Award Data

There is a need to find more efficient methods for producing high-density, liquid, tactical fuels for use in missile propulsion or as components to improve key performance characteristics of currently available jet and diesel fuels. Generation of such fuels from renewable sources such as waste cellulose, grasses, waste agricultural material and forestry products will provide important national sec ...

This technology development program addresses the market and strategic need for renewable high density fuels for missile propulsion or as additives to increase performance of jet propulsion fuels. beta-Pinene, a natural plant derived organic compound, is the proposed high density fuel precursor. In the Phase 1 project, we will demonstrate the feasibility of this approach by: 1) engineering a strai ...

This Phase I effort will demonstrate a thin, conformal solar module(1 cm x 1 cm) composed of either GaAs or Si micro-cells packaged in an elastomeric film. This module will utilize unique mechanical designs, including non-planar interconnects, and thin micro-cells (10% efficiency and>10% stretchability while providing output of>25V. This effort will provide a pl ...

The overall goal at the end of this multi-phase program is to develop an energy harvester composed of rectenna arrays that are connected in parallel that harness significant amounts of infrared electromagnetic energy. The ultimate systems will be capable of harvesting watts, kilowatts of energy using these structures fabricated in parallel on a large scale, or for smaller scale application specifi ...

A zinc-water battery system for use in underwater environments is proposed, with an expected energy density significantly higher than lithium-ion batteries and slightly less than zinc-air batteries. The research proposed utilizes a concentrated electrolyte, which when combined with an outside water supply on a catalytic electrode surface acts as cathode of the zinc-water cell. The technology is lo ...

Electric motors and generators have a long history of development, from the first halting steps to the intensive development in the 20th and 21st century. Consequently, motors and generators have become mature technologies that only see incremental improvements in performance. To achieve more than just incremental improvements in such parameters as power density and efficiency, a radical departure ...

Rotors and their associated dynamic components operate in high-cycle and environmentally harsh conditions. Accurate rotor load predictions are crucial part of rotor analysis and design. Lag damping poses a challenge for rotor load analysis due to the difficulty of incorporating lag damper effects into comprehensive rotor analysis. The key challenge in effectively predicting the lead-lag motions an ...

Helicopters with articulated rotor blades are subject to the well-known ground resonance where the rotor lag mode interacts, in an unstable fashion, with fuselage roll. To eliminate this ground resonance, both lag dampers and fuselage roll dampers are required. The Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter platform, which comprises the vast majority of utility rotorcraft used by the US Army and the Navy, relies u ...

EOS Photonics proposes to develop, together with MIT- Lincoln Laboratories, the next generation of high power quantum cascade laser (QCL) source with output power exceeding 15 Watts at a wavelength of 4.6 microns. The proposed subsystem will include a DFB QCL array integrated monolithically with power amplifiers, low-loss passive waveguides and optical elements aimed at realizing on-chip wavelengt ...

Maxion will develop a monolithic, beam combined array of phase-locked, buried heterostructure (BH) quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). The laser array will be designed to emit a low divergence optical beam in a direction normal to the array surface at a wavelength centered at 4.6 microns. The monolithic laser"s cw output power will exceed 15 Watts. Each ridge waveguide in the array of will contain a se ...