Comparative Analysis of Lithium First Wall Concepts for Tokamak with Reactor Technologies

When developing the stationary fusion reactor, an unresolved issue is the design of its intra-chamber plasma-facing elements. It has now become obvious that among the materials conventionally used for intra-chamber elements, there are no solid structural materials that would meet the requirements for the long-term operation under the effect of the flux of fusion neutrons (14 MeV) with a density of ~1014 cm–2 s–1 and the heat flux with a power density of 10–20 MW/m2. An alternative solution to this problem is the use of liquid metals as a plasma-facing materials, and, first of all, the use of lithium, which has a low atomic number (low charge number Z). Other easily-melting metals are also considered, which have higher Z number, but lower saturation vapor pressure than lithium. This will make it possible to create the long-lived, heavy-to-damage and self-renewing surface of the intra-chamber elements, which will not contaminate the plasma. The main ideas of the alternative concept of the intra-chamber elements can be formulated based on the comprehensive analysis of the problems and requirements arising during the development of intra-chamber elements of the stationary reactor, for example, the DEMO-type reactor. The article presents the analysis of the possible design of the lithium-coated intra-chamber elements and discusses the main ideas of the lithium first wall concept for the tokamak with reactor technologies.

Thermodynamics of climate change between cloud cover, atmospheric temperature and humidity

On a global and annual average, we find a parameterization in which the cloud cover increase is proportional to the mid tropospheric temperature increase, with a negative proportionality factor. If the relative humidity is conserved throughout the troposphere, a 1 °C heating (cooling) of the mid troposphere, decreases (increases) the cloud cover by 1.5 percentage points (pp). But if the relative humidity is not conserved, then the cloud cover decreases (increases) by 7.6 pp. If the shortwave reflection effect of the cloud cover is dominant on a global scale, this parameterization leads to a predominant positive feedback: if the temperature increases like in the current climate change, the cloud cover decreases and more solar radiation reaches the surface increasing the temperature even more. The contribution of the present work consists in finding that the negative sign of the proportionality factor is due to the Clausius–Clapeyron equation; that is, to the magnitude of the derivative of the saturation vapor pressure at the typical standard surface temperature of 288 K. The negative sign of the factor is independent on the conservation or non-conservation of relative humidity in the troposphere under climate change.

Comparison of computational and experimental saturation vapor pressures of α-pinene + O₃ oxidation products

Accurate information on gas-to-particle partitioning is needed to model secondary organic aerosol formation. However, determining reliable saturation vapor pressures of atmospherically relevant multifunctional organic compounds is extremely difficult. We estimated saturation vapor pressures of α-pinene ozonolysis derived secondary organic aerosol constituents using FIGAERO-CIMS experiments and COSMO-RS theory. We found a good agreement between experimental and computational saturation vapor pressures for molecules with molar masses around 190 g mol−1 and higher, most within a factor of 3 comparing the average of the experimental vapor pressures and the COSMO-RS estimate of the isomer closest to the experiments. Smaller molecules likely have saturation vapor pressures that are too high to be measured using our experimental setup. The molecules with molar masses below 190 g mol−1 that have several orders of magnitude difference between the computational and experimental saturation vapor pressures observed in our experiments are likely products of thermal decomposition occurring during thermal desorption. For example, dehydration and decarboxylation reactions are able to explain some of the discrepancies between measured and calculated saturation vapor pressures. Based on our estimates, FIGAERO-CIMS can best be used to determine saturation vapor pressures of compounds with low and extremely low volatilities.

Investigating the Dynamics of Hothouse Earth Climates with a Simplified GCM

<p>There are records of past Earth climates that were ice-free all the way to the poles (Barron 1983), which can be described as “hothouse” climates. These hothouse climates can be contrasted with an “all-tropics” planet, where the tropics are defined by the atmospheric dynamics, i.e. the Hadley Cell extent (Faulk et al. 2017). This classification is thus primarily dependent on a planet’s rotation, rather than its ice-free extent or surface temperatures. We investigate the parameter space between Earth and an all-tropics world using the open-source GCM Isca, developed by Vallis et al (2018). We take an Earth analog and perform a parameter sweep in three dimensions: global reservoir depth (1000m, 100m, 10m, 1m, 1cm); global saturation vapor pressure (1.5x current, 1.4x, 1.3x, 1.2x, 1.1x, 1x); and rotation rate (16 days, 8 days, 1 day). The sweep will allow us to explore the effects of surface liquid coverage, atmospheric moisture content, and large-scale atmospheric circulation on an Earth-like climate. In this presentation we provide a status report and analysis of initial findings.</p>

