Award Data

COAL IS AN ATTRACTIVE FUEL FOR RAILROAD LOCOMOTIVES BECAUSE OF ITS DOMESTIC ABUNDANCE AND LOW COST PER UNIT OF HEAT. ONE RESTRAINT IN COAL AS A LOCOMOTIVE FUEL IS ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION. CONSIDERING THESE CONFLICTING CONDITIONS OF ATTRACTIVENESS AND DIFFICULTY IN USING COAL AS A FUEL, IT BECOMES QUITE IMPORTANT HOW THE COAL IS HANDLED AND CONVERTED TO HEAT FOR LOCOMOTIVE POWER. A STUDY OF HEAT EN ...

A SIX MONTH PROGRAM IS PROPOSED TO DEVELOP RIGID SYNTOCTIC POLYIMIDE FOAM PANELS POSSESSING FLAME RESISTANCE, NO-SMOKE EMISSION AND LOW THERMAL CONDUCTANCE FOR REPLACING INTERIOR MATERIALS OF TRANSPORTATION VEHICLES NOW DESIGNATED AS POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS. AT LEAST FOUR CANDIDATE MATERIALS WILL BE PREPARED AND TESTED TO SELECT THE MOST PROMISING CANDIDATE FOR SCALE-UP IN A PHASE II PROGRAM.

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Mechanical damage (typically from third party excavations) is the most frequent source of leaks and ruptures in pipelines. The most common type of mechanical damage is dents, sometimes associated with secondary features such as gouges, external corrosion, or cracks. Currently used techniques for assessing dents are not accurate enough for reliable determination of fitness for service. In this p ...

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SOLAR ELECTRICAL GENERATION CELLS ARE SUBJECT TO RADIATION AND THERMAL BREAKDOWN FROM EXPOSURE. THE PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT STUDY IS TO IMPROVE THERMAL STABILITY OF ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT IN ENERGY-EFFICIENT STRUCTURES. OBJECTIVES ARE TO DESIGN, CONSTRUCT AND TEST AN INNOVATIVE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM FOR SOLAR COLLECTORS THAT WILL IMPROVE THE THERMAL STABILITY AND RADIATION DETERIORATION OF SUCH CELLS. A ...

A HEURISTIC SEARCH PROCEDURE IS PROPOSED FOR SOLVING THE MIXED-INTEGER LINEAR PROGRAM ASSOCIATED WITH DETERMINING OPTIMAL SIGNAL TIMING FOR ARTERIAL AND NETWORK SIGNAL SYSTEMS. THE PROPOSED SEARCH PROCEDURE SHOWS PROMISE OF REDUCING THE COMPUTATIONAL BURDEN ASSOCIATED WITH SOLUTION OF LARGE SCALE PROBLEMS CONTAINING MANY INTEGER VARIABLES WHILE STILL PROVIDING ACCEPTABLE SOLUTION PERFORMANCE. THE ...

The project develops a flexible (flex) route bus system, as an alternative to fixed route system plans, to enhance a transit rider’s experience by routing buses in real-time based on rider demand. The architecture leverages existing smart phone, wireless, Internet and GPS technologies but drives innovation through online routing algorithms based on recent theoretical work in optimization and mac ...

Distracted driving could have severe repercussions leading to loss of life, loss of property, and expensive lawsuits. While there can be many reasons for the driver to get distracted, research shows that the probability of accidents from texting/web-surfing while driving is an order of magnitude higher. Although federal law prohibits texting by operators of commercial vehicles and has strict penal ...

This project initially examines the theoretical basis by which low cost “automotive grade” (typically devices with L1 signal tracking only) GPS and GNSS devices can be made to perform with a very rapid start-up and acquisition times and still maintain a high level of sub meter kinematic accuracy when in the presence of various local correctional data such as RTCM. The resources of such a chip ...