Award Data

Although technologies derived under the Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology (IHPTET) initiative should result in higher performance of gas turbine engines, the durability of engine components continues to be one of the most important design issues which impacts their affordability and robustness. It is currently very difficult to measure or predict the fatigue life of engine com ...

Space structures and high-speed interceptor technology can be significantly enhanced if lighter weight composite structural materials that possess inherently high-strength damage-resistant properties can be developed on a cost-effective basis. A novel laminated sandwich composite concept is proposed that has the potential to significantly improve upon stiffened composites in use today. Current sti ...

This Phase I effort is to synthesize and develop material processing systems that possess the mechanical properties, and processing characteristic for use in flexible electronic and photonic devices. We will demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating in this effort to optimize the modulator/switch and investigate ways to render it manufacturable and multichip module packagable. This would include ...

The stress analysis and fatigue life prediction of the bonded repaired damaged zone of the aircraft structure is a challenging problem for designers. The lack of accurate life prediction methodologies limit the utilization of composite materials to repair the damaged structure. It is proposed to develop analytically and experimentally validated computer program modules for stress analysis and fa ...

We propose high-performance heat sinks based on MEMS technology for cooling of advanced electronics. Our approach combines innovative designs, new microfabrication techniques, and high conductance materials resulting in extremely low thermal resistance and high heat load capacities in a compact and cost effective design, By using MEMS batch fabrication, the heat sinks can be made inexpensively, ...

Continuous attenuation of ambient light without image distortion is of great importance in helmet mounted displays. To accomplish this, we propose a device based on liquid crystal-dichroic dye mixture. The system is electrically controllable, light weight, with full grey scale capability for all light conditions. It addresses all of the requirements and restrictions of visor based helmet mounte ...

One current automatic target recognition (ATR) approach utilizes synthetic radar data. The success of this approach is highly dependent upon the quality of this synthetic data. It is known that the radar scattering from jet aircraft can have a significant engine contribution. Current numerical techniques to predict the jet engine scattering do not yet provide the desired accuracy. As an altern ...

Low cost, high performance carbon fiber anodes to enable a new generation of high-power lithium-ion batteries is proposed. A vapor grown carbon fiber, called Pyrograf-IIITM carbon fiber, with size and morphology which can be varied over a wide range will be optimized for anode utilization. The relationship between the carbon fiber structural parameters and its electrochemical performance is addr ...

Austral Engineering and Software, Inc. proposes to develop a computer platform for simulation-and-optimization-based design of multiple-stage manufacturing processes. Phase I will use metal forming processes to demonstrate feasibility of embedding analytical models of basic transport phenomena into design models that include geometric, microstructure, and processing features. Each stage of a me ...

Simulation of thin film growth is an essential aspect of developing new materials engineered to specific properties and defining the processing sequence required to produce the film. Software available to simulate such growth requires high end computer performance, and the programs are designed for use by experts in thin film growth who are interested in studying the mechanisms of nucleation and ...