ability to predict future climate change relies on our understanding of current and future CO 2 fluxes, particularly on a regional scale (100-1000 km). CO 2 regional sources and sinks are still poorly understood. Inverse transport modeling, a method often used to quantify these fluxes, relies on atmospheric CO 2 measurements. One of the main challenges for the transport models used in the inversions is to properly reproduce CO 2 vertical gradients between the boundary layer and the free troposphere, as these gradients impact on the partitioning of the calculated fluxes between the different model regions. Vertical CO 2 profiles are very well suited to assess the performances of the models. In this paper, we conduct a comparison between observed and modeled CO 2 profiles recorded during two CAATER campaigns that occurred in May 2001 and October 2002 over Western Europe, as described in a companion paper. We test different combinations between a global transport model (LMDZt), a mesoscale transport model (CHIMERE), and different sets of biospheric fluxes, all chosen with a diurnal cycle (CASA, SiB2 and ORCHIDEE). The vertical profile comparison shows that: 1) in most cases the influence of the biospheric flux is small but sometimes not negligible, ORCHIDEE giving the best results in the present study; 2) LMDZt is most of the time too diffuse, as it simulates a too high boundary layer height; 3) CHIMERE better reproduces the observed gradients between the boundary layer and the free troposphere, but is sometimes too variable and gives rise to incoherent structures. We conclude there is a need for more vertical profiles to conduct further studies to improve the parameterization of vertical transport in the models used for CO 2 flux inversions. Furthermore, we use a modeling method to quantify CO 2 fluxes at the regional scale from a chosen observing point, coupling influence functions from the transport model LMDZt (that works quite well at the synoptic scale) with

Analytic function expansion nodal method for nuclear reactor core design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noh, Hae Man

1995-02-01

deriving the nodal coupling equations, it does not suffer from the limitations caused by the transverse integration, such as the need of transverse leakage approximation and the singularity arising in non-rectangular node geometries. And because of the use of analytic basis functions, the method accurately models large localized flux gradients in the vicinity of nodal corner points as well as nodal interfaces. To demonstrate its accuracy and applicability to realistic problems, the AFEN method was tested to several benchmark problems in both the rectangular and the hexagonal geometry, including MOX fuel problems, and the initial core of Ulchin Unit 1. The results show that the AFEN method significantly improves the accuracy in the nodal flux distribution and the core multiplication factor compared to the nodal methods which use the transverse integration. The method also facilitates pinwise flux reconstruction since the homogeneous flux distributions obtained from the nodal calculation are very accurate and can be used directly in the reconstruction. Encouraged by the success of the AFEN method, we also developed two other nodal methods in this study, which can be classified as variations of the AFEN method. The first one is the Polynomial Expansion Nodal (PEN) method. This method retains all the features of the AFEN method except expanding the intranodal flux distribution into a nonseparable high-order polynomial instead of the analytic function. The results of benchmark problems indicate mixed performance of the method. For the conventional light water reactor cores loaded with the conventional UO 2 fuel assembly, the performance of the method is similar to that of the AFEN method, but for the reactor cores loaded with the MOX fuel assemblies, the PEN method is poorer than the AFEN method. The poor performance of the PEN method for the MOX fuel loaded cores is due to the fact that the polynomial is less accurate for the representation of the intranodal flux distribution

A coarse-mesh nodal method-diffusive-mesh finite difference method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joo, H.; Nichols, W.R.

1994-01-01

Modern nodal methods have been successfully used for conventional light water reactor core analyses where the homogenized, node average cross sections (XSs) and the flux discontinuity factors (DFs) based on equivalence theory can reliably predict core behavior. For other types of cores and other geometries characterized by tightly-coupled, heterogeneous core configurations, the intranodal flux shapes obtained from a homogenized nodal problem may not accurately portray steep flux gradients near fuel assembly interfaces or various reactivity control elements. This may require extreme values of DFs (either very large, very small, or even negative) to achieve a desired solution accuracy. Extreme values of DFs, however, can disrupt the convergence of the iterative methods used to solve for the node average fluxes, and can lead to a difficulty in interpolating adjacent DF values. Several attempts to remedy the problem have been made, but nothing has been satisfactory. A new coarse-mesh nodal scheme called the Diffusive-Mesh Finite Difference (DMFD) technique, as contrasted with the coarse-mesh finite difference (CMFD) technique, has been developed to resolve this problem. This new technique and the development of a few-group, multidimensional kinetics computer program are described in this paper

Transfer matrix method for four-flux radiative transfer.

Science.gov (United States)

Slovick, Brian; Flom, Zachary; Zipp, Lucas; Krishnamurthy, Srini

2017-07-20

We develop a transfer matrix method for four-flux radiative transfer, which is ideally suited for studying transport through multiple scattering layers. The model predicts the specular and diffuse reflection and transmission of multilayer composite films, including interface reflections, for diffuse or collimated incidence. For spherical particles in the diffusion approximation, we derive closed-form expressions for the matrix coefficients and show remarkable agreement with numerical Monte Carlo simulations for a range of absorption values and film thicknesses, and for an example multilayer slab.

Hybrid permanent magnet gradient dipoles for the recycler ring at Fermilab

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, B.C.; Dimarco, J.; Foster, G.W.; Glass, H.D.; Haggard, J.E.; Harding, D.J.; Jackson, G.R.; May, M.R.; Nicol, T.H.; Ostiguy, J.-F.; Schlabach, R.; Volk, J.T.

1997-11-01

Hybrid permanent magnets provide the magnetic fields for an anti- proton storage ring which is under construction at Fermilab. Using a combined function lattice, gradient magnets provide the bending, focusing and sextupole correction for the regular cells. Shorter magnets without sextupole are used in dispersion suppressor cells. These magnets use a 4.7 m ( 3 m) long iron shell for flux return, bricks of 25.4 mm thick strontium ferrite supply the flux and transversely tapered iron poles separated by aluminum spacers set the shape of the magnetic field. Central fields of 0.14 T with gradients of ∼6%/inch (∼13%/inch) are required. Field errors are expected to be less than 10 -4 of the bend field over an aperture of ±40 mm (horizontal) x ±20 mm (vertical). Design, procurement, fabrication, pole potential adjustment, field shape trimming and measured fields will be reported

The influence of deflation vectors at interfaces on the deflated conjugate gradient method

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vermolen, F.J.; Vuik, C.

2001-01-01

We investigate the influence of the value of deflation vectors at interfaces on the rate of convergence of preconditioned conjugate gradient methods. Our set-up is a Laplace problem in two dimensions with continuous or discontinuous coeffcients that vary in several orders of magnitude. In the

A fast nonlinear conjugate gradient based method for 3D frictional contact problems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhao, J.; Vollebregt, E.A.H.; Oosterlee, C.W.

2014-01-01

This paper presents a fast numerical solver for a nonlinear constrained optimization problem, arising from a 3D frictional contact problem. It incorporates an active set strategy with a nonlinear conjugate gradient method. One novelty is to consider the tractions of each slip element in a polar

Research on a wavefront aberration calculation method for a laser energy gradient attenuator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dong, Tingting; Han, Xu; Chen, Chi; Fu, Yuegang; Li, Ming

2013-01-01

When a laser energy gradient attenuator is working, there is an inhomogeneous temperature distribution in the whole of the glass because of the non-uniform light energy absorption. This will lead to optical performance reduction. An integrated opto-thermal–mechanical method is proposed to calculate the wavefront aberration for analysis of the thermal effect of the system. Non-sequential optical analysis is used for computing the absorbed energy distribution. The finite element analysis program solves the temperature distribution and the deformations of nodes on the surfaces. An interface routine is created to fit the surface shape and the index field, and extended Zernike polynomials are introduced to get a higher fitting precision. Finally, the parameters are imported to the CodeV optical design program automatically, and the user defined gradient index material is ray traced to obtain the wavefront aberration. The method can also be used in other optical systems for thermal effect analysis. (letter)

The impact of edge gradients in the pressure, density, ion temperature, and electron temperature on edge-localized modes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kleva, Robert G.; Guzdar, Parvez N.

