Fast Quench Research Articles

Observation of soft glassy behavior in a magnetic colloid exposed to an external magnetic field.

We provide the first experimental evidence for soft glassy behavior in a sterically stabilized magnetic colloid (ferrofluid) of relatively low volume fraction (φ = 0.037) when a uniform magnetic field is applied at a sufficiently high rate (fast quench). Fast magnetic-field quenches favor structural arrest of field-induced aggregates, owing to insufficient time to settle into lower energy states, thereby pushing the system to a frustrated metastable configuration like a repulsive glass. Brownian dynamics simulations are used to show that the polydisperse ferrofluid (as in experiments) forms thick ropes aligned along the field direction, while a monodisperse ferrofluid does not. The simulations show that there is practically no ordering of the thin, monodisperse chains, while the thick, polydisperse ropes show positional ordering with a typical center-center separation between the particles in different ropes of about 0.39μm. As a consequence of structural arrest, the ferrofluid exhibits aging with broken time-translational invariance, a hallmark of glassy dynamics. The superposition of strain and creep compliance curves obtained from rheological measurements at different waiting times in the effective time domain corroborates the soft glassy behavior when exposed to a magnetic field applied at a fast ramp rate.

A new quench detection method for HTS magnets: stray-capacitance change monitoring

Fast quench detection is a key requirement for the successful implementation of superconducting magnet technology. In high temperature superconductor magnets, this issue is especially challenging due to the low quench propagation velocity, and presently represents one of the main factors limiting their application. A new detection technique based on stray-capacitance monitoring is proposed. The capacitance between electrically-insulated magnet elements, such as magnet structure and end parts, is utilized as an indication of local heat deposition in the conductor. In fact, the relative permittivity of helium drops when it changes from the liquid to the gaseous phase. Thus, when heating occurs, part of the helium impregnating the insulation layers boils off, and the monitored stray-capacitance decreases. The proposed technique is successfully demonstrated on three small-scale Bi-2212 magnets manufactured at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Results from the detection of thermal runaways and spot-heater induced quenches are reported and discussed. Advantages and limitations of the stray-capacitance method with respect to conventional quench detection methods are assessed.

Carbonized cellulose nanofibers as dielectric heat sources for microwave annealing 3D printed PLA composite

Filament fused fabrication (FFF) is an extrusion-based 3D printing technology for manufacturing thermoplastic components. One major obstacle facing 3D printed thermoplastic material is the reduced crystallinity resulting from a fast quench when material exiting the 3D printer hot nozzle solidifies quickly at the low-temperature platform, leading to weak mechanical performance. Here, we report an accelerated annealing strategy with the assistance of microwave heating, aiming to enhance crystallinity and mechanical performance of FFF 3D printed polylactic acid (PLA) composite. We selected naturally abundant cellulose fibers as precursors for producing carbonized cellulose nanofibers (CCNFs), and compounded CCNFs with PLA to produce bi-component filament for 3D printing final composite. After being irradiated with microwave, the embedded CCNFs in composite selectively absorbed microwave energy and generated heat. Subsequently, the localized heat transferred to the adjacent PLA regions, triggering amorphous PLA chains to repack and convert to new crystallites. In this work, annealing conditions, including heating method (i.e., oven annealing vs. microwave annealing), time (0–120 min), and temperature (80 vs. 120 °C), were systematically studied to understand the relevant effects on the resulting parameters including composite crystallinity and tensile strength. Microwave annealing method was also compared with conventional oven annealing method and results shows that microwave annealing significantly reduced the required annealing time to reach the maximum crystallinity and tensile strength. Notably, microwave annealing performed below cold crystallization temperature was exceptionally suitable to develop an optimized crystallinity and tensile strength for 3D printed PLA composite.

