Award Data

As the unmanned exploration of Mars and Venus becomes more of a focus area at NASA, inflatable, rigidizable wings will become an enabling technology. The successful development of this type of wing will also have significant military applications in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Rigidization of inflatable wings provides several potential advantages, including reducing the vulnerability to punct ...

75352-Many DOE sites require the monitoring of radionuclide contamination in surface water, groundwater, soils, and the vadose zone ¿ often in real-time and with remote monitoring capability. However, existing site characterization procedures typically involve the collection and shipment of samples to an off-site laboratory, leading to costly delays in site remediation as well as to increased ri ...

Light (UV and visible) curing composite matrix resins are being explored as an attractive means for rigidizing inflatable spacecraft for large space-deployed structures such as solar sails, radar and communications antennas, radiometers, and solar arrays. Light curing provides a controlled, clean, low power rigidization technology to harden these inflatable spacecraft once they have achieved the ...

The interface is often a limiting factor in determining the durability of composite materials used in harsh environments. Attaining a well-bonded interface is particularly difficult with low-temperature curing matrix resin systems. A need exists for a carbon fiber adhesion promoting finish that is compatible with vinyl ester chemistry. Prior work using reactive coupling agent chemistries modifi ...

The reduction of the weight of individual equipment components is one of the main objectives in the Army's quest for a lighter, more mobile force. Special attention is required for non-structural components, because the potential for weight reduction without compromising battle field survivability is greatest in this area. Optical components are usually made from glass, which has a high density ...

Asbestos insulation material has been used in shipboard environments for many years. While the material is usually safe when left undisturbed, it becomes a major health hazard during removal. The fine, needle like crystals that can be released into the air during handling are inhaled into the deep parts of the lung where they are known to cause cancer. Current removal procedures require a compl ...

New high temperature sizings are needed that are compatible with resin infusion processes to improve the properties and durability of carbon/polyimide composites. Compatibility with resin infusion processes includes compatibility with weaving and braiding operations and improved wetting with the infusing polyimide resin. Achieving these characteristics will result in reducing life cycle costs. ...

This work will extend and revise the design of the Computational Electromagnetic Framework to provide graphical user interface and pre- and post-processing capabilities to a variety of computational electromagnetic (CEM) software products for accurate and rapid design and prototyping for a variety of practical real-world DoD electromagnetic problems. Five Framework components are proposed: a mode ...

A method of determining electromagnetic susceptibility thresholds for chaotic and non-chaotic field environments is proposed. Field sets and coupled current sets are decomposed into non-chaotic and chaotic components via projection onto deterministic models of the coupled structures. Rather than assume field distributions a priori, ensembles of field data are generated from which statistical pro ...

The SAE Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) 1179C is the regulatory method for determining the exhaust Smoke Number from jet engines. This methodology is slow and cumbersome and requires handling and analyzing paper filters which have been exposed to the jet engine exhaust effluent which has been transported via a sampling rake and heated sample lines. In Phase I, Advanced Fuel Research, Inc. suc ...