Award Data

Recent studies by the PI and the Co-PI of this STTR effort have shown that aluminum alloys and stainless steel in Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) fail upon reaching a critical entropy; claimed to be an intrinsic material property. The critical entropy has been used as damage metric for prediction of remaining useful life (RUL). Also, similar entropic concept has previously been applied to LCF of composite ...

Rechargeable lithium ion battery systems can provide power throughout the aircraft, including engine or Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) starting, avionics, emergency, and other systems. Because of their high specific energy/power and potential thermal instability, they can present hazards if improperly designed, tested, handled, or stored. To address the thermal safety issue of Li-ion batteries, EIC La ...

Objectives and Intellectual Merit: The infrastructure of modern civilization is a set of complex systems1 that dynamically interact across multiple layers of abstraction. Researchers from many disciplines2 are designing analytical tools for predicting the global and local behaviors of these complicated, multi-layer networks. Easily usable, available (open source) and inter-operated tools are neede ...

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has been supporting research of energetic materials and incendiaries as payloads for weapons to defeat targets containing chemical and biological agents. Several universities and Navy labs have been involved in this research, and have narrowed down on a few material formulations that are efficient biocides. These formulations contain a chemical ingredient ...

The proliferation of nuclear and radiological weapons of mass destruction is a serious threat in the world today. The goal of this proposal is to develop a new, very low cost radiation detection technology that will be useful for detection and for surveillance of individuals who have been near radioactive materials. The technology can also be used for dosimetry, and will provide the technology for ...

With missions surrounding counterproliferation, nonproliferation and WMD reduction, the stakes for DTRA are incredibly high. Effectively conducting this work involves cooperation and coordination across a wide range of military and government organizations throughout the United States and the world. The decentralization of threats has led to an explosion in the sources and types of data needed to ...

Widely used composite materials reduce aircraft weight and cost, improve structural performance, and boost fuel efficiency. However, composites are susceptible to adhesive bond line quality issues, both in initial fabrication and in service related bonding failures. Detection of weakened bonds requires an easy diagnostic approach to routinely monitor composite aircraft health. Our proposed solutio ...

At the completion of the research and development effort a Li foil multi-wire proportional counter (MWPC) neutron detector with more than 625 cm^2 of active area will be included in a portable radiation detection system. The system is expected to have an intrinsic thermal neutron detection efficiency of 55% or greater and gamma-ray rejection ratio (GRR) of 1.0x10^-8 or better. A gamma-ray spectrom ...

This effort is focused on the development of a system called Situational Awareness via Mixed-initiative Universal Recognition, Analysis, and Inference (SAMURAI). SAMURAI will provide a single cloud-enabled end-to-end workflow covering the full range of data analysis from data ingest to situational assessment and decision support. As part of this workflow SAMURAI will provide the ability for automa ...

A drop-in 3He-tube replacement technology for thermal neutron detection does not exist today. It is critical for homeland security and nuclear safeguards applications. In this program, Triton Systems proposes to develop a light-weight, large-area, high efficiency portable neutron detector for passive interrogation using an innovative gas detector structure. The resulting 3He-free thermal neutron d ...