Fast and pervasive heat transport induced by multiple locked modes in DIII-D

This work presents the impact that multiple island chains co-existent across a tokamak plasma profile have on the heat transport and final temperature of that plasma. Numerical studies using the TM1 code show that error fields (EFs) with multiple poloidal components accelerate the core field penetration compared to pure m/ n = 2/1 EF penetration (here m and n are the poloidal and toroidal mode numbers respectively). After field penetration, locked magnetic islands of 2/1, 3/1 and 4/1 flatten the temperature at the corresponding rational surfaces. The co-existence of these islands significantly enhances the plasma heat transport throughout a wide swath of plasma from the core 2/1 rational surface to plasma edge. The electron temperature profile from 2/1 to 4/1 rational surfaces can be nearly flattened even if there is no island overlap, and the temperature inside each island is determined by the boundary temperature at the outboard separatrix of the island. The resulting central decreases by more than 50%, in good agreement with experimental observations and much lower than modeling with only a single 2/1 locked island. Further comparisons of the profile between numerical modeling and DIII-D experiment indicates that the observed reduction in the edge temperature requires edge island overlap and stochasticity. Numerical scans reveal the profile decreases further when large EF amplitudes create larger islands, wider edge stochastic regions and secondary island structures. Scans of the relative phase between EF harmonics reveal that the 3/1 island width is most sensitive to the island phase and the central changes with the 3/1 island width. These results indicate that the coexistence of multiple LMs in tokamak plasmas deteriorate thermal confinement more than the sum of their isolated impacts would and that this may be responsible for the fast thermal quench observed prior to major disruptions.

3D two-temperature magnetohydrodynamic modeling of fast thermal quenches due to injected impurities in tokamaks

An integrated model for the ionization, radiation, and advection of impurities in the extended-magnetohydrodynamic code M3D-C1 is described. This implementation makes use of the KPRAD model, which calculates bremsstrahlung radiation and impurity ionization, recombination, and radiation rates using a model in which the density of each charge state is advanced separately. The integrated model presented here allows the independent evolution of electron and ion temperatures, which is necessary to accurately model cases where the electron temperature drops more quickly than the electron–ion thermal equilibration time. This model is used to simulate the disruption of a model NSTX discharge caused by the introduction of argon impurities, using physically realistic resistivity. Despite well-mixed impurities, contraction of the current channel is found to lead to magnetohydrodynamic instabilities that result in stochastization of the magnetic field, a fast thermal quench, and localized parallel electric fields that can exceed the axisymmetric values by a factor of five for brief periods.

A Fast Quench Protection System for High-Temperature Superconducting Magnets

For reaching very high magnetic fields in fully superconducting magnets, beyond 16 T for particle accelerators dipoles and beyond 23 T for solenoids, the use of high-temperature superconductors (HTS) is unavoidable. Due to the high minimum quench energy in HTS these coils are much more difficult to protect against quenches using conventional methods, such as quench heaters or coupling loss induced quench (CLIQ). Although it is possible to use a dump resistor on a short HTS magnet, extracting the energy externally, this does not provide a solution for longer magnets or magnets operated in a string, because the extraction voltage becomes unacceptably high. Here, a method named E 3 SPreSSO (External Energy Extraction Symbiotic Protection System for Series Operation) is proposed that allows for fast energy extraction in HTS magnets. The E 3 SPreSSO comprises of units with a near-zero self-inductance superconducting circuit, connected in series with the main magnet. When the protection is triggered, these devices are turned resistive, using quench heaters, overcurrent or CLIQ, causing them to absorb the energy of the system. The units can be located outside the main magnet and do not generate magnetic field. Therefore, it is possible to use relatively cost-efficient and robust Nb-Ti or possibly MgB 2 (at higher temperatures). This paper introduces the concept and provides an analytical method weighing the different options for designing the E 3 SPreSSO units themselves.

Relaxation and crystal nucleation in polymer glasses

Depending on the degree of undercooling, polymers crystallize from heterogeneous or homogeneous nuclei. The volume density of homogeneous nuclei at deep undercooling is often several orders of magnitude larger than that of heterogeneous nuclei; allowing crystallization even below the glass transition temperature. With the introduction of fast scanning chip calorimetry (FSC) detailed studies of nucleation and eventually crystallization at such low temperatures (deep undercooling) became possible. Homogeneous nucleation at temperatures below the glass transition shows an unexpected feature in regard to enthalpy relaxation occurring in the same temperature range. As a result of the often fast quench, the glass is initially in a high-enthalpy state causing enthalpy relaxation. Even if the mobility in the material is high, formation of overcritical nuclei is not immediately observed. Only after completion of the enthalpy relaxation, in other words, when the enthalpy of the supercooled liquid state is reached, homogeneous nucleation is observed. On the example of several polymers with different crystallization rates, we show that this behavior seems to be general.

