Lawrence Berkeley Research Articles

Conceptual Design of Superbend and Hardbend Magnets for Advance Light Source Upgrade Project

ALS-U is an ongoing upgrade of the Advance Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL). The upgraded ring of the ALS will use a multi-bend-archomat (MBA) lattice, which will allow increasing the brightness of soft x-ray sources 2-3 orders of magnitude with respect to current ALS ca-pabilities. One of the goals of the project is maintaining support for existing x-ray beamlines with useful intensity around 12.5 keV, which are used for a macromolecular crystallography. The medium energy x-ray source points will be provided by replacing six gradient-dipole magnets of the upgraded ring with high-field magnets generating a higher peak field at the source point. Two defocusing quadrupoles will be installed together with each high-field magnet in order to match the quadrupole field component of removed gradient dipole. Two alternative designs were investigated. The first design is a warm-bore superconducting magnet. Its coils are made of an internally reinforced bronze-route Nb 3 Sn wire and a holmium pole is used as a flux concentrator. The second option is NdFeB permanent magnet system with build-in field clamps. Due to limited space in the accelerator lattice and the magnetic field requirements for the x-ray source points, both designs present challenges due to high magnetic forces acting on the magnet components and due to impact of the magnet cross-talk on the beam trajectory.

Shining a new light on radiation's dark dide: Cold War era archives and chemical tinkering are helping researchers to better understand how radiation kills and how to protect against it. In this article, the first of a 2-part series, we examine the complicated interplay between radiation and cancer.

Shining a new light on radiation's dark dide: Cold War era archives and chemical tinkering are helping researchers to better understand how radiation kills and how to protect against it. In this article, the first of a 2-part series, we examine the complicated interplay between radiation and cancer.

Detection Uncertainty Matters for Understanding Atmospheric Rivers

The 3rd ARTMIP Workshop What: Over 30 participants from multiple universities and research insititutions met to discuss new results from the Atmospheric River Tracking Method Intercomparison Project. Where: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA, USA When: 16-18 October 2019

The design, construction and evaluation of a test chamber for measuring rangehood capture efficiency

There are no ASHRAE/HVI standards for characterizing or specifying acceptable values of capture efficiency (CE) (i.e. percentage of cooking-contaminants captured/exhausted by a household rangehood). A test method, ASTM-E3087.18, was recently published describing a facility/procedure for attaining consistent CE measurements. This study presents the design, construction and operation of the first CE test-facility assembled from the ground-up following this ASTM standard. Aside from this facility, there is one other nonproprietary test-facility for standardized testing of rangehoods in accordance with ASTM-E3087.18, namely Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) where a chamber was designed and built for the purpose of developing ASTM-E3087.18.Additionally, several CE tests were performed using the described test-facility to compare results with previously published data. Similar to LBNL results, 93% of CE-tests had standard deviations less than 2.0% during a test, with non-conformances attributed to inadequate steady-state times prescribed by ASTM-E3087.18 and inlet design. Using the precision/bias procedure in ASTM-E3087.18, CE-uncertainties ranged from 0.7–3.3%, with 89% of tests having 2% uncertainty or less. A preliminary repeatability analysis showed 91% of cases repeated more than once were repeatable within 10% (i.e. ±5%) and 77% of cases repeatable within 6%(i.e. ±3%). Preliminary results showed CE increasing with flowrate, though uncertainty/repeatability appear unaffected by flowrate.

Lost and found: Rediscovery and genomic characterization of sowthistle yellow vein virus after a 30+ year hiatus

Beginning in the 1960’s, sowthistle yellow vein virus (SYVV) was the subject of pioneering research that demonstrated propagation of a plant virus in its insect vector. Since the 1980’s there has been a paucity of research on SYVV, with historic isolates no longer maintained and no genomic sequence available. Once commonly observed infecting sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceous L.) in California, SYVV incidence declined ca. 1990, likely due to displacement of the black currant aphid (Hyperomyzus lactucae L.) by an invasive non-vector aphid. In 2018, SYVV was fortuitously rediscovered infecting sowthistle in an organic citrus grove in Kern County, CA. The SYVV genome sequence (13,719 nts) obtained from the 2018 sample (designated HWY65) encoded all six expected genes: N, P, MP, M, G, and L. Nucleotide sequence (representing ∼86 % of the genome) of the SYVV Berkeley lab isolate, used by E. S. Sylvester and colleagues for the paradigm-shifting research mentioned above, was determined from an archived library of cDNA clones constructed in 1986. The two nucleotide sequences share 98.5 % identity, confirming both represent the same virus, thereby linking biology of the historic isolate with extant SYVV rediscovered in 2018. Phylogenetic analysis of the L protein indicated SYVV is positioned within a clade containing a subset of viruses currently assigned to the genus Nucleorhabdovirus. As Nucleorhabdovirus is paraphyletic, the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses has proposed abolishment of the genus and establishment of three new genera. In this revised taxonomy, the clade containing SYVV constitutes a new genus designated Betanucleorhabdovirus.

