Method developed to enable Asphalt roads to weather cracking due to climate changes and heavy traffic load

University of Sharjah

 

image: 

The scientists claim their technology can produce the type of asphalt binders with the ability to weather pavement cracking and rutting and shorten training time for operators to learn how to use sophisticated asphalt binder devices to make asphalt roads more resistant and lasting.  

view more 

Credit: Dr. Waleed Zeiada, University of Sharjah

Scientists from the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and China’s Hefei University of Technology have developed a method to build durable and lasting asphalt pavements that can withstand rutting and cracking due to low temperatures and heavy loads.

They believe the method could reduce overall costs that normally accompany the purchasing and maintenance of expensive road durability testing equipment and improve testing of asphalt to make sure it holds up well in cold and hot weathers.

Engineers and transportation authorities have for long grabbled with how asphalt roads can brittle or bloat with slumps and surges in temperature and how heavy load traffic can damage the asphalt.

Now the scientists claim their technology can produce the type of asphalt binders with the ability to weather pavement cracking and rutting and shorten training time for operators to learn how to use sophisticated asphalt binder devices to make asphalt roads more resistant and lasting. 

In the words of the study’s lead author Dr. Waleed Zeiada, University of Sharjah’s associate professor of asphalt concrete mixtures, “The major takeaway is that our method can save engineers time and resources while still providing reliable information about how asphalt will perform in cold temperatures.

“This means better, longer-lasting roads, with less effort required to test the materials beforehand. This approach has the potential to greatly enhance the efficiency and practicality of Superpave implementation, particularly for agencies and contractors who face high equipment and operational costs.”

Superpave, an abbreviation of the term superior performing asphalt pavement, is a mix design method in which materials in optimum properties are selected for analysis and testing. Road engineers use to Superpave to provide durable and long-lasting roads and highways.

The research, published in the journal Construction and Building Materials, employs the typical Superpave Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) device to assess the thermal cracking of asphalt binders at low temperatures ranging from 0 to -18 °C by measuring the creep stiffness and m-value.

However, and due to growing concerns regarding BBR applicability to field studies and special asphalt binders, the research team enhanced a new method to assess the thermal cracking of asphalt binders namely the Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR), itself part of the Superpave testing system anyway, added Dr. Zeiada.

The DSR was used to perform frequency sweep tests on twelve asphalt binders at temperatures ranging from 0 to 25 °C using the 8-mm parallel plate geometry. The scientists then made a comparison between the results they obtained from both the BBR and DSR devices.

The DSR instruments are highly sophisticated gadgets designed to help scientists seek better rheological data under various climatic and other conditions in order to obtain measurements with superior precision.

The authors breakthrough came when they compared their BBR results and their corresponding DSR counterparts with an efficient and robust method they developed to predict the flexural creep stiffness and m-value of asphalt binder below 0 °C from frequency sweep test data .

They say in their research the objective was to develop an accurate and effective approach “to evaluate the low-temperature performance of asphalt binders based on DSR testing.”

Road engineers use DSR, or the dynamic sheer rheometer, as an instrument to gauge and characterize the elastic features of asphalt binders at temperatures of varying degrees.

Co-author Dr. Hanqi Liu, from the Chinese School of Automotive and Transportation Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, described the method as outlined in the study “a major step towards characterizing the performance of asphalt binders at different temperatures using a single testing device.”

The project aims to improve the testing of asphalt binders “especially at low temperatures to predict their (asphalt binders) performance in real-world conditions,” noted Dr. Zeiada. “Our method represents a significant advancement in asphalt binder technology which “traditionally has relied on a text called the  Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) to measure how well asphalt can resist cracking, particularly at low temperatures.”

The authors tested various asphalt binders at different temperature ranges using mathematical models to arrive at accurate predictions of their DSR data about the performance of asphalt binders particularly in low temperatures. The DSR test was found to be better and with a higher degree of accuracy when compared with BBR counterpart traditionally used to measure asphalt binders’ low temperature stiffness properties.

When comparing the predictions with actual BBR test results, the researchers found that the DSR method to be more accurate and reliable. “The results of this research are significant because they offer a faster, more efficient way to assess asphalt binder performance at low temperatures. This method could help engineers save time and resources while ensuring that pavements are designed to resist cracking in cold seasons,” maintained Dr. Zeiada.

