The proposed SBIR research targets the development and application of a novel surface pressure, temperature and heat-transfer diagnostic system for supersonic and subsonic combustion flowfields. The diagnostic techniques are based upon the quenching of pressure-sensitive photoluminescent… More

The proposed SBIR research targets the development of advanced optical diagnostic instruments for the study of turbomachinery. The Particle Imaging Velocimetry technique is proposed for instantaneous, two-dimensional velocity measurements and flowfield visualization in turbomachinery. The… More

The proposed SBIR research targets the development of a Filtered-Rayleigh Scattering (FRS) velocimetry systrm for the study of unsteady aerodynamics. During Phase I a two-component FRS velocimetry system will be contructed. Enhaqncements will be made to the 1) hardware: improved iodine filter,… More

The proposed SBIR research targets the development of a Filtered-Rayleigh Scattering (FRS) velocimetry systrm for the study of unsteady aerodynamics. During Phase I a two-component FRS velocimetry system will be contructed. Enhaqncements will be made to the 1) hardware: improved iodine filter,… More

The proposed STTR research targets the development of innovative aerodynamic concepts/techniques that contribute significantly to advancements of next-generation super-maneuverable air vehicles. Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) will be implemented in a hypersonic short -duration wind tunnel… More

The proposed Phase I SBIR Program targets the development of a high-repetition rate phase-sensitive CCD. The camera will be used for quantitative concentration measurements using high-repetition rate (from 1kHz to 80 MHz) picosecond-pulsed lasers with coherent pump/probe multidimentional imaging. … More

The proposed SBIR program targets the development of advanced concepts for film cooling of turbine airfoils. Through a combined experimental and computational effort, the proposed team will develop a CFD-based design-optimization tool that can be integrated into the existing turbine design loop and… More

One of the major challenges of advanced propulsion systems is the extreme temperatures and pressures at which these devices will operate. In particular, temperatures in excess of 2700K and pressures in excess of 50 atm are likely to be encountered in the near future. Since current sensors used in… More

The proposed Phase II program targets the development of an integrated measurement system for characterizing advanced propulsion combustors. Key to this system will be the use of simulation and modeling in conjunction with the development of advancedinstrumentation. The modeling program will be… More

Many applications exist for high-power, high repetition rate, long-life switches in Air Force missions. While considerable progress has been made in the art of high-power switching over the past few years, the switch rise time, life time and rep rate forportable, small-scale pulse power systems… More

An effort to apply condition-monitoring techniques to aircraft and ground-support equipment is proposed. Initially, the Phase I effort will concentrate on demonstrating the use of motor-current analysis to determine mechanical anomalies in motor-drivensystems. A practical instrument will then be… More

Considerable effort is currently focused on the possibility of using plasmas in air as a novel means of controlling the aerodynamic characteristics of vehicles flying at hypersonic speeds. Of special interest is the effect of weakly ionized plasmas on theflow of regions with intense dissipation such… More

Considerable effort is currently focused on the possibility of using plasmas in air as a novel means of controlling the aerodynamic characteristics of vehicles flying at hypersonic speeds. Of special interest is the effect of weakly ionized plasmas on theflow of regions with intense dissipation such… More

The proposed Phase II SBIR addresses the question of how the potential performance benefits demonstrated for the constant-temperature cycle aircraft gas turbine may actually be realized in an engine. The approach used is to take the engine design choicesand cycle performance for a… More

The proposed Phase II SBIR addresses the question of how the potential performance benefits demonstrated for the constant-temperature cycle aircraft gas turbine may actually be realized in an engine. The approach used is to take the engine design choicesand cycle performance for a… More

Optical emissions sensors have the potential to be used in gauging combustion activity and quantifying heat release, fuel-air mixture, and combustor efficiency within a wide variety of combustor devices (both stationary and mobile). We propose to developboth chemiluminescence sensors-to derive… More

Sustained hypersonic flights offer potentially revolutionary improvements in space access for military applications. Limiting factors in hypersonic vehicle performance include aerodynamic drag and heating rates. Recent research has indicated thathypersonic flow fields may be modified significantly… More

Sustained hypersonic flights offer potentially revolutionary improvements in space access for military applications. Limiting factors in hypersonic vehicle performance include aerodynamic drag and heating rates. Recent research has indicated thathypersonic flow fields may be modified significantly… More

Optical emissions sensors have the potential to be used in gauging combustion activity and quantifying heat release, fuel-air mixture, and combustor efficiency within a wide variety of combustor devices (both stationary and mobile). We propose to developboth chemiluminescence sensors-to derive… More

"An effort focused on application of condition-monitoring techniques to aircraft and ground-support equipment is proposed. Building upon the proof-of-concept demonstrated in Phase I, the Phase II effort will involve: (1) construction of a test apparatusfor determining the serviceable condition of… More

