Award Data

The United States has a vast network of pipelines used for fuel transport. This infrastructure, installed in 1950–1970, is one of the largest in the world. Yet poor/missing records of the materials used, combined with the overall age and associated environmental degradation effects, often results in unsafe operation. Current non-destructive inspection techniques are only capable of detecting mat ...

Future space missions will utilize small spacecraft with advanced sensor systems. Cooling of these sensors is required to decrease noise and increase sensitivity by maintaining the detector at a reduced operating temperature. The cooling system comprises a mechanical cryocooler and its control electronics, both of which are critical technologies to enable future missions. Creare proposes to develo ...

Diode-Pumped Alkali Laser (DPAL) systems have great potential for missile defense and other applications. These systems require a uniform, steady, flowing mixture of helium and rubidium vapor at elevated pressure and temperature. Significant challenges exist because rubidium is a very reactive material. Our team has developed a contamination-free, hermetic circulator based on gas-bearing turbomach ...

The detection of radionuclide aerosols is a critical indicator of a nuclear detonation. Existing sensors as part of the International Monitoring System operate in a batch process and typically have a 48 to 72 hour delay between aerosol sample collection and measurement activities due to limits of instrument sensitivity. The continuous, instantaneous measurements of atmospheric aerosol radiation le ...

To meet MDA’s need for cost effective dynamic material evaluation techniques, Mentis Sciences Inc. proposes to modify a Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) apparatus to achieve and gather dynamic material response data at strain rates above 107s-1 and at temperatures up to and exceeding 1000°C to provide data for first-principles hydro-codes modeling in a laboratory environment. The focus in Ph ...

There is an ever-growing need for increased battery performance in weight-sensitive and volume-constrained applications. Also needed is the ability to develop batteries with non-standard form factors to accommodate tight size constraints. Erigo and our collaborators at EaglePicher Technologies propose to develop a thermal battery by leveraging advances in cathode formulations, fabrication techniqu ...

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 fraction, size, and spacing of these voids are critical. It is importa ...

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. Unfortunately, current inspection technology does not allow these inspection ...

Use of motorcycles helmets significantly reduces the risk of fatality or serious brain injury to riders in the event of a crash, but riders often do not wear helmets in warm weather because of thermal discomfort. We propose to develop an innovative ventilation and cooling system that will maintain a cool, dry environment inside the helmet while also meeting applicable safety standards. The key the ...

QmagiQ, LLC proposes to partner with The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. to experimentally study radiation effects on antimony-based strained layer superlattice (SLS) photodiodes that have shown remarkable performance improvements in recent years. QmagiQ's SLS infrared focal plane arrays (FPAs) are already designed to be radiation-hard to some degree. In Phase I, we will measure how rad-ha ...