NASA 1999 SBIR Phase 1 Solicitation

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.01-0927 (Chron: 992386 )

PROJECT TITLE

Incorporation Of Flight Crew Actions In Safety Analysis Of Engineered Systems

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

This innovation will consist of a method that quantifies how primary flight crew performance contributes to safety.

The method will treat the human as a system element with a probability of failure just as engineered elements of the aircraft are treated by determining their probability of failure. The study tackles directly the subtopic requirement to 'address the interaction of humans with engineered systems'. Work to date has summarized the probability of failure of the pilot/flight control interface by mapping an aircraft handling qualities metric into a metric for probability of control loss. The Phase I study will expand the framework of this approach to another area of the interface between the human and the airplane that is a significant cause of accidents. The Phase II study will extend the concept to several such areas. Since the primary flight crew is involved in the majority of fatal accidents, the study will benefit NASA by contributing to NASA's goal to improve air safety.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The Phase I effort will lay the groundwork for a product that aids in designing, evaluating and regulating safe aircraft. The product would include software that facilitates inclusion of the human interaction with the aircraft, educational material for a commercially-offered tutorial, and specific consultation by AeroArts personnel during safety activities.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

John Hodgkinson

AeroArts LLC

PO Box 2909

Palos Verdes Peninsu , CA 90274 - 2909

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

AeroArts LLC

PO Box 2909

Palos Verdes Peninsula , CA 90274 - 2909

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.01-8021 (Chron: 991608 )

PROJECT TITLE

Fatigue Countermeasures: A Meta-Analytic Integration

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Extended operations and sleep loss can lead to fatigue, decrements in decision making, and other challenges to performance, productivity, and safety. As a result, a considerable body of research has examined the effectiveness of various fatigue countermeasures. This proposal describes an effort to conduct a meta-analytic integration of the evidence on the effectiveness of fatigue countermeasures. This integration will provide a precise and conclusive summary of the evidence regarding the effectiveness of various fatigue countermeasures. In addition, it will also allow the examination of important theoretical and operational issues regarding the effectiveness of various approaches.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The integration of existing research and the identification of new and effective fatigue countermeasures should have a considerable impact on Federal as well as commercial users in aviation, transportation, medicine, equipment operation, manufacturing and other operational environments that involve 24-hour demands. This project will result in specific, empirically-based guidelines for implementing fatigue countermeasures in civilian and military operational environments.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

James E. Driskell

Florida Maxima Corporation

507 N. New York Ave., R-1

Winter Park , FL 32789 - 3186

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Florida Maxima Corporation

507 N. New York Ave., R-1

Winter Park , FL 32789 - 3186

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.02-5282 (Chron: 991917 )

PROJECT TITLE

A Planning and Operations Toolset for Air Traffic Management of RLV's

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Reusable launch vehicles present a series of unique problems in the management of the national air space. While the nominal ascent phase of reusable launch vehicles (RLV's) closely resembles the launch phase of an expendable launch vehicle (ELV), this can change quickly. RLV's have the capability to terminate flight during the ascent phase and attempt to land at the launch site or other commercial spaceports or airports. Commercial spaceports are being designed and built in non-traditional locations. Many of these spaceports are land-locked forcing vehicles launched from these spaceports to fly over populated areas and through commercial airways to reach orbit.

Tools are required to manage these new dynamic spaceways. Spaceways that are shared by both standard air transportation, RLV's, and expendable ELV's. These tools will encompass the mission planning phase and the real time operations phase. This proposal will concentrate on the design of an integrated toolset that provides RLV mission planning functions that directly support real time mission operations. These functions will include; 6 degree of freedom trajectory planning for RLV operations including 4-dimensional visualization, shared situational awareness of real time operations, intelligent air traffic and RLV interference prediction, and integrated weather data and real time weather visualization.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The planning and visualization toolset has applications in commercial aerospace, air traffic management, military C2, weather forecasting, and interactive gaming technology. The basic technologies that will be developed by this proposal will support all of the aforementioned business areas. The key technology is the translation of real time data acquired from multiple sources into a single, collaborative, environment distributed over standard net-work architectures.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Janice M. Horn

Command and Control Technologies Corporation

1311 North Highway US-1, Suite 129-X

Titusville , FL 32796 - 2144

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Command and Control Technologies Corp.