"High power, high rep-rate, long life switches are required in Air Force areas of electromagnetic weapons, high power lasers and high power radar but also for generation of large volume, high-pressure plasmas for "plasma stealth", MHD power generation andfor supersonic combustion. These latter… More

"The proposed program is directed toward the development of a high-framing rate quantitative flow imaging system, with potential application to a wide variety of optical diagnostic techniques for reacting and nonreacting flows. The system is based around anovel "burst-mode" laser and a companion… More

Innovative Scientific Solutions, Inc. (ISSI) proposes the development of a high-framing rate quantitative flow imaging system, with potential application to a wide variety of optical diagnostic techniques for reacting and nonreacting flows. The system is based around a novel burst-mode laser, which… More

"The proposed program is directed toward the development of a plasma ignitor to address relight and flame-holding problems experienced by high-altitude aircraft. Conventional spark ignitors are insufficient to overcome these problems that are associatedwith the reduced temperature and pressure of… More

The primary goal of this SBIR program is the development of a flexible, quantitative

An effort to utilize information from partial discharges (PD) to monitor the health of aerospace electrical-power wiring and power-system components is proposed. The Phase-I effort will define the issues related to PD detection and analysis in asubatmospheric environment with high-frequency… More

We propose to develop a miniature a.c. driven, weakly-ionized plasma anemometer for measurements at hypersonic Mach numbers. The design will be based on earlier work by Vrebalovich (1954) who developed an a.c. glow-discharge anemometer and demonstrated itssensitivity to mean and dynamic mass-flux… More

Presently available atmospheric pressure plasma sources of reactive radicals, ions or intense VUV/UV radiation for materials processing, treatment of toxic waste and removal of surface contamination use arc discharges (DC or low frequency), corona or rf discharges, have too small a volume or their… More

An effort to upgrade and utilize partial-discharge (PD) detection techniques to determine the health of aerospace electrical-power-system components and insulation in high-altitude and space environments is proposed. The results of Phase I show that the frequency spectrum of PD waveforms at… More

Conventional adaptive optic systems used on terrestrial telescopes are very slow, and not suitable for aero-optic corrections due to boundary layer turbulence on high-speed vehicles. For high-speed vehicles, the most critical need is to find effective and accurate methods for making these… More

We propose to develop gas-turbine augmentor testing procedures based on 50KHz or greater data acquisition. Diode-laser based sensors using high-speed electro-optic tuning will be used for NO, OH, CO, CO2, and H2O, while picosecond transient grating spectroscopy will be used for temperature. These… More

The phase I technical objectives are to use existing lifetime based PSP technology and identify a combination of existing probes and a binder that will provide a temperature-insensitive PSP measurement. These will be accomplished by extending the current lifetime-based systems that employ two-gate… More

The combination of empirical spray modeling, dense- and dilute-spray diagnostics, and CFD simulation will be used to provide a more accurate spray-design tool for gas-turbine augmentors. A global model of liquid breakup and droplet dispersion will be assembled based on existing correlations for… More

A working prototype of a miniature 2 MHz a.c. driven, weakly-ionized plasma anemometer for measurements at hypersonic Mach numbers was developed during a Phase I effort. This device uses a plasma discharge between two encapsulated electrodes as the primary sensing element. The discharge has a… More

The primary objective of the proposed Phase II effort is the development an advanced, predictive jet-in-crossflow model for operating conditions that are relevant to high-performance gas-turbine augmentors. The Phase II proposal will build upon the successes of the Phase I effort by (1) extending… More

The primary objective of this Phase-I effort is to develop an advanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) technique for quantitative concentration measurements of nitric oxide (NO) in high-pressure flames. The objectives of the proposed work are (1) to develop and demonstrate… More

An experimental research program focusing on design, development, and testing of a novel nonequilibrium plasma ignition module is proposed. The ignition module will be based on the use of diffuse high-pressure transverse discharge technology recently developed at Ohio State using Air Force support.… More

There is a continuous requirement for high power, high rep-rate, long life switches in Air Force applications. Two application examples are high power microwave (HPM) and atmospheric pressure air plasma generation for self protection. Both require rep rates in the order of ¿Y 1 kHz at voltages of… More

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has determined that a need exists for new diagnostic instrumentation capable of obtaining quantitative flow data in large scale aerodynamic facilities, with particular emphasis on the high subsonic (Mach ~0.7) to moderate supersonic (Mach ~2-3) flow regimes. … More

An experimental study focusing on demonstration of feasibility of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) power generation in cold supersonic air flows is proposed. The experimental facility to be used for these studies (low-temperature nonequilibrium plasma / MHD wind tunnel) is currently under operation at Ohio… More

High energy density capacitors are vital for the mission of the Air Force in many areas. They will improve the development of advanced directed-energy weapons such as airborne lasers and high-pulse microwaves, where an increase in specific energy density will enable an increase in power, reducing… More