The research project, Dr. Zeiada pointed out, has already attracted the attention of world’s key industrial players like Shell and Richmond in recognition of the significance of its findings and the contribution they can make to advancing the testing of asphalt binders.

“The collaboration between academic research, industry, and government institutions was crucial to the success of this project. The involvement of key industry players like Shell, Richmond, and Mena Energy underlines the real-world importance of this work.”

The authors tout their method as a breakthrough in the construction of pavements and roads as it can help road builders to produce the type of asphalt binders that can weather damage due to climate conditions.

“It has been always a dream to have a universal machine that can test asphalt binders against rutting, fatigue, and thermal cracking. This research work is a step towards achieving that,” said co-author Dr. Helal Ezzat of Sharjah University’s Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering.

The authors are upbeat about the method they have developed. Dr. Ghazi Al-Khateeb, Sharjah University’s professor of transportation engineering and a co-author said, “The proposed conversion method presented in this paper demonstrates superior efficiency and robustness compared to existing techniques. The correlation between predicted and measured values is generally strong, with high R² values indicating precise predictions for both creep stiffness and the m-value.”

Due to growing concerns regarding BBR applicability to field studies and special asphalt binders, the research team enhanced a new method to assess the thermal cracking of asphalt binders namely the Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR), itself part of the Superpave testing system anyway. Credit: Construction and Building Materials (2024).

Credit

Construction and Building Materials: DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2024.138196

Journal

Construction and Building Materials

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

An efficient and robust method for evaluating the low-temperature performance of asphalt binder based on DSR testing

Article Publication Date

18-Oct-2024

 

Vast ‘stranded assets’ if world continues investing in polluting industries

University of Exeter

Continued investment in carbon-intensive industries will drastically increase the amount of “stranded assets” as the world moves to net-zero emissions, researchers warn.

The study assesses how much capital – the value of physical assets like buildings and, uniquely in this study, the value of workers – could be stranded (losing its value) if the world reaches net zero emissions in 2050.

Stranded assets could include a worker losing their job and future income as their industry declines, or a coal power station losing value as renewables take over.

The study – by Exeter and Lancaster universities – compares two scenarios to investigate how delaying the transition could affect the total capital value at risk accumulated by 2050: one where the world completely stopped investing in carbon-intensive industries in 2020, and another where this is delayed to 2030.

A complete switch-off from fossil fuel investment in 2020 would have left $117 trillion of global capital at risk – while delaying to 2030 raises this to $557 trillion (37% of total global capital today).

While these are the maximum possible figures – and they could be reduced by retraining workers and retrofitting assets – they highlight the vast economic risks from continued investment in declining industries.  

“The longer we wait, the more disorderly the transition will be,” said Cormac Lynch, from the University of Exeter.

“An orderly transition would place communities in a good position to take advantage of new opportunities as the economy changes – while a disorderly one could put some areas at risk of post-industrial decline.”

Asked if the findings could support calls to delay or abandon net-zero policies, Daniel Chester from Lancaster University said: “The impacts of climate change itself are likely to be far more costly.

“And parts of the transition are happening already. For example, renewables like solar PV are already at cost-parity with fossil fuel equivalents, and electric vehicles are not far behind.

“What our research shows is that it makes practical sense, not just ethical sense, to embrace the transition now rather than resist it.”

“Instead of delaying the transition, policymakers should be transforming educational and financial systems – creating new opportunities, especially in regions dependent on fossil-fuel industries – to ensure communities are not left behind.”

The world must now cut carbon emissions at an unprecedented rate to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, thereby limiting the worst effects of climate change.

This will inevitably create new economic opportunities but will also threaten the value of some existing occupations and physical assets, investments in which have been called a “carbon bubble”.

The researchers collated available data to estimate the makeup of the global stock of capital assets and their economic lifespans.

They then simulated the early retirement of these capital assets (e.g. buildings decommissioned earlier than expected or workers being made unemployed) necessary to achieve the net zero targets set by governments, comparing these outcomes to scenarios where they are allowed to retire at the end of their normal working life.

