Award Data

This project will develop a field portable nondestructive technique for in-situ monitoring of the health of ceramic armor. The Evisive Scan microwave interference scanning method has been successfully demonstrated in Phase I of the project, where it was demonstrated successfully on Control Specimens and ceramic armor Surrogates designed and fabricated by ARL, and on samples of armor from Stryker ...

The objective of this proposal is to develop a robust hand-held, data acquisition system for microwave inspection of non-metallic armor on ground vehicles. The system will em-ploy the patented Evisive Scan microwave interference testing method has been dem-onstrated in a portable, work station configuration on armor panels from the Stryker and ASV vehicles. The Evisive Scan method detects laminar ...

The objective of this proposal is to develop, demonstrate, and field a Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) for field units and depot to utilize in inspecting and/or repairing compo-site rotor blades. The NDI-ATE is to be field portable, provide results in near real time, with an automated assessment capability for field use and a detailed assessment capability for depo ...

Recent advances in technology have exposed enough computing power in easily available hardware that geometry synthesis algorithms that we were previously prohibitively compute-intensive are now a possibility. There is significant untapped potential in this area that has gone underutilized in existing simulation systems. Increasing the realism and accuracy of synthetic environments has become a pri ...

Aging and newer composite aircraft fleets have led to the need for advanced damage detection systems. Inspections for damage in the field are limited due to equipment capability, size/weight, automation challenges, human error and disassembly issues. A portable, lightweight, robust inspection system powered by an user-friendly, automated software system, with remote scanning capability, could imp ...

The goal of this proposal will be to demonstrate the viability of a micro tube heat exchanger in an HVAC application on board a Navy vessel. Specifically, a product design sequence will be completed, resulting in R-134a economizer that will provide volume and weight savings over existing technologies. The program will include tasks to test the strength and overall structural properties of the head ...

A major barrier to the widespread adoption of wireless sensors for structural health monitoring is the requirement to power the network of wireless nodes. Batteries have a limited lifespan, adding significant size, weight, and costs to the wireless sensor network,and may represent a long term environmental problem. Battery maintenance can be eliminated by harvesting energy from the environment. Fo ...

Structural monitoring of Navy aircraft is of critical importance as the fleet ages. One critical area includes the control surfaces, which are subject to intense, dynamic buffet loading which can lead to structural cracking. The highly transient nature of buffet loading makes it difficult to measure using conventional sensors. We propose to solve this problem by combining a network of time-synchro ...

Embedded usage tracking of helicopter rotating components, combined with active radio frequency identification (RFID) has the potential to reduce maintenance costs, reduce weight, maximize structural life, & enhance safety. Energy harvesting used with advanced, micro-power wireless sensing electronics, enables the realization of truly autonomous sensing and recording. The objective of this SBIR ...

Gear tooth surface fatigue (pitting) is common precursor failure mode that leads to excessive gear vibration, liberation of debris particles that damage ancillary components (e.g. bearings), and serves as crack initiation sites that lead to eventual catastrophic tooth failure. Current gearbox life estimation techniques commonly underplay the significance of gear tooth surface fatigue due to the co ...