1311 N Hwy US-1, Suite 129-X

Titusville , FL 32796 - 2144

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.02-8585 (Chron: 992382 )

PROJECT TITLE

Software Environment for Investigating Decentralized ATM Concepts

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Air-traffic management concepts being investigated by NASA range from ground-based techniques to fully airborne solutions. One of the difficulties in assessing the relative merits of these strategies is that they are developed on diverse air-traffic management simulation environments using different sets of assumptions.

This makes it difficult to make quantitative comparisons in a given air traffic management scenario.

This proposal advances the development of a software environment that can be used to assess the air traffic management strategies from a control theoretic point-of-view. This point-of-view enables the use of concepts such as stability margins and robustness in the air traffic control environment. The proposed software environment will incorporate NASA-developed air traffic simulation software as a central element. It will allow the analyst to augment the simulation to include other elements of the air traffic management system such as the communication, navigation and surveillance systems, decision support systems and decision execution methodologies. It will also provide an analysis environment for determining the effectiveness of air traffic management strategies.

Phase I research will develop a prototype of the proposed software environment and will demonstrate its operation in several air traffic management simulations. Phase II research will develop the complete version of the software environment.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Software developed under the proposed research will aid the researchers synthesize and refine new air traffic management strategies. This will result in more effective implementation of future air traffic management concepts.

The software environment will also be useful for modeling and analysis of other multiple flight vehicle systems such as formation flight.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Dr. P. K. Menon

Optimal Synthesis Inc.

470 San Antonio Road, Suite 200

Palo Alto , CA 94306 - 4646

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Optimal Synthesis Inc.

470 San Antonio Road, Suite 200

Palo Alto , CA 94306 - 4646

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.02-8700C (Chron: 992126 )

PROJECT TITLE

Departure Noise Avoidance Planner

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Aircraft noise mitigation is a major issue in the design and establishment of departure procedures in busy terminal areas. Even with the establishment of Noise Abatement procedures, there is a significant need for improvement in the mitigation of noise created by aircraft operations. Some Noise Abatement procedures are difficult to implement for the controller, pilot, or both. In such cases, automated assistance for the controller may improve the effectiveness of the Noise Abatement procedure, by allowing aircraft to be vectored to follow the procedure more accurately.

Metron has advanced the state of the art in aircraft noise modeling to the point that it is now possible to conduct noise modeling in real-time with sufficient accuracy to support controller decisions. This proposed effort will investigate the feasibility of a system which will predict noise footprints for individual flights based on current atmospheric conditions. These flight-by-flight analyses will then be used to generate alternative routes if the noise footprint is found to impact areas of significant population density. The generation of departure routes to decrease the impact of noise will then result in departure vector advisories to be displayed to the controller.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

As this effort is focused on the development of innovative techniques for Air Traffic Management, the primary sources for non-SBIR funding are the organizations and agencies that maintain and improve the ATM systems of the United States, and of the world. Metron has previous involvement in many areas of development of the National Airspace System (NAS) of the United States.

The commercial product that is contemplated to result from this SBIR effort is a proof-of-concept Noise Management system that can be customized and implemented under contract to international or domestic ATC service providers. Dependent on the operational characteristics and requirements of the customer, the prototype system will be modified, enhanced, documented and tested to the customer's requirements.

Metron is also on the leading edge of private-sector funding of such ATM system projects. Through close coordination with the FAA, Metron has identified a number of methods by which private industry and airspace users can fund some of the required development and maintenance effort that is required for systems such as Collaborative Decision Making (CDM). The commercialization of this technology will be pursued both domestically and internationally.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Terence Thompson

Metron, Inc

11911 Freedom Drive, Suite 800

Reston , VA 20190 - 5602

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Metron, Inc.

11911 Freedom Drive, Suite 800

Reston , VA 20190 - 5602

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.03-5576 (Chron: 992479 )

PROJECT TITLE

An integrated, multi-sensor system for cloud particle classification

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Droplet Measurement Technologies proposed to develop a compact, integrated, multi-sensor system for the airborne characterization of cloud icing conditions. This system will measure cloud particle size, number concentration, mass and phase, as well as temperature pressure and airspeed. This combination of measurements allows the system to operate in a stand-alone mode for situations where the instruments could be used on commercial aircraft for gathering data on icing conditons or for icing certification activities. The range of particle

sizes and supercooled water content are broader than currently required by FAA icing certification regulations (FAR-25) and provide excellent resolution at the larger drop sizes that are presently being studied as particularly hazardous for flight operations. The built-in redundancy also improves data quality and operational reliability.

