Award Data

According to a 2014 study commissioned by the Department of Energy, hydropower from more than 3 million untapped streams in the United States could potentially generate 65 gigawatts of electricity and help to reduce greenhouse emissions and pollution. However, the development of hydropower has been limited by several obstacles, as described by the United States Geological Survey: most of the prime ...

Supercritical CO2 cycles have the potential to significantly improve efficiency and reduce emissions in power generation. However, the unique fluid dynamic properties of supercritical CO2 that enable these higher efficiencies also complicate the design and layout of the system, particularly its turbomachinery components. The problem stems specifically from the highly non-linear properties of CO2, ...

Letters from leading researchers of subsurface hydrobiogeochemical processes, including Department of Energy researchers, confirm the need for low-cost, rugged distributed temperature sensing. Temperature and thermal gradients are critical drivers and state variables in many important subsurface hydrobiogeochemical processes, as well as indicators of hydrologic phenomena. In addition to helping un ...

Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) personnel juggle disparate tasks simultaneously. Their task simultaneously require physically grueling output, instantaneous information processing, clear communication and instantaneous decision-making. The current system provides capabilities far beyond their predecessors but with drawbacks: an information-rich battlefield requires increased time looking at ches ...

The design of turbomachinery components is a complex process requiring many steps and hundreds of minute decisions in an iterative process. The design proceeds from engine cycle performance and meanline design through 3D viscous flow calculations (CFD) and finite element structural analysis (FEA). Design studies may traverse this process many times, with routine tasks performed by engineers in a ...

The higher Mach number flight capability required in future missile systems has necessitated the development of advanced materials capable of surviving the increased thermal loads expected in these systems. Although previous research has indicated that titanium matrix composites (TMCs) are a potential solution to this problem, the high cost of these materials has severely hindered their considerat ...

The current approach to providing thermal protection to aero-vehicles is to use a parasitic thermal protection system (TPS) that protects the primary structure while transferring the aerodynamic loads to the same primary structure. This approach increases the complexity of the vehicle system that, in turn, complicates fabrication and inspection of the structure. In addition, this approach also i ...

The recent successful flight tests of a scramjet have moved to the cycle closer to military application. One key barrier to military utilization of the scrajet is high weights in the engine. The current engine uses an inconel actively cooled wall on the engine. Recent developments in Titanium Matrix Components (TMC) offer a breakthrough potential of cutting the weight of the engine in half. FM ...

Touchstone Research Laboratory proposes to investigate use of a CFOAM core in a sandwich panel configuration for an all-composite, low-cost, lightweight, EMI-shielded Rigid Wall Relocatable Structure (RWRS). Carbon foam offers excellent EMI shielding properties due to its high electrical conductivity. An all-composite shelter would eliminate metallic components that are susceptible to environmen ...

Turbo Solutions Engineering LLC is providing this proposal for a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research Program. The technical objectives are to demonstrate the feasibility of the integration of real-time performance monitoring and diagnostics within a turbopump system, to provide operational status data, and to predict the remaining life of critical components. This Integrated Vehicle Healt ...