Analysis of Granular Flow in a Pebble-Bed Nuclear Reactor

Pebble-bed nuclear reactor technology, which is currently being revived around the world, raises fundamental questions about dense granular flow in silos. A typical reactor core is composed of graphite fuel pebbles, which drain very slowly in a continuous refueling process. Pebble flow is poorly understood and not easily accessible to experiments, and yet it has a major impact on reactor physics. To address this problem, we perform full-scale, discrete-element simulations in realistic geometries, with up to 440,000 frictional, viscoelastic 6cm-diameter spheres draining in a cylindrical vessel of diameter 3.5m and height 10m with bottom funnels angled at 30 degrees or 60 degrees. We also simulate a bidisperse core with a dynamic central column of smaller graphite moderator pebbles and show that little mixing occurs down to a 1:2 diameter ratio. We analyze the mean velocity, diffusion and mixing, local ordering and porosity (from Voronoi volumes), the residence-time distribution, and the effects of wall friction and discuss implications for reactor design and the basic physics of granular flow.Comment: 18 pages, 21 figure

Aeroelastic simulations of stores in weapon bays using Detached-Eddy simulation

Detached-Eddy Simulations of flows in weapon bays with a generic store at different positions in the cavity and with flexible fins are presented in this paper. Simulations were carried out to better understand the fluid–structure interactions of the unsteady, turbulent flow and the store. Mach and Reynolds numbers (based on the missile diameter) were 0.85 and 326.000 respectively. Spectral analysis showed few differences in the frequency content in the cavity between the store with rigid and flexible fins. However, a large effect of the store position was seen. When the store was placed inside the cavity, the noise reduction reached 7 dB close to the cavity ceiling. The closer the store to the carriage position, the more coherent and quieter was the cavity. To perform a more realistic simulation, a gap of 0.3% of the store diameter was introduced between the fin root and the body of the store. Store loads showed little differences between the rigid and flexible fins when the store was inside and outside the cavity. With the store at the shear layer, the flexible fins were seen to have a reduction in loads with large fluctuations in position about a mean. Fin-tip displacements of the store inside the cavity were of the range of 0.2% of the store diameter, and in the range of 1–2% of store diameter when at the shear layer

Nanofiber-Based Double-Helix Dipole Trap for Cold Neutral Atoms

A double-helix optical trapping potential for cold atoms can be straightforwardly created inside the evanescent field of an optical nanofiber. It suffices to send three circularly polarized light fields through the nanofiber; two counterpropagating and far red-detuned with respect to the atomic transition and the third far blue-detuned. Assuming realistic experimental parameters, the transverse confinement of the resulting potential allows one to reach the one-dimensional regime with cesium atoms for temperatures of several \muK. Moreover, by locally varying the nanofiber diameter, the radius and pitch of the double-helix can be modulated, thereby opening a realm of applications in cold-atom physics.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Energy-based Structure Prediction for d(Al70Co20Ni10)

We use energy minimization principles to predict the structure of a decagonal quasicrystal - d(AlCoNi) - in the Cobalt-rich phase. Monte Carlo methods are then used to explore configurations while relaxation and molecular dynamics are used to obtain a more realistic structure once a low energy configuration has been found. We find five-fold symmetric decagons 12.8 A in diameter as the characteristic formation of this composition, along with smaller pseudo-five-fold symmetric clusters filling the spaces between the decagons. We use our method to make comparisons with a recent experimental approximant structure model from Sugiyama et al (2002).Comment: 10pp, 2 figure

Analysis of scale-free networks based on a threshold graph with intrinsic vertex weights

Many real networks are complex and have power-law vertex degree distribution, short diameter, and high clustering. We analyze the network model based on thresholding of the summed vertex weights, which belongs to the class of networks proposed by Caldarelli et al. (2002). Power-law degree distributions, particularly with the dynamically stable scaling exponent 2, realistic clustering, and short path lengths are produced for many types of weight distributions. Thresholding mechanisms can underlie a family of real complex networks that is characterized by cooperativeness and the baseline scaling exponent 2. It contrasts with the class of growth models with preferential attachment, which is marked by competitiveness and baseline scaling exponent 3.Comment: 5 figure

Using Density Functional Theory to Model Realistic TiO2 Nanoparticles, Their Photoactivation and Interaction with Water

Computational modeling of titanium dioxide nanoparticles of realistic size is extremely relevant for the direct comparison with experiments but it is also a rather demanding task. We have recently worked on a multistep/scale procedure to obtain global optimized minimum structures for chemically stable spherical titania nanoparticles of increasing size, with diameter from 1.5 nm (~300 atoms) to 4.4 nm (~4000 atoms). We use first self-consistent-charge density functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) methodology to perform thermal annealing simulations to obtain globally optimized structures and then hybrid density functional theory (DFT) to refine them and to achieve high accuracy in the description of structural and electronic properties. This allows also to assess SCC-DFTB performance in comparison with DFT(B3LYP) results. As a further step, we investigate photoexcitation and photoemission processes involving electron/hole pair formation, separation, trapping and recombination in the nanosphere of medium size by hybrid DFT. Finally, we show how a recently defined new set of parameters for SCC-DFTB allows for a proper description of titania/water multilayers interface, which paves the way for modeling large realistic nanoparticles in aqueous environment

Measuring angular diameters of extended sources

When measuring diameters of partially resolved sources often a technique called gaussian deconvolution is used. This technique yields a gaussian diameter which subsequently has to be multiplied with a conversion factor to obtain the true angular diameter of the source. This conversion factor is a function of the FWHM of the beam or point spread function and also depends on the intrinsic surface brightness distribution of the source. In this paper conversion factors are presented for a number of simple geometries: a circular constant surface brightness disk and a spherical constant emissivity shell, using a range of values for the inner radius. Also more realistic geometries are studied, based on a spherically symmetric photo-ionization model of a planetary nebula. This enables a study of optical depth effects, a comparison between images in various emission lines and the use of power law density distributions. It is found that the conversion factor depends quite critically on the intrinsic surface brightness distribution, which is usually unknown. The uncertainty is particularly large if extended regions of low surface brightness are present in the nebula. In such cases the use of gaussian or second moment deconvolution is not recommended. As an alternative, a new algorithm is presented which allows the determination of the intrinsic FWHM of the source using only the observed surface brightness distribution and the FWHM of the beam. Tests show that this implicit deconvolution method works well in realistic conditions, even when the signal-to-noise is low, provided that the beam size is less than roughly 2/3 of the observed FWHM and the beam profile can be approximated by a gaussian.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Theoretical analysis of electronic band structure of 2-to-3-nm Si nanocrystals

We introduce a general method which allows reconstruction of electronic band structure of nanocrystals from ordinary real-space electronic structure calculations. A comprehensive study of band structure of a realistic nanocrystal is given including full geometric and electronic relaxation with the surface passivating groups. In particular, we combine this method with large scale density functional theory calculations to obtain insight into the luminescence properties of silicon nanocrystals of up to 3 nm in size depending on the surface passivation and geometric distortion. We conclude that the band structure concept is applicable to silicon nanocrystals with diameter larger than $\approx$ 2 nm with certain limitations. We also show how perturbations due to polarized surface groups or geometric distortion can lead to considerable moderation of momentum space selection rules