Award Data

NONLINEAR STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF LARGE-SCALE DYNAMICS PROBLEMS CURRENTLY CAN BE SOLVED ONLY WITH CUMBERSOME, COMPLEX CODES AND THEIR ATTENDANT LENGTHY COMPUTER RUN TIMES. HOWEVER, A VERY SIGNIFICANT PERCENTAGE OF THE REQUIRED PROBLEM SOLUTIONS CAN BE ACHIEVED WITH A MUCH SIMPLER, MORE EFFICIENT METHODOLOGY. TO THAT END, THE WORK UNDERTAKEN FOR THIS PROJECT WILL DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT A GENERAL-PURP ...

Loss of control in aircraft can result from changes in the controlled element, the control system, the environment, or adverse pilot-vehicle interaction. Each of these paths can be characterized by a loss of phase margin. It is not possible to predict or compensate for all possible sources of additional phase lag in the design process, and so there is a need for on-line health monitoring of the fl ...

THE FUZZY COGNITIVE MAP, A NEURAL-NETWORK APPROACH TO KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION, HAS SEVERAL CHARACTERISTICS THAT MAKE IT HIGHLY ATTRACTIVE FOR USE IN PLANNING AND CONTROL TASKS: EASE OF COMBINING KNOWLEDGE ACQUIRED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES; A CAPACITY FOR ADAPTIVE REFINEMENT THROUGH SUPERVISED AND UNSUPERVISED LEARNING; AND AN ABILITY TO MAKE VERY HIGH SPEED INFERENCES IN BOTH ROUTINE AND NOVEL SITUAT ...

A METHOD WILL BE INVESTIGATED FOR FABRICATING DETECTOR ARRAYS OF HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTING (HTSC) THIN FILMS DIRECTLY ON DIAMOND SUBSTRATES. DIAMOND IS USED TO EXPLOIT THE POTENTIALLY WIDE WAVELENGTH RESPONSIVITY OF THESE FILMS THROUGH NON-BOLOMETRIC MECHANISMS. LITHOGRAPHICTECHNIQUES ARE DESCRIBED WHICH WILL HELP COMPENSATE FOR THE EXTREME THERMOPHYSICAL MISMATCH BETWEEN DIAMOND AND THESE ...

A tightly-sealing, non-corrosive miniature valve that can be baked and requires power only during on/off switching has many applications, especially in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.A tight seal (10e-10 SCCM) requires a large force. Ability to tolerate bake-out, corrosion resistance, and cleanliness (freedom from organic and hydrocarbon contaminants) limits suitable materials to stainle ...

REUSABLE HYPERSONIC VEHICLES, OPERATING WELL BEYOND THE PERFORMANCE ENVELOPE OF CONVENTIONAL AIRCRAFT, WILL ENCOUNTER EXTREMELY HIGH TEMPERATURES; DURING REENTRY, THE NOSE WILL EXPERIENCE IN EXCESS OF 5000 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT, AND LEADING-EDGE SURFACES WILL FEEL NEARLY 3500 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. CLEARLY, LIGHTWEIGHT LEADING-EDGE COOLING CONCEPTS ARE NEEDED TO WITHSTAND SUCH HIGH TEMPERATURES. THE HEA ...

Visual Solutions proposes to develop a powerful interactive visualization software system that aerospace researchers and engineers can use to efficiently visualize design data consisting of any number of independent parameters and associated variables. The software will enable the user to set individual parameter values using interactive controls that will update the plot of the associated data va ...

THE EXISTING DESIGN OF THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE, WIPED-FILM ROTATING-DISK (WFRD), VAPOR-COMPRESSION DISTILLATION (VCD) UNIT WILL BE MODIFIED FOR OPERATION AT ZERO GRAVITY. BECAUSE OF ITS VERY HIGH HEAT-TRANSFER COEFFICIENT AND LOW ENERGY REQUIREMENT, THE MODIFIED WFRD UNIT HAS THE POTENTIALOF REDUCING THE SIZE AND WEIGHT OF THE VCD SUBSYSTEM, AS WELL AS REDUCING THE MECHANICAL ENERGY REQUIRED TO DRIVE ...

To improve pilot situational awareness and aid the pilot in decision making in all weather landing conditions, WaveBand proposes to develop an innovative aircraft landing and obstacle avoidance (ALOA) system for the general aviation market. With a target price of 5,000 dollars, the system design fits within the AGATE goal of a 100,000-dollar aircraft. The system will make use of WaveBand's slim pr ...

As flip-chip bonding becomes the predominant standard in the electronics industry, the increased proximity between dice surfaces and packaging materials will require a significant reduction in the latter's alpha particle activity in order to avoid soft errors. Emission rates at or below 0.001 a/cm2/hr are desirable, which is well below the 0.0050 a/cm2/hr capability of today's best detectors. ...