Award Data

The Navy is actively developing a self-sealing, water-activated fuel bladder to mitigate fuel leaks upon mechanical shock (e.g. penetration by a .50 caliber bullet). To circumvent the requirement of an external water source to activate the self-sealing, this system will require water-filled microcapsules that can be incorporated directly into the polymeric matrix of the fuel bladder. Upon mechanic ...

The objective of this proposal is to demonstrate the feasibility of producing an automated delayering and imaging system with end point detection, material density detection with built in neural network error correction. This process, coined fast Automated Delayering-Image Capture System (ADICS) leverages off of the existing Pix2Net which is a proven automated imaging 3D microchip reconstruction ...

Autoclaves are typically used to fabricate high-quality composite components with acceptable thermal properties and low void volume. They provide elevated temperature processing cycles and external pressure required for adequate compaction to achieve these desired properties. However, autoclaves represent large capital and energy investment while limiting the size of fabricated parts and productio ...

Waste heat from Naval diesel generators provides significant opportunity to introduce organic Rankine cycles (ORC) to increase their fuel efficiency. The objective of the proposed effort is to design and demonstrate a high-speed, spinning scroll expander (HiSSSE) ORC as a power dense waste heat recovery system for diesel generators on ships. The system will leverage Air Squared’s spinning scroll ...

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) provide strategic advantage for our nation’s warfighters, and the use of micro- and small-scale platforms on the battlefield is expected to increase significantly in coming years. This presents a logistical challenge in managing how system batteries are recharged throughout the UAS lifespan. The desired goal is to develop power systems that enable persistent deploym ...

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are becoming increasingly critical components in advanced electronic systems. However, limited research has been applied to identifying critical vulnerabilities that could be present in the designs deployed on these FPGAs. The risk is further increased by the use of 3rd party intellectual property in many designs.GrammaTech is proposing to develop a Trust ver ...

The Navy has been developing superconducting systems, based on high-temperature superconductors (HTS), for future use on Navy ships. One of the challenges associated with superconducting magnets is the possibility of a quench, which is an event where a local hot spot develops within the superconductor that quickly spreads throughout the device, driving it into its normal and dissipative state. Sen ...

Vescent Photonics and MIT Lincoln Labs (MIT-LL) propose to develop a quantum-based vector magnetometer with low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP+C) for Navy applications. The proposed system will rely on probing magnetically-sensitive, atomic-like transitions of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond to provide stable, high-bandwidth readout of the vector magnetic field with sub-picotesla sen ...

Improved magnetic anomaly detection can counter threats from quieter submarines and mines. This Phase I STTR project will address this goal using improved atomic magnetometry methods based on pumping alignment coherence in rubidium vapor. A means of changing the polarization of the pump light will ensure that atomic coherence can be pumped in any orientation of the magnetic field. Multiple probe b ...

Large aerospace composite structures currently require autoclaves and ovens to achieve desired performance which are expensive to purchase, costly to operate, and often limit part size and production rate. Ovens and autoclaves rely on convective heating which is inefficient, consumes large amounts of energy, and can be difficult to predict. Alternative cure processes using external heaters or hot ...