The paper, published in the journal Environmental Research: Climate and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council through the Rebuilding Macroeconomics network, is entitled: “Stranded human and produced capital in a net-zero transition.”

---

Journal

Environmental Research Climate

DOI

10.1088/2752-5295/ad7313 

Article Title

Stranded human and produced capital in a net-zero transition

Article Publication Date

30-Sep-2024

 

New synthesis strategy could speed up PFAS decontamination

Rice engineers demonstrate versatile, cost-effective way to make high-quality advanced materials

Rice University

 

image: 

Safiya Khalil 

view more 

Credit: Courtesy of Safiya Khalil/Rice University.

HOUSTON – (Sept. 30, 2024) – Rice University engineers have developed an innovative way to make covalent organic frameworks (COFs), special materials that can be used to trap gases, filter water and speed up chemical reactions. COFs have the potential to address significant environmental challenges, including energy storage and pollution control. An example of that is their potential use in the decontamination of “forever chemicals” or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Rice chemical engineer Rafael Verduzco and his team have described a new way to synthesize high-quality COFs at low cost and with high throughput in a study published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces that will be featured on the front cover of a future issue of the journal. The work includes a careful analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of different synthesis methods and details a versatile, cost-effective way to make COFs. This involves a multiflow microreactor and careful calibration of the input-output process.

“We built a small, continuous production system ⎯ like a minifactory on a lab bench ⎯ where the ingredients for COFs are mixed and reacted in a steady stream instead of all at once in a big container,” said Safiya Khalil, a Rice doctoral alumna who is the first author on the study.

The researchers also found that one of the COFs produced via flow synthesis was better than those made using other methods at breaking down perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a PFAS compound associated with a number of health risks, including cancer and reproductive harm.

“This is an encouraging finding that adds to the growing evidence that COFs could emerge as a key player in the development of cleaner, more efficient technologies for contaminant removal,” said Verduzco, professor and associate chair of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice who is the corresponding author on the study.

COFs are crystalline polymers made of small, repeating units linked together into microscopic spongelike structures. These materials stand out for their porosity, large surface area and tunable molecular structure ⎯ features that could be harnessed for use in a wide range of applications, including semiconductors, sensors, drug delivery and filtration. However, the slow and expensive process of producing COFs has limited their broader deployment.

“We hope this method will make it easier to produce COFs in large quantities and help accelerate the discovery of new formulations,” said Khalil, who earned a Ph.D. in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Rice, where she was a part of Verduzco’s Polymer Engineering Laboratory.

Khalil likened the new method to making cookies to order in small batches rather than baking them all at once in one large batch. Although it was not the first time flow reactor synthesis was used to make COFs, the Rice researchers’ method stands out from previous approaches because it integrates the continuous synthesis and processing of two different COF chemistries, resulting in a more varied range of macroscopic formats.

“This method allows you to continuously have fresh-made cookies while controlling the temperature and mixing at each step to get the best quality every time,” Khalil said. “This process is faster, uses less energy and allows for better control over the final product.”

Traditional COF synthesis involves the use of high temperatures, high pressure and toxic organic solvents, limiting widespread production and use. The researchers’ flow synthesis strategy not only allows for faster COF production but also enables the creation of COFs with superior crystallinity.

The added proof that one of the newly synthesized COFs was very efficient at breaking down a “forever chemical” showcases the practical benefits of the new method. The breakdown process, known as photocatalytic degradation, is activated by light and occurs at room temperature.

“Imagine these COFs as powerful sponges with built-in ‘sunlight engines’ that can break down harmful chemicals much faster than current methods,” Khalil said. “One of the COFs we synthesized was more effective at breaking down PFOA than traditional materials such as titanium dioxide ⎯ a common photocatalyst used in pollution control.”

The research was supported by the Ministry of Education of the United Arab Emirates and the Welch Foundation (C-2124).

-30-

High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (top left) and transmission electron microscopy (bottom left) images of the COF shown to efficiently break down PFOA; COF samples in a varied range of macroscopic formats.