Reduction of asymmetric wall force in ITER disruptions with fast current quench

One of the problems caused by disruptions in tokamaks is the asymmetric electromechanical force produced in conducting structures surrounding the plasma. The asymmetric wall force in ITER asymmetric vertical displacement event (AVDE) disruptions is calculated in nonlinear 3D MHD simulations. It is found that the wall force can vary by almost an order of magnitude, depending on the ratio of the current quench time to the resistive wall magnetic penetration time. In ITER, this ratio is relatively low, resulting in a low asymmetric wall force. In JET, this ratio is relatively high, resulting in a high asymmetric wall force. Previous extrapolations based on JET measurements have greatly overestimated the ITER wall force. It is shown that there are two limiting regimes of AVDEs, and it is explained why the asymmetric wall force is different in the two limits.

Subcooled water quenching on a super-hydrophilic surface under atmospheric pressure

The goal of this work is (i) to evaluate the cooling rate on a super-hydrophilic surface asa function of the subcooled degree ΔTsub of the liquid coolant, (ii) to analyze the contact heat transfer q″c of the liquid-solid contact, and (iii) to investigate the mechanism of microbubble emission boiling (MEB). We fabricated a super-hydrophilic surface by anodic oxidation of a zirconium vertical rod, so called completely wettable surface (CWS), which had surface microstructures with super-hydrophilicity. The CWS results in a decrease of the cooling time tcool as compared with the Bare Zirconium surface (BZS) results under small ΔTsub (tcool∼50% decrease for ΔTsub=0, 15, and 40K, respectively). However, its surface effect is limited in the case of large ΔTsub (tcool∼within 5% for ΔTsub=60 and 75K). The fast quench on the CWS under ΔTsub, explained by the increase in minimum film-boiling temperature TMFB and rewetting velocity U, is due to the liquid-solid contact. We evaluate the contact area Ac and volumetric absorption rate of the liquid dV/dt by conducting liquid absorption experiments. The increase in Ac and dV/dt contribute to an increase in q″c, by forming the liquid film at the liquid-solid contact spot. The orders of the time scale between capillary-wicking and liquid-solid contact are comparable. Destabilization of the large vapor bubble is caused by an increase in q″c, which is a major reason for MEB generation, and this mechanism enables the q″ to be significantly high on the CWS under subcooled quenching.

On the computation of the disruption forces in tokamaks

The currents and forces induced in the tokamak vacuum vessel (wall) during the disruption are calculated for different values of wall resistivity. Several consequences and new developments are derived from the general result that the global disruption force acting on the perfectly conducting wall must be exactly opposite to the similar force acting on the plasma, which is inherently small in tokamaks. This theoretical prediction is tested and confirmed here for the ITER tokamak with disruption modelled as the fast thermal quench followed by slower current quench that develops into the vertical displacement event. The plasma is simulated by the evolutionary equilibrium code CarMa0NL. One of the results is that the computed integral force on a perfectly conducting wall is zero at each instant during a disruption. This in turn highlights the importance of having good models for the plasma (in which the equilibrium constraint is explicitly imposed) and for the structures (able to correctly describe the induced currents and the resistive effects). The dependence of the disruption force on the magnetic field penetration through the wall is demonstrated. Also the concept of a disruption force damper is proposed, able to ‘absorb’ a significant part of the force that would arise on a resistive wall during a disruption.

A novel peptide-based fluorescence chemosensor for selective imaging of hydrogen sulfide both in living cells and zebrafish

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) plays an important role as a signaling compound (gasotransmitter) in living systems. However, the development of an efficient imaging chemosensor of H2S in live animals is a challenging field for chemists. Herein, a novel peptide-based fluorescence chemosensor L-Cu was designed and synthesized on the basis of the copper chelating with the peptide ligand (FITC–Ahx–Ser–Pro–Gly–His–NH2, L), and its H2S sensing ability has been evaluated both in living cells and zebrafish. The peptide backbone and Cu2+-removal sensing mechanism are used to deliver rapid response time, high sensitivity, and good biocompatibility. After a fast fluorescence quench by Cu2+ coordinated with L, the fluorescence of L is recovered by adding S2− to form insoluble copper sulfide in aqueous solution with a detection limit for hydrogen sulfide measured to be 31nM. Furthermore, the fluorescence chemosensor L-Cu showed excellent cell permeation and low biotoxicity to realize the intracellular biosensing, L-Cu has also been applied to image hydrogen sulfide in live zebrafish larvae. We expect that this peptide-based fluorescence chemosensor L-Cu can be used to study H2S-related chemical biology in physiological and pathological events.

