Lab Notebook

Nathan ShupeThesis ResearchSummer 2004

5/28/04

• I finished my VisRad workspace for the gas cell. There are two versions of the gas cell workspace: (1) 2-dimensional gas cell, (3) 3-dimensional gas cell.

• Screenshots:

2-d Gas cell 3-d Gas cell

5/28/04

• Additionally, so that we could measure the incident flux and radiation temperature at the face of the gas cell, we placed a minute diagnostic disk on the face. This disk has a radius of 0.02 cm and an albedo of 0.3.

Diagnostic disk at front of gas cell

(Zoomed in view of the gas cell)

5/28/04• I revised the outline of my thesis to reflect the changes David and I

discussed in our meeting yesterday. • I ran a VisRad simulation for the 2-dimensional gas cell with the same

parameters as Greg Rochau’s workspace, except for a nonzero albedo for the pinch (pinch albedo = 0.7), and use of the ‘other’ target chamber rather than the ‘Omega’ target chamber.

Representative piece of gas cell

Final state of pinch

5/28/04• VisRad Files

Workspace: C:\Documents and Settings\Nathan Shupe\My Documents\Summer 2004\VisRad\workspaces\shupe_gascell.vrw

Output File: C:\Documents and Settings\Nathan Shupe\My Documents\Summer2004\VisRad\calculations\Ne_gascell\ May_2004\

shupe_run_a_gascell_12.dat

• I then used the VisRad output file to run a Helios simulation to synthesize time-dependent temperature and density distributions.

• A list of Helios parameters for the first simulation is available at

C:\Documents and Settings\Nathan Shupe\My Documents\Summer 2004\run_1_Helios_params.txt

• Helios Files

Workspace: C:\Documents and Settings\Nathan Shupe\My Documents\Summer 2004\Helios\workspaces\run_1.rhw

Output File(s): C:\Documents and Settings\Nathan Shupe\My Documents\Summer 2004\Helios\calculations\Ne_gascell\May 2004\run_1

5/28/04

• Note: Helios Atomic Processes section is grayed out; no option for LTE or Non-LTE.

• I used the Helios .exo output file to run Spect3D to synthesize a time-dependent absorption spectrum.

• Spect3D Files

Workspace: C:\Documents and Settings\Nathan Shupe\My Documents\Summer 2004\Spect 3D\workspaces\run_1.spw

• Unfortunately, the program encountered an error when trying to run the simulation. The dialog box that displayed is shown below

6/1/04• Attended workshop on library databases

– See handouts: “Doing Research in the Physical Sciences – Finding Journal Articles, Summer 2004” and “Getting Started with Endnote: Creating Endnote Libraries”

• Compiled a table of parameters for first VisRad simulation of the neon gas cell

Available at C:\Documents and Settings\Nathan Shupe\My Documents\Summer 2004\Notes\run_1_VisRad_params.xls

6/1/04

• Variable parameters data files C:\Documents and Settings\Nathan Shupe\My Documents\Summer 2004\VisRad\data

• Attempted to fix the error when running the Spect3D by running the simulation on Eddington, but the same error occurred. The error probably has something to do with file permissions, but that is not entirely certain. I will talk to David about this issue tomorrow.

• Looked for Matzen paper on the Z machine – closest thing I found wasPresent and Future Capabilities of High Energy Density Experiments

Matzen, M. Keith

American Physical Society, April Meeting…

2002APS..APR.K7001M

The physics of fast Z pinches

Ryutov DD, Derzon MS, Matzen MK

Reviews of Modern Physics

72 (1): 167-223 JAN 2000

6/2/04

• David an I reviewed the Liedahl et al. paper and my essay for my Goldwater Scholarship application. David had comments on both my summer of the paper and my essay.

• I continued to search for the Matzen review paper on the Z machine, without any success, and also began a new search for a paper edited by D. Savin which compared the Cloudy and XStar codes – no luck so far.

• I further struggled with the copy workspace error, with unsuccessful attempts on both my laptop and the desktop.

6/3/04• We found at least a temporary solution to our problem of copying the

workspace during the Spect3D simulation.• By copying the workspace, input files, and writing the output files to a

partition of the hard drive which does not contain the system software, and then running the simulation, we found that Spect3D had no problem copying the workspace to the working directory.

• We notified Joe MacFarlane of the problem and what seems to be working (though not very convenient) solution.

• However, we encountered a new problem on the computers on which we were able to avoid the copy error. On Big Red, the simulation ran without error for the two selected simulation times, but then froze without highlighting the ‘done’ button so that I could end the simulation. The only way to end the simulation was to end the entire program manually. On Eddington, the simulation completed for one of the two selected simulation times, and then froze.

• I was told by Pam Woodruff at Prism Computational Sciences that this last problem has been fixed in the newest version of Spect3D.

6/4/04

• Made an animated .gif of the screenshots from my first run of the simulation in VisRad. The animation runs from 0 < t < 104 nanoseconds (in time-steps of ten nanoseconds for 0 < t < 90 and time-steps of 2 nanoseconds for 0 < t < 104), and shows the radiation temperature of the pinch and surrounding structures at each simulation time.

Image and layers available at C:\Documents and Settings\Nathan Shupe\My Documents\Summer 2004\GIF_animated\run_1

6/4/04