2011-01-01

The magnitude of the energy and particle fluxes in simulations of edge-localized modes (ELMs) is determined by the edge gradients in the pressure, density, ion temperature, and electron temperature. The total edge pressure gradient is the dominant influence on ELMs by far. An increase (decrease) of merely 2% in the pressure gradient results in an increase (decrease) of more than a factor of ten in the size of the ELM bursts. At a fixed pressure gradient, the size of the ELM bursts decreases as the density gradient increases, while the size of the bursts increases as the electron temperature gradient or, especially, the ion temperature gradient increases.

Combining Step Gradients and Linear Gradients in Density.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Ashok A; Walz, Jenna A; Gonidec, Mathieu; Mace, Charles R; Whitesides, George M

2015-06-16

Combining aqueous multiphase systems (AMPS) and magnetic levitation (MagLev) provides a method to produce hybrid gradients in apparent density. AMPS—solutions of different polymers, salts, or surfactants that spontaneously separate into immiscible but predominantly aqueous phases—offer thermodynamically stable steps in density that can be tuned by the concentration of solutes. MagLev—the levitation of diamagnetic objects in a paramagnetic fluid within a magnetic field gradient—can be arranged to provide a near-linear gradient in effective density where the height of a levitating object above the surface of the magnet corresponds to its density; the strength of the gradient in effective density can be tuned by the choice of paramagnetic salt and its concentrations and by the strength and gradient in the magnetic field. Including paramagnetic salts (e.g., MnSO4 or MnCl2) in AMPS, and placing them in a magnetic field gradient, enables their use as media for MagLev. The potential to create large steps in density with AMPS allows separations of objects across a range of densities. The gradients produced by MagLev provide resolution over a continuous range of densities. By combining these approaches, mixtures of objects with large differences in density can be separated and analyzed simultaneously. Using MagLev to add an effective gradient in density also enables tuning the range of densities captured at an interface of an AMPS by simply changing the position of the container in the magnetic field. Further, by creating AMPS in which phases have different concentrations of paramagnetic ions, the phases can provide different resolutions in density. These results suggest that combining steps in density with gradients in density can enable new classes of separations based on density.

A method for neutron dosimetry in ultrahigh flux environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ougouag, A.M.; Wemple, C.A.; Rogers, J.W.

1996-01-01

A method for neutron dosimetry in ultrahigh flux environments is developed, and devices embodying it are proposed and simulated using a Monte Carlo code. The new approach no longer assumes a linear relationship between the fluence and the activity of the nuclides formed by irradiation. It accounts for depletion of the original ''foil'' material and for decay and depletion of the formed nuclides. In facilities where very high fluences are possible, the fluences inferred by activity measurements may be ambiguous. A method for resolving these ambiguities is also proposed and simulated. The new method and proposed devices should make possible the use of materials not traditionally considered desirable for neutron activation dosimetry

Variability and budget of CO2 in Europe: analysis of the CAATER airborne campaigns – Part 2: Comparison of CO2 vertical variability and fluxes between observations and a modeling framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Ciais

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Our ability to predict future climate change relies on our understanding of current and future CO2 fluxes, particularly on a regional scale (100–1000 km. CO2 regional sources and sinks are still poorly understood. Inverse transport modeling, a method often used to quantify these fluxes, relies on atmospheric CO2 measurements. One of the main challenges for the transport models used in the inversions is to properly reproduce CO2 vertical gradients between the boundary layer and the free troposphere, as these gradients impact on the partitioning of the calculated fluxes between the different model regions. Vertical CO2 profiles are very well suited to assess the performances of the models. In this paper, we conduct a comparison between observed and modeled CO2 profiles recorded during two CAATER campaigns that occurred in May 2001 and October 2002 over Western Europe, as described in a companion paper. We test different combinations between a global transport model (LMDZt, a mesoscale transport model (CHIMERE, and different sets of biospheric fluxes, all chosen with a diurnal cycle (CASA, SiB2 and ORCHIDEE. The vertical profile comparison shows that: 1 in most cases the influence of the biospheric flux is small but sometimes not negligible, ORCHIDEE giving the best results in the present study; 2 LMDZt is most of the time too diffuse, as it simulates a too high boundary layer height; 3 CHIMERE better reproduces the observed gradients between the boundary layer and the free troposphere, but is sometimes too variable and gives rise to incoherent structures. We conclude there is a need for more vertical profiles to conduct further studies to improve the parameterization of vertical transport in the models used for CO2 flux inversions. Furthermore, we use a modeling method to quantify CO2 fluxes at the regional scale from a chosen observing point, coupling influence functions from the transport model LMDZt (that works quite well at the synoptic

A Sea-Sky Line Detection Method for Unmanned Surface Vehicles Based on Gradient Saliency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bo Wang

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Special features in real marine environments such as cloud clutter, sea glint and weather conditions always result in various kinds of interference in optical images, which make it very difficult for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs to detect the sea-sky line (SSL accurately. To solve this problem a saliency-based SSL detection method is proposed. Through the computation of gradient saliency the line features of SSL are enhanced effectively, while other interference factors are relatively suppressed, and line support regions are obtained by a region growing method on gradient orientation. The SSL identification is achieved according to region contrast, line segment length and orientation features, and optimal state estimation of SSL detection is implemented by introducing a cubature Kalman filter (CKF. In the end, the proposed method is tested on a benchmark dataset from the “XL” USV in a real marine environment, and the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is significantly superior to other state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy rate and real-time performance, and its accuracy and stability are effectively improved by the CKF.

Monte Carlo methods for flux expansion solutions of transport problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spanier, J.

1999-01-01

Adaptive Monte Carlo methods, based on the use of either correlated sampling or importance sampling, to obtain global solutions to certain transport problems have recently been described. The resulting learning algorithms are capable of achieving geometric convergence when applied to the estimation of a finite number of coefficients in a flux expansion representation of the global solution. However, because of the nonphysical nature of the random walk simulations needed to perform importance sampling, conventional transport estimators and source sampling techniques require modification to be used successfully in conjunction with such flux expansion methods. It is shown how these problems can be overcome. First, the traditional path length estimators in wide use in particle transport simulations are generalized to include rather general detector functions (which, in this application, are the individual basis functions chosen for the flus expansion). Second, it is shown how to sample from the signed probabilities that arise as source density functions in these applications, without destroying the zero variance property needed to ensure geometric convergence to zero error

Investigating the biophysical controls on mass and energy cycling in Southwestern US ecosystems using the New Mexico Elevation Gradient of flux towers.

Science.gov (United States)

Krofcheck, D. J.; Morillas, L.; Litvak, M. E.

2014-12-01

Drylands and semi-arid ecosystems cover over 45% of the global landmass. These biomes have been shown to be extremely sensitive to changes in climate, specifically decreases in precipitation and increases in air temperature. Therefore, inter-annual variability in climate has the potential to dramatically impact the carbon budget at regional and global scales. In the Southwestern US, we are in a unique position to investigate these relationships by leveraging eight years of data from the New Mexico Elevation Gradient (NMEG), eight flux towers that span six representative biomes across the semi-arid Southwest. From C4 desert grasslands to subalpine mixed conifer forests, the NMEG flux towers use identical instrumentsand processing, and afford a unique opportunity to explore patterns in biome-specific ecosystem processes and climate sensitivity. Over the last eight years the gradient has experienced climatic variability that span from wet years to an episodic megadrought. Here we report the effects of this extreme inter-annual variability in climate on the ability of semi-arid ecosystems to cycle and store energy and carbon. We also investigated biome-specific patterns of ecosystem light and water use efficiency during a series of wet and dry years, and how these vary in response to air temperature, vapor pressure deficit, evaporative fraction, and precipitation. Our initial results suggest that significant drought reduced the maximum ecosystem assimilation of carbon most at the C4 grasslands, creosote shrublands, juniper savannas, and ponderosa pine forests, with 60%, 50%, 35%, and 50% reduction respectively, relative to a wet year. Ecosystem light use efficiency tends to show the highest maximum values at the low elevation sites as a function of water availability, with the highest annual values consistently at the middle elevation and ponderosa pine sites. Water use efficiency was strongly biome dependent with the middle elevation sites showing the highest

Multi-color incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradient methods for vector computers. Ph.D. Thesis

Science.gov (United States)

Poole, E. L.