JET and COMPASS asymmetrical disruptions

Asymmetrical disruptions may occur during ITER operation and they may be accompanied by large sideways forces and rotation of the asymmetry. This is of particular concern because resonance of the rotating asymmetry with the natural frequencies of the vacuum vessel (and other in-vessel components) could lead to large dynamic amplification of the forces. A significant fraction of non-mitigated JET disruptions have toroidally asymmetric currents that flow partially inside the plasma and partially inside the surrounding vacuum vessel (‘wall’). The toroidal asymmetries (otherwise known as the appearance of 3D structures) are clearly visible in the plasma current (Ip) and the first plasma current moments. For the first time we present here the asymmetries in toroidal flux measured by the diamagnetic loops and also propose a physical interpretation. The presented data covers the period of JET operation with a C-wall (JET-C from 2005 until late 2009) and with an ITER-like wall (JET-ILW from 2011 until late 2014), during which pick-up coil and saddle loop data at four toroidally orthogonal locations were routinely recorded. The observed rotations of the Ip asymmetries are in the range from −5 turns to +10 turns (a negative value is counted to the negative plasma current). Initial observations on COMPASS of asymmetric disruptions are presented, which are in line with JET data. The whole of the JET-ILW disruption database and the limited number of COMPASS disruptions examined confirm that the development of the toroidal asymmetry precedes the drop to unity of q95. It is shown that massive gas injection (MGI), which is routinely used to mitigate disruptions, significantly reduces the Ip asymmetries in JET. However, MGI produces fast plasma current quench and consequently high vessel eddy currents, which expose the machine to additional stresses. The effect of the large gas quantity used during the injection is of particular concern as well.

Universality in fast quantum quenches

We expand on the investigation of the universal scaling properties in the early time behaviour of fast but smooth quantum quenches in a general $d$-dimensional conformal field theory deformed by a relevant operator of dimension $\Delta$ with a time-dependent coupling. The quench consists of changing the coupling from an initial constant value $\lambda_1$ by an amount of the order of $\delta \lambda$ to some other final value $\lambda_2$, over a time scale $\delta t$. In the fast quench limit where $\delta t$ is smaller than all other length scales in the problem, $ \delta t \ll \lambda_1^{1/(\Delta-d)}, \lambda_2^{1/(\Delta-d)}, \delta \lambda^{1/(\Delta-d)}$, the energy (density) injected into the system scales as $\delta{\cal E} \sim (\delta \lambda)^2 (\delta t)^{d-2\Delta}$. Similarly, the change in the expectation value of the quenched operator at times earlier than the endpoint of the quench scales as $<{\cal O}_\Delta> \sim \delta \lambda (\delta t)^{d-2\Delta}$, with further logarithmic enhancements in certain cases. While these results were first found in holographic studies, we recently demonstrated that precisely the same scaling appears in fast mass quenches of free scalar and free fermionic field theories. As we describe in detail, the universal scaling refers to renormalized quantities, in which the UV divergent pieces are consistently renormalized away by subtracting counterterms derived with an adiabatic expansion. We argue that this scaling law is a property of the conformal field theory at the UV fixed point, valid for arbitrary relevant deformations and insensitive to the details of the quench protocol. Our results highlight the difference between smooth fast quenches and instantaneous quenches where the Hamiltonian abruptly changes at some time.

New, Coupling Loss Induced, Quench Protection System for Superconducting Accelerator Magnets

A new and promising method for the protection of superconducting high-field magnets is developed and tested on the so-called MQXC quadrupole magnet at the CERN magnet test facility. The method relies on a capacitive discharge system inducing, during a few periods, an oscillation of the transport current in the superconducting cable of the coil. The corresponding fast change of the local magnetic field introduces a high coupling-current loss, which, in turn, causes a fast quench of a large fraction of the coil due to enhanced temperature. Results of measured discharges at various levels of transport current are presented and compared to discharges by quenching the coils using conventional quench heaters and an energy extraction system. The hot-spot temperature in the quenching coil is deduced from the coil voltage and current. The results are compared to simulations carried out using a lumped-element dynamic electro-thermal model of the so-called MQXC magnet developed with Cadence PSpice. The calculated voltages and currents are in good agreement with the measured data. Simulation and test results show that this new protection system, called coupling-loss induced quench, is a feasible method to reduce the hot-spot temperature in high-field superconducting magnets, even more when used in combination with conventional quench heaters.

Universal scaling in fast quantum quenches in conformal field theories.

