Award Data

Heat exchangers are widely used in refrigeration, air conditioning, automotive, aerospace, and other advanced energy systems (such as fuel systems). Fouling of heat exchangers is a serious and longstanding problem that can result in decreased heat transfer efficiency, higher resistance to fluid flow, increased energy consumption, decreased heat exchanger lifetime, and increased downtime necessary ...

Heat exchangers are widely used in power generation, chemical production, petrochemical refining, air conditioning, automotive, aerospace, and many emerging industries including hybrid vehicles, fuel cell systems, thermal solar, and biomass processing plants. Fouling of heat exchangers is a serious and longstanding problem causing significant energy losses (0.25% of Gross National Product), premat ...

In this proposed SBIR Phase I project, we will develop a proto

There are a number of noise sources on a typical wind turbine, including tower-blade interaction, gust-induced noise, trailing edge noise, and power train noise. Significant improvements in noise reduction and/or noise isolation have been made to many of the mechanical and tonal noise sources, but the turbulence-associated noise sources (gust-induced and trailing edge) remain difficult to control. ...

In combination with advanced sample environments, the emerging generation of high flux neutron sources such as SNS provide an opportunity to revolutionize advanced materials research. Processing and solidifying liquids is a critical value adding step in manufacturing semiconductors, optical materials, metals and in the operation of many energy conversion and medical devices. Research on advanced m ...

The cost of electricity generated by concentrator photovoltaic systems is strongly dependent on the efficiency of the solar cells in the solar concentrator system. The efficiency of these solar cells is limited by the fact that the electrical contacts used to collect current from the solar cell are on top of the cell and partially shadow it. The top-surface electrodes prevent as much as 10% of t ...

Spallation neutron source user facilities require reliable, intense beams of protons. The technique of H- charge exchange injection into a storage ring or synchrotron has the potential to provide the needed beam currents. However, the facility operation is limited by the performance of H- ion sources with currents, brightness, reliability and availability that could still be improved. In this pro ...

Typically, high power sources for accelerator applications are many megawatt microwave tubes that may be combined together to form ultra high-power localized power stations. The RF power is then distributed to multiple strings of cavities through high power waveguide systems, which are expensive to produce and to operate, because of reduced efficiency and lower reliability. Magnetrons are the lo ...

A superconducting RF (SRF) power coupler capable of handling 500 kW CW RF power at 750 MHz is required for present and future storage rings and linacs. There are over 35 coupler designs for SRF cavities ranging in frequency from 325 to 1500 MHz. Coupler windows vary from cylinders to cones to disks and RF power couplers will always be limited by the ability of ceramic windows and their matching ...

Muon beam ionization cooling is a key element in the design of next-generation low-emittance and high-luminosity muon colliders. New approaches in that cooling could greatly improve the performance and capabilities of these colliders. To obtain low-emittance muon beams, a new concept is being developed that combines ionization cooling in a Helical Cooling Channel (HCC) with parametric resonances. ...