1986-01-01

In this research, we are concerned with the solution on vector computers of linear systems of equations, Ax = b, where A is a larger, sparse symmetric positive definite matrix. We solve the system using an iterative method, the incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradient method (ICCG). We apply a multi-color strategy to obtain p-color matrices for which a block-oriented ICCG method is implemented on the CYBER 205. (A p-colored matrix is a matrix which can be partitioned into a pXp block matrix where the diagonal blocks are diagonal matrices). This algorithm, which is based on a no-fill strategy, achieves O(N/p) length vector operations in both the decomposition of A and in the forward and back solves necessary at each iteration of the method. We discuss the natural ordering of the unknowns as an ordering that minimizes the number of diagonals in the matrix and define multi-color orderings in terms of disjoint sets of the unknowns. We give necessary and sufficient conditions to determine which multi-color orderings of the unknowns correpond to p-color matrices. A performance model is given which is used both to predict execution time for ICCG methods and also to compare an ICCG method to conjugate gradient without preconditioning or another ICCG method. Results are given from runs on the CYBER 205 at NASA's Langley Research Center for four model problems.

Measurement of the neutron flux distributions, epithermal index, Westcott thermal neutron flux in the irradiation capsules of hydraulic conveyer (Hyd) and pneumatic tubes (Pn) facilities of the KUR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chatani, Hiroshi

2001-05-01

The reactions of Au(n, γ) 198 Au and Ti(n, p) 47 or 48 Sc were used for the measurements of the thermal and epithermal (thermal + epithermal) and the fast neutron flux distributions, respectively. In the case of Hyd (Hydraulic conveyer), the thermal + epithermal and fast neutron flux distributions in the horizontal direction in the capsule are especially flat; the distortion of the fluxes are 0.6% and 5.4%, respectively. However, these neutron fluxes in the vertical direction are low at the top and high at the bottom of the capsule. These differences between the top and bottom are 14% for both distributions. On the other hand, in polyethylene capsules of Pn-1, 2, 3 (Pneumatic tubes Nos. 1, 2, 3), in contrast with Hyd, these neutron flux distributions in the horizontal direction have gradients of 8 - 18% per 2.5 cm diameter, and those on the vertical axis have a distortion of approximately 5%. The strength of the epithermal dE/E component relative to the neutron density including both thermal and epithermal neutrons, i.e., the epithermal index, for the hydraulic conveyer (Hyd) and pneumatic tube No.2 (Pn-2), in which the irradiation experiments can be achieved, are determined by the multiple foil activation method using the reactions of Au(n, γ) 198 Au and Co(n, γ) 60(m+g) Co. The epithermal index observed in an aluminum capsule of Hyd is 0.034-0.04, and the Westcott thermal neutron flux is 1.2x10 14 cm -2 sec -1 at approximately 1 cm above the bottom. The epithermal index in a Pn-2 polyethylene capsule was measured by not only the multiple foil activation method but also the Cd-ratio method in which the Au(n, γ) 198 Au reaction in a cadmium cover is also used. The epithermal index is 0.045 - 0.055, and the thermal neutron flux is 1.8x10 13 cm -2 sec -1 . (J.P.N.)

A New Energy-Based Method for 3-D Finite-Element Nonlinear Flux Linkage computation of Electrical Machines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lu, Kaiyuan; Rasmussen, Peter Omand; Ritchie, Ewen

2011-01-01

This paper presents a new method for computation of the nonlinear flux linkage in 3-D finite-element models (FEMs) of electrical machines. Accurate computation of the nonlinear flux linkage in 3-D FEM is not an easy task. Compared to the existing energy-perturbation method, the new technique......-perturbation method. The new method proposed is validated using experimental results on two different permanent magnet machines....

Method of T2 spectrum inversion with conjugate gradient algorithm from NMR data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Pengju; Shi Shangming; Song Yanjie

2010-01-01

Based on the optimization techniques, the T 2 spectrum inversion method of conjugate gradient that is easy to realize non-negativity constraint of T2 spectrum is proposed. The method transforms the linear mixed-determined problem of T2 spectrum inversion into the typical optimization problem of searching the minimum of objective function by building up the objective function according to the basic idea of geophysics modeling. The optimization problem above is solved with the conjugate gradient algorithm that has quick convergence rate and quadratic termination. The method has been applied to the inversion of noise free echo train generated from artificial spectrum, artificial echo train with signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)=25 and NMR experimental data of drilling core. The comparison between the inversion results of this paper and artificial spectrum or the result of software imported in NMR laboratory shows that the method can correctly invert T 2 spectrum from artificial NMR relaxation data even though SNR=25 and that inversion T 2 spectrum with good continuity and smoothness from core NMR experimental data accords perfectly with that of laboratory software imported, and moreover,the absolute error between the NMR porosity computed from T 2 spectrum and helium (He) porosity in laboratory is 0.65%. (authors)

Momentum and Stochastic Momentum for Stochastic Gradient, Newton, Proximal Point and Subspace Descent Methods

KAUST Repository

Loizou, Nicolas

2017-12-27

In this paper we study several classes of stochastic optimization algorithms enriched with heavy ball momentum. Among the methods studied are: stochastic gradient descent, stochastic Newton, stochastic proximal point and stochastic dual subspace ascent. This is the first time momentum variants of several of these methods are studied. We choose to perform our analysis in a setting in which all of the above methods are equivalent. We prove global nonassymptotic linear convergence rates for all methods and various measures of success, including primal function values, primal iterates (in L2 sense), and dual function values. We also show that the primal iterates converge at an accelerated linear rate in the L1 sense. This is the first time a linear rate is shown for the stochastic heavy ball method (i.e., stochastic gradient descent method with momentum). Under somewhat weaker conditions, we establish a sublinear convergence rate for Cesaro averages of primal iterates. Moreover, we propose a novel concept, which we call stochastic momentum, aimed at decreasing the cost of performing the momentum step. We prove linear convergence of several stochastic methods with stochastic momentum, and show that in some sparse data regimes and for sufficiently small momentum parameters, these methods enjoy better overall complexity than methods with deterministic momentum. Finally, we perform extensive numerical testing on artificial and real datasets, including data coming from average consensus problems.

Momentum and Stochastic Momentum for Stochastic Gradient, Newton, Proximal Point and Subspace Descent Methods

KAUST Repository

Loizou, Nicolas; Richtarik, Peter

2017-01-01

In this paper we study several classes of stochastic optimization algorithms enriched with heavy ball momentum. Among the methods studied are: stochastic gradient descent, stochastic Newton, stochastic proximal point and stochastic dual subspace ascent. This is the first time momentum variants of several of these methods are studied. We choose to perform our analysis in a setting in which all of the above methods are equivalent. We prove global nonassymptotic linear convergence rates for all methods and various measures of success, including primal function values, primal iterates (in L2 sense), and dual function values. We also show that the primal iterates converge at an accelerated linear rate in the L1 sense. This is the first time a linear rate is shown for the stochastic heavy ball method (i.e., stochastic gradient descent method with momentum). Under somewhat weaker conditions, we establish a sublinear convergence rate for Cesaro averages of primal iterates. Moreover, we propose a novel concept, which we call stochastic momentum, aimed at decreasing the cost of performing the momentum step. We prove linear convergence of several stochastic methods with stochastic momentum, and show that in some sparse data regimes and for sufficiently small momentum parameters, these methods enjoy better overall complexity than methods with deterministic momentum. Finally, we perform extensive numerical testing on artificial and real datasets, including data coming from average consensus problems.

Quasi-Static Evolution, Catastrophe, and Failed Eruption of Solar Flux Ropes

Science.gov (United States)

2016-12-30

Ropes James Chen Beam Physics Branch Plasma Physics Division December 30, 2016 Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. i REPORT...pressure gradient force combine to balance the major radial hoop force. The macroscopic forces on the flux ropes and onset conditions are quantified...Solar physics theory 67-4989-07 Quasi-Static Evolution, Catastrophe, and “Failed” Eruption of Solar Flux Ropes James Chen1 Plasma Physics Division

Grasland Stable Isotope Flux Measurements: Three Isotopomers of Carbon Dioxide Measured by QCL Spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Zeeman, M. J.; Tuzson, B.; Eugster, W.; Werner, R. A.; Buchmann, N.; Emmenegger, L.

