Award Data

A growing number of fire fighters are suffering third degree burns; this has led to questions about the adequacy of thermal protective performance (TPP) measurements for protective clothing. A new heat flux sensor, whose response approximates that of skin, will be developed to provide better measurements of heat transfer in TPP tests. This sensor will be used with nonlinear parameter estimation an ...

As fire protection engineering moves towards the implementation of performance- based fire codes, the use of validated fire models is becoming a necessity. Part of the validation process involves demonstrating model capabilities for predicting key fire environment parameters. One of the key parameters for estimating time to ignition and fire growth is the heat transfer rate to compartment surfaces ...

The feasiblity of developing a PC based, pulsed ultrasonic test system for the economical and reliable testing of aluminum cylinders for sustained load cracking is addressed. A system consisting of a host PC, ultrasonic pulser/receiver and data acquisition hardware, control and analysis software, and transducer fixture for accurate positioning is proposed. In addition to the system development, ...

This proposal will emphasize outfitting a virtual classroom and creating a skills (CNC) oriented training program. The virtual classroom will involve contextual learning using a realistic simulation of the manufacturing environment. The simulation will have all of the characteristics of a machine shop, but will allow the learner to explore and experiment ("discover") in ways that would not be pr ...

Soaking and co-crystallization experiments for studying the binding of potential drugs with proteins of known structure are a significant research function of crystallographic labs in pharmaceutical companies. Such experiments have two overriding characteristics: (a) the experiments are repetitive, and therefore become routine, and (b) numerous experiments are performed to acquire the desired in ...

Recent catastrophic failures of Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) aluminum gas cylinders and similar air tanks have generated the need for a highly reliable, low cost inspection method to insure the integrity of these tanks. The failures of these tanks have been the result of crack formation in the neck and shoulder area. The cracks originate from the interior wall and can re ...

The storage photostimulable phosphor (SPP) technique has been demonstrated to be sensitive to ionization radiation. It is especially suited for detecting alpha particles since the efficiency is practically 100%. In addition to being able to quantify total ionization deposited in a SPP sensor, it also captures the radiation source distribution information in a digital image which can be readily ana ...

Critical issues associated with the design of a rugged, compact "real time" sampling system using photoconductive switches as the signal generator and sample will be investigated. The design concept is based upon an optoelectronic equivalent time sampling principle developed by the Principal Investigator. It involves first the phase locking of the temporal waveform to be measured to the optical pu ...

The development of a Fourier transform spectrometer with a minimum number of moving parts (or more ideally no moving parts - the so-called stationary spectrometer) has been the subject of considerable research and development. Recent work on a birefringence based system has resulted in the introduction of a commercial version of the system. While a significant step toward the goal of a practical ...

OPTRA is proposing the development of an all-reflecting stationary Fourier transform spectrometer, based on the use of Fresnel mirrors and a linear uncooled amorphous silicon microbolometer array to produce spectra in the 1 to 5 micron region with resolution of 5nm. Concentration, temperature and soot volume fraction will be derived from the measured emission spectra of a flame. An amorphous silic ...