Award Data

The objective of this proposed Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) effort is to develop an experimentally-validated, highly detailed chemical kinetic reference model of surface chemistry for C-SiC-SiO2 rubber composite materials exposed to high temperature, high pressure, oxidizing environments. This reference model will then be reduced into simplified reduced-order models that could be easi ...

different modes, while using different combinations of subsystems. This presents a challenge for the personnel validating the system during design and development; the number of combinations of environments, modes, and subsystems is exponential. They cannot all be tested, so an optimal subset of tests must be run. We propose to develop VERITAS: Validation and Evaluation of Remote, Interactive Tea ...

Aurora Flight Sciences and MIT have been developing tools and techniques that, together with existing 3D environment decision-making and navigation tools developed by AMRDEC in the PALACE program, are well-suited to the problem of autonomous vertical landing on unprepared landing sites. In this program, Aurora will team with MIT researchers and UC Santa Cruz (UCSC licenses PALACE technologies for ...

Aurora Flight Sciences and MIT propose to develop a model-based adaptive health estimation and real-time proactive control to identify gas turbine engine stability risks and avoid them through control action. In this concept, the engine control system actively monitors sensors and actuators, compares them against physical models, and infers which components may be performing poorly and may need to ...

The Barron Associates/Virginia Tech team believes that intelligent use of ambient riverine environmental factors together with novel drifter design and low-energy articulation is the key to enabling large non-overlapping river coverage. The proposed phase I research program focuses on (1) identifying key river characteristics which may be leveraged by riverine drifters, (2) fabricating a novel riv ...

We propose to develop scaling relationships for reaction violence in the cook-off of energetic materials such as explosives or propellants. This will be accomplished by a coordinated effort consisting of data review and analysis. The anticipated results include key non-dimensional parameters that incorporate the thermo-physical, flow, thermodynamic, and kinetic properties of the material, the heat ...

Busek Co. Inc (Busek) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) propose to develop the design of a photon actuated, ultrafast carbon nanotube (CNT) field emission cathodes for high-power electron beam accelerator sources. The cathode will be based on massive arrays of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nano-Fibers (VA-CNFs) that are individually controlled by a vertical ungated field effect transisto ...

The proposed Autonmous Reactive Ferrrying Drifter (ARF-D) provides wide measured swath, autonomously maintains a buffer distance from close-shore snags, and by utilizing river flow provides a very low power approach to obtaining cross-river surveying, providing greater coverage with minimal power penalty. By randomizing the cross-river transit paths multiple ARF-D units will naturally overcome the ...

The purpose of this STTR is to develop comprehensive detailed kinetics for oxidation of C-SiC-SiO2-rubber in extreme oxidizing environment. This material is used as a coating on the outer surface of Navy weapon systems. In order to predict the fate of this material under extreme conditions and mitigate the degradation of the coating, a comprehensive oxidation mechanism is required. In Phase I, CFD ...

Future naval operations are expected to make extensive use of unmanned vehicles to support a range of operations, including intelligence gathering, mine warfare, force protection, and anti-submarine warfare. Current unmanned systems are typically controlled remotely by an operator who directly manipulates a control interface for the vehicle. The effectiveness of this approach is obviously limited ...