2007-12-01

To improve our understanding of greenhouse gas dynamics of managed ecosystems such as grasslands, we not only need to investigate the effects of management (e.g., grass cuts) and weather events (e.g., rainy days) on carbon dioxide fluxes, but also need to increase the time resolution of our measurements. Thus, for the first time, we assessed respiration and assimilation fluxes with high time resolution (5Hz) stable isotope measurements at an intensively managed farmland in Switzerland (Chamau, 400m ASL). Two different methods were used to quantify fluxes of carbon dioxide and associated fluxes of stable carbon isotopes: (1) the flux gradient method, and (2) the eddy covariance method. During a week long intensive measurement campaign, we (1) measured mixing ratios of carbon dioxide isotopomers (12C16O2, 12C16O18O, 13C16O2) with a Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL, Aerodyne Inc.) spectroscope and (2) collected air samples for isotope analyses (13C/12C) and (18O/16O) of carbon dioxide by Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS, Finnigan) every two hours, concurrently along a height profile (z = 0.05; 0.10; 0.31; 2.15m). In the following week, the QCL setup was used for closed-path eddy covariance flux measurement of the carbon dioxide isotopomers, with the air inlet located next to an open-path Infra Red Gas Analyzers (IRGA, LiCor 7500) used simultaneously for carbon dioxide measurements. During this second week, an area of grass inside the footprint was cut and harvested after several days. The first results of in-field continuous QCL measurements of carbon dioxide mixing ratios and their stable isotopic ratios show good agreement with IRGA measurements and isotope analysis of flask samples by IRMS. Thus, QCL spectroscopy is a very promising tool for stable isotope flux investigations.

Study of Boundary Layer Convective Heat Transfer with Low Pressure Gradient Over a Flat Plate Via He's Homotopy Perturbation Method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fathizadeh, M.; Aroujalian, A.

2012-01-01

The boundary layer convective heat transfer equations with low pressure gradient over a flat plate are solved using Homotopy Perturbation Method, which is one of the semi-exact methods. The nonlinear equations of momentum and energy solved simultaneously via Homotopy Perturbation Method are in good agreement with results obtained from numerical methods. Using this method, a general equation in terms of Pr number and pressure gradient (λ) is derived which can be used to investigate velocity and temperature profiles in the boundary layer.

Local CC2 response method based on the Laplace transform: Analytic energy gradients for ground and excited states

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ledermüller, Katrin; Schütz, Martin, E-mail: martin.schuetz@chemie.uni-regensburg.de [Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, D-93040 Regensburg (Germany)

2014-04-28

A multistate local CC2 response method for the calculation of analytic energy gradients with respect to nuclear displacements is presented for ground and electronically excited states. The gradient enables the search for equilibrium geometries of extended molecular systems. Laplace transform is used to partition the eigenvalue problem in order to obtain an effective singles eigenvalue problem and adaptive, state-specific local approximations. This leads to an approximation in the energy Lagrangian, which however is shown (by comparison with the corresponding gradient method without Laplace transform) to be of no concern for geometry optimizations. The accuracy of the local approximation is tested and the efficiency of the new code is demonstrated by application calculations devoted to a photocatalytic decarboxylation process of present interest.

Local CC2 response method based on the Laplace transform: analytic energy gradients for ground and excited states.

Science.gov (United States)

Ledermüller, Katrin; Schütz, Martin

2014-04-28

A multistate local CC2 response method for the calculation of analytic energy gradients with respect to nuclear displacements is presented for ground and electronically excited states. The gradient enables the search for equilibrium geometries of extended molecular systems. Laplace transform is used to partition the eigenvalue problem in order to obtain an effective singles eigenvalue problem and adaptive, state-specific local approximations. This leads to an approximation in the energy Lagrangian, which however is shown (by comparison with the corresponding gradient method without Laplace transform) to be of no concern for geometry optimizations. The accuracy of the local approximation is tested and the efficiency of the new code is demonstrated by application calculations devoted to a photocatalytic decarboxylation process of present interest.

Local CC2 response method based on the Laplace transform: Analytic energy gradients for ground and excited states

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ledermüller, Katrin; Schütz, Martin

2014-01-01

A multistate local CC2 response method for the calculation of analytic energy gradients with respect to nuclear displacements is presented for ground and electronically excited states. The gradient enables the search for equilibrium geometries of extended molecular systems. Laplace transform is used to partition the eigenvalue problem in order to obtain an effective singles eigenvalue problem and adaptive, state-specific local approximations. This leads to an approximation in the energy Lagrangian, which however is shown (by comparison with the corresponding gradient method without Laplace transform) to be of no concern for geometry optimizations. The accuracy of the local approximation is tested and the efficiency of the new code is demonstrated by application calculations devoted to a photocatalytic decarboxylation process of present interest

In situ synthesis of bilayered gradient poly(vinyl alcohol)/hydroxyapatite composite hydrogel by directional freezing-thawing and electrophoresis method.

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Cui; Su, Yunlan; Li, Zhiyong; Haq, Muhammad Abdul; Zhou, Yong; Wang, Dujin

2017-08-01

Bilayered poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/hydroxyapatite (HA) composite hydrogels with anisotropic and gradient mechanical properties were prepared by the combination of directional freezing-thawing (DFT) and electrophoresis method. Firstly, PVA hydrogels with aligned channel structure were prepared by the DFT method. Then, HA nanoparticles were in situ synthesized within the PVA hydrogels via electrophoresis. By controlling the time of the electrophoresis process, a bilayered gradient hydrogel containing HA particles in only half of the gel region was obtained. The PVA/HA composite hydrogel exhibited gradient mechanical strength depending on the distance to the cathode. The gradient initial tensile modulus ranging from 0.18MPa to 0.27MPa and the gradient initial compressive modulus from 0.33MPa to 0.51MPa were achieved. The binding strength of the two regions was relatively high and no apparent internal stress or defect was observed at the boundary. The two regions of the bilayered hydrogel also showed different osteoblast cell adhesion properties. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Turbulent fluxes of momentum and heat over land in the High-Arctic summer: the influence of observation techniques

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Sjöblom

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Different observation techniques for atmospheric turbulent fluxes of momentum and sensible heat were tested in a High-Arctic valley in Svalbard during two consecutive summers (June–August in 2010 and 2011. The gradient method (GM and the bulk method (BM have been compared to the more direct eddy covariance method (ECM in order to evaluate if relatively robust and cheap instrumentation with low power consumption can be used as a means to increase the number of observations, especially at remote locations where instruments need to be left unattended for extended periods. Such campaigns increase knowledge about the snow-free surface exchange processes, an area which is relatively little investigated compared to snow-covered ground. The GM agreed closely to the ECM, especially for momentum flux where the two methods agree within 5%. For sensible heat flux, the GM produces, on average, approximately 40% lower values for unstable stratification and 67% lower for stable stratification. However, this corresponds to only 20 and 12 W m−2, respectively. The BM, however, shows a greater scatter and larger differences for both parameters. In addition to testing these methods, radiation properties were measured and the surface albedo was found to increase through the summer, from approximately 0.1 to 0.2. The surface energy budget shows that the sensible heat flux is usually directed upwards for the whole summer, while the latent heat flux is upwards in June, but becomes downward in July and August.

Flux agreement above a Scots pine plantation

Science.gov (United States)

Gay, L. W.; Vogt, R.; Bernhofer, Ch.; Blanford, J. H.