The culmination of Phase I activities will be a prototype instrument consisting of an integration of five sensors into a single, streamlined package that minimizes drag and mounts easily to an aircraft fuselage or wing. This proof-of-concept development will use laboratory testing to show that particles in the proposed size range can be accurately measured and that the integrated system fits in a package that is aerodynamically stable without disturbing the particle measurements.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The proposed system will make measurements that have formerly required three separate systems. The cloud research, aircraft icing and icing wind tunnel communities will benefit from this development because of its decreased volume and weight. This same instrument will be attractive to the agricultural community since it can also be used in a number of applications where measurements of spray characteristics would improve irrigation, crop dusting and other liquid dispersal systems.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Gregory Kok

Droplet Measurement Technologies

Box 20293

Boulder , CO 80308 - 3293

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Droplet Measurement Technologies

P.O. Box 20293

Boulder , CO 80308 - 3293

PROJECT TITLE: Airborne Remote Sensing of the Super-Cooled Water and Temperature Environment

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

We propose to test a new method for remote passive detection of hydrometeors (cloud liquid water droplets, drizzle, rain, hail, and snow) from an aircraft. The method uses an advanced radiometer to measure differences between horizontal and vertical polarization of microwave radiation. The polarization is influenced by hydrometeor shape and the anisotropy of the illuminating flux. This allows discrimination between liquid water and ice crystals. Radiometrics Corporation conceived the new method and is applying for patent. Based on preliminary Simple modeling, the capability of the new method appears fairly certain. We propose to confirm our preliminary results with more rigorous modeling. We also have conceived of three concepts to obtain range information on icing conditions. The capabilities of the concepts are uncertain and we propose modeling and testing. In addition, we propose to explore the performance of a method for passive airborne measurement of atmospheric temperature structure. This method is based on a highly accurate ground-based radiometric temperature profiling method that has recently emerged from Russia. Knowledge of temperature structure is important for prediction of icing conditions and turbulence.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Aircraft icing and clear air turbulence present significant hazards to civilian and military aviation. Every year, losses are suffered from aircraft icing by general aviation, low to mid altitude military fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft, and regional carrier aircraft. In addition, in-flight clear air turbulence is a problem to all categories of aircraft. Our proposed studies will contribute to the development of a compact, low cost icing and turbulence detection system. The system would allow private, commercial, and military passenger and cargo transport services to reduce the number of accidents related to these hazards. Also, the proposed system is passive, making it even more attractive for military use. We plan to employ microwave integrated circuits in our in-flight icing and turbulence detection system. This will reduce the size and cost of the system, increasing its commercial viability.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Fredrick S. Solheim 
Radiometrics Corporation 
2840 Wilderness Place, Unit G 
Boulder , CO   80303 - 5414

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR

Radiometrics Corporation 
2840 Wilderness Place, Unit G 
Boulder , CO   80303 - 5414

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.04-0477 (Chron: 992060 )

PROJECT TITLE

Automated Reuse Support for Design of Embedded Avionics Systems (AutoSoft)

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

EDAptive Computing, Inc. (EDAptive) and Dr. Perry Alexander of the University of Kansas propose an innovative solution to the problem of the lack of automated reuse support for design of complex, embedded systems. Our proposed solution, which automates reuse of existing components, will enable design of high-integrity avionics software and systems, thereby ensuring safe and reliable operation of the designed systems. Our Phase I objectives are to (1) Define requirements - to ensure that we understand NASA"s requirements, (2) Identify and evaluate candidate methods, tools and , (3) Develop methods, tools, technologies, (4) Demonstrate technical feasibility through preliminary design and prototyping, and (5) Establish commercial feasibility and potential. Our Phase I Tasks include (1) Evaluating existing assets, (2) Determining additional capabilities needed, (3) Evaluating feasibility and demonstrating critical aspects, (4) preparing a preliminary design, and (5) assessing commercial potential. Our Phase I results will include: A Demonstration of critical design aspects by the end of the sixth month, and a Final Report at the end of the sixth month, which will document all the investigations, decisions, findings, commercialization strategy and demonstrations during the Phase I program. This technology will markedly improve space system development effectiveness through automated component reuse.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

With ever increasing complexity of embedded systems and growing demand for their safe and reliable operation, designers of such systems are constantly looking for tools, languages and methods that would enable them to rapidly meet user demands for high integrity systems and algorithms. Success of ISI MARIXx is a good evidence of the need. The need is universal among embedded system designers and is not just limited to avionics systems.

