Award Data

The U.S. Navy seeks methods to improve the fuel economy of marine diesel engines through utilization of waste heat. Low temperature engine jacket water, lubrication oil, and aftercooler air are largely untapped streams of thermal energy on these ships, but their utilization circumvents many operation challenges associated with exhaust gases. For example, variable and high exhaust gas temperatures ...

A growing number of electronic applications within the Air Force, such as devices for power conditioning and distribution, RF power amplification, and high power lasers have been identified for increased heat transfer requirements to maintain operational temperatures at acceptable levels while increasing the performance through higher power. However, this same target research that requires increas ...

We propose to develop scaling relationships for reaction violence in the cook-off of energetic materials such as explosives or propellants. This will be accomplished by a coordinated effort consisting of data review and analysis. The anticipated results include key non-dimensional parameters that incorporate the thermo-physical, flow, thermodynamic, and kinetic properties of the material, the heat ...

Current atmospheric diving suits and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have end effectors with simply 1 DOF. This rudimentary manipulation results in excessive time spent working a problem underwater, development of task specific tools that can be operated by the pliers or acceptance that a specific job simply can't be accomplished. Vishwa Robotics proposes a teleoperated, anthropomorphic end ...

This effort is focused on establishing U.S. Army Corps leadership in preserving navigation access for the war fighter through the development and implementation of an acoustic-based sensor system to detect, track, and classify large aquatic animals. The proposed high frequency imaging active sonar system is configurable to detect, track, classify, and alert to the presence of threatened and endang ...

In this program, we will develop solutions to optimize QCL fabrication processes, such as facet passivation and high thermal conductivity coatings, that will mitigate the reliability issues for high power QCL applications. In phase I, we will first evaluate all concepts and efforts that have been largely investigated for GaAs based high power diode lasers and transfer the knowledge to InP based QC ...

The development of a catastrophic optical damage model for quantum cascade lasers describing instantaneous laser damage at high optical power levels is proposed. The model will be validated by comparison to experimental data. Based on obtained results, changes to laser design and laser fabrication resulting in an increased damage threshold will be implemented. The work will ultimately result into ...

Complex software systems are typically developed by disparate engineering teams working concurrently. At the same time, software requirements are frequently dynamic, evolving even during active development cycles. Discrepancies between how software is defined and how it is implemented at the modular level can cascade into critical system errors when modules are integrated. More troubling is that i ...

Accurate characterization of and propagation modeling through the Marine Boundary Layer is critical for maximizing Electro-Magnetic (EM) systems signal exploitation for naval asset offensive, defensive, and stealth operational performance. Strong temperature and humidity gradients in the Surface Boundary Layer lead to optical paths exhibiting Electro-Optic Infrared (EOIR) anomalous refraction and ...

Pendar Technologies proposes to develop the next generation of compact, high power quantum cascade laser (QCL) sources with output power exceeding 10 Watts at a wavelength of 4.6 microns. The proposed subsystem will include a DFB QCL array integrated monolithically with power amplifiers, low-loss passive waveguides resulting from ion implantation and optical elements aimed at realizing on-chip wav ...