Cone Target Research Articles

Application of Traffic Cone Target Detection Algorithm Based on Improved YOLOv5.

To improve the automation level of highway maintenance operations, the lightweight YOLOv5-Lite-s neural network was deployed in embedded devices to assist an automatic traffic cone retractor in completing recognition and positioning operations. The system used the lightweight shuffle Net network as a backbone for feature extraction, replaced convolutional layers with focus modules to reduce computational complexity, and reduced the use of the C3 layer to increase network speed, thereby meeting the speed and accuracy requirements of traffic cone placement and retraction operations while maintaining acceptable model inference accuracy. The experimental results show that the network could maintain recognition accuracy and speed values of around 89% and 9 fps under different working conditions such as varying distances, lighting conditions, and occlusions, meeting the technical requirements for deploying and retrieving cones at a speed of 30 cones per minute when the operating vehicle's speed was 20 km/h. The automatic traffic cone placement and retraction system operated accurately and stably, achieving the application of machine vision in traffic cone retraction operations.

Experimental heat transfer analysis of conical pin configurations in jet impingement cooling with elongated nozzle holes

BackgroundThis study investigates the impact of jet impingement cooling with varying nozzle lengths on the heat transfer performance of smooth and conical pinned target surfaces under turbulent flow conditions. The study focuses on the Reynolds numbers (Re) of 13,000, 26,000, and 39,000, using the liquid crystal thermography (TLC) method to collect experimental data. The dimensionless conical pin heights (Hc/d = 0.00, 0.67, 1.00, 1.33) and target surface-nozzle distances (G/d = 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 6.0) were analyzed to understand their effects on heat transfer. MethodsThe experimental setup involved measuring Nu numbers and pressure losses in models with elongated nozzles and conical pins. The study examined how the interaction between pin heights and nozzle lengths influences heat transfer in a channel-confined impinging jet flow. The analysis included evaluating heat transfer performance in different jet regions and assessing pressure loss coefficients for various configurations. Significant FindingsResults indicated that for smooth target surfaces, elongated nozzles increased heat transfer in the first two jet regions but decreased it in the last jet regions due to cross-flow effects. In contrast, conical pinned surfaces showed a significant increase in heat transfer, particularly in the stagnation and last jet regions, with lower G/d and higher Hc/d values. Conical pinned surfaces enhanced overall heat transfer by at least 5 % compared to smooth surfaces, with a maximum Nu number increase of 21.87 %. However, configurations with G/d < 2.0 and Hc/d ≤ 0.67 negatively impacted heat transfer. Pressure loss analysis revealed that using conical pins and extended jets together increased pressure loss, with a maximum drop of 5.67 kPa at Re = 39,000. The Thermal Performance Criterion (TPC) ranged from a minimum of 0.97 at Re = 26,000 (G/d = 1.0, Hc/d = 1.00) to a maximum of 1.18 at Re = 26,000 (G/d = 6.0, Hc/d = 1.33).

Numerical optimization of longitudinal collimator geometry for novel x-ray field

Objective. A novel x-ray field produced by an ultrathin conical target is described in the literature. However, the optimal design for an associated collimator remains ambiguous. Current optimization methods using Monte Carlo calculations restrict the efficiency and robustness of the design process. A more generic optimization method that reduces parameter constraints while minimizing computational load is necessary. A numerical method for optimizing the longitudinal collimator hole geometry for a cylindrically-symmetrical x-ray tube is demonstrated and compared to Monte Carlo calculations. Approach. The x-ray phase space was modelled as a four-dimensional histogram differential in photon initial position, final position, and photon energy. The collimator was modeled as a stack of thin washers with varying inner radii. Simulated annealing was employed to optimize this set of inner radii according to various objective functions calculated on the photon flux at a specified plane. Main results. The analytical transport model used for optimization was validated against Monte Carlo calculations using Geant4 via its wrapper, TOPAS. Optimized collimators and the resulting photon flux profiles are presented for three focal spot sizes and five positions of the source. Optimizations were performed with multiple objective functions based on various weightings of precision, intensity, and field flatness metrics. Finally, a select set of these optimized collimators, plus a parallel-hole collimator for comparison, were modeled in TOPAS. The evolution of the radiation field profiles are presented for various positions of the source for each collimator. Significance. This novel optimization strategy proved consistent and robust across the range of x-ray tube settings regardless of the optimization starting point. Common collimator geometries were re-derived using this algorithm while simultaneously optimizing geometry-specific parameters. The advantages of this strategy over iterative Monte Carlo-based techniques, including computational efficiency, radiation source-specificity, and solution flexibility, make it a desirable optimization method for complex irradiation geometries.

