Award Data

The power output of the high power lasers used in physics research is limited by the materials available for making gain media. Future increases in power require new and better materials. Operation at high power creates great thermal stresses that can lead to birefringence, thermal lensing or physical damage to the host. Effective cooling and small temperature gradients are critical for achieving ...

High performance supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) turbo-expanders/power turbines will provide significant increases in efficiency and compactness, while reducing greenhouse gases and water usage. This project will develop a permanent magnet biased magnetic bearing system, that is actively cooled to the 550°C maximum operating temperature limit of permanent magnets. The magnetic bearing test e ...

High energy physics research, modern medicine and advanced materials are continually demanding stronger magnetic fields. Efforts to generate fields in excess of 25 Tesla have been a principal driver of High Temperature Superconductor research. Although HTS materials were discovered decades ago and have always shown significant potential for high field use, until recently magnets using the technolo ...

Nuclear fusion has great potential for supplying global energy needs with a clean, abundant energy source. Advanced superconducting magnets will be used to contain the plasma at the center of the reactor. To operate these magnets, new sensors are needed to monitor the superconductors in real-time to detect the signs that the superconductor may quench (lose superconducting properties), so that corr ...

The state of computational chemistry software is in fragmented. Excellent and trusted academic software, which contains advanced molecular simulation code, exists but is seldom used in industry. Industrial software is closed, expensive and has not proven to be as good a foundation as academic software for developing advanced methods where machine learning can be used to design new molecules and ma ...

Traumatic injuries account for 30% of all life years lost in the US and is the leading cause of death for people under 46 years of age. Uncontrolled bleeding or hemorrhage constitute 30-40% of trauma related deaths and are considered to be a major cause o

In 2011, the US Department of Energy (DOE) launched the SunShot Initiative with the goal of making solar electricity cost-competitive with conventional power generation by 2020. Since 2011, research funded by the DOE has resulted in substantial progress toward meeting the aggressive SunShot performance and cost targets, but significant technical hurdles remain. In particular, the Gen3 CSP Roadmap ...

AHUs for residential HVAC systems typically use low-efficiency blower fans (evaporator side) and simple axial fans (condenser side), and the fan and the surrounding High Resistance Mediums (heat exchanger. filter, burner, etc.) are treated as stand-alone components during design optimization. With the recent introduction of high speed electronically commuted motors (high- speed ECM), it is now pos ...

The DOE has identified a need for thin and durable proton conducting membranes that offer enhanced energy efficiency to power zero emission vehicles. Specifically, a cost effective hydrocarbon-based alternative to expensive commercial perfluorosulfonic acid ionomers are sought. Current hydrocarbon membranes do not meet the performance or durability needed in the conditions for transportation fuel ...

The goal of this work is to develop a new technology that can produce acetic acid in a single-step and do so at reduced temperature and ambient pressure. Current techniques to synthesize acetic acid require methanol and carbon dioxide, both of which are largely made from syngas produced from dry reforming of methane. However, high temperatures are needed to produce the syngas (of which a component ...