1996-03-01

The surface energy exchange of 12m high Scots pine plantation at Hartheim, Germany, was measured with a variety of methods during a 11-day period of fine weather in mid-May 1992. Net radiation and rate of thermal storage were measured with conventional net radiometers, soil heat flux discs and temperature-based storage models. The turbulent fluxes discussed in this report were obtained with an interchanging Bowen ratio energy budget system (BREB, at 14 m), two one-propeller eddy correlation systems (OPEC systems 1 and 2 at 17m), a 1-dimensional sonic eddy correlation system (SEC system 3) at 15 m, all on one “low” tower, and a 3-dimensional sonic eddy correlation system (SEC system 22) at 22 m on the “high” tower that was about 46 m distant. All systems measured sensible and latent heat (H and LE) directly, except for OPEC systems 1 and 2 which estimated LE as a residual term in the surface energy balance. Closure of turbulent fluxes from the two SEC systems was around 80% for daytime and 30% for night, with closure of 1-dimensional SEC system 3 exceeding that of 3-dimensional SEC system 22. The night measurements of turbulent fluxes contained considerable uncertainty, especially with the BREB system where measured gradients often yielded erroneous fluxes due to problems inherent in the method (i.e., computational instability as Bowen's ratio approaches -1). Also, both eddy correlation system designs (OPEC and SEC) appeared to underestimate |H| during stable conditions at night. In addition, both sonic systems (1- and 3-dimensional) underestimated |LE| during stable conditions. The underestimate of |H| at night generated residual estimates of OPEC LE containing a “phantom dew” error that erroneously decreased daily LE totals by about 10 percent. These special night problems are circumvented here by comparing results for daytime periods only, rather than for full days. To summarize, turbulent fluxes on the low tower from OPEC system 2 and the adjacent

Soil methane and CO2 fluxes in rainforest and rubber plantations

Science.gov (United States)

Lang, Rong; Blagodatsky, Sergey; Goldberg, Stefanie; Xu, Jianchu

2017-04-01

Expansion of rubber plantations in South-East Asia has been a land use transformation trend leading to losses of natural forest cover in the region. Besides impact on ecosystem carbon stocks, this conversion influences the dynamics of greenhouse gas fluxes from soil driven by microbial activity, which has been insufficiently studied. Aimed to understand how land use change affects the soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes, we measured surface gas fluxes, gas concentration gradient, and 13C signature in CH4 and soil organic matter in profiles in a transect in Xishuangbanna, including a rainforest site and three rubber plantation sites with age gradient. Gas fluxes were measured by static chamber method and open chamber respiration system. Soil gases were sampled from installed gas samplers at 5, 10, 30, and 75cm depth at representative time in dry and rainy season. The soil CO2 flux was comparable in rainforest and old rubber plantations, while young rubber plantation had the lowest rate. Total carbon content in the surface soil well explained the difference of soil CO2 flux between sites. All sites were CH4 sinks in dry season and uptake decreased in the order of rainforest, old rubber plantations and young rubber plantation. From dry season to rainy season, CH4 consumption decreased with increasing CH4 concentration in the soil profile at all depths. The enrichment of methane by 13CH4 shifted towards to lowerδ13C, being the evidence of enhanced CH4 production process while net surface methane flux reflected the consumption in wet condition. Increment of CH4 concentration in the profile from dry to rainy season was higher in old rubber plantation compared to rainforest, while the shifting of δ13CH4 was larger in rainforest than rubber sites. Turnover rates of soil CO2 and CH4 suggested that the 0-5 cm surface soil was the most active layer for gaseous carbon exchange. δ13C in soil organic matter and soil moisture increased from rainforest, young rubber plantation to old

Dose gradient analyses in linac-based intracranial stereotactic radiosurgery using paddick's gradient index. Consideration of the optimal method for plan evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohtakara, Kazuhiro; Hayashi, Shinya; Hoshi, Hiroaki

2011-01-01

The objective of our study was to describe the dose gradient characteristics of Linac-based stereotactic radiosurgery using Paddick's gradient index (GI) and to elucidate the factors influencing the GI value. Seventy-three plans for brain metastases using the dynamic conformal arcs were reviewed. The GI values were calculated at the 80% and 90% isodose surfaces (IDSs) and at the different target coverage IDSs (D99, D95, D90, and D85). The GI values significantly decreased as the target coverage of the reference IDS increased (the percentage of the IDS decreased). There was a significant inverse correlation between the GI values and target volume. The plans generated with the addition of a 1-mm leaf margin had worse GI values both at the D99 and D95 relative to those without leaf margin. The number and arrangement of arcs also affected the GI value. The GI values are highly sensitive to the IDS selection variability for dose prescription or evaluation, the target volume, and the planning method. To objectively compare the quality of dose gradient between rival plans, it would be preferable to employ the GI defined at the reference IDS indicating the specific target coverage (exempli gratia (e.g.), D95), irrespective of the intended marginal dose. The modified GI (mGI), defined in this study, substituting the denominator of the original GI with the target volume, would be useful to compensate for the false superior GI value in cases of target over-coverage with the reference IDS and to objectively evaluate the dose gradient outside the target boundary. (author)

A Method to Assess Flux Hazards at CSP Plants to Reduce Avian Mortality

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ho, Clifford K.; Wendelin, Timothy; Horstman, Luke; Yellowhair, Julius

2017-06-27

A method to evaluate avian flux hazards at concentrating solar power plants (CSP) has been developed. A heat-transfer model has been coupled to simulations of the irradiance in the airspace above a CSP plant to determine the feather temperature along prescribed bird flight paths. Probabilistic modeling results show that the irradiance and assumed feather properties (thickness, absorptance, heat capacity) have the most significant impact on the simulated feather temperature, which can increase rapidly (hundreds of degrees Celsius in seconds) depending on the parameter values. The avian flux hazard model is being combined with a plant performance model to identify alternative heliostat standby aiming strategies that minimize both avian flux hazards and negative impacts on plant performance.

Acceleration of monte Carlo solution by conjugate gradient method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toshihisa, Yamamoto

2005-01-01

The conjugate gradient method (CG) was applied to accelerate Monte Carlo solutions in fixed source problems. The equilibrium model based formulation enables to use CG scheme as well as initial guess to maximize computational performance. This method is available to arbitrary geometry provided that the neutron source distribution in each subregion can be regarded as flat. Even if it is not the case, the method can still be used as a powerful tool to provide an initial guess very close to the converged solution. The major difference of Monte Carlo CG to deterministic CG is that residual error is estimated using Monte Carlo sampling, thus statistical error exists in the residual. This leads to a flow diagram specific to Monte Carlo-CG. Three pre-conditioners were proposed for CG scheme and the performance was compared with a simple 1-D slab heterogeneous test problem. One of them, Sparse-M option, showed an excellent performance in convergence. The performance per unit cost was improved by four times in the test problem. Although direct estimation of efficiency of the method is impossible mainly because of the strong problem-dependence of the optimized pre-conditioner in CG, the method seems to have efficient potential as a fast solution algorithm for Monte Carlo calculations. (author)

Three-Dimensional Navier-Stokes Calculations Using the Modified Space-Time CESE Method

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Chau-lyan

2007-01-01

The space-time conservation element solution element (CESE) method is modified to address the robustness issues of high-aspect-ratio, viscous, near-wall meshes. In this new approach, the dependent variable gradients are evaluated using element edges and the corresponding neighboring solution elements while keeping the original flux integration procedure intact. As such, the excellent flux conservation property is retained and the new edge-based gradients evaluation significantly improves the robustness for high-aspect ratio meshes frequently encountered in three-dimensional, Navier-Stokes calculations. The order of accuracy of the proposed method is demonstrated for oblique acoustic wave propagation, shock-wave interaction, and hypersonic flows over a blunt body. The confirmed second-order convergence along with the enhanced robustness in handling hypersonic blunt body flow calculations makes the proposed approach a very competitive CFD framework for 3D Navier-Stokes simulations.

Investigating spatial variability of vertical water fluxes through the streambed in distinctive stream morphologies using temperature and head data

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Liping; Jiang, Weiwei; Song, Jinxi; Dou, Xinyi; Guo, Hongtao; Xu, Shaofeng; Zhang, Guotao; Wen, Ming; Long, Yongqing; Li, Qi

2017-08-01

Investigating the interaction of groundwater and surface water is key to understanding the hyporheic processes. The vertical water fluxes through a streambed were determined using Darcian flux calculations and vertical sediment temperature profiles to assess the pattern and magnitude of groundwater/surface-water interaction in Beiluo River, China. Field measurements were taken in January 2015 at three different stream morphologies including a meander bend, an anabranching channel and a straight stream channel. Despite the differences of flux direction and magnitude, flux directions based on vertical temperature profiles are in good agreement with results from Darcian flux calculations at the anabranching channel, and the Kruskal-Wallis tests show no significant differences between the estimated upward fluxes based on the two methods at each site. Also, the upward fluxes based on the two methods show similar spatial distributions on the streambed, indicating (1) that higher water fluxes at the meander bend occur from the center of the channel towards the erosional bank, (2) that water fluxes at the anabranching channel are higher near the erosional bank and in the center of the channel, and (3) that in the straight channel, higher water fluxes appear from the center of the channel towards the depositional bank. It is noted that higher fluxes generally occur at certain locations with higher streambed vertical hydraulic conductivity ( K v) or where a higher vertical hydraulic gradient is observed. Moreover, differences of grain size, induced by stream morphology and contrasting erosional and depositional conditions, have significant effects on streambed K v and water fluxes.

