Award Data

ABSTRACT: The US Air Force (AF) is increasingly being required to conduct operations in complex environments with friendly forces or noncombatants in relatively close proximity to targets. Currently there is no single weapon which can offer a satisfactory range of lethal effects on the variety of targets within urban and asymmetric warfare scenarios. To minimize collateral damage the current mo ...

ABSTRACT: The primary objective of this research effort is to develop a next-generation time-gated ballistic imaging (BI) system for three-dimensional characterization of liquid breakup within dense fuel sprays. The temporal resolution will be varied using nonlinear time gating and pulse shaping techniques to optimize image contrast for a range of optical densities in sprays for propulsion appli ...

ABSTRACT: Structural monitoring of the landing gear of fixed and rotary wing aircraft is of critical importance to the Air Force. These structures are subjected to repeated large dynamic loads that are highly variable in nature. In order to track these structures"fatigue over time, the magnitude and direction of load events and the number of fatigue cycles must be recorded. Smart, embedded mult ...

ABSTRACT: A new knowledge-based approach is proposed to mitigate the corrosion of metallic surfaces. The approach is based on the rational design of molecular coating materials based on a new class of phthalocyanines. While these materials resemble fluorinated polymers in their capacity to prevent the intrusion of moisture associated waterborne ions and the diffusion of oxygen to the metallic ...

ABSTRACT: Cavitation which leads to head falloff and feed system instabilities are a constant source of problems for the low net positive suction head (NPSH) pumps that are needed for advanced liquid rocket engines. Head falloff limits the pumps capability to deliver propellant at the required pressure and cavitation induced instabilities are a significant source of structural failures in rocket ...

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IN THIS PROJECT, THE FEASIBILITY OF COMBINING SONIC DRILLING AND CONE PENETRATION TECHNOLOGIES WILL BE EVALUATED AND A SET OF PRELIMINARY DESIGN DRAWINGS DEVELOPED. SONIC DRILLING TECHNOLOGY HAS RECENTLY BEEN DEMONSTRATED AT THE HANFORD SITE, WA. THE RESULTS OF THE DEMONSTRATION PROVED THAT SMALL DIAMETER MONITORING WELLS COULD BE INSTALLED TO THE DESIRED DEPTH IN A RAPID MANNER USING THIS TECHN ...

Epitaxial growth of the aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) material system by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) has been hindered by the lack of a suitable nitrogen source. The deposition of AlGaN at typical MBE growth temperatures results in nitrogen deficient films that suffer from low growth rates and high n-type background carrier concentrations. This problem has recently been addressed in MBE by inc ...

The design, fabrication, and testing of a pump rig supported by a magnetic bearing system is described. This rig will boost pump technology by: (1) permitting accurate determination of impeller force and moment coefficients by electromagnetic impulse excitation, orbit control, and bearing force and displacement measurement during operation, and (2) use of control theory to suppress cavitation-surg ...

Silicon carbide (SiC) is the ideal semiconductor for fabrication of solid state devices for power conditioning for the all-electric airplane, turbine engine actuators, and space-based power systems. These applications require switches and amplifiers capable of large currents with relatively low voltage drops. The potential for improved performance is indicated by SiC's material characteristics. Fo ...