Credit

Courtesy of the Verduzco lab/Rice University

This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Peer-reviewed paper:
Continuous Synthesis and Processing of Covalent Organic Frameworks in a Flow Reactor | ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces | DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c09577
Authors: Safiya Khalil, Abdullah Alazmi, Guanhui Gao, Cecilia Martínez-Jiménez, Ravindra Saxena, Shu-Yan Jiang, Jianhua Li, Salma Alhashim, Thomas Senftle, Angel Martí and Rafael Verduzco
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c09577

About Rice:
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,574 undergraduates and 3,982 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction, No. 2 for best-run colleges and No. 12 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

---

Journal

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

DOI

10.1021/acsami.4c09577 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Continuous Synthesis and Processing of Covalent Organic Frameworks in a Flow Reactor

 

Support for meat rationing to protect climate

Uppsala University

 

image: 

Oskar Lindgren, doctoral student, Climate Change Leadership Group, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University.

Photo: private

view more 

Credit: private

Rationing of goods such as meat and fuel can both effectively and fairly reduce consumption with high climate impact. Almost 40 percent of the public say they could accept such measures. These are the findings of new research from the Climate Change Leadership Group at Uppsala University.

“Rationing may seem dramatic, but so is climate change. This may explain why support is rather high. One advantage of rationing is that it can be perceived as fair, if made independent of income. Policies perceived as fair often enjoy higher levels of acceptance,” explains Oskar Lindgren, doctoral student in natural resources and sustainable development at the Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University, who led the study, published in Nature magazine’s Humanities & Social Sciences Communications journal.

To achieve climate targets, policies that effectively reduce consumption with a high climate impact, such as meat and fuel, are needed. At the same time, public acceptance of a particular policy instrument strongly depends on whether it is perceived as fair or not. So far, research in this area has mainly examined economic instruments, such as carbon taxes, while giving little attention to other instruments that could be effective, like rationing.

A new study involving nearly 9,000 people in Brazil, India, Germany, South Africa and the United States compares the acceptability of rationing fuel and so-called “emission-intensive” food, such as meat, with the acceptability of taxes on the same products. The study is the first of its kind. One conclusion is that the acceptability of rationing is on par with the acceptability of taxes. For example, 38% of the people surveyed were in favour or strongly in favour of fuel rationing. The corresponding figure for fuel tax was 39%.

“Most surprisingly, there is hardly any difference in acceptability between rationing and taxation of fossil fuels. We expected rationing to be perceived more negatively because it directly limits people's consumption. But in Germany, the proportion of people who strongly oppose fossil fuel taxes is actually higher than the proportion who strongly oppose fossil fuel rationing,” notes Mikael Karlsson, Senior Lecturer in Climate Leadership at Uppsala University and one of the researchers behind the study.

The study also shows that acceptability differs between countries. In India and South Africa, acceptability of rationing for both fuel and emissions-intensive food is higher than in the other countries. In particular, many respondents in Germany and the United States are strongly against meat rationing. Individuals who express concern about climate change are most likely to favour the instrument, but younger and more educated individuals also have a more positive attitude.

“More research is now needed on attitudes towards rationing and the design of such policy instruments. Water rationing is taking place in many parts of the world, and many people seem willing to limit their consumption for climate mitigation purposes, as long as others do the same. These are encouraging findings,” says Lindgren.

---

Journal

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

DOI

10.1057/s41599-024-03823-7 

Method of Research

Survey

Article Title

Public acceptability of climate-motivated rationing

 70 YEARS OF SCI-FI-TEK

A new and unique fusion reactor comes together with PPPL's contributions

First plasma is coming soon to the University of Seville’s compact spherical tokamak called SMART

DOE/Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

 

video: 

A microwave-heated glow discharge runs in SMART as a test of the tokamak.
 

view more 

Credit: University of Seville

Like atoms coming together to release their power, fusion researchers worldwide are joining forces to solve the world’s energy crisis. Harnessing the power of fusing plasma as a reliable energy source for the power grid is no easy task, requiring global contributions.

The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) — a U.S. national laboratory funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) — is leading several efforts on this front, including collaborating on the design and development of a new fusion device at the University of Seville in Spain. The SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) strongly benefits from PPPL computer codes as well as the Lab’s expertise in magnetics and sensor systems.  

