Forced Stratified Turbulence: Successive Transitions with Reynolds Number

Numerical simulations are made for forced turbulence at a sequence of increasing values of Reynolds number, R, keeping fixed a strongly stable, volume-mean density stratification. At smaller values of R, the turbulent velocity is mainly horizontal, and the momentum balance is approximately cyclostrophic and hydrostatic. This is a regime dominated by so-called pancake vortices, with only a weak excitation of internal gravity waves and large values of the local Richardson number, Ri, everywhere. At higher values of R there are successive transitions to (a) overturning motions with local reversals in the density stratification and small or negative values of Ri; (b) growth of a horizontally uniform vertical shear flow component; and (c) growth of a large-scale vertical flow component. Throughout these transitions, pancake vortices continue to dominate the large-scale part of the turbulence, and the gravity wave component remains weak except at small scales.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures (submitted to Phys. Rev. E

Measurements of neutron capture cross-sections for ADS-related studies

PAC

Time-energy relation of the n_TOF neutron beam: Energy standards revisited

The accurate determination of neutron cross-sections as a function of the neutron energy at a time-of-flight facility requires a precise knowledge of the time-energy relation for the neutron beam. For the n_TOF neutron beam at CERN, produced by spallation of high-energy protons on a Pb target, the time-energy relation is connected to the production mechanism and to the subsequent moderation process. A calibration of the neutron energy scale is proposed based on detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the facility. This time-energy relation has been experimentally validated by means of dedicated measurements of standard energy resonances, from 1eV to approximately 1MeV. On the basis of the present measurements, it is proposed to correct the energy of the 1.3eV resonance of 193Ir, which is commonly considered as an energy standard. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A low-mass neutron flux monitor for the n_TOF facility at CERN

A small-mass system has been developed for monitoring the flux of neutrons with energy up to 1 MeV at the new time-of-flight facility at CERN, n_TOF. The monitor is based on a thin Mylar foil with a 6Li deposit, placed in the neutron beam, and an array of Silicon detectors, placed outside the beam, for detecting the products of the 6Li(n, α)3H reaction. The small amount of material on the beam ensures a minimal perturbation of the flux and minimizes the background related to scattered neutrons. Moreover, a further reduction of the γ-ray background has been obtained by constructing the scattering chamber hosting the device in carbon fibre. A detailed description of the flux monitor is here presented, together with the characteristics of the device, in terms of efficiency, resolution and induced background. The use of the monitor in the measurement of neutron capture cross-sections at n-TOF is discussed

The data acquisition system of the neutron time-of-flight facility n_TOF at CERN

The n_TOF facility at CERN has been designed for the measurement of neutron capture, fission and (n, xn) cross-sections with high accuracy. This requires a flexible and-due to the high instantaneous neutron flux-almost dead time free data acquisition system. A scalable and versatile data solution has been designed based on 8-bit flash-ADCs with sampling rates up to 2 GHz and 8 Mbyte memory buffer. The software is written in C and C++ and is running on PCs equipped with RedHat Linux

A low-mass neutron flux monitor for the n_TOF facility at CERN

PAC