Parametric study of the impact of window attachments on air conditioning energy consumption

This paper investigated the energy performance of window attachments and analyzed the impact of window attachments’ parameters on air conditioning energy consumption of residential buildings in a cooling-dominated city (Houston) and a heating-dominated city (Minneapolis). Roller and cellular shades were selected as research objects in this study. Nine parameters related to window attachment energy performance were chosen as the probable important influence factors for the parametric study. Three values, high, medium and low levels, were set for each parameter, resulting in a total of 9520 (roller) and 9072 (cellular) combinations respectively. The optical and thermal properties of each combination were calculated with Berkeley Lab WINDOW program before coupling with an EnergyPlus typical residential building model. Based on simulation results, an annual energy performance (AEP) index was proposed to rate the energy saving potential of window attachments. Key parameters which have significant impacts on air conditioning energy consumption were determined through the parameter sensitivity analysis. The research results indicated that solar transmittance and solar reflectance are the most influential factors to the energy performance of window attachments among the nine selected parameters. The current cellular shade could achieve the AEPh and AEPc of 0.19 and 0.12. Among all combinations, the best AEPh and AEPc of cellular shades are 0.68 and 0.89, respectively. Besides, as for roller shades, the current level of AEPh and AEPc are 0.14 and 0.09, and the optimal AEPh and AEPc are 0.43 and 0.79.

Evaluation of hydrocarbon broaching after subsurface containment failure, Gulf of Mexico

Broaching refers to the release of hydrocarbons at the seafloor after a loss of subsurface well containment. An underground blowout may allow migration of fluids upward through adjacent formations or the annulus to the seafloor. After the BP 001 Macondo well was capped, an oil slick was observed near the well. Available data were interpreted to determine if the slick was reservoir fluid broaching the seafloor or if it was a natural seep in the Gulf of Mexico. The experience revealed that no basis existed for estimating subsurface broach rates or how a potential to broach should be considered during well permitting decisions. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) modeled two broaching failure scenarios selected by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and representative of Gulf geosystems. Geoscientists from BOEM provided reservoir parameters and interpreted geologic surfaces from depth-migrated three-dimensional seismic volumes. The LBNL adapted existing supercomputing capabilities to model the traveltime for formation fluids to reach the seafloor after subsurface containment failure. The most sensitive parameters affecting traveltime are the mixture of formation fluids and the permeability of the geologic media through which it passes. Assuming nondepletion of reservoir pressure, gas-prone multiphase fluids may broach within a matter of decades. Wet oil and oil-prone multiphase fluids are slower by one to three orders of magnitude. The likelihood for the modeled systems to broach was mainly dependent on casing failure depth. The BOEM concluded that casing failures greater than 7500 ft (>2280 m) below mudline (seafloor) will not broach within a 6-month time frame of regulatory concern.

Synchrotron Photoionization Study of the Diisopropyl Ether Oxidation.

Scientific evidence has shown oxygenates help to reduce dangerous pollutants arising from burning fossil fuel in the automotive sector. For this reason, their use as additives has spread widely. The aim of this work consists in providing a comprehensive identification of the main primary oxidation products of diisopropyl ether (DIPE), one of the most promising among etheric oxygenates. The Cl-initiated oxidation of DIPE is examinated by using a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) synchrotron radiation at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Products are identified on the basis of their mass-to-charge ratio, shape of photoionization spectra, adiabatic ionization energies, and chemical kinetic profiles, at three different temperatures (298, 550, and 650 K). Acetone, propanal, propene, and isopropyl acetate have been identified as major reaction products. Acetone is the main primary product. Theoretical calculations using the composite CBS-QB3 method provided useful tools to validate the postulated reaction mechanisms leading to experimentally observed species. The formation of other species is also discussed.