“The SMART project is a great example of us all working together to solve the challenges presented by fusion and teaching the next generation what we have already learned,” said Jack Berkery, PPPL’s deputy director of research for the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) and principal investigator for the PPPL collaboration with SMART. “We have to all do this together or it’s not going to happen.”

Manuel Garcia-Munoz and Eleonora Viezzer, both professors at the Department of Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics of the University of Seville as well as co-leaders of the Plasma Science and Fusion Technology Lab and the SMART tokamak project, said PPPL seemed like the ideal partner for their first tokamak experiment. The next step was deciding what kind of tokamak they should build. “It needed to be one that a university could afford but also one that could make a unique contribution to the fusion landscape at the university scale,” said Garcia-Munoz. “The idea was to put together technologies that were already established: a spherical tokamak and negative triangularity, making SMART the first of its kind. It turns out it was a fantastic idea.” 

SMART should offer easy-to-manage fusion plasma

Triangularity refers to the shape of the plasma relative to the tokamak. The cross section of the plasma in a tokamak is typically shaped like the capital letter D. When the straight part of the D faces the center of the tokamak, it is said to have positive triangularity. When the curved part of the plasma faces the center, the plasma has negative triangularity. 

Garcia-Munoz said negative triangularity should offer enhanced performance because it can suppress instabilities that expel particles and energy from the plasma, preventing damage to the tokamak wall. “It’s a potential game changer with attractive fusion performance and power handling for future compact fusion reactors,” he said. “Negative triangularity has a lower level of fluctuations inside the plasma, but it also has a larger divertor area to distribute the heat exhaust.”

The spherical shape of SMART should make it better at confining the plasma than it would be if it were doughnut shaped. The shape matters significantly in terms of plasma confinement. That is why NSTX-U, PPPL’s main fusion experiment, isn’t squat like some other tokamaks: the rounder shape makes it easier to confine the plasma. SMART will be the first spherical tokamak to fully explore the potential of a particular plasma shape known as negative triangularity.

PPPL’s expertise in computer codes proves essential

PPPL has a long history of leadership in spherical tokamak research. The University of Seville fusion team first contacted PPPL to implement SMART in TRANSP, a simulation software developed and maintained by the Lab. Dozens of facilities use TRANSP, including private ventures such as Tokamak Energy in England. 

“PPPL is a world leader in many, many areas, including fusion simulation; TRANSP is a great example of their success,” said Garcia-Munoz.  

Mario Podesta, formerly of PPPL, was integral to helping the University of Seville determine the configuration of the neutral beams used for heating the plasma. That work culminated in a paper published in the journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion.

Stanley Kaye, director of research for NSTX-U, is now working with Diego Jose Cruz-Zabala, EUROfusion Bernard Bigot Researcher Fellow, from the SMART team, using TRANSP “to determine the shaping coil currents necessary for attaining their design plasma shapes of positive triangularity and negative triangularity at different phases of operation.” The first phase, Kaye said, will involve a “very basic” plasma. Phase two will have neutral beams heating the plasma.

Separately, other computer codes were used for assessing the stability of future SMART plasmas by Berkery, former undergraduate intern John Labbate, who is, now a grad student at Columbia University, and former University of Seville graduate student Jesús Domínguez-Palacios, who has now moved to an American company. A new paper in Nuclear Fusion by Domínguez-Palacios discusses this work.

Designing diagnostics for the long haul

The collaboration between SMART and PPPL also extended into and one of the Lab’s core areas of expertise: diagnostics, which are devices with sensors to assess the plasma. Several such diagnostics are being designed by PPPL researchers. PPPL Physicists Manjit Kaur and Ahmed Diallo, together with Viezzer, are leading the design of the SMART’s Thomson scattering diagnostic, for example. This diagnostic will precisely measure the plasma electron temperature and density during fusion reactions, as detailed in a new paper published in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments. These measurements will be complemented with ion temperature, rotation and density measurements provided by diagnostics known as the charge exchange recombination spectroscopy suite developed by Alfonso Rodriguez-Gonzalez, graduate student at University of Seville, Cruz-Zabala and Viezzer.