Electric field gradients in metals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schatz, G.

1979-01-01

A review of the recent works on electric field gradient in metals is given. The main emphasis is put on the temperature dependence of the electric field gradient in nonmagnetic metals. Some methods of investigation of this effect using nuclear probes are described. One of them is nuclear accoustic resonance method. (S.B.)

Methane oxidation and methane fluxes in the ocean surface layer and deep anoxic waters

Science.gov (United States)

Ward, B. B.; Kilpatrick, K. A.; Novelli, P. C.; Scranton, M. I.

1987-01-01

Measured biological oxidation rates of methane in near-surface waters of the Cariaco Basin are compared with the diffusional fluxes computed from concentration gradients of methane in the surface layer. Methane fluxes and oxidation rates were investigated in surface waters, at the oxic/anoxic interface, and in deep anoxic waters. It is shown that the surface-waters oxidation of methane is a mechanism which modulates the flux of methane from marine waters to the atmosphere.

A THEORETICAL AND NUMERICAL STUDY OF THERMOSOLUTAL CONVECTION: STABILITY OF A SALINITY GRADIENT SOLAR POND

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Djamel Kalache

2011-01-01

Full Text Available A theoretical and numerical study of the effect of thermodiffusion on the stability of a gradient layer is presented. It intends to clarify the mechanisms of fluid dynamics and the processes which occur in a salinity gradient solar pond. A mathematical modelling is developed to describe the thermodiffusion contribution on the solar pond where thermal, radiative, and massive fluxes are coupled in the double diffusion. More realistic boundary conditions for temperature and concentration profiles are used. Our results are compared with those obtained experimentally by authors without extracting the heat flux from the storage zone. We have considered the stability analysis of the equilibrium solution. We assumed that the perturbation of quantities such as velocity, temperature, and concentration are infinitesimal. Linearized equations satisfying appropriate prescribed boundary conditions are then obtained and expanded into polynomials form. The Galerkin method along with a symbolic algebra code (Maple are used to solve these equations. The effect of the separation coefficient y is analyzed in the positive and negative case. We have also numerically compared the critical Rayleigh numbers for the onset of convection with those obtained by the linear stability analysis for Le = 100, µa = 0.8, and f = 0.5.

Use of the Le Chatelier principle in calculating the uniform flux in channels formed by packed rods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Skrebkov, G.P.; Lozhkin, S.N.

1986-01-01

A method is proposed for calculating the hydrodynamics of a uniform flow in channels with a cross section of complex form. The method takes into account the anisotropy of the momentum transfer. The anisotropy coefficient of the momentum transfer is determined by using the Le Chatelier principle in a virtual process of transition to the kinematic structure of a uniform flux in equilibrium with a specified set of external conditions which include the channel geometry, wall roughness, and the value of the piezometric gradient

Bioassessment tools in novel habitats: an evaluation of indices and sampling methods in low-gradient streams in California.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazor, Raphael D; Schiff, Kenneth; Ritter, Kerry; Rehn, Andy; Ode, Peter

2010-08-01

Biomonitoring programs are often required to assess streams for which assessment tools have not been developed. For example, low-gradient streams (slopeindices in the state were developed in high-gradient systems. This study evaluated the performance of three sampling methods [targeted riffle composite (TRC), reach-wide benthos (RWB), and the margin-center-margin modification of RWB (MCM)] and two indices [the Southern California Index of Biotic Integrity (SCIBI) and the ratio of observed to expected taxa (O/E)] in low-gradient streams in California for application in this habitat type. Performance was evaluated in terms of efficacy (i.e., ability to collect enough individuals for index calculation), comparability (i.e., similarity of assemblages and index scores), sensitivity (i.e., responsiveness to disturbance), and precision (i.e., ability to detect small differences in index scores). The sampling methods varied in the degree to which they targeted macroinvertebrate-rich microhabitats, such as riffles and vegetated margins, which may be naturally scarce in low-gradient streams. The RWB method failed to collect sufficient numbers of individuals (i.e., >or=450) to calculate the SCIBI in 28 of 45 samples and often collected fewer than 100 individuals, suggesting it is inappropriate for low-gradient streams in California; failures for the other methods were less common (TRC, 16 samples; MCM, 11 samples). Within-site precision, measured as the minimum detectable difference (MDD) was poor but similar across methods for the SCIBI (ranging from 19 to 22). However, RWB had the lowest MDD for O/E scores (0.20 versus 0.24 and 0.28 for MCM and TRC, respectively). Mantel correlations showed that assemblages were more similar within sites among methods than within methods among sites, suggesting that the sampling methods were collecting similar assemblages of organisms. Statistically significant disagreements among methods were not detected, although O/E scores were higher

A fast nonlinear conjugate gradient based method for 3D concentrated frictional contact problems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J. Zhao (Jing); E.A.H. Vollebregt (Edwin); C.W. Oosterlee (Cornelis)

2015-01-01

htmlabstractThis paper presents a fast numerical solver for a nonlinear constrained optimization problem, arising from 3D concentrated frictional shift and rolling contact problems with dry Coulomb friction. The solver combines an active set strategy with a nonlinear conjugate gradient method. One

A two-dimensional, semi-analytic expansion method for nodal calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Palmtag, S.P.

1995-08-01

Most modern nodal methods used today are based upon the transverse integration procedure in which the multi-dimensional flux shape is integrated over the transverse directions in order to produce a set of coupled one-dimensional flux shapes. The one-dimensional flux shapes are then solved either analytically or by representing the flux shape by a finite polynomial expansion. While these methods have been verified for most light-water reactor applications, they have been found to have difficulty predicting the large thermal flux gradients near the interfaces of highly-enriched MOX fuel assemblies. A new method is presented here in which the neutron flux is represented by a non-seperable, two-dimensional, semi-analytic flux expansion. The main features of this method are (1) the leakage terms from the node are modeled explicitly and therefore, the transverse integration procedure is not used, (2) the corner point flux values for each node are directly edited from the solution method, and a corner-point interpolation is not needed in the flux reconstruction, (3) the thermal flux expansion contains hyperbolic terms representing analytic solutions to the thermal flux diffusion equation, and (4) the thermal flux expansion contains a thermal to fast flux ratio term which reduces the number of polynomial expansion functions needed to represent the thermal flux. This new nodal method has been incorporated into the computer code COLOR2G and has been used to solve a two-dimensional, two-group colorset problem containing uranium and highly-enriched MOX fuel assemblies. The results from this calculation are compared to the results found using a code based on the traditional transverse integration procedure

Microwave imaging of dielectric cylinder using level set method and conjugate gradient algorithm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grayaa, K.; Bouzidi, A.; Aguili, T.

2011-01-01

In this paper, we propose a computational method for microwave imaging cylinder and dielectric object, based on combining level set technique and the conjugate gradient algorithm. By measuring the scattered field, we tried to retrieve the shape, localisation and the permittivity of the object. The forward problem is solved by the moment method, while the inverse problem is reformulate in an optimization one and is solved by the proposed scheme. It found that the proposed method is able to give good reconstruction quality in terms of the reconstructed shape and permittivity.

A method for prompt calculation of neutron flux from measured SPND [self-powered neutron detectors] currents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kulacsy, K.; Lux, I.

1997-01-01

A new, approximate method is given to calculate the in-core flux from the current of SPNDs, with a delay of only a few seconds. The stability of this stepwise algorithm is proven to be satisfactory, and the results of tests performed both on synthetic and on real data are presented. The reconstructed flux is found to follow both steady state and transient fluxes well. (author)

Development and application of gradient heat flux measurement for industrial boiler furnaces

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sapozhnikov, S.Z.; Grigoryev, K.A.; Mitiakov, V.Yu.; Mitiakov, A.V.; Roundyguine, Yu.A.; Osmanov, V.V. [Saint-Petersburg State Polytechnic Univ., St.-Petersburg (Russian Federation)

2013-07-01

Brand new heat flux sensors based on artificial heterogeneous structures are created. These sensors are thermo resistive up to 1,000 K and more; therefore, they are the diagnostic aid for furnace processes. The sensors were tested during full-scale experiments.