Beamline design for multipurpose muon beams at CSNS EMuS

A new muon beam facility, called the Experimental Muon Source (EMuS), was proposed for construction at the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS). The design of the complex muon beamlines for the EMuS baseline scheme, which is based on superconducting solenoids, superferric dipoles and room-temperature magnets, is presented herein. Various muon beams, including surface muons, decay muons and low energy muons, have been developed for multipurpose applications. The optics design and simulation results of the trunk beamline and branch beamlines are presented. With a proton beam power of 25 kW at a standalone target station that consists of a conical graphite target and high-field superconducting solenoids, the muon beam intensity in the trunk beamline varies from 107/s for surface muons to 1010/s for high-momentum decay muons. And at the endstations, these values vary from 105/s for surface muons to 108/s for decay muons.

Water transparency analysis in fish farming environment through unmanned aerial vehicles

Since water transparency in a fish farming environment is an important parameter in fish development, and it is important that the fish farmers be attentive to the control of the same. However, the process of measuring water transparency in fish ponds is usually done manually, which makes it expensive and inefficient. In order to solve this problem, a prototype was developed containing 2 optical sensors capable of capturing images in the NIR, R, G and B bands, connected to a microcomputer coupled to a Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAS), in order to capture aerial images of water and estimate water transparency through an image processing algorithm. The prototype was tested by an experiment conducted in a rural estate of the city of Toledo – PR, where 66 images were captured on a conical target, constructed to serve as a reflective reference for the images, comparing the results with the measurements collected by a Secchi disk, using Pearson's correlation analysis. The results showed a strong correlation (r = 0.98) in the estimates made by the NIR band processing, followed by the RGB, R, G and B bands. The developed system proved to be effective in data collection, processing and analysis, optimizing the fish farming management.

An SAR Imaging and Detection Model of Multiple Maritime Targets Based on the Electromagnetic Approach and the Modified CBAM-YOLOv7 Neural Network

This paper proposes an Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging and detection model of multiple targets at the maritime scene. The sea surface sample is generated according to the composite rough surface theory. The SAR imaging model is constructed based on a hybrid EM calculation approach with the fast ray tracing strategy and the modified facet Small Slope Approximation (SSA) solution. Numerical simulations calculate the EM scattering and the SAR imaging of the multiple cone targets above the sea surface, with the scattering mechanisms analyzed and discussed. The SAR imaging datasets are then set up by the SAR image simulations. A modified YOLOv7 neural network with the Spatial Pyramid Pooling Fast Connected Spatial Pyramid Convolution (SPPFCSPC) module, Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM), modified Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) structure and extra detection head is developed. In the training process on our constructed SAR datasets, the precision rate, recall rate, mAP@0.5 and mAP@0.5:0.95 are 97.46%, 90.08%, 92.91% and 91.98%, respectively, after 300 rounds of training. The detection results show that the modified YOLOv7 has a good performance in selecting the targets out of the complex sea surface and multipath interference background.

Proof-of-concept for a thin conical X-ray target optimized for intensity and directionality for use in a carbon nanotube-based compact X-ray tube.