We study the time evolution of a conformal field theory deformed by a relevant operator under a smooth but fast quantum quench which brings it to the conformal point. We argue that when the quench time scale δt is small compared to the scale set by the relevant coupling, the expectation value of the quenched operator scales universally as δλ/δt(2Δ-d), where δλ is the quench amplitude. This growth is further enhanced by a logarithmic factor in even dimensions. We present explicit results for free scalar and fermionic field theories, supported by an analytic understanding of the leading contribution for fast quenches. Our results suggest that this scaling result, first found in holography, is in fact quite general. Our considerations also show that this limit of fast smooth quenches is quite different from an instantaneous quench from one time-independent Hamiltonian to another, where the state at the time of the quench serves as an initial condition for subsequent evolution with the final Hamiltonian.

A new hybrid protection system for high-field superconducting magnets

The new generation of high-field superconducting accelerator magnets poses a challenge concerning the protection of the magnet coil in the case of a quench. The very high stored energy per unit volume requires a fast and efficient quench heating system in order to avoid damage due to overheating. A new protection system for superconducting magnets is presented, comprising a combination of a novel coupling-loss induced quench (CLIQ) system and conventional quench heaters. CLIQ can provoke a very fast transition to the normal state in coil windings by introducing coupling loss and thus heat in the coil’s conductor. The advantage of the hybrid protection system is a global transition, resulting in a much faster current decay, a significantly lower hot-spot temperature, and a more homogeneous temperature distribution in the magnet’s coil.

Nonadiabatic quantum state engineering driven by fast quench dynamics

There are a number of tasks in quantum information science that exploit non-transitional adiabatic dynamics. Such a dynamics is bounded by the adiabatic theorem, which naturally imposes a speed limit in the evolution of quantum systems. Here, we investigate an approach for quantum state engineering exploiting a shortcut to the adiabatic evolution, which is based on rapid quenches in a continuous-time Hamiltonian evolution. In particular, this procedure is able to provide state preparation faster than the adiabatic brachistochrone. Remarkably, the evolution time in this approach is shown to be ultimately limited by its "thermodynamical cost,"provided in terms of the average work rate (average power) of the quench process. We illustrate this result in a scenario that can be experimentally implemented in a nuclear magnetic resonance setup.

On the density of shear transformations in amorphous solids

We study the stability of amorphous solids, focussing on the distribution P(x) of the local stress increase x that would lead to an instability. We argue that this distribution behaves as , where the exponent θ is larger than zero if the elastic interaction between rearranging regions is non-monotonic, and increases with the interaction range. For a class of finite-dimensional models we show that stability implies a lower bound on θ, which is found to lie near saturation. For quadrupolar interactions these models yield for d = 2 and in d = 3 where d is the spatial dimension, accurately capturing previously unresolved observations in atomistic models, both in quasi-static flow and after a fast quench. In addition, we compute the Herschel-Buckley exponent in these models and show that it depends on a subtle choice of dynamical rules, whereas the exponent θ does not.

Fluctuations, Linear Response, and Currents in Out-of-Equilibrium Systems

In this review we discuss, from an experimental point of view, several concepts of statistical mechanics for systems that are out of equilibrium either because they are driven by external forces or because they are slowly relaxing toward equilibrium. We focus on the case where the mean injected energy is of the order of thermal fluctuations, which therefore cannot be neglected. We first introduce the main concepts of fluctuation theorems (FTs) for work and heat using measurements of (a) a harmonic oscillator driven out of equilibrium by an external force and (b) a colloidal particle trapped in a time-dependent double-well potential. We use the example of the Brownian particle to analyze the problem of the fluctuation-dissipation relation ( FDR ) in out-of-equilibrium systems. We next study the fluctuations of the position of a Brownian particle inside an aging gelatin after a fast quench. Using the experimental data of this experiment, we show that the mean heat flux is quantitatively related to the violation of the equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation theorem or equivalently to the entropy production rate. Finally, we discuss briefly the problems and the new directions for the stochastic thermodynamics.

Nucleation and growth of thermoreversible polymer gels

We study the spatiotemporal low-frequency microrheology of a gelatin gel during the sol-gel transition after a fast temperature quench by tracking the motion of embedded colloidal particles. From the particle dynamics two different mechanisms responsible for the gelation of the sol phase can be identified: a fast process associated to the local nucleation of triple helices and a slow fiber growth triggered by presence of an intact network. We associate the latter to a gelation front propagating into the sol phase whose speed depends linearly on the quench depth and which accelerates the local rate of the sol-gel transition.