Award Data

ACTA Incorporated and Sandia National Laboratories propose a seven month STTR Phase I project to demonstrate the feasibility of developing an automated simulation of aircraft structural joints in structural analysis models. The technical approach includes an expert system executive to create detailed models of abstracted joint components including interfacing structural components, fasteners and ...

Aluminum alloys are known to suffer from Stress Corrosion Cracking(SCC). SCC of high strength alloys can proceed rapidly, and can lead to devastating structural failures. However, a solid understanding of combined interactions of metallurgical, environmental and mechanical factors surrounding the crack tip during SCC is still elusive. Therefore, Al alloy developement for high corrosion resistance ...

Warfighters are increasingly relying on technology equipment to ensure safety, mission effectiveness, and situational awareness. This equipment increases the capabilities of warfighters but also adds to their weight burden. This excess load could cause significant stress on the musculoskeletal system and lead to physiological deficits. The overall objective of the proposed project is to develop a ...

The computational grid generation process remains a troublesome bottleneck in development of aerodynamic databases for complex geometries and multi-body configurations. The ability of Cartesian-grid based methods to perform automatic mesh generation and dynamic mesh adaptation allows for substantially reduced manpower, time and cost. The advantages of octree-based Cartesian-mesh methods have been ...

The primary objective of this program is the investigation of new approaches to achieve well-dispersed ultrahigh loading of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in structural resins for advanced composites. “Well-dispersed” means CNTs that are optimally dispersed for achieving desired properties like strength, modulus, toughness, and thermal conductivity, rather than uniformly dispersed CNTs. Phase I will ...

A polarization insensitive wavelength converter is proposed to meet the stringent demands of avionic networks. Feasibility will be determined based on its ability to handle operation over large temperature ranges, and to provide Built in test functionality.

Avionic platforms pose stringent requirements on the size, weight and power consumption of optical components as well as wider temperature operating range (-40 to 100°C) requirements. In order to meet these needs, monolithic integration offers a solution by enabling high speed (10G) multi-channel tunable transmitters that can be packaged in an extremely compact form factor, lowering costs, and pr ...

We propose to develop a compact, ruggedized tunable wavelength converter for use in avionic WDM networks. An integrated SOA-MZI InP chip will be demonstrated in Phase I of this project. The performance characteristics of this all-optical wavelength converter will be characterized and specifications for the complete polarization insensitive module with built-in test (BIT)will be defined.

Microfibrous Entrapped Catalysts (MFEC) are proposed for detailed analysis to determine their potential to meet future Navy fuel needs by means of highly selective Fischer Tropsch Synthesis (FTS). MFEC are comprised of small grains of supported catalysts (ca. 10-200 micron diameter) entrapped within sinter-locked networks of micron diameter metal fibers. Metal fibers comprise only 5-10 vol% of the ...

IPITEK proposes to design a highly scalable photonic true time delay solution enabling a multifunction wideband electronically scanned antenna. Our innovative architecture utilizes passive Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) true-time-delay (TTD) modules to address all antenna array elements in parallel, while not requiring active optical elements, in the control of a large array of ant ...