Ammonia Emissions from a Western Open-Lot Dairy

Manure on dairies is the second largest agricultural source of ammonia emissions. Ammonia (NH3) emissions were measured at a 3400-cow open-lot dairy in Texas using a backward Lagrangian Stochastic model in combination with measurements from long-path tunable diode lasers and on-site sonic anemometers. Measurements were made for multiple weeks at a time for most seasons over two years. Both 30-min and daily average emissions were influenced by air temperature consistent with a van ’t Hoff equation. Emissions were also linearly related to saturation vapor density deficit. The influence of temperature on NH3 solubility, expressed by the van ’t Hoff temperature correction function, decreased as the water vapor deficit increased. The mean annual daily NH3 emissions at the farm was estimated at 82 g NH3 d−1 per animal (105 g NH3 AU−1 d−1, 1 AU = 500 kg) with mean emission during the summer of 124 g NH3 d−1 per animal (159 g NH3 AU−1 d−1). A distinct diurnal pattern in NH3 emissions was consistent with diurnal patterns in wind speed, saturation vapor density deficit and air temperature. The mean daytime emissions were twice the mean nighttime emissions. Additional studies are needed to evaluate the frequency of high emission days during the summer.

Thermodynamic properties of isoprene- and monoterpene-derived organosulfates estimated with COSMO<i>therm</i>

Organosulfates make significant contributions to atmospheric secondary organic aerosol (SOA), but little is known about the thermodynamic properties of atmospherically relevant organosulfates. We have used the COSMOtherm program to calculate both the gas- and condensed-phase properties of previously identified atmospherically relevant monoterpene- and isoprene-derived organosulfates. Properties include solubilities, activities and saturation vapor pressures, which are critical to the aerosol-phase stability and atmospheric impact of organosulfate SOA. Based on the estimated saturation vapor pressures, the organosulfates of this study can all be categorized as semi-volatile or low-volatile, with saturation vapor pressures 4 to 8 orders of magnitude lower than that of sulfuric acid. The estimated pKa values of all the organosulfates indicate a high degree of dissociation in water, leading in turn to high dissociation-corrected solubilities. In aqueous mixtures with inorganic sulfate, COSMOtherm predicts a salting-out of both the organosulfates and their sodium salts from inorganic co-solutes. The salting-out effect of ammonium sulfate (less acidic) is stronger than of ammonium bisulfate (more acidic). Finally, COSMOtherm predicts liquid–liquid-phase separation in systems containing water and monoterpene-derived organosulfates. The COSMOtherm-estimated properties support the observed stability of organosulfates as SOA constituents and their long-range transport in the atmosphere but also show significant variation between specific compounds and ambient conditions.

Influence of the Long-Term Temperature Trend on the Number of New Records for Annual Maximum Daily Precipitation in Japan

Record-breaking precipitation events have been frequent in Japan in recent years. To investigate the statistical characteristics of the frequency of record-breaking events, observations can be compared with the values derived from sampling theory with a stationary state. This study counted the number of record-breaking daily and 3-day total precipitation events at 58 rain-gauge stations in Japan between 1901 and 2018. The average number of record-breaking events over the 118-year period was 5.9 for daily total precipitation, which is larger than the theoretical value of 5.4 derived using the assumption that the climate system over the same period was stationary. Sampling theory was used to incorporate the influence of the long-term temperature trend from the Clausius–Clapeyron relation associated with the saturation vapor pressure. In theory, the long-term temperature trend gives a similar number of observed record-breaking events when the long-term temperature trend is approximately 0.5 Kelvin/100 years.

The Role of Glass Compounds in Autoclaved Bricks

This study describes the relationship between the physio-mechanical and chemical properties of sand-lime materials which have undergone hydrothermal treatment, and which were modified through the introduction of glass components (90% glass sand, GS). Process parameters such as temperature, pressure and saturation vapor pressure were found to have a significant impact on the series of chemical reactions as well as on the formation and transformation of solid hydrates. During the stirring process of sand-lime mass, the temperature of the reaction between lime and water in the presence of quartz sand (QS) was determined to be 83 °C. In the presence of glass sand, measured temperature was only 42 °C. Thermodynamic equilibrium-based modelling was applied to predict stable phase assemblages in the studied systems. It was found that compositional modification along with the application of the autoclaving process resulted in the formation of two crystalline phases: natrolite and gyrolite. Compressive strength and density were also assessed. The strength of fresh laboratory samples was found to be greater than their traditional analogues by 15 MPa. In addition to experimental characterization, sand-lime materials were also modeled using neural networks (backpropagation neural network, BPNN) which serve as a universal approximation method capable of modelling complex functions.