Award Data

High-temperature polymer matrix composites (PMCs) are desired for the aggressive environments encountered in many aerospace and military applications. These have required new blends of materials properties in the composite fiber and matrix. As polyimide resins have been improved, the thermo-oxidative stability (TOS) of the carbon fibers typically used as reinforcements have become a limiting fac ...

Manufacture of polymer matrix composite (PMC) jet engine parts is expensive due to the high cost of needed high temperature materials and fabrication processes currently in use. To reduce costs and improve quality, automated composite fabrication methods such as filament winding, automated tape placement, and fiber or tow placement coupled with non-autoclave processing offer great promise for use ...

The expanding use of composites in shipboard applications is driving the development of fire-resistant composite structures. However, despite significant efforts in improving the resins and cores of composite sandwich structures, passive fire protection (e.g., insulation) is still required. Currently, the Navy uses glass fiber or mineral wool insulation panels that are mechanically fastened to t ...

The Navy has qualified a visible light-initiated resin system for spot repair and corrosion control on ballast tanks. This system, developed by Spectra Group Limited, cures in a very short period of time under visible light illumination to yield the patch and corrosion control coating. The major difficulty with this system is the unwieldy size and weight of the lamp housing and power supply. Ad ...

The future generation of both military and commercial diesel engines will operate at significantly higher temperatures and pressures than today's engines. The future combat system diesel engine operating parameters demand significant design improvement of in cylinder insulation. Increased cylinder pressure and reduced cooling requirements, heat energy recovery in the exhaust gas by turbo chargin ...

A high-power density, low specific heat rejection diesel engine design for traditional and hybrid future combat system (FCS) vehicle configurations is being proposed. The total propulsion system of the vehicle hybrid configuration will fit the future vehicle assigned space/volume by TACOM's vehicle concept laboratory. The proposed engine will have a high-pressure common rail fuel injection syste ...

Changes in the state of polarization of scattered laser radiation can be utilized to discriminate among targets according to surface microstructures on the wavelength scale. Newly-developed rigorous electromagnetic coherence theory is applied to the inverse problem of laser discrimination of unresolved space and airborne targets based on the effects of surface correlations on the backscattered st ...

Aerodyn proposes to develop a new concept in slip ring design that would culminate in a new class of high speed slip rings that could operate up to 90,000 RPM with 50 contacts (25 channels), be capable of handling temperatures up to 700 °F without external cooling support, have a bandwidth of 200 KHz, weigh less than 2 lb, and be designed to directly support new developments in small turboshaft e ...

This work researchs the use of a novel, patented Moire fringe wavefront sensor for fast, high density wavefront correction in an adaptive optics system. Based around existing technology for lightweight, durable and inexpensive membrane deformable mirrors already under development at Intellite (in transition to AgilOptics in 2005), this innovative adaptive optical system with a fast optical comput ...

Imaging laser radar is evolving into an important tactical sensor, which may be fielded on UAVs. However, UAV systems range in size from micro systems, which have payload requirements of a few ounces to the mini UAVs with payload requirements of tens of pounds. This provides the designer of UAV based laser radars with considerable problems in selecting laser sources to fit in these vehicles. Th ...