Award Data

Higher efficiency solar cells are needed to reduce mass, volume, and cost of DoD space missions. However, to achieve higher efficiency and radiation hardness of the best to date multi-junction photovoltaic (PV) devices, several challenges must be addressed. This project aims to develop: 1) Quantum Well (QW)-based multi-junction cell that exhibits enhanced efficiency, and 2) Radiation-hardened PV c ...

The purpose of this STTR is to develop comprehensive detailed kinetics for oxidation of C-SiC-SiO2-rubber in extreme oxidizing environment. This material is used as a coating on the outer surface of Navy weapon systems. In order to predict the fate of this material under extreme conditions and mitigate the degradation of the coating, a comprehensive oxidation mechanism is required. In Phase I, CFD ...

The goal of the proposed research is to develop advanced computational tool for high-fidelity simulations of hypersonic non-equilibrium plasmas. Octree adaptive Cartesian mesh will be used for automatic mesh generation and dynamic mesh adaptation to plasma properties, particularly important for hypersonic flows with strong shock waves, transient laminar and turbulent domains with large gradients o ...

Higher efficiency solar cells are needed to reduce solar array mass, volume, and cost for Air Force space missions. Intermediate-band quantum-dot (QD) solar cells can yield dramatically higher efficiencies than current multi-junction (MJ) technologies. However, several issues must be addressed to demonstrate manufacturable, high efficiency devices. CFDRC aims to develop: 1) High-efficiency, ligh ...

The objective of this Phase I project is to evaluate the use of novel Laser Induced Surface Improvement (LISI) techniques to provide surface modification to substrate materials which will provide superior wear resistance in extreme conditions. The specific application of interest is the hypersonic metal-to-metal contact that occurs at high speed test track facilities that can and has lead to catas ...

Accurate real-time microbial monitoring of water environment is of paramount importance to crew health as well as to ensure proper functioning and control of the life support system during space exploration. The existing methods are time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the devices used are bulky, consumable-hungry, and ill-suited for spacecraft deployment. We propose to develop and demonstrate ...

In the proposed SBIR project, CFDRC will develop an efficient, high-fidelity computational tool to simulate compaction wave propagation and the ensuing multi-physics phenomena in heterogeneous explosives (HEs), including the effects of shock wave on external targets. Physics that will be accurately modeled include: (1) Resolution of subgrain-size hot spots; (2) Granular deformation and packing du ...

The goal of this SBIR project is to develop an innovative, high fidelity computational tool for accurate prediction of aerothermal environment around space vehicles. This tool will be based on the Unified Flow Solver (UFS) developed at CFDRC for hybrid simulations of rarefied, transitional and continuum flows. In this project, UFS will be enhanced to include: radiation transport, non-equilibrium c ...

Thermal analysis is increasingly used in thermal engineering of spacecrafts in every stage, including design, test, and ground-operation simulation. Current high-fidelity modeling and simulation tools are computationally prohibitive and not fully compatible to integrated, multi-physics (e.g., thermal-structural-optical) analysis of spacecrafts, particularly in a single model topology currently bei ...

Current drug discovery and development programs are severely limited by the expensive animal trials and oversimplified in vitro models. Results obtained from the in vitro models are not predictive of in vivo toxicity owing to significant difference in testing from the in vivo physiological conditions. In this context, we propose to develop and demonstrate a novel microfluidic device for quantitati ...