Award Data

The ability to efficiently process intelligence data is critical to fighting the global war on terror. A major source of this data is recorded speech. Therefore, the performance of speech processing applications (speech recognition and speaker identification applications, for example) depends on pre-processing to find the regions in the recording where speech is present. Although current method ...

The Ablation process is a liquid to solid phase conversion process that has cooling rates exceeding 400F per second coupled with steep thermal gradients approaching 900F over a .500" span. Preliminary work casting Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites (359, 30% SiCp) using this technology demonstrated better SiC particle distribution than shown in other casting processes. Preliminary data suggest high ...

The integrity of rubber-to-metal bonds is an area of reliability concern, particularly in systems that are exposed to the harsh conditions of the marine environment. Accelerated life testing (ALT) is a technique used to obtain reliability data in a compressed time frame, allowing lifetime performance predictions and failure mode analyses to be made prior to equipment installation. By performing ac ...

Current surveillance systems often use mounted cameras to capture video imagery and a range of sophisticated sensors and stand-alone security devices. These current surveillance systems are often point solutions based on a centralized architecture for surveillance applications. Point solution systems use a single control agent to coordinate the actions of the independent sensors. The manpower need ...

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PHASE I EFFORT IS TO DEFINE REQUIREMENTS, PERFORM TRADE STUDIES AND DEVELOP CONCEPT DESIGNS FOR A FIRE FIGHTER BACKPACK THAT PROVIDES BREATHING AND COOLING, TO MEET THE SPECIFIC NEEDS OF THE USAF. SEVERAL SPECIFIC APPROACHES, INCLUDING ONES BASED ON PROVEN CRYOGENIC BREATHING SUIT COOLING TECHNOLOGY WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE USAF REQUIREMENTS DEVELOPED IN PHASE I. TRADE STU ...

Spytek Aerospace will soon become a low cost supplier of small high performance gas turbines for expendable UAV military operations, university research centers and hobbyists. During Phase I Spytek Aerospace analytically examined and experimentally assessed two `swirl-maintained' diffuserless high g combustor designs in our ATG-2 combustion rig and engine. Both Phase I concepts feature ultra-low ...

To meet DoD combat requirements emerging in the next 10 to 15 years, “new multifunctional fiber materials and associated composite systems and processing techniques must be developed, and this development must start now.” In making their projections for this technology, DoD expects that “one must separate incremental gains made using current technology from major leaps arising from new non ...

Friction Stir Processing (FSP) has been demonstrated to generate refined microstructures, resulting in improved material properties. This has several areas of application. First, FSP can enhance the formability of the particular alloy of interest. This is especially important for the superplastic forming process, where the use of FSP can be used to create superplastic behavior at high strain r ...

The goal of this project is to reduce the cooling requirements of MWIR HgCdTe infrared photon detectors and improve detector performance at present-day cryogenic operating temperatures. During Phase I, we designed innovative Pn-N detectors and established the feasibility of growing the required HgCdTe-based structures by molecular beam epitaxy. Using this approach in a collaborative effort with th ...

Alkaline fuel cell (AFC)-based power systems offer advantages over proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Superior electrochemical reaction thermodynamics for both oxygen reduction and fuel oxidation under alkaline environments make alkaline fuel cell technology a better candidate for sensors, portable and dismounted soldier applications. In addition, AFCs can utilize low-cost, non-preciou ...