The Phase I technical objectives of this program were to use existing lifetime based PSP technology and identify a combination of existing probes and binder that would provide a temperature-insensitive pressure sensitive paint (PSP). This was accomplished using the current lifetime-based systems… More

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has determined that a need exists for new diagnostic instrumentation capable of obtaining quantitative flow data in large scale aerodynamic facilities without reliance on molecular or particle seeding. This Phase II Small Business Innovative Research proposal… More

During the Phase I effort, we propose to evaluate the feasibility of performing ultrafast-laser-based ballistic imaging for studying liquid hydrocarbon and oxygen injection characteristics for possible application in bi-propellant rocket engines. Ballistic imaging has the potential to circumvent the… More

Field emission electron emitting arrays hold promise for use in high current density electron beam devices and can replace power consuming thermionic emitters. While single emitters can emit currents up to milliamps, large field emitter arrays are limited in total current due to non-uniformity and… More

The overall technical objectives of this Phase I proposal are to establish shock-tube and continuous-flow experimental methodologies for evaluating alternative fuels relevant to hypersonic propulsion, and to perform feasibility studies of fuel blends, additives, and other means of generating… More

A seeding material is proposed that is effective for velocimetry measurements but is compatible with other optical instruments and does not interfere with wind tunnel operation. The identification of a clean seeding material and the development of a delivery system that would allow advanced… More

Oxygen and/or air plasmas are widely used in different processes such as etching, purifying, ashing, surface cleaning, ozone generation and for electrical oxygen/iodine laser discharges. The oxygen plasma is an important example of electronegative plasmas and has been widely studied and modeled,… More

An effort to apply modern signal-processing techniques to the detection of arcs on a direct-current (DC) power line in an air vehicle is proposed. The Phase-I effort will concentrate on demonstrating the feasibility of a simple, inexpensive technique for detecting both series and parallel arcs in… More

There has been a surge in the development of feedback flow control technologies in recent years. Regardless of what method is used to design the controller, the input signal to the controller in any application must come from surface measurements and in most cases surface pressure measurements.… More

The primary objective of this Phase-II research effort will be to complete the development of the electronic-resonance-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (ERE-CARS) technique for quantitative in-situ concentration measurements of nitric oxide (NO) in high-pressure flames. The research… More

Currently, no instrumentation that can produce distributions of skin friction in a production wind tunnel is available. While the distribution of skin friction is available from computational fluids models, these models must be validated using experimental data. Here we introduce a new sensor for… More

The measurement of skin friction on hydrodynamic surfaces at high Reynolds numbers is essential for the design of advanced Naval technology. Knowledge of the mean and fluctuating pressure distribution and wall skin friction is essential to the design of advanced propulsion systems and evaluation of… More

The primary objective of this Phase-I research effort is to perform a feasibility study of the femtosecond (fs) laser-based frequency comb pair and CW Raman fiber comb pair for measuring temperature and H2O concentration at data rate greater than 10 kHz near 2.5 m. Tomographic reconstruction using… More

The research team at The Ohio State University has been developing technologies to suppress jet noise using localized arc filament plasma actuators and are in the process of demonstrating this type of technology at NATR facility at NASA Glenn Research Center. The localized arc filament plasma… More

The development of experimental diagnostic techniques is needed for characterizing particle dynamics within solid rocket motors (SRMs) for implementation in SRM modeling codes. Development of robust, accurate computational tools for predicting flow, heat transfer, and material response within SRMs… More

The primary objective of this Phase-I research effort is to build an ultraviolet (UV) hyperspectral sensor at ~310 nm to perform spatially resolved temperature and OH concentration measurements based on multi-line laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of OH molecule in reacting flows. The… More

Field-emission electron-emitting arrays hold promise for use in high current-density electron-beam devices as replacement for power consuming thermionic emitters. Large field-emitter arrays, however, are limited in total current due to non-uniformity and resulting instability problems. As a solution… More

The primary objective of this Phase-II research effort will be to build, deliver, and test a next-generation time-domain ballistic photon imaging (BPI) system based on ultrafast lasers for characterizing the two-phase combustion region within bi-propellant rocket engines. This will include… More

Modern signal-processing techniques are applied to the detection of arcs in direct-current (DC)-powered aerospace and ground equipment in this SBIR project. The Phase-I effort demonstrated the feasibility of a reliable technique for detecting both series and parallel arcs in DC and AC systems. The… More

The primary objective of this Phase-II research effort is to build and deliver a sensor system that provides planar images of temperature and H2O concentration at 30 kHz in augmentor test rigs located at WPAFB. The system is based on hyperspectral H2O absorption tomography. Senor light from a… More

