Award Data

Finish machining of structural ceramics can produce residual stresses, and subsurface defects (SSD) acting as stress concentrators, in the near-surface material. Residual stresses and SSD produced by machining affect the mechanical properties of ceramic components. In this context, it is essential that the residual stresses be properly quantified in ceramics, in order to establish suitable machini ...

The program objective is to investigate the feasibility of using a very high frequency (VHF) [70 MHz] plasma technique to produce high efficiency a-SiGe:H solar cells at relatively high deposition rates. Using the VHF technique, high quality a-SiGe:H material is expected due to enhanced low energy ion bombardment of the growing film surface which has been found to be beneficial to the growth of th ...

As fire protection engineering moves towards the implementation of performance- based fire codes, the use of validated fire models is becoming a necessity. Part of the validation process involves demonstrating model capabilities for predicting key fire environment parameters. One of the key parameters for estimating time to ignition and fire growth is the heat transfer rate to compartment surfaces ...

Zeotrope refrigerant mixtures have been proposed and used for energy saving. Matching the temperature glide of the refrigerant to the temperature change of the heat sink and source, while simultaneously reducing the pressure difference seen by the compressor will result in significantly improved efficiency. A new cycle based on a mixture cascade combined with a rectifier column has recently been i ...

Commercial aviation offers a low cost platform from which to make extensive humidity measurements, provided the instrumentation can run autonomously and endure the rigorous flight schedules. Advances in state of the art diode laser gas sensing technology make possible compact, fully automated, self-calibrating instrumentation with the sensitivity needed to measure humidity levels throughout the tr ...

Arca proposes research leading to development of a suite of methodology support products to help meet the need for innovative assurance techniques appropriate for emerging information technologies. The product will consist of a licensable methodology and supporting materials for specifying, building, and evaluating assurance arguments for products and systems based on the capability of security en ...

SYSTRAN proposes to develop an innovative product to address the need for parallel routines and infrastructures for sorting and graph theoretic algorithms. Phase I proposal describes the development of a novel "portable, adaptive, parallel, sorting algorithm selector system." In Phase I we will examine the feasibility of designing this system and demonstrate its performance. In Phase II, we wil ...

ACS PROPOSES TO DEVELOP A REAL TIME NWWS PERFORMANCE MONITORING CAPABILITY UTILIZING A 386 PERSONAL COMPUTER, MICROSOFT WINDOWS, AND AN OFF-THE-SHELF SERIAL INTERFACE BOARD. THE ACS DEVELOPED WEATHER WIRE AUTOMATIC MONITORING SYSTEM (WWAMS) WILL PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING FEATURES: A. REAL TIME PERFORMANCE MONITORING, QUALITY CHECKING, REPORT GENERATION, AND USER INTERFACE; B. COLOR, MENU DRIVEN, USER- ...

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 ...

New work is in progress on a CORBA interface standard for online interactive communication with DMIS-based Coordinate Measurement Machines (CMMs). This work is being pursued for submission to CAM-I via a recently organized object technology working committee of the North American DMIS Users Group. We will explore how to build upon this work for integration with existing manufacturing frameworks, e ...