The orthogonal gradients method: A radial basis functions method for solving partial differential equations on arbitrary surfaces

KAUST Repository

Piret, Cécile

2012-05-01

Much work has been done on reconstructing arbitrary surfaces using the radial basis function (RBF) method, but one can hardly find any work done on the use of RBFs to solve partial differential equations (PDEs) on arbitrary surfaces. In this paper, we investigate methods to solve PDEs on arbitrary stationary surfaces embedded in . R3 using the RBF method. We present three RBF-based methods that easily discretize surface differential operators. We take advantage of the meshfree character of RBFs, which give us a high accuracy and the flexibility to represent the most complex geometries in any dimension. Two out of the three methods, which we call the orthogonal gradients (OGr) methods are the result of our work and are hereby presented for the first time. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

Generalized conjugate-gradient methods for the Navier-Stokes equations

Science.gov (United States)

Ajmani, Kumud; Ng, Wing-Fai; Liou, Meng-Sing

1991-01-01

A generalized conjugate-gradient method is used to solve the two-dimensional, compressible Navier-Stokes equations of fluid flow. The equations are discretized with an implicit, upwind finite-volume formulation. Preconditioning techniques are incorporated into the new solver to accelerate convergence of the overall iterative method. The superiority of the new solver is demonstrated by comparisons with a conventional line Gauss-Siedel Relaxation solver. Computational test results for transonic flow (trailing edge flow in a transonic turbine cascade) and hypersonic flow (M = 6.0 shock-on-shock phenoena on a cylindrical leading edge) are presented. When applied to the transonic cascade case, the new solver is 4.4 times faster in terms of number of iterations and 3.1 times faster in terms of CPU time than the Relaxation solver. For the hypersonic shock case, the new solver is 3.0 times faster in terms of number of iterations and 2.2 times faster in terms of CPU time than the Relaxation solver.

Methane and carbon dioxide fluxes over a lake: comparison between eddy covariance, floating chambers and boundary layer method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K.-M. Erkkilä

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Freshwaters bring a notable contribution to the global carbon budget by emitting both carbon dioxide (CO2 and methane (CH4 to the atmosphere. Global estimates of freshwater emissions traditionally use a wind-speed-based gas transfer velocity, kCC (introduced by Cole and Caraco, 1998, for calculating diffusive flux with the boundary layer method (BLM. We compared CH4 and CO2 fluxes from BLM with kCC and two other gas transfer velocities (kTE and kHE, which include the effects of water-side cooling to the gas transfer besides shear-induced turbulence, with simultaneous eddy covariance (EC and floating chamber (FC fluxes during a 16-day measurement campaign in September 2014 at Lake Kuivajärvi in Finland. The measurements included both lake stratification and water column mixing periods. Results show that BLM fluxes were mainly lower than EC, with the more recent model kTE giving the best fit with EC fluxes, whereas FC measurements resulted in higher fluxes than simultaneous EC measurements. We highly recommend using up-to-date gas transfer models, instead of kCC, for better flux estimates. BLM CO2 flux measurements had clear differences between daytime and night-time fluxes with all gas transfer models during both stratified and mixing periods, whereas EC measurements did not show a diurnal behaviour in CO2 flux. CH4 flux had higher values in daytime than night-time during lake mixing period according to EC measurements, with highest fluxes detected just before sunset. In addition, we found clear differences in daytime and night-time concentration difference between the air and surface water for both CH4 and CO2. This might lead to biased flux estimates, if only daytime values are used in BLM upscaling and flux measurements in general. FC measurements did not detect spatial variation in either CH4 or CO2 flux over Lake Kuivajärvi. EC measurements, on the other hand, did not show any spatial variation in CH4 fluxes but did show a clear difference

A Novel Ship Detection Method Based on Gradient and Integral Feature for Single-Polarization Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery

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Hao Shi

2018-02-01

Full Text Available With the rapid development of remote sensing technologies, SAR satellites like China’s Gaofen-3 satellite have more imaging modes and higher resolution. With the availability of high-resolution SAR images, automatic ship target detection has become an important topic in maritime research. In this paper, a novel ship detection method based on gradient and integral features is proposed. This method is mainly composed of three steps. First, in the preprocessing step, a filter is employed to smooth the clutters and the smoothing effect can be adaptive adjusted according to the statistics information of the sub-window. Thus, it can retain details while achieving noise suppression. Second, in the candidate area extraction, a sea-land segmentation method based on gradient enhancement is presented. The integral image method is employed to accelerate computation. Finally, in the ship target identification step, a feature extraction strategy based on Haar-like gradient information and a Radon transform is proposed. This strategy decreases the number of templates found in traditional Haar-like methods. Experiments were performed using Gaofen-3 single-polarization SAR images, and the results showed that the proposed method has high detection accuracy and rapid computational efficiency. In addition, this method has the potential for on-board processing.

An inverse method for non linear ablative thermics with experimentation of automatic differentiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alestra, S [Simulation Information Technology and Systems Engineering, EADS IW Toulouse (France); Collinet, J [Re-entry Systems and Technologies, EADS ASTRIUM ST, Les Mureaux (France); Dubois, F [Professor of Applied Mathematics, Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers Paris (France)], E-mail: stephane.alestra@eads.net, E-mail: jean.collinet@astrium.eads.net, E-mail: fdubois@cnam.fr

2008-11-01

Thermal Protection System is a key element for atmospheric re-entry missions of aerospace vehicles. The high level of heat fluxes encountered in such missions has a direct effect on mass balance of the heat shield. Consequently, the identification of heat fluxes is of great industrial interest but is in flight only available by indirect methods based on temperature measurements. This paper is concerned with inverse analyses of highly evolutive heat fluxes. An inverse problem is used to estimate transient surface heat fluxes (convection coefficient), for degradable thermal material (ablation and pyrolysis), by using time domain temperature measurements on thermal protection. The inverse problem is formulated as a minimization problem involving an objective functional, through an optimization loop. An optimal control formulation (Lagrangian, adjoint and gradient steepest descent method combined with quasi-Newton method computations) is then developed and applied, using Monopyro, a transient one-dimensional thermal model with one moving boundary (ablative surface) that has been developed since many years by ASTRIUM-ST. To compute numerically the adjoint and gradient quantities, for the inverse problem in heat convection coefficient, we have used both an analytical manual differentiation and an Automatic Differentiation (AD) engine tool, Tapenade, developed at INRIA Sophia-Antipolis by the TROPICS team. Several validation test cases, using synthetic temperature measurements are carried out, by applying the results of the inverse method with minimization algorithm. Accurate results of identification on high fluxes test cases, and good agreement for temperatures restitutions, are obtained, without and with ablation and pyrolysis, using bad fluxes initial guesses. First encouraging results with an automatic differentiation procedure are also presented in this paper.

Evaluation of different methods to model near-surface turbulent fluxes for a mountain glacier in the Cariboo Mountains, BC, Canada

Science.gov (United States)

Radić, Valentina; Menounos, Brian; Shea, Joseph; Fitzpatrick, Noel; Tessema, Mekdes A.; Déry, Stephen J.

2017-12-01

As part of surface energy balance models used to simulate glacier melting, choosing parameterizations to adequately estimate turbulent heat fluxes is extremely challenging. This study aims to evaluate a set of four aerodynamic bulk methods (labeled as C methods), commonly used to estimate turbulent heat fluxes for a sloped glacier surface, and two less commonly used bulk methods developed from katabatic flow models. The C methods differ in their parameterizations of the bulk exchange coefficient that relates the fluxes to the near-surface measurements of mean wind speed, air temperature, and humidity. The methods' performance in simulating 30 min sensible- and latent-heat fluxes is evaluated against the measured fluxes from an open-path eddy-covariance (OPEC) method. The evaluation is performed at a point scale of a mountain glacier, using one-level meteorological and OPEC observations from multi-day periods in the 2010 and 2012 summer seasons. The analysis of the two independent seasons yielded the same key findings, which include the following: first, the bulk method, with or without the commonly used Monin-Obukhov (M-O) stability functions, overestimates the turbulent heat fluxes over the observational period, mainly due to a substantial overestimation of the friction velocity. This overestimation is most pronounced during the katabatic flow conditions, corroborating the previous findings that the M-O theory works poorly in the presence of a low wind speed maximum. Second, the method based on a katabatic flow model (labeled as the KInt method) outperforms any C method in simulating the friction velocity; however, the C methods outperform the KInt method in simulating the sensible-heat fluxes. Third, the best overall performance is given by a hybrid method, which combines the KInt approach with the C method; i.e., it parameterizes eddy viscosity differently than eddy diffusivity. An error analysis reveals that the uncertainties in the measured meteorological

