Award Data

Small satellites working in coordinated manner as part of a distributed constellation hold the promise to revolutionize DoD space operations. However, small satellites also have significant inherent limitations. Their size limits the types of sensors that they can accommodate. It also limits propulsion, power generation and attitude control capabilities. One way of overcoming some of these lim ...

Aurora Flight Sciences and MIT propose to develop a model-based adaptive health estimation and real-time proactive control to identify gas turbine engine stability risks and avoid them through control action. In this concept, the engine control system actively monitors sensors and actuators, compares them against physical models, and infers which components may be performing poorly and may need to ...

Frontier Technology, Inc. (FTI) and Northeastern University propose to investigate and develop an innovative approach to predict stall events of aircraft engines prior to occurrence and in sufficient time to allow the FADEC controller to adjust engine variables. The team will utilize vector quantization and neural network techniques to develop accurate models of engine behavior that will be used t ...

Prognostics and health management (PHM) systems are critical for detecting impending faults and enabling a proactive decision process for maintenance or replacement of avionics systems before actual failures occur. A PHM system is essential to enhancing aircraft systems reliability and maintaining a high level of mission readiness and affordability. Current PHM advancements are focused on aircraft ...

We propose to conduct a feasibility study for utilizing broadband sampling of the diffusive noise field in a dynamic environment. In ambient noise studies, the ability to resolve a wavefield is proportional to its time-bandwidth (TB) product. In a dynamic environment such as in the atmosphere or ocean, the nature of the impinging wave field is changing rapidly so that only short time segments can ...

The research objective is to develop a fully functional computational method for prediction of the after-burning effect of different fuels in a wide range of temperature, pressure, and turbulence regimes. Achievement of the objective requires understanding and modeling of key phenomena including (a) post-detonation response of the fuels, (b) near-field coupling of detonation products with particul ...

Non-invasive, stealthy nature of passive remote sensing combined with its low cost make passive techniques a promising supplement or replacement of traditional active remote sensing techniques. Coherent processing of diffuse wave fields has a proven potential for remote sensing of stationary environments. The proposed research extends noise interferometry to characterization of dynamic environment ...

This proposal is being submitted in response to the solicitation topic N10A-T002 (Development of a Computational Method for Prediction of After Burning Effect) by BUSA Engineering Consulting (Dr. Jianghui Chao) in collaboration with University of Florida (PI: Prof. S. Balachandar). The overall objective of the proposed effort is to contribute to national defense and security by advancing the state ...

Northwest UAV Propulsion Systems proposes using our purpose built heavy fuel engine designed and built in the USA for small unmanned aerial systems in the tier 2 & 3 class. We will be adding a lightweight ceramic material set combined with FEA (Finite Element Analysis) and heavy fuel atomizer (IRAD Project) to create a lightweight engine for a SUAS or STUAS class UAVs. The Ceramic material set is ...

A significant barrier to the insertion of ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials into advanced aircraft engines is their inherent lack of toughness under foreign object Damage (FOD) as well as post FOD. Our team will develop and demonstrate a physics-based model for FOD/post FOD in CMC’s. The model will incorporate physical mechanisms associated with impact for two different CMC systems: a) ma ...