“These diagnostics can run for decades, so when we design the system, we keep that in mind,” said Kaur. When developing the designs, it was important the diagnostic can handle temperature ranges SMART might achieve in the next few decades and not just the initial, low values, she said.

Kaur designed the Thomson scattering diagnostic from the start of the project, selecting and procuring its different subparts, including the laser she felt best fits the job. She was thrilled to see how well the laser tests went when Gonzalo Jimenez and Viezzer sent her photos from Spain. The test involved setting up the laser on a bench and shooting it at a piece of special parchment that the researchers call “burn paper.” If the laser is designed just right, the burn marks will be circular with relatively smooth edges. “The initial laser test results were just gorgeous,” she said. “Now, we eagerly await receiving other parts to get the diagnostic up and running.”

James Clark, a PPPL research engineer whose doctoral thesis focused on Thomson scattering systems, was later brought on to work with Kaur. “I’ve been designing the laser path and related optics,” Clark explained. In addition to working on the engineering side of the project, Clark has also helped with logistics, deciding how and when things should be delivered, installed and calibrated.

PPPL’s Head of Advanced Projects Luis Delgado-Aparicio, together with Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow Joaquin Galdon-Quiroga and University of Seville graduate student Jesus Salas-Barcenas, are leading efforts to add two other kinds of diagnostics to SMART: a multi-energy, soft X-ray (ME-SXR) diagnostic and spectrometers. The ME-SXR will also measure the plasma’s electron temperature and density but using a different approach than the Thomson scattering system. The ME-SXR will use sets of small electronic components called diodes to measure X-rays. Combined, the Thomson scattering diagnostic and the ME-SXR will comprehensively analyze the plasma’s electron temperature and density. 

By looking at the different frequencies of light inside the tokamak, the spectrometers can provide information about impurities in the plasma, such as oxygen, carbon and nitrogen. “We are using off-the-shelf spectrometers and designing some tools to put them in the machine, incorporating some fiber optics,” Delgado-Aparicio said. Another new paper published in the Review of Scientific Instruments discusses the design of this diagnostic.

PPPL Research Physicist Stefano Munaretto worked on the magnetic diagnostic system for SMART with the field work led by University of Seville graduate student Fernando Puentes del Pozo Fernando. “The diagnostic itself is pretty simple,” said Munaretto. “It’s just a wire wound around something. Most of the work involves optimizing the sensor’s geometry by getting its size, shape and length correct, selecting where it should be located and all the signal conditioning and data analysis involved after that.” The design of SMART’s magnetics is detailed in a new paper.

Munaretto said working on SMART has been very fulfilling, with much of the team working on the magnetic diagnostics made up of young students with little previous experience in the field. “They are eager to learn, and they work a lot. I definitely see a bright future for them.”

Delgado-Aparicio agreed. “I enjoyed quite a lot working with Manuel Garcia-Munoz, Eleonora Viezzer and all of the other very seasoned scientists and professors at the University of Seville, but what I enjoyed most was working with the very vibrant pool of students they have there,” he said. “They are brilliant and have helped me quite a bit in understanding the challenges that we have and how to move forward toward obtaining first plasmas.”

Researchers at the University of Seville have already run a test in the tokamak, displaying the pink glow of argon when heated with microwaves. This process helps prepare the tokamak’s inner walls for a far denser plasma contained at a higher pressure. While technically, that pink glow is from a plasma, it’s at such a low pressure that the researchers don’t consider it their real first tokamak plasma. Garcia-Munoz says that will likely happen in the fall of 2024.

Support for this research comes from the DOE under contract number DE-AC02-09CH11466, European Research Council Grant Agreements 101142810 and 805162, the Euratom Research and Training Programme Grant Agreement 101052200 — EUROfusion, and the Junta de Andalucía Ayuda a Infraestructuras y Equipamiento de I+D+i IE17-5670 and Proyectos I+D+i FEDER Andalucía 2014-2020, US-15570.

SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak 

SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) is being built at the University of Seville in Spain, in collaboration with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. (Photo credit: University of Seville)

Credit

University of Seville

________________________________________________________________________________________

PPPL is mastering the art of using plasma — the fourth state of matter — to solve some of the world's toughest science and technology challenges. Nestled on Princeton University’s Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, New Jersey, our research ignites innovation in a range of applications including fusion energy, nanoscale fabrication, quantum materials and devices, and sustainability science. The University manages the Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the nation’s single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. Feel the heat at https://energy.gov/science and https://www.pppl.gov.  

 

The Plasma Science and Fusion Technology Lab of the University of Seville hosts the SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak and leads several worldwide efforts on energetic particles and plasma stability towards the development of magnetically confined fusion energy. www.psft.eu

---

Journal

Review of Scientific Instruments

DOI

10.1063/5.0219308 

Article Title

Design of a Thomson scattering diagnostic for the SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART)

 

NCSA, Google work together in Alaska as part of Permafrost Discovery Gateway

National Center for Supercomputing Applications

Earlier this summer, members of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications traveled to Alaska as part of their continued work with the Permafrost Discovery Gateway, a project led by the Woodwell Climate Research Center using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in tracking Arctic permafrost thaw.

NCSA’s Associate Director for Software Kenton McHenry and Research Software Engineer Todd Nicholson visited Fairbanks, Alaska along with 12 Google.org fellows to see first hand the melting permafrost and the impacts to those that live there.

“I have seen the artifacts of melting permafrost for years through the satellite images we work with, yet I was shocked to see things firsthand,” said McHenry. “What should be flat terrain was filled with 6-feet-deep ravines, the borders of these ice-wedge polygons. The trees at 45 or greater degree angles. The sinkholes in the University of Fairbanks parking lot.”

Seeing the permafrost research tunnel was a great experience. It shows just how significant permafrost is to the Arctic, how much it affects the land and the environment. Hearing from people about how permafrost thaw affects them in their day-to-day life lets you know how important the topic is.

Todd Nicholson, NCSA Research Software Engineer

Funded by a $5 million grant from Google.org, the Permafrost Discover Gateway, with further Google.org fellowship support, is developing and expanding a new, open-access resource that will use satellite data and AI technology to make it possible to track Arctic permafrost thaw regularly for the first time ever. This potentially game-changing resource for climate science will utilize advances in AI/ML technology to streamline the data analysis process and make it easier to rapidly identify patterns and trends in permafrost thaw datasets that will be essential to informing climate mitigation and adaptation strategies for city planners.

“We are excited to be working with Google.org to improve and extend the tools and data pipelines initially developed for the Permafrost Discovery Gateway to new use cases,” said NCSA Lead Research Software Engineer Luigi Marini after the award was announced. “Closing the time gap between remote sensing data products becoming available and permafrost data products being published, such as the pan-Arctic sub-meter scale ice-wedge polygon dataset developed by Chandi Witharana and team, will hopefully help scientists and stakeholders better understand permafrost thawing at the pan-Arctic scale. We also hope to generalize some of the technologies and tools being developed so that more scientists can leverage this work to develop new permafrost-related data pipelines.”

But NCSA’s trip didn’t just center around software and science. The Arctic adventure included underground tours, an ice hotel, team activities and more.

“On our way to the permafrost cave we stopped by to see a portion of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline,” McHenry said. “A few of us were amazed that it was actually built on top of permafrost, and to prevent its foundation from melting, it had thousands of passive refrigeration units along it to pump the winter cold into the ground to help prevent the permafrost from thawing in the summer.”

During the same period, the project hosted 12 Google software engineers who assisted in the Arctic research. Through a program partnering with research projects like the Permafrost Discovery Gateway, Google staff apply for opportunities to work on scientific research as a change of pace from their normal work.

“Several of the fellows told us how much they really enjoyed this experience working within science and would like more opportunities to do so,” McHenry said.

---

ABOUT NCSA

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign provides supercomputing, expertise and advanced digital resources for the nation’s science enterprise. At NCSA, University of Illinois faculty, staff, students and collaborators from around the globe use innovative resources to address research challenges for the benefit of science and society. NCSA has been assisting many of the world’s industry giants for over 35 years by bringing industry, researchers and students together to solve grand challenges at rapid speed and scale.