Award Data

A Multimodal Acoustic Tool for Inline Pipe Inspection 3/19/2018 The US energy transport pipeline system is a longstanding distribution network with most of its still standing pipes being installed between the 1950s–1970s. Due to degradation mechanisms, such as embrittlement, capable of causing a two-fold reduction in fracture toughness, pipe rupture is a major risk. Current nondestructive ins ...

NDT of Fracture Toughness for Pipeline Steels 3/16/2018 Ultrasound-based technology to nondestructively determine fracture toughness of pipeline steels will be developed. Fracture toughness is the material parameter that, along with applied loading and flaw geometry, dictates the critical crack size, and therefore controls the flaw size that must be detected during inspections. A major challeng ...

Proposal title: Rapid Assessment of Air Void System in Fresh Concrete Water expansion during freeze-thaw cycles can cause deterioration in concrete, leading to scaling, cracking, and crumbling over a period of years. Resistance to this damage is achieved with a system of voids formed by adding surfactants to the fresh concrete to stabilize air bubbles naturally entrained during mixing. The volume ...

Proposal title: Broken Rail Detection from Flashing Rear End Device Broken rails are a common cause of mainline derailments and a particular concern given the increasing use of our rail system for passenger traffic and petroleum products. The progressive nature of the defects provides an opportunity for early detection of cracks before they become significant enough to cause a derailment. Unfortu ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: Ship groundings can cause sever environmental damage to the delicate ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, and beaches. At present, survey work is performed by hand – a method that is inefficient and difficult to perform reliably. Improved bottom survey tools are clearly needed to evaluate the extent and type of damage and assist in determining remediation efforts. ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: NOAA and the National Weather Service maintain an immense network of automated maritime, surface, and upper-air observing stations throughout the world and at great expense. These automated stations provide regularly updated data for both short-term weather prediction and long-term climate models. Maritime and surface observations occur as frequently as every 10 to 20 minutes, ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: The objective of this project is to research the technical feasibility of designing a software tool “Permit Wizard” that will automate the process for aquamarine permit application submittal, review, approval/disapproval and issue (including collection of fees). Aquaculture producers are currently faced with slow, complex, and often confusing permitting processes that must ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: Creare proposes to develop a self-sustained small-scale power conversion system to power NOAA’s weather monitoring network stations located in harsh uninhabited locations. Our miniature heat engine will take advantage of the existing year-round thermal gradients found between water and air in Arctic regions. Our baseline approach is the development of a compact Turbo-Rankine ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: We propose developing a new observational capability for measuring upper atmosphere (20-Km to 200-Km+ altitude) wind and temperature dynamics, based on Doppler imaging of Limb concentrations of NO, N2O, and CO2 called the Doppler Wind Temperature Sounder. The principle of operation is that by measuring the Doppler shift of trace gases created by the differential velocity betwee ...

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT: Ensuring the health of coastal marine ecosystems has emerged as one of the primary environmental concerns of this century. Frequent monitoring of water quality is required to establish baseline levels and enable early detection of problems. Citizen science programs have been shown to provide a highly effective method of monitoring water quality. Creare is developing an open-sou ...