Evaluation of different methods to model near-surface turbulent fluxes for a mountain glacier in the Cariboo Mountains, BC, Canada

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Radić

2017-12-01

Full Text Available As part of surface energy balance models used to simulate glacier melting, choosing parameterizations to adequately estimate turbulent heat fluxes is extremely challenging. This study aims to evaluate a set of four aerodynamic bulk methods (labeled as C methods, commonly used to estimate turbulent heat fluxes for a sloped glacier surface, and two less commonly used bulk methods developed from katabatic flow models. The C methods differ in their parameterizations of the bulk exchange coefficient that relates the fluxes to the near-surface measurements of mean wind speed, air temperature, and humidity. The methods' performance in simulating 30 min sensible- and latent-heat fluxes is evaluated against the measured fluxes from an open-path eddy-covariance (OPEC method. The evaluation is performed at a point scale of a mountain glacier, using one-level meteorological and OPEC observations from multi-day periods in the 2010 and 2012 summer seasons. The analysis of the two independent seasons yielded the same key findings, which include the following: first, the bulk method, with or without the commonly used Monin–Obukhov (M–O stability functions, overestimates the turbulent heat fluxes over the observational period, mainly due to a substantial overestimation of the friction velocity. This overestimation is most pronounced during the katabatic flow conditions, corroborating the previous findings that the M–O theory works poorly in the presence of a low wind speed maximum. Second, the method based on a katabatic flow model (labeled as the KInt method outperforms any C method in simulating the friction velocity; however, the C methods outperform the KInt method in simulating the sensible-heat fluxes. Third, the best overall performance is given by a hybrid method, which combines the KInt approach with the C method; i.e., it parameterizes eddy viscosity differently than eddy diffusivity. An error analysis reveals that the uncertainties in

Analytic energy gradients for the coupled-cluster singles and doubles method with the density-fitting approximation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bozkaya, Uğur; Sherrill, C. David

2016-01-01

An efficient implementation is presented for analytic gradients of the coupled-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) method with the density-fitting approximation, denoted DF-CCSD. Frozen core terms are also included. When applied to a set of alkanes, the DF-CCSD analytic gradients are significantly accelerated compared to conventional CCSD for larger molecules. The efficiency of our DF-CCSD algorithm arises from the acceleration of several different terms, which are designated as the “gradient terms”: computation of particle density matrices (PDMs), generalized Fock-matrix (GFM), solution of the Z-vector equation, formation of the relaxed PDMs and GFM, back-transformation of PDMs and GFM to the atomic orbital (AO) basis, and evaluation of gradients in the AO basis. For the largest member of the alkane set (C 10 H 22 ), the computational times for the gradient terms (with the cc-pVTZ basis set) are 2582.6 (CCSD) and 310.7 (DF-CCSD) min, respectively, a speed up of more than 8-folds. For gradient related terms, the DF approach avoids the usage of four-index electron repulsion integrals. Based on our previous study [U. Bozkaya, J. Chem. Phys. 141, 124108 (2014)], our formalism completely avoids construction or storage of the 4-index two-particle density matrix (TPDM), using instead 2- and 3-index TPDMs. The DF approach introduces negligible errors for equilibrium bond lengths and harmonic vibrational frequencies.

Efficient spectral computation of the stationary states of rotating Bose-Einstein condensates by preconditioned nonlinear conjugate gradient methods

Science.gov (United States)

Antoine, Xavier; Levitt, Antoine; Tang, Qinglin

2017-08-01

We propose a preconditioned nonlinear conjugate gradient method coupled with a spectral spatial discretization scheme for computing the ground states (GS) of rotating Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC), modeled by the Gross-Pitaevskii Equation (GPE). We first start by reviewing the classical gradient flow (also known as imaginary time (IMT)) method which considers the problem from the PDE standpoint, leading to numerically solve a dissipative equation. Based on this IMT equation, we analyze the forward Euler (FE), Crank-Nicolson (CN) and the classical backward Euler (BE) schemes for linear problems and recognize classical power iterations, allowing us to derive convergence rates. By considering the alternative point of view of minimization problems, we propose the preconditioned steepest descent (PSD) and conjugate gradient (PCG) methods for the GS computation of the GPE. We investigate the choice of the preconditioner, which plays a key role in the acceleration of the convergence process. The performance of the new algorithms is tested in 1D, 2D and 3D. We conclude that the PCG method outperforms all the previous methods, most particularly for 2D and 3D fast rotating BECs, while being simple to implement.

Coupling multipoint flux mixed finite element methodswith continuous Galerkin methods for poroelasticity

KAUST Repository

Wheeler, Mary; Xue, Guangri; Yotov, Ivan

2013-01-01

We study the numerical approximation on irregular domains with general grids of the system of poroelasticity, which describes fluid flow in deformable porous media. The flow equation is discretized by a multipoint flux mixed finite element method

Quality of Gaussian basis sets: direct optimization of orbital exponents by the method of conjugate gradients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kari, R.E.; Mezey, P.G.; Csizmadia, I.G.

1975-01-01

Expressions are given for calculating the energy gradient vector in the exponent space of Gaussian basis sets and a technique to optimize orbital exponents using the method of conjugate gradients is described. The method is tested on the (9/sups/5/supp/) Gaussian basis space and optimum exponents are determined for the carbon atom. The analysis of the results shows that the calculated one-electron properties converge more slowly to their optimum values than the total energy converges to its optimum value. In addition, basis sets approximating the optimum total energy very well can still be markedly improved for the prediction of one-electron properties. For smaller basis sets, this improvement does not warrant the necessary expense

Neutron transport solver parallelization using a Domain Decomposition method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Criekingen, S.; Nataf, F.; Have, P.

2008-01-01

A domain decomposition (DD) method is investigated for the parallel solution of the second-order even-parity form of the time-independent Boltzmann transport equation. The spatial discretization is performed using finite elements, and the angular discretization using spherical harmonic expansions (P N method). The main idea developed here is due to P.L. Lions. It consists in having sub-domains exchanging not only interface point flux values, but also interface flux 'derivative' values. (The word 'derivative' is here used with quotes, because in the case considered here, it in fact consists in the Ω.∇ operator, with Ω the angular variable vector and ∇ the spatial gradient operator.) A parameter α is introduced, as proportionality coefficient between point flux and 'derivative' values. This parameter can be tuned - so far heuristically - to optimize the method. (authors)

Anomalous plasma transport due to electron temperature gradient instability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tokuda, Sinji; Ito, Hiroshi; Kamimura, Tetsuo.

1979-01-01

The collisionless drift wave instability driven by an electron temperature inhomogeneity (electron temperature gradient instability) and the enhanced transport processes associated with it are studied using a two-and-a-half dimensional particle simulation code. The simulation results show that quasilinear diffusion in phase space is an important mechanism for the saturation of the electron temperature gradient instability. Also, the instability yields particle fluxes toward the hot plasma regions. The heat conductivity of the electron temperature perpendicular to the magnetic field, T sub(e'), is not reduced by magnetic shear but remains high, whereas the heat conductivity of the parallel temperature, T sub(e''), is effectively reduced, and the instability stabilized. (author)

TRANSHEX, 2-D Thermal Neutron Flux Distribution from Epithermal Flux in Hexagonal Geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patrakka, E.

1994-01-01

1 - Description of program or function: TRANSHEX is a multigroup integral transport program that determines the thermal scalar flux distribution arising from a known epithermal flux in two- dimensional hexagonal geometry. 2 - Method of solution: The program solves the isotropic collision probability equations for a region-averaged scalar flux by an iterative method. Either a successive over-relaxation or an inner-outer iteration technique is applied. Flat flux collision probabilities between trigonal space regions with white boundary condition are utilized. The effect of epithermal flux is taken into consideration as a slowing-down source that is calculated for a given spatial distribution and 1/E energy dependence of the epithermal flux

Steepest descent with momentum for quadratic functions is a version of the conjugate gradient method.

Science.gov (United States)