With ever increasing interest in embedded intelligent appliances, that market is only bound to grow with increasing time-to-market pressures on embedded system designers. A tool suite that enables automated reuse of existing components and a design correct-by-construction is likely to be of high interest since it will reduce time-to-market and enable high-integrity systems. In addition, complexity of newly designed embedded systems is such that a design from scratch is very hard, if not impossible. Therefore, AutoSoft market is bound to grow.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Praveen Chawla

EDAptive Computing, Inc.

1107-C Lyons Road

Dayton , OH 45458 - 1856

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

EDAptive Computing, Inc.

2161 Blanton Drive

Dayton , OH 45342 - 5288

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.05-1008 (Chron: 992339 )

PROJECT TITLE

Distributed Fiber Optic Structural Health Monitoring System-Aerospace Vehicles

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

The proposed project will develop a distributed fiber-optic structural health monitoring system for aerospace vehicles. This system will measure and record the stress cycle histories at hundreds of critical locations on a vehicle in real-time. The information can be used on-line in a program to schedule maintenance and direct inspections for more efficient and safer operations. This benefit directly addresses the expressed goal of improved transportation safety in the 21st century. The proposed innovation lies in the use of low-cost fiber optic strain sensors combined with a predetermined global strain-to-local stress transformation that converts spatially averaged strains to local stresses at a sampling rate commensurate with the dominant modes of the primary structure. This proposal directly addresses the targeted solutions of (1) "Structural fatigue, life cycle, static or dynamic load monitors," and (2) "Model-reference or model updating schemes based on measured data that operate autonomously."

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

This system has both immediate and long-term uses. Its primary purpose is to provide an onboard intelligent real-time structural monitoring system to monitor stress levels at critical locations. In the long term, the system will provide information for future design in the form of a design database. Stress cycle histories can be used to schedule and pinpoint inspections and to perform crack growth analysis. In addition to NASA applications, strong commercial potential exists in applications to both military and commercial aircraft.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Timothy Hasselman

ACTA Inc.

2790 Skypark Dr., Ste. 310

Torrance , CA 90505 - 5345

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

ACTA Inc.

2790 Skypark Drive, Suite 310

Torrance , CA 90505 - 5345

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.05-2281 (Chron: 992416 )

PROJECT TITLE

On-Line Prediction of Loss of Control Using Wavelets

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

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 flight control system. The challenge then is to detect the erosion of phase margin in a timely manner and either warn the pilot or automatically take corrective action. In the Phase I effort we intend to use an innovative Time Varying Transfer Function technique to track the phase margin of a time-varying system. These special transfer functions are based on Wavelet Transforms. In contrast to windowed Fourier transforms, these transforms have the ability to analyze a signal at multiple scales, thus allowing for quick response to high frequency changes in the system, without sacrificing low frequency resolution. In Phase I we will develop the methodology and an associated on-line health monitoring toolbox to implement our approach.

Example scenarios and available flight test data will be used to demonstrate feasibility.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

This effort will lead to a validated methodology with associated analysis tools and software to predict and analyze loss of control in aircraft in real-time. The immediate commercial application of this technology will be in the development, testing, and safe operation of all aircraft.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Vineet Sahasrabudhe, Ph.D.

Systems Technology, Inc.

13766 S. Hawthorne Blvd.

Hawthorne , CA 90250 - 7083

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Systems Technology, Inc.

13766 S. Hawthorne Blvd.

Hawthorne , CA 90250 - 7083

PROJECT TITLE: Smart NDT System for Unified Diagnosis of Composite Structures

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

This SBIR research (Phase I & II) is to develop a smart nondestructive testing (NDT) system for improved on-line inspection of composite structures in aircrafts, spacecrafts, and launch vehicles. The system uses a unique flexible surface-mounted transducer array to replace the conventional bulky and time- consuming scanning mechanism for C-scan plot generation. It also draws on advantages from ultrasonic testing, mechanical impedance method, and frequency response (modal analysis) technologies. In Phase I, the new transducer element will be fabricated and tried out on composite specimens with different defects implanted. The transducer parameters will be optimized through experiments. Pattern recognition methodologies will be identified for defect characterization. The expert system for defect detection will be developed for the composite test specimens. Finally, the prototype setup for the NDT system will be tested to demonstrate its sensitivity for flaw detection. A successful research effort will provide NASA with a flexible, smart NDT system that works faster and more accurately than conventional methods. A further development of this AI-based NDT system may lead to its application in automation and robotics, where similar NDT tasks can be carried out in adverse or hostile environments.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