ARETE: On Designing Joint Online Pricing and Reward Sharing Mechanisms for Mobile Data Markets

Although data has become an important kind of commercial goods, there are few appropriate online platforms to facilitate the trading of mobile crowd-sensed data so far. In this paper, we present the first architecture of mobile crowd-sensed data market, and conduct an in-depth study of the design problem of online data pricing and reward sharing. To build a practical mobile crowd-sensed data market, we have to consider four major design challenges: data uncertainty, economic-robustness (arbitrage-freeness in particular), profit maximization, and fair reward sharing. By jointly considering the design challenges, we propose an online query-b A sed c R owd-sens E d da T a pricing m E chanism, namely ARETE-PR, to determine the trading price of crowd-sensed data. Our theoretical analysis shows that ARETE-PR guarantees both arbitrage-freeness and a constant competitive ratio in terms of profit maximization. Based on some fairness criterions, we further design a reward sharing scheme, namely ARETE-SH, which is closely coupled with ARETE-PR, to incentivize data providers to contribute data. We have evaluated ARETE on a real-world sensory data set collected by Intel Berkeley lab. Evaluation results show that ARETE-PR outperforms the state-of-the-art pricing mechanisms, and achieves around 90 percent of the optimal revenue. ARETE-SH distributes the reward among data providers in a fair way.

Modeling of Quench Protection Concepts for Canted-Cosine-Theta Type High-Field Magnets

An innovative high-field superconducting magnet of Canted-Cosine-Theta (CCT) type has been proposed for Future Circular Collider 16 T dipole magnet design. The unique mechanical structure intercepts the accumulated forces lowering the stress on the windings, constituting intrinsic stress management in high-field Nb 3 Sn accelerator magnets. However, this structure also constitutes a barrier for heat to quickly propagate in case of a quench. To succeed in the CCT-type magnet design and construction, quench protection is a challenging task that requires a detailed investigation of the electrothermal behavior of the magnet. In this paper, the protectability of a two-layer short model CD1 (Canted Dipole) built at PSI is studied using multiphysics simulations. Two protection methods are considered: energy extraction and coupling-loss induced quench. The 2D User-Defined Elements (UDEs) developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in ANSYS Parametric Design Language, which support the multi-dependence material properties and include the effect of inter-filament coupling currents, are adapted and used in the coupled electrothermal, electrodynamic and electrical circuits calculations. A first-of-a-kind CCT-type magnet protection study using UDEs is presented. The generic model method will be validated through CD1 cold tests. Furthermore, these studies will prepare the ground for four-layer CCT protection concepts for FCC.

Fracture Failure Analysis for MQXFA Magnet Aluminum Shells

The High-Luminosity LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project (HL-LHC AUP) is approaching the production phase of the US-contributed Q1 and Q3 Interaction Region Quadrupoles (MQXFA). The structures for the MQXFA prototypes were designed and inspected by the US-LARP (LHC Accelerator Research Program), AUP developed criteria, which will be used for the pre-series structures. The first two full-length prototypes with 4.2 m magnetic length, MQXFAP1 and MQXFAP2, were designed and assembled at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and tested at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The end aluminum short shell of MQXFAP2 was fractured along the shell length during the test, and tests were stopped. Analytical and Finite Element analysis were performed in light of the graded procedure defined in the Structural Design Criteria to investigate the fracture failure for MQXFAP2. In this paper, we report the fracture analysis of the current shell design, including the elasto-plastic simulations with sub-model technique, and calculations with Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM). Test material properties are also presented. The results of this analysis explain why the end shell of MQXFAP2 failed, and suggest fillets on the end shell notches to meet the margin specified in the Structural Design Criteria.

Dark Matter in CCDs at Modane (DAMIC-M): a silicon detector apparatus searching for low-energy physics processes

Dark Matter In CCDs (DAMIC) is a silicon detector apparatus used primarily for searching for low-mass dark matter using the silicon bulk of Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) as targets. The silicon target within each CCD is 675 μm thick and its top surface is divided into over 16 million 15 μm × 15 μm pixels. The DAMIC collaboration has installed a number of these CCDs at SNOLAB. As of 2019, DAMIC at SNOLAB has reached operational conditions with leakage current less than 8.2 ×10-22 A cm-2 and a readout noise of 1.6 e, achieved with 5 CCDs. A new DAMIC apparatus will be installed at Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane in a few years. The DAMIC at Modane (DAMIC-M) collaboration will be using an improved version of CCDs designed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with skipper amplifiers that use non-destructive readout with multiple-sampling, enabling the CCDs to achieve a readout noise of 0.068 e. The low readout noise, in conjunction with low leakage current of these skipper CCDs, will allow DAMIC-M to observe physics processes with collisions energies as low as 1 eV. The DAMIC-M experiment will consist of an array of 50 large-area skipper CCDs with more than 36 million pixels in each CCD. The following proceeding will introduce the DAMIC apparatus at SNOLAB and its results and as well as the capabilities and the status of the new DAMIC-M experiment.