Carbon nanotube-based cold cathode technology has revolutionized the miniaturization of X-ray tubes. However, current applications of these devices required optimization for large, uniform fields with low intensity. This work investigated the feasibility and radiological characteristics of a novel conical X-ray target optimized for high intensity and high directionality to be used in a compact X-ray tube. The proposed device uses an ultrathin, conical tungsten-diamond target that exhibits significant heat loading while maintaining a small focal spot size and promoting forward-directedness of the X-ray field through preferential attenuation of oblique-angled photons. The electrostatic and thermal properties of the theoretical tube were calculated and analyzed using COMSOL Multiphysics software. The production, transport, and calculation of radiological properties associated with the resultant X-ray field were performed using the Geant4 toolkit via its wrapper, TOPAS. Heat transfer analysis of this X-ray tube demonstrated the feasibility of a 200-kV electron beam bombarding the proposed target at a maximum current of 100mA using a 1-ms symmetric duty cycle. The cathode of the X-ray tube was designed to be segmented into nine switchable electrical segments for modulation of the focal spot size from 0.4- to 10.8-mm. After importing the COMSOL-derived electron beam into TOPAS for X-ray production simulations, radiological analysis of the resultant field demonstrated high levels of intrinsic beam collimation while maintaining high intensity. A maximum dose rate of 17,887 cGy/min was calculated for 1-mm depth in water at 7-cm distance. The proposed X-ray tube design can create highly directional X-ray fields with superior fluence compared to that of current commercial X-ray tubes of comparable size.

Magnetic pinching of relativistic particle beams: a new approach to strong-field QED physics

Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a foundation of modern physics, yet access to the strong-field QED regime in the laboratory remains a formidable challenge. Currently, high-power lasers at the multi-petawatt level and above are generally believed to be an important approach to test QED physics. Here, we present a different approach by use of an electron beam self-pinched to near-solid-density. The beam self-pinching is realized while it transports through a properly designed hollow cone target, where strong azimuthal magnetic fields are generated by the beam-induced plasma return currents at the inner surface of the cone target. In this way, the beam diameter can be reduced by more than an order of magnitude down to submicron and its density is increased by hundreds of times. The produced ultradense electron beams can unlock a new regime of QED-dominated beam–plasma interactions, for example, more than 60% of the beam energy can be converted into GeV gamma-rays with unprecedented brilliance when such a beam passes through a thin solid foil. Moreover, with proper parameter design, this beam-focusing scheme can also be applied to positron beams and thus may find applications in broad areas, such as particle colliders and strong-field physics.

Energy transfer and scale dynamics in 2D and 3D laser-driven jets

We demonstrate a methodology for diagnosing the multiscale dynamics and energy transfer in complex HED flows with realistic driving and boundary conditions. The approach separates incompressible, compressible, and baropycnal contributions to energy scale-transfer and quantifies the direction of these transfers in (generalized) wavenumber space. We use this to compare the kinetic energy (KE) transfer across scales in simulations of 2D axisymmetric vs fully 3D laser-driven plasma jets. Using the FLASH code, we model a turbulent jet ablated from an aluminum cone target in the configuration outlined by Liao et al. [Phys. Plasmas, 26 032306 (2019)]. We show that, in addition to its well known bias for underestimating hydrodynamic instability growth, 2D modeling suffers from significant spurious energization of the bulk flow by a turbulent upscale cascade. In 2D, this arises as vorticity and strain from instabilities near the jet's leading edge transfer KE upscale, sustaining a coherent circulation that helps propel the axisymmetric jet farther (≈25% by 3.5 ns) and helps keep it collimated. In 3D, the coherent circulation and upscale KE transfer are absent. The methodology presented here may also help with inter-model comparison and validation, including future modeling efforts to alleviate some of the 2D hydrodynamic artifacts highlighted in this study.

Mathematical modeling of experiments on the interaction of a high-power ultraviolet laser pulse with condensed targets

Objectives. The paper aimed to review and analyze the results of works devoted to numerical modeling of experiments on the interaction of high-power ultraviolet (UV) laser pulses with condensed targets. The experiments were carried out at GARPUN, the powerful KrF-laser facility at the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow). The relevance of the research is related to the use of excimer UV lasers as a driver for a thermonuclear reactor. Physical aspects of laser-plasma interaction, including those related to the possibility of using two-sided cone target in a fission-fusion reactor, are discussed.Methods. The research is based on physico-mathematical models, including Euler and Lagrange.Results. The mathematical modeling of three types of natural experiments is presented: (1) burning through different thicknesses of Al foils by high-power UV laser; (2) studying hydrodynamic instability development at the UV laser acceleration of thin polymer films and features of turbulent zone formation; (3) interaction of high-power UV laser pulses with two-layer targets (Al + Plexiglas) and study of fine structures. Numerical modeling showed that a hybrid reactor with UV laser driver can use targets in the form of two-sided counter cones.Conclusions. Physico-mathematical models are developed along with 2D codes in Lagrangian and Eulerian coordinates as confirmed in the results of natural experiments. The models can be used to describe the physics of high-power UV laser pulses interacting with various targets and forecast the results of reactor-scale experiments.

Energy coupling in intense laser solid interactions: Material properties of gold

In the double-cone ignition inertial confinement fusion scheme, a high density deuterium–tritium (DT) fuel is rapidly heated with high-flux fast electrons, which are generated by short and intense laser pulses. A gold cone target is usually used to shorten the distance between the critical surface and the compressed high density DT core. The material properties of the solid gold may affect the generation and transport of fast electrons significantly, among which the effects of ionization and collision are the main concerns. In this work, the effects of ionization, collision, and blow-off plasma on the laser energy absorption rate are investigated using the LAPINS code: A three-stage model is adopted to explain the mechanism of fast electron generation and the change in the laser energy absorption rate. With the increase in the charge state of Au ions, the laser–plasma interaction transfers to the later stage, resulting in a decrease in the laser energy absorption rate. Collision has both beneficial and harmful effects. On the one hand, collision provides a thermal pressure, which makes it easier for electrons to escape into the potential well in front of the target and be accelerated in the second stage. On the other hand, collision increases stopping power and suppress electron recirculation within the target in the third stage. The vacuum sheath field behind the target enhances the electron circulation inside the target and, thus, improves the laser energy absorption; however, this effect will be suppressed when the blow-off plasma density behind the target increases or collision is considered.

Highly efficient harmonic vortex generation from a laser irradiated hollow-cone target.

It has been recently reported that ultraviolet harmonic vortices can be produced when a high-power circular-polarized laser pulse travels through a micro-scale waveguide. However, the harmonic generation quenches typically after a few tens of microns of propagation, due to the buildup of electrostatic potential that suppresses the amplitude of the surface wave. Here we propose to use a hollow-cone channel to overcome this obstacle. When traveling in a cone target, the laser intensity at the entrance is relatively low to avoid extracting too many electrons, while the slow focusing by the cone channel subsequently counters the established electrostatic potential, allowing the surface wave to maintain a high amplitude for a much longer distance. According to three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, the harmonic vortices can be produced with very high efficiency >20%. The proposed scheme paves the way for the development of powerful optical vortices sources in the extreme ultraviolet regime-an area of significant fundamental and applied physics potential.

Enhanced electron acceleration by high-intensity lasers in extended (confined) preplasma in cone targets

We report on experimental results from a high-intensity laser interaction with cone targets that increase the number (×3) and temperature (×3) of the measured hot electrons over a traditional planar target. This increase is caused by a substantial increase in the plasma density within the cone target geometry, which was induced by 17 ± 9 mJ prepulse that arrived 1.5 ns prior to the main high intensity (&amp;gt;1019 W/cm2). Three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations are conducted using hydra which show that the cone targets create substantially longer and denser plasma than planar targets due to the geometric confinement of the expanding plasma. The density within the cone is a several hundred-micron plasma “shelf” with a density of approximately 1020 ne/cc. The hydra simulated plasma densities are used as the initial conditions for two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations using EPOCH. These simulations show that the main acceleration mechanism is direct-laser-acceleration, with close agreement between experimentally measured and simulated electron temperatures. Further analysis is conducted to investigate the acceleration of the electrons within the long plasma generated within a compound parabolic concentrator by the prepulse.

Image-Guided Measurement of Radiation Force Induced by Focused Ultrasound Beams.