A flexible, smart NDT system with high reliability and low operating cost developed in this effort (Phase I & II) may be used for improved on-line NDT inspection on composite materials of NASA's interest, particularly on the composite parts with irregular surfaces. The equipment will have tremendous potential for commercialization in the rapidly growing market of composite materials worldwide. Further extension of this concept may result in its application on metal and geologic materials.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Xiaoqing Sun
AAC International
60 Mechanic Street
Lebanon , NH   03766 - 1521

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR

AAC International
60 Mechanic Street
Lebanon , NH   03766 - 1521

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.05-7909 (Chron: 992227 )

PROJECT TITLE

On-line Engine Health Monitoring using a Model-Updating Scheme

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

The firm proposes to conduct a research on a software toolkit (or middleware) to perform on-line engine health monitoring. The toolkit will allow on-line information extraction from measured data and will facilitate decision making. The ultimate goal of the toolkit will be to reduce the life cycle cost of an engine/flight vehicle fleet while maintaining flight safety and availability. Initially developed for turbine engine health monitoring, the toolkit is expected to migrate to other flight systems with a low-to-medium level of modification.

The underlying methodology of the on-line engine monitoring toolkit will include an adaptive model-updating scheme based on measured data that operates autonomously. The methodology will also proactively determine/recommend engine maintenance schedule, effectively functions like a life-cycle monitor.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Potential products from the proposed project is a software toolkit that can be implemented on an engine diagnostic unit to increase engine maintainability and reduce life cycle cost. The software toolkit can track the health and remaining safe life of engine components, it can also recommend maintenance decisions.

The anticipated benefits of the on-line engine monitoring toolkit are:

§ Durability/readiness enhancement.

§ Life cycle cost (LCC) reduction.

§ Enabling technology for on-line, real-time health monitoring.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Link Jaw

Scientific Monitoring, Inc.

4801 S. Lakeshore Dr., #103

Tempe , AZ 85282 - 7156

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Scientific Monitoring, Inc.

4801 S. Lakeshore Dr, #103

Tempe , AZ 85282 - 7156

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.06-9004 (Chron: 992324 )

PROJECT TITLE

Crashworthy Seat Cushion Replacement

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Dynamically certified seats (16g seats) are being fielded in all jet transports certified since 1988. In addition, the airlines are steadily replacing their older seats with 16g compatible seats in the older aircraft certified prior to that date. The implementation of the dynamic seat requirements has encountered one unanticipated problem.

Under normal use, seat cushions must be replaced with identical cushions every 3-5 years, and sometimes sooner. To maintain an aircraft's type certificate, the replacement seat cushions must be identical those installed for the original certification tests. Airlines are frequently unable to obtain identical replacement cushions. The airlines' only option, in this case, is to recertify the entire seat with a replacement cushion by conducting a full-scale 16g dynamic seat test. This is expensive since it not only requires the use of expensive laboratory equipment, but also because it destroys a seat frame. The best solution for this problem is the development of an inexpensive component test that can be used to certify replacement cushions. Such a test will provide a needed tool for the development of aircraft seats using a systems approach to crashworthiness and thus contribute to both safety and lower costs for the entire industry.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The short-term commercial application of this technology are in the form of an engineering process that will enable JBDA to recertify airline seat cushions, for dynamically tested seats, at a far lower cost than is possible under current certification procedures. In the longer term, the test technique developed in this project will significantly contribute to a systems approach to the design and certification of accident mitigation technologies.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Donald E. Shepherd Jr.

J.B. Dwerlkotte Associates, Inc.

429 N. St. Francis

Wichita , KS 67202 - 2623

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

J.B. Dwerlkotte Associates, Inc.