Software predicts materials’ properties

One of the promises of the information age is that collecting and analyzing larges amounts of data will lead to new insights. Materials scientists have embraced that idea, creating several public databases of materials’ properties over the past decade. New software aims to put that data to use by mapping mathematical relationships between properties for the first time, helping scientists calculate property values not yet measured and potentially find new materials or new uses for existing ones (Matter 2020, DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2019.11.013). Kristin A. Persson of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and colleagues encoded known mathematical relationships between materials properties in an open-source computational framework called propnet. It lets users input known values and produce calculations for others. For example, if a user inputs experimental data about a material’s atomic density, propnet could compute its volume per atom in a unit cell. But it can

ACS-NSF colloquium celebrates the periodic table

The American Chemical Society and the National Science Foundation cohosted a colloquium in Washington, DC, on Nov. 20, 2019, to celebrate 150 years of the periodic table. Prominent scientists shared their perspectives on the history of the periodic table, discoveries that have shaped society, current trends in chemistry research, and opportunities that will affect the future. Pictured from left to right are speakers Gary Molander of the University of Pennsylvania, Eric Kaler of the University of Minnesota, Jacklyn Gates of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Amy Prieto of Colorado State University, Ryan Babbush of Google, Eugene Chen of Colorado State University, Jeannette “Jamie” Garcia of IBM, David Lewis of the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, and Malika Jeffries-EL of Boston University. Not pictured is Martin Burke of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Design and test of a curved superconducting dipole magnet for proton therapy

We report on the design and test of a curved superconducting magnet completed as part of a collaborative project between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Paul Scherrer Institute, and Varian Medical Systems focused on developing compact, lightweight gantries for proton therapy. An overview of the magnet design is given first, showing two Nb–Ti Canted-Cosine-Theta (CCT) layers producing a dipole field of 2.4 T in a clear bore of 290 mm diameter, with bend radius of 0.9 m, and magnetic bend angle of 50 degrees. The magnet fabrication process is then presented with a focus on the challenges associated with curved CCT mandrel manufacturing, winding, and assembly. Finally, quench training and magnetic field measurements are reported from a first test in liquid helium during which the magnet reached the design field of 2.4 T.

Using the United States Wind Turbine Database to Identify Increasing Turbine Size, Capacity and Other Development Trends

The purpose of this article was to analyze data associated with advances in wind energy across the United States. While governments, academia, and the private sector generally know patterns of wind turbine development (i.e. turbine size and capacity growing in recent years), there is no known independent, reliable, and/or updated summary of these variables. Using data collected by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and partners, this study used descriptive statistics to show turbine development and growth patterns from 1981-2019. The newly created United States Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB) represents the most comprehensive account of wind turbine information and was updated in January 2020. Variables I am interested in here are turbine manufacturer, state of project, turbine and project capacity, and turbine size. Findings provide empirical evidence to support the common, yet previously unrefined statements that wind turbines are growing larger in number, size and capacity. This growth is varied over spatial and temporal scales. I also provide evidence to show patterns of turbine manufacturing, with GE Wind dominating much of the US wind energy landscape today. I hope this work provides a timely resource for those interested in a variety of questions surrounding wind energy development in the United States. Perhaps more importantly, this analysis will hopefully inspire others to use what the USWTDB provides and answer larger questions surrounding wind energy futures.

Temperature response and brine availability to heated boreholes in bedded salt

AbstractThere is a growing need for disposal of high‐level nuclear waste. To reduce uncertainty associated with brine availability to repository excavations in salt formations, a collaboration between Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories is performing a series of borehole‐scale coupled process tests. Here, we report on the first round of the Brine Availability Test in Salt (BATS) project, a “shakedown” experiment called Phase 1s. Experimental testing included placing a resistive heater, a 260‐W radiative heater, and a 750‐W radiative heater within previously drilled horizontal boreholes at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) while monitoring temperature and water inflow. The experiments successfully achieved the targeted temperature of 120 °C when using the 750‐W radiative heater. Simulations using FEHM (Finite Element Heat and Mass transfer code) and TOUGH‐FLAC (Transport Of Unsaturated Groundwater and Heat–Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua) were able to accurately predict the coupled thermo–hydro–mechanical–chemical response of salt, matching the observed temperature and brine production. Due to the extremely low permeability of salt, these systems take many years to reach steady state when perturbed by mining activities. Long‐term numerical simulations are used to develop the initial pressure and saturation conditions. The inclusion of a damaged rock zone with higher permeability around the borehole also affects the saturation and pressure distributions and plays an important role in dissipating the potential for thermal pressurization. Knowledge gained from this round of experimentation and simulation will be used to conduct the next BATS project experiment in new boreholes at WIPP.

Proposed design and optimization of a higher harmonic cavity for ALS-U.

