Award Data

Realistic surgical simulation requires a combination of representative tissue geometry, accurate tissue material properties and lifelike tool-tissue interaction forces. Recent advances in computational power and imaging modalities have provided the capability to represent the anatomical details required for surgical training; however, the mathematical models which govern the underlying tissue pro ...

The rapid advancement of microelectronics requires equivalently sized energy storage devices to provide energy for microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices and other technologies. By using a novel approach to fabricate carbon nanotubes (CNTs), our electrodes have a high surface area with an aerial tube density up to 1,000 times greater than typical carpet-grown CNTs. By combining these electro ...

The Phase-II research is a natural extension and a significant advancement over the Phase-I research, which has successfully demonstrated high-speed, burst-mode, polarization-based, dual-plane, stereoscopic PIV measurements synchronized with OH-PLIF imaging of turbulent swirling combustion in a generic gas-turbine combustor with and without acoustic forcing. We propose to conduct high-speed, burst ...

The objective of the proposed Phase II effort is to establish fundamental understanding of combustion-physical mechanisms leading to blowout, the critical evaluation of model limitations in predicting these blowout processes and the development of an improved combustion model to enable the prediction of lean blowout (LBO) in swirl-stabilized combustors. For this, high-resolution numerical simulati ...

A market study of cybersecurity of the Internet of Things (IoT) in Phase I of this effort shows that the rapidly escalating weaponization of IoT devices will continue to be a problem for complex technical, economic, and political reasons. The IoT phenomenon has yielded a vulnerability with asymmetric cost-benefit in favor of the adversary, and this in turn has created the potential for strategic s ...

The objectives of this research effort are to experimentally derive the scaling laws up to 30 bar for key combustion species and temperature for reactions involving various hydrocarbon fuels in such a way so that the spatio-temporally resolved measurements would not be influenced by signal-degrading processes such as quenching, photolytic interference, Stark shift, and stimulated Raman. This build ...

This proposal addresses the need for development of room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) for use in electrolytes for reversibly electroplating films with specific optical, emissive and electrical properties on demand. Target applications for these electrolytes are devices using reversible electroplating for tuning/regenerating functional surfaces, such as mirrors or thermal emitters, deployed on ...

Nalas Engineering and Johns Hopkins University collaborated in a Phase I STTR program to study reactive mixtures of HI3O8 and nanocomposite fuels previously developed by the Weihs Group. These fuel/oxidizer mixtures are uniquely able to simultaneously produce heat and biocidal iodine gas, a combination designed to destroy biological weapons. The team at Nalas focused on evaluating conditions for p ...

Designing an efficient and effective film cooling system to protect critical components of modern rocket engines requires a significant number of problems and challenges to be addressed. Complicating the already difficult hydrodynamic challenges, thermal and/or catalytic cracking of hydrocarbon fuels is always accompanied with coke formation. Coke deposits on combustor and nozzle walls reduce heat ...

In this Phase II program, Voxtel will design, manufacture, and benchmark-test additive-manufactured (AM) insulators capable of electrical stress greater than 25 kV/mm, for use in high-electric-field applications, such as high-power microwave (HPM) devices. These insulators will sustain vacuum of 10-7 Torr and withstand 20 psi of pressure. To achieve this goal, Voxtel will synthesize readily additi ...