Award Data

Many contaminated DOE sites are located in arid regions where depth to groundwater is significant and/or contaminants were discharged into a vadose zone through which transport to the groundwater table is dominated by unsteady, unsaturated groundwater flow. The absence of an effective means to monitor vadose zone moisture content in profile has been a persistent impediment to developing and calibr ...

Increased use of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) combined with engine downsizing has pushed automotive turbocharger compressor operation towards and often beyond its efficient and stable operating boundaries. Much of the drive cycle is spent operating the compressor at low flow rates and low pressure ratios, near the compressor surge line, in an area which is usually of low efficiency. Our prelimi ...

Nuclear power is a key component in the strategy to meet the countrys energy goals and technologies are needed to improve the reliability of current reactors and disposing safely of nuclear wastes. Vitrification is considered the preferred process for nuclear waste disposal and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) currently approves only borosilicate glasses (BS) for that purpose. However, many nuc ...

Sustainable global economic growth requires the diversification of energy sources and chemical feedstocks away from conventional fossil fuel supplies. One way to meet this need is to convert renewable resources such as cellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals; however a major roadblock is the high processing cost. What are needed are technologies that can provide energy and cost saving alternativ ...

ABSTRACT: High Energy X-ray computed tomography (CT) is used to inspect the integrity of solid rocket motors. The purpose of this proposal is to improve the detection of defects when they are obscured due to physical limitations of CT. Lickenbrock has developed an advanced variant of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, and other algorithms, for improving fidelity of CT. The EM algorit ...

ABSTRACT: The steadily rising cost of fossil fuels together with a heightened sensitivity to emissions has created a new backdrop against which the performance of traditional aircraft powerplant technology is no longer acceptable. Thermal efficiencies of current offerings hovering around 30% and below indicate that even modern turbine/turboprop engines are ready for game changing improvements. ...

ABSTRACT: The U.S. Air Force has a critical need for new robust strain sensors capable of accurately measuring the strain of structural components in high temperature harsh environment applications. During Phase I, Environetix will leverage extensive experience in wireless high temperature sensor materials, devices, packaging, and data acquisition, to develop and lab-test a prototype surface aco ...

ABSTRACT: Under this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program, Innovative Technology Applications Company (ITAC), LLC and the University of Notre Dame (UND) are working to develop new optical instruments that will enable nonintrusive, off-body measurements of flow parameters in hypersonic flight. The two concepts under development by the ITAC/UND team and described in this proposal invo ...