Higher harmonic cavities (HHCs), also known as Landau cavities, have been proposed to increase the beam lifetime and Landau damping by lengthening the bunch and increasing the synchrotron tune spread. Here, we present an optimized 1.5 GHz normal conducting HHC design for the Advanced Light Source Upgrade project at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab with a superconducting-like geometry for lower R/Q. The optimization goal is to reach the required shunt impedance while maintaining a relatively high Q value of the cavities. A multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA)-based optimization process is applied to optimize the radio frequency (RF) design. This study serves as an example of how a genetic algorithm can be used to optimize RF cavities. Detailed exploration and characterization of the MOGA-based RF cavity optimization have been demonstrated from the aspects of minimizing the coupled bunch instabilities and analyzing the higher-order modes and the corresponding impedance of the HHC.

Editorial introductions

Current Opinion in Hematology was launched in 1994. It is part of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of hematology is divided into nine sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Editor and the Section Editor for this issue. EDITOR IN CHIEF Narla MohandasNarla MohandasDr Narla Mohandas is Vice President for Research at New York Blood Center, New York, USA. He received his doctoral degree from Washington University, St. Louis, USA in Chemical Engineering. After completing post-doctoral training in hematology research with Dr Marcel Bessis, Institute of Cellular Pathology in Paris, France, he joined the Faculty of Laboratory Medicine at University of California, San Francisco where he spent 13 years. In 1989, he moved to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California to head the Hematopoiesis group. During his 12-year tenure at the Berkeley Laboratory he also served as Interim Director of Human Genome Project for three years. In 2001, he moved to the New York Blood Center. Dr Mohandas’ scientific interests during his 45-year research career have focused on red cell physiology and pathology. In particular, his efforts have contributed to improved understanding of the molecular and structural basis for red cell membrane disorders, developing detailed mechanistic insights into pathophysiology of thalassemias and sickle cell disease, characterizing structural and functional changes induced in red cells by the malarial parasite, plasmodium falciparum. His research efforts during last ten years are focused on molecular understanding of normal and disordered human erythropoiesis including Diamond-Blackfan anemia and Myelodysplasia. Dr Mohandas served as a member of the National Institutes of Health Hematology study section for 18 years and is currently member of the NHLBI Advisory Council. He has been a member of numerous committees including the Executive committee of American Society of Hematology. He served as Associate Editor of Blood from 2003–2012 and is currently Editor-in-Chief of Blood Cells, Molecules and Disease and of Current Opinion in Hematology. SECTION EDITOR David C. DaleDavid C. DaleDr David C. Dale is Professor of Medicine and former Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Washington. He is a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, and a graduate of the Harvard Medical School. He received post-graduate training at Massachusetts General Hospital, the National Institutes of Health and the University of Washington. He has career-long interests in medical education, medical history and basic and clinical research focused on inflammation, neutrophils, and the clinical problem of neutropenia. Dr Dale has served as President of the American College of Physicians, the Society of General Internal Medicine, the Western Association of Physicians, the Medical Honor Society-Alpha Omega Alpha, and the American Clinical and Climatological Association. He is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus for the Scientific American Medicine the medicine text also known as ACP Medicine. He is the Founder and Co-Director of the Severe Chronic Neutropenia International Registry and Co-President (with Rose Marie Dale) of the Friends of the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr Dale is actively involved in teaching, research and patient care at the University of Washington and a member of the Council for the Washington Chapter of ACP.

KG-COVID-19: A Framework to Produce Customized Knowledge Graphs for COVID-19 Response

Integrated, up-to-date data about SARS-CoV-2 and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is crucial for the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the biomedical research community. While rich biological knowledge exists for SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV), integrating this knowledge is difficult and time consuming, since much of it is in siloed databases or in textual format. Furthermore, the data required by the research community varies drastically for different tasks - the optimal data for a machine learning task, for example, is much different from the data used to populate a browsable user interface for clinicians. To address these challenges, we created KG-COVID-19, a flexible framework that ingests and integrates biomedical data to produce knowledge graphs (KGs) for COVID-19 response. This KG framework can also be applied to other problems in which siloed biomedical data must be quickly integrated for different research applications, including future pandemics.Funding: This work was supported by grants from the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the U.S. Department of Energy [to J.R., D.U., S.C., N.L.H., M.J., C.J.M], the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under U.S. Department of Energy Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, the NIH (Monarch R24 OD011883, Illuminating the Druggable Genome U01 CA239108-01), a Training Grant from the NLM, NIH to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Computational Bioscience Training Program [T15LM009451 to T.J.C.], the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory (NVBL), and the Google Cloud COVID-19 Research Grants program. Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests.