Award Data

UV diode detector arrays have a wide range of both commercial and military applications. Examples include spectral measurement and calibration, pollution monitoring, environmental change monitoring, remote sensing of earth resources, solar UV monitoring, burner monitoring in gas turbines, flame detection in furnaces and for fire detections, etc. SiC is one of the most promising material for UV di ...

ALTHOUGH MANY POTENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES EXIST FOR DEPOSITING EXOTIC THIN FILM DEVICES, CONTROLLING THE MATERIAL PROPERTIES HAS BEEN A MAJOR STUBLING BLOCK TO ACHIEVING SUCCESSFUL AND REPRODUCIBLE DEVICE PROPERTIES. IN THE CASE OF PULSED LASER DEPOSITION (PLD) OF HIGH TC SUPERCONDUCTOR FILMS, THE EMISSION OF THE PLASMA CAN BE CORRELATED WITH THE QUALITY OF FILMS DEPOSITED. BUT THIS MEASUREMENT PROVIDE ...

FIRES KILL NEARLY 10,000 PEOPLE EACH YEAR IN THE U.S. AND CAUSE NEARLY 300,000 INJURIES AND OVER 6 BILLION DOLLARS IN PROPERTY DAMAGE. THE PER CAPITA LOSS OF LIFE DUE TO FIRES IN THE U.S. IS HIGHER THAN FOR ANY OTHER INDUSTRIAL COUNTRY. CONSEQUENTLY, THERE IS A GREAT NEED FOR ADDITIONAL RESEARCH ON FIRES AND FIRE SAFETY. IT HAS LONG BEEN RECOGNIZED THAT MULTIPARAMETER DETECTORS WHICH CAN MEASURE, ...

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Development of an optical water level sensor is proposed to solve some of the problems and limitations of current sounding tube/protective well acoustic sensors. By using light instead of sound, temperature gradient effects on the measurement are obviated. Furthermore, the proposed system eliminates the need for a sounding tube, protective well and associated temperature sensors, and does not requ ...

THE U.S. WEATHER SERVICE PRESENTLY USES A "TIPPING BUCKET" RAIN GAUGE FOR MEASURING RAIN ACCUMULATION. THIS DEVICE IS SENSITIVE TO WIND AND MOTION (AS ON BUOYS), CANNOT MEASURE RAIN RATE, AND REQUIRES FREQUENT MAINTENANCE, BECAUSE OF MOVING PARTS. AN ALTERNATIVE DEVICE IS BEING PROPOSED, WHICH INCORPORATES A RIGID, RESONANT TUBE, CLOSED AT THE TOP BY AN ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCER, AND AT THE BOTT ...

The near-field scanning optical microscope can supply information on the shape and electrical properties of surfaces with nanometer resolution. The quantitative interpretation of images is difficult because of the difficulty of electromagnetic field solutions in the near-field limit. We propose to supply software to aid in this analysis. The finite-element programs generate two and three-dimension ...

The purpose of the VMIS is to allow manufacturers the luxury of testing and perfecting manufacturing plans long before a single machine tool is turned on and resources are committed. The VMIS will allow the user to select an available machine tool and an available inspection device, specify a proposed inspection plan and a dimensional analysis procedure, and then build and inspect hundreds (or ev ...

The coming information superhighway sets the stage for how we will work and play in the next millennium; building upon the Internet along with powerful new Internet tools such as the World Wide Web. By every measure, the Internet and the Web are experiencing exponential growth. The amount and variety of data on the Net makes it increasingly difficult to find specific information of interest - fo ...

A growing number of fire fighters are suffering third degree burns; this has led to questions about the adequacy of thermal protective performance (TPP) measurements for protective clothing. A new heat flux sensor, whose response approximates that of skin, will be developed to provide better measurements of heat transfer in TPP tests. This sensor will be used with nonlinear parameter estimation an ...