Measurements of skin friction on high Reynolds number hydrodynamic surfaces are essential for the design of advanced Naval technology, such as advanced propulsion systems and drag reduction techniques. Accurate measurements of skin friction on complex surfaces however, continue to be problematic.… More

The proposed work focuses on implementing fast-response pressure-sensitive paint and Surface Stress Sensitive Films for measurements of unsteady pressure and skin friction in rotorcraft applications. Significant rotorcraft problems such as dynamic stall, rotor blade loads in forward flight, and… More

Here we introduce a new sensor for measurement of skin friction and pressure, Surface Stress Sensitive Film (S3F). This technique can operate over a range of temperatures from cryogenic (160 K, -113ýýaC) to well above ambient (470 K, 197ýýaC). The operation of the sensor is based on the… More

Aircraft designs with slender/morphing wings/control surfaces can be difficult to instrument using traditional sensors. Furthermore, data with high spatial resolution, including model geometry, pressure, and skin friction, is necessary for validating numerical models used for aircraft design.… More

Over the past 20 years a variety of image-based experimental tools, such as PSP/TSP, PIV, and VMD which offer increased productivity, have been developed for wind tunnels. While each of these techniques can be used individually, rapidly combining the data from these tools would bring added value to… More

The overall objective of the Phase I program was to demonstrate a system for simultaneous measurements of unsteady pressure and model geometry. During the Phase I program, system components were identified, evaluated, and selected and a preliminary system for model deformation and unsteady pressure… More

Military aircraft tires must handle extreme loads during landing, take-off and taxi. New designs must be evaluated to determine if they meet mission capability requirements. A key evaluation area is the distribution of normal and shear forces in the tire contact patch. These data are critical for… More

Hypersonic propulsion systems are Hypersonic propulsion systems are characterized by high Mach number gas flows over vehicle surfaces and internal ducts. The flow often includes shock waves, shear layers, vortices, and separated flows. The ability to measure surface quantities such as pressure and… More

The measurement of skin friction on hydrodynamic surfaces at high Reynolds numbers is essential for the design of advanced Naval technology. Knowledge of the mean skin friction and flow separation is essential for the validation of computational models and design of advanced maneuvering systems.… More

Aircraft designs with slender/morphing wings/control surfaces can be difficult to instrument using traditional sensors. Furthermore, data with high spatial resolution, including model geometry, pressure, and skin friction, is necessary for validating numerical models used for aircraft design.… More

ABSTRACT: Augmentor designs are rapidly evolving as goals of high performance, static and dynamic stability, and low emissions are pursued. To understand the details of the combustion in these and other devices, one generally requires spatially resolved, continuous high-repetition-rate (Y 20 kHz)… More

ABSTRACT: The noise generated by jet exhaust is a significant environmental concern, impacting both flight operations and ground crew. The jet noise is generated by small-scale turbulent structures in the jet that interact with shocks, and other jet structures. Current measurement techniques, such… More

Hypersonic propulsion systems are characterized by high Mach number gas flows over vehicle surfaces and internal ducts. The flow often includes shock waves, shear layers, vortices, and separated flows. The ability to measure surface quantities such as pressure and skin friction on a hypersonic inlet… More

The measurement of skin friction on hydrodynamic surfaces at high Reynolds numbers is essential validation of computational models and design of advanced maneuvering systems. In this proposal we introduce an optical sensor for measurements of mean skin friction on large models that operates in… More

The proposed work focuses on implementing fast-response pressure-sensitive paint for measurements of unsteady pressure in rotorcraft applications. Significant rotorcraft problems such as dynamic stall, rotor blade loads in forward flight, and blade-vortex interaction all have significant unsteady… More

Supersonic propulsion systems include internal ducts, and therefore, the flow often includes shock waves, shear layers, vortices, and separated flows. Passive flow control devices such as micro-vortex generators and micro-ramps have been proposed to improve vehicle performance. The ability to… More

Currently, the contribution of skin friction to the total drag of a wind tunnel model is estimated by comparing measurements of the total drag to the integrated pressure drag. While this yields an estimate for the average skin friction, the distribution of the skin friction cannot be determined from… More

ABSTRACT: Among the technical challenges associated with current Air Force scramjet technology development is coupling between the combustor and isolator that leads to isolator unstart. Performance is currently restricted because the engine is not actively controlled. While simple passive… More

ABSTRACT: Military aircraft tires must handle extreme loads during landing, take-off and taxi. New designs must be evaluated to determine if they meet mission capability requirements. A key evaluation area is the distribution of normal and shear forces in the tire contact patch. These data are… More

ABSTRACT: Based on the success of the Phase-I effort, the objective of the proposed Phase-II research effort will be to develop and deliver a system of fiber-coupled, high-speed UV-LIF- and PLIF-based sensor. During this effort we will 1) quantitatively measure spatially resolved 2D temperature in… More