Award Data

There is need for fast, easy-to-operate, and low-risk methods for mapping geography, velocity, and bathymetry of rivers. River charts can be nonexistent or inadequate because of changes in water volume, tides, sediment transport, flooding, and other events. This is a hindrance and a hazard for navigation and other operations. Currently, procedures to map rivers involve navigating surface vessels i ...

The main objective of the Phase II work is to enhance the FORECAST algorithms developed in Phase I, extend them to 3D in the case of multi-rate sensors and significant wind effects, develop effective tuning procedures, and evaluate the performance of the FORECAST system on test data. In order to achieve these objectives, we plan to carry out the following tasks: (i) Extend FORECAST algorithms to 3 ...

Thermo-mechanical processes of turbine disks have been progressively improved to meet microstructural requirements tailored for advanced, sustainable high temperature performances. However, the chemistry of typical Ni-base turbine disk alloys is very complex, and yields a variety of phases and microstructural anomalies under different thermo-mechanical heat treatments. These microstructural hetero ...

different modes, while using different combinations of subsystems. This presents a challenge for the personnel validating the system during design and development; the number of combinations of environments, modes, and subsystems is exponential. They cannot all be tested, so an optimal subset of tests must be run. We propose to develop VERITAS: Validation and Evaluation of Remote, Interactive Tea ...

Vertical short takeoff and landing (VSTOL) operators face numerous challenges, particularly during takeoff, hover, and landing operations. Threats take the form of power lines, structures, and—in the case of combat—enemy fire. Often, these threats are obscured when visibility is compromised by dust, sand, or snow. Maintaining awareness of the surrounding environment becomes almost impossible. ...

Advances in modeling and simulation, networking, and computer graphics technology have made it possible to conduct large-scale, distributed live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) training events, such as the Navy’s Fleet Synthetic Training (FST) exercises, on a regular basis. However, FST exercises are not without room for improvement. Instructors and exercise controllers often confront difficult ...

Irregular warfare is increasingly the dominant form of military engagement. It is dynamic and unforgiving of errors, requiring warfighters to adapt fluidly to novel, complex, and ill-defined problems. The goal of this Phase II STTR is to implement and refine a training tool that builds adaptive expertise. The system teaches the learner to recognize and understand the fundamental principles underly ...

Advances in electronically controlled injection technologies for diesel engines have provided a method to improve medium- to heavy-duty engine performance through increased injection pressures, multiple injections, and injection rate shaping. Although these injection systems have been primarily limited to larger engines, the ability to rapidly and precisely meter fuel for smaller engines is partic ...

In miniature gas turbines for UAV applications, traditional bearings exhibit a typical lifetime of only 25 hours due to excessive axial loading. Mainstream proposes to use a passive, permanent magnet thrust bearing to alleviate this problem and increase service life to over 1000 hours. Since this type of bearing is non-contacting, it can operate at very high rotational speeds with minimal heat gen ...

Military shelters currently use electrically driven Environmental Control Units (ECUs) to provide cooling for the air inside the shelter. The ECU is vapor compression cycle powered by a diesel generator, operating on JP-8 fuel. Other than fueling jet engines, the largest drain on U.S. military fuel supplies in current operations comes from running generators at forward operating bases. In hot cli ...