The radiation force balance (RFB) is a widely used method for measuring acoustic power output of ultrasonic transducers. The reflecting cone target is attractive due to its simplicity and long-term stability, at a reasonable cost. However, accurate measurements using this method depend on the alignment between the ultrasound beam and cone axes, especially for highly focused beams utilized in therapeutic applications. With the advent of dual-mode ultrasound arrays (DMUAs) for imaging and therapy, image-guided measurements of acoustic output using the RFB method can be used to improve measurement accuracy. In this article, we describe an image-guided RFB measurement of focused DMUA beams using a widely used commercial instrument. DMUA imaging is used to optimize the alignment between the acoustic beam and reflecting cone axes. In addition to image-guided alignment, DMUA echo data is used to track the displacement of the cone, which provides an auxiliary measurement of acoustic power. Experimental results using a DMUA prototype with [Formula: see text] shows that 1-2 mm of misalignment can result in 5%-14% error in the measured acoustic power. In addition to the use of B-mode image guidance for improving measurement accuracy, we present preliminary results demonstrating the benefit of displacement tracking using real-time DMUA imaging during the application of (sub)therapeutic focused beams. Displacement tracking provides a direct measurement of the radiation force with high sensitivity and follows the expected dependence on changes in amplitude and duty cycle (DC) of the focused ultrasound (FUS) beam. This could lead to simpler, more reliable methods for measuring acoustic power based on the radiation force principle. Combined with appropriate computational modeling, the direct measurement of acoustic radiation force could lead to reliable dosimetry in situ in emerging applications such as transcranial FUS (tFUS) therapies.

Wideband Near-Field RCS Measurement Techniques With Improved Far-Field RCS Prediction Accuracies

Wideband near-field (NF) radar cross section (RCS) measurement techniques for improving the far-field RCS prediction accuracies are addressed in this article. Both the data preprocessing and NF-to-far-field transformation (NF2FFT) techniques are used to accurately measure wideband far-field RCSs in a wide azimuthal angle range. By utilizing the calibration set creation and some wideband data preprocessing techniques, including the vector background subtraction, the time-domain calibration and compensation, the time-gating steps, as well as the cylindrical mode expansion or the imaging-based NF2FFT techniques, the accurate wideband far-field RCSs in a wide azimuthal angle range can be obtained with the limited NF measurement range. Both the poor measurement accuracy and dynamic range as well as the main lobe distortion and angular undersampling effects existing in the NF measured raw data can be improved significantly. The proposed techniques are validated with an 8–12-GHz measurement of a 0.5-m-length cone target (in a 3-m measurement range, compared with the at least 30-m far-field range requirement), and the obviously improved RCS patterns and less than 0.5-dB average wideband measurement errors are achieved.

ISAR Imaging of Precession Target Based on Joint Constraints of Low Rank and Sparsity of Tensor

Precession is a typical form of micro-motion that can bring about complex and time-varying Doppler modulation. The range instantaneous Doppler (RID) method, which uses time-frequency analysis instead of the Fourier transform to describe the time-varying Doppler, is typically used to obtain the high-resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image of a precession target. However, the observation time of a specific target is often non-uniform due to various interference and channel switching among multi-channel radars, which will lead to a sparse aperture. Sparse aperture can cause sidelobe interference in the ISAR image obtained by the RID method, making it difficult to focus well. To solve the problem whereby the RID method fails to image a precession target with sparse aperture, this paper proposes a new method based on the joint constraints of low-rank and sparsity of tensor, and uses the alternating direction method of multipliers to solve the problem. The low-rank can constrain the correlation among consecutive ISAR images, and sparsity can remove the impact of sparse aperture. This effectively eliminates the micro-Doppler interference and sidelobe interference in ISAR image, and enables the reconstruction of precession target in a sequence of ISAR images with sparse aperture. Experimental results under both simulations and darkroom measurements verify that the proposed method performs well on ISAR images of conic precession target with sparse aperture.