429 N. St. Francis

Wichita , KS 67202 - 2623

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.06-9515 (Chron: 992122 )

PROJECT TITLE

Capacitance-Based Turbine Blade Vibration Monitor

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Prevention of catastrophic failure of engine components is a major goal to the subtopic. Catastrophic failures of turbine engines are often caused by vibration-induced compressor and fan blade fatigue fractures. Existing capacitance systems have been unable to accurately measure blade vibration due to limited spatial resolution and limited system bandwidth. The proposed effort will develop a new capacitive system with significantly higher spatial resolution and wider bandwidth to provide high-accuracy time-of-arrival measurements for computing blade vibration. Successful demonstration of feasibility of the capacitive probe and electronics will lead to development of monitoring systems suitable for use on new engines as well as for retrofit on existing engines. The ability to detect excessibe blade vibration in flight will allow the pilot to change the engine operating parameters and thus prevent the occurrence of safety-significant blade fractures.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Blade vibration monitoring of aircraft engines will involve the following applications:

1. Spin pit tests during engine development

2. Test engines during engine development

3. Production test equipment for engine manufacturing

4. Engine monitoring on flight engines

5. Engine monitoring and active clearance control on flight engines

The last step combines the blade vibration monitoring with blade tip clearance measurement for use in a control system to dynamically adjust the tip clearance to achieve optimum engine performance.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Wayne C. Haase

Aerogage Corporation

22 Duggan Road, PO Box 733

Acton , MA 01720 - 0011

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Aerogage Corporation

22 Duggan Road, PO Box 733

Acton , MA 01720 - 0011

PROJECT TITLE: Portable High-Resolution 2D Ultrasonic Imager for Fatigue Damage Inspection

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

In Phase I of the SBIR program LEEOAT Company will develop and optimize the design and fabrication strategy for the high-performance, high-resolution and cost-effective 2D Ultrasonic Transducer imager for nondestructive evaluation applications. The transducer architecture is based on LEEOAT Company's novel micromachining technology. We will reduce to practice the device by demonstrating the micromachining of the transducer. We will theoretically model the transducer and the associated ASIC electronics and will estimate the cost/effort for the fabrication and testing of the NDE prototype in Phase II of the program.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The development of a high-performance, high-resolution cost-effective 2D ultrasonic transducer will open a largewindow of opportunity in a variety of space, military and commercial applications, like NDE and medical imaging.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Dr. Eli Wiener-Avnear

LEEOAT Company

2631 Colibri Lane

Carlsbad , CA   92009 - 4304

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR

LEEOAT Company

2631 Colibri Lane

Carlsbad , CA   92009 - 4304

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.07-3372 (Chron: 991803 )

PROJECT TITLE

A Magnetoresistive Sensor-Based Eddy Current Probe

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

The development of an innovative reflection type eddy current probe in which a giant magnetoresistive (GMR)sensor is used as the replacement for the pickup coil is proposed. The GMR sensor would be made of giant magnetoresistive elements connected in a Wheatstone bridge configuration. During a measurement, this new eddy current probe will provide three independent pieces of information. Namely, the phase and magnitude signal of a standard reflective probe plus a dc signal resulting from the instantaneous magnitude of the magnetic flux generated at the sensor by the eddy currents induced in the conductive target by the driver coil. The use of the GMR sensor would make it possible to design a tangential probe whose induced eddy currents would penetrate deeper into conductive specimens during defect measurements. The successful completion of Phase I effort will provide the basis for the development a field demonstrable probe that could be operated over a wide frequency range and aportable handheld eddy current device in Phase II. The use MR sensors as the pickup sensor could result a chippackage containing a driver coil that could lead to the development of smaller, faster, inexpensive eddy currentsensors.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The successful completion of Phase II of this effort will lead to the development of: a) A MR sensor-based eddy current probe that may be used with existing eddy current instruments; b)A simple handheld instrument that uses the dc output of the bridge to measure a conductor thickness. The device would consist of a driver coil, a sinusoidal source and a digital output display; and, c) An eddy current instrument that utilizes the three independent pieces of information for variety of parameter measurements.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

F.E. Levert

KEMP, Inc.

1725 Magnolia Ave.

Knoxville , TN 37917 - 7827

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

KEMP, Inc.

1725 East Magnolia Avenue

Knoxville , TN 37917 - 7827

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.07-3555 (Chron: 991724 )

PROJECT TITLE

Wideband Tunable Fiber Laser

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

QorTek will develop an advanced hardware demonstration of a compact and functionally integrated tunable laser. The prototype will demonstrate a new dually opposed wideband extension-compression piezo-actuated approach to modulation that will enable larger wavelength excursion at sweep frequencies needed for emission or damage detection by NASA. The demonstration prototype will be VME board fiber modulation system that integrates dichroic and Bragg grating reflective optics, fiber laser tensioning assembly, piezoelectronic power electronics and polymeric damping. The project will yield an advanced wavelength tunable system and power electronics in more compact, