Award Data

The Navy intends to start using a significant quantity of composite structures in surface ship construction in an effort to decrease costs as well as to reduce the visibility of the ships to radar. The large size of the target structures necessitates the use of low temperature, non-autoclave processing techniques such as Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM). In the recent past, most m ...

This effort joins the MEMS-based deformable mirror technology available from AgilOptics, a New Mexico small business, with the aero-optics technology of the University of Notre Dame to develop an Aero-optics Simulator. This simulator will develop a library of aero-optics patterns to simulate atmospheric distortions for test and evaluation of military or commercial beam control systems.

Off-board vehicles deployed in littoral environments are subjected to severe operational loads, including wave slamming, high-speed collision with debris, and underwater explosions. They additionally serve as sensor platforms, and would benefit from reduced self- and radiated noise for towed array performance and mine defense. Consequently, we propose to exploit the flexibility of design offered ...

The leading edge of the V-22 rotor blade is made of titanium and nickel abrasion strips bonded to the composite substrate. Although effective for rain erosion protection, nickel and titanium show poor sand erosion resistance. In addition, this metal and composite hybrid configuration limits working strain and fatigue life. This hybrid concept also hampers field serviceability and increases the ...

Successful advanced Naval ship design must be based on integrating multiple cross-functional systems. Future Naval systems will require innovation and a systematic integration in order to achieve increasingly demanding mission profiles in a cost effective manner. Since a large amount of the design cost (up to 80%) is locked during the conceptual phase, it is important to include both the traditi ...

An innovative, high-speed electromagnetic-wave-detection system based on broadband, non-intrusive, miniaturized electro-optic (EO), magneto-optic (MO), and electro-optic voltage (EOV) sensors will be developed for evaluating the effects that pulsed electromagnetic (EM) waves have on specific components of electronic systems. The suite of optically-interrogated sensors, which may be positioned with ...

Previous studies have shown that superhydrophobic surfaces have skin-friction drag reducing properties in the laminar flow region, but not in the turbulent flow region. The drag reducing properties of superhydrophobic surfaces are recognized to result from air voids trapped in the surface, and the apparent lack of effectiveness in the turbulent flow region could result from: (1) lack of robust air ...

We propose to prove the feasibility of using time domain terahertz (THz) non destructive evaluation (NDE) to inspect turbine blade thermal barrier coatings (TBC). High speed, non contact THz inspection will be useful both during the manufacturing process, during maintaince, and during recoating. Low thermal conductivity ceramic coatings that are deposited on Ni-alloy turbine-engine blades to pr ...

This proposal is a joint effort between Qualtech Systems, Incorporated (QSI), the Institute for Software Integrated Systems at Vanderbilt University (VU), and Hamilton Sundstrand (HS) in Rockford, IL. QSI and VU have the combined knowledge and experience in successful development of a novel solution to aircraft system and subsystem prognostics and maintenance tools and have developed state-of-the- ...

The objective of this project is to develop an integrated condition monitoring, fault diagnostics and prognostics scheme for power electronic converters and electromechanical devices, e.g., advanced induction motors, specifically targeting the DD(X) platform and subsequently expanding the scope for addressing the needs of other defense-related and commercial applications. An additional goal of th ...