Bunched Proton Acceleration from a Laser-Irradiated Cone Target

Laser-driven ion acceleration is an attractive technique to generate compact high-energy ion sources. Currently, among various physical and technical issues to be solved, boosting the ion energy and reducing the energy spread represent the key challenges with this technique. Here we present a scheme to tackle these challenges by using a hundred-terawatt-class laser pulse irradiating a cone target. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that a large number of electrons are dragged out of the cone walls and accelerated to hundreds of MeV by the laser fields inside the cone. When these energetic dense electron beams pass through the cone target tip into vacuum, a very high bunching acceleration field, up to tens of TV/m, quickly forms. Protons are accelerated and simultaneously bunched by this field, resulting in quasimonoenergetic proton beams with 100 MeV energy and low energy spread of about 2%. Results exploring the scaling of the proton beam energy with laser and target parameters are presented, indicating that the scheme is robust. This opens an efficient route for compact high-energy proton sources for fundamental research and biomedical applications.

EMuS – A Pulsed Muon Facility for Multidisciplinary Research

A pulsed muon facility (the so‐called EMuS) at the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) has been studied since 2007. It aims for multidisciplinary applications but with a focus on those based on muon spin rotation/relaxation/resonance techniques. As a standalone facility, EMuS will take about 5% or 25 kW of the total beam power (500 kW) from the CSNS‐II accelerator complex. Two schemes have been designed: the baseline scheme is based on an inner conical target in graphite and superconducting solenoids for the capture and transport of pions and muons; the simplified scheme is based on a conventional thick target and room‐temperature magnets for transport. With the former, multiple kinds of muon beams can be provided, from surface muons, decay muons, negative muons, to low‐energy muons. Mainly surface muons are available with the simplified scheme. With a number of novel design concepts such as forward capture of pions/muons from a target station based on superconducting solenoids and triple spatial beam splitting of a muon beam, the design aspects of EMuS are presented here. The wide application potential and the R&amp;D progress are also included.

Analytical model for Rayleigh-Taylor instability in conical target conduction region

This work builds an isobaric steady-state fluid analytical-physical model of the plasma conduction region in a conical target. The hydrodynamic instability in the double-cone ignition scheme[21] for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) proposed by Zhang is studied with the built model. With this idealized model, the relevant parameters, such as density, temperature, and length of the plasma in the conduction region of the conical target under long-pulse conditions are given. The solution of the proposed analytical model dovetails with the trend of the numerical simulation. The model and results in this paper are beneficial for discussing how to attenuate Rayleigh–Taylor instability in ICF processes with conical and spherical targets.

On the mechanism of ionization of atoms at compression of a substance by front of the converging shock wave

Purpose. To study changes in the microstructure of metals after exposure to high-energy plasma jets formed by the cumulation of gas-dynamic flows in a conical target. To estimate the expected state of matter in a strong shock wave compression, taking into account the change in volumetric energy density at the moment of transformation of a solid body plasma into nuclear matter. Methodology. The technique of laser initiation of a profiled front of detonation waves in explosive charges and the corresponding profile of shock waves in materials, methods and techniques for measuring the dynamic parameters of shock-compressed substances are used. Findings. An experimental study on the physicochemical state of a substance that has been processed with extremely high pressures and temperatures during compression by converging shock waves in conical targets has been carried out. Scientific results of physical and mathematical modelling of converging shock waves are analysed. Originality. For the first time, the formation of symmetric plasma jets during gas compression in conical targets has been experimentally observed. For the first time, metallo-physical studies on the microstructure of cast iron and steel have been carried out. These studies were made after the action of high-energy dense plasma jets with a temperature of (2.52.8) × 106K and a pressure 1.12 × 1012 arising from the collision of the jet with a barrier. Iron-55 and copper-64 isotopes were found in the cast iron microstructure near the surface formed by the action of the plasma jet. The main components of the plasma jet were gaseous oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and atomic iron, copper and gold. The fact of formation of isotopes is the result of nuclear reactions. One of the main conditions for the implementation of such reactions is a dense high-temperature plasma. It is assumed that under the action of a strong shock wave in a conical target, in addition to the synthesis reaction, other nuclear reactions with heavy elements can be realized. The ideas about the expected state of matter in a compression shock wave are presented, taking into account the change in the volumetric energy density at the moment of transformation of a solid body plasma into nuclear matter. Practical value. The proposed technique for conducting experimental studies on a shock-compressed substance under the action of extreme temperatures and pressures in conical targets using laser initiation of chemical explosives is of practical importance. The idea of the expected state of matter in the shock wave is also important.