Award Data

When many Lithium-ion battery cells are integrated into a large pack, the possible outcomes resulting from individual cell faults are complex and difficult to predict. Consequently, there is great interest in developing design tools to aid in the optimization of pack performance as well as to understand and mitigate the effects of individual cell failures from propagating to other cells or even th ...

Generator and motor systems with high power density are needed as watercraft, aircraft, and land vehicles evolve toward more electric designs. In response, we propose to develop a system that operates at extremely high speed to provide ultra-high power density. The resulting system will be compact, lightweight, efficient, robust, and reliable. Our team is ideal for this project because we have foc ...

The XS-Air engine should provide the highest power density with both diesel and gasoline piston engines, especially in smaller engines in where turbos or blowers are impractical. The XS-Air engine can solve the aviation industry problem of the potential phasing out Av-gas. The spark ignition XS-Air engine should be able to burn pump gas and still generate extreme power densities, due to its two st ...

Northwest UAV Propulsion Systems proposes using our purpose built heavy fuel engine designed and built in the USA for small unmanned aerial systems in the tier 2 & 3 class. We will be adding a lightweight ceramic material set combined with FEA (Finite Element Analysis) and heavy fuel atomizer (IRAD Project) to create a lightweight engine for a SUAS or STUAS class UAVs. The Ceramic material set is ...

In this STTR program, QuesTek Innovations LLC, a leader in the field of computational materials design, proposes to expand its computational Materials by Design technology by developing a thermodynamics-based design toolkit that enables the subsequent design and development of novel calcium-magnesium-alumino-silicate (CMAS)-resistant, high performance thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) for aeroengine ...

This STTR project proposed by CU Aerospace (CUA) and research partner the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will provide innovative thermal management systems-level analysis tools to the Navy, enabling detailed investigations of air platform thermal management issues associated with electronics loads (e.g., avionics/radar upgrades for military aircraft). The Phase I effort focuses ...

There are many efforts underway to develop distributed shipboard health monitoring sensors. These devices face strong opposition by fleet maintainers unless the requirements for power supply cabling and/or battery maintenance are eliminated. Consequently, methods for harvesting energy from local environmental conditions using heat, solar, and vibration are of great interest. As opposed to piezoele ...

Silicon (Si) based ceramic matrix composites (CMC) are one of the leading candidates for structural components in next generation gas turbine engines. There are several driving forces behind the introduction of ceramics in the hot-structure zone in jet engines including (i) the demand for higher operating temperatures, (ii) reduction in CO emissions, and (iii) significant weight savings. A key per ...

The presence of noise in piping systems often serves as an early warning of mechanical problems such as faulty or cavitating pumps and valves, or boiling in cooling lines. Additionally, in many Naval environments, especially submarines, minimizing noise radiated from vibrating pipes is highly desirable. The ability to quantify the sound pressure level in fluid-filled pipes with an external sensor ...

This research work aims to demonstrate the feasibility of applying a novel Acoustography technique for the semi-quantitative evaluation of bond shear strength and assessment of adhesive bond quality in airframe sandwich structures. The proposed approach will utilize thermal and mechanical excitation methods to separate the weak/kissing bonds in the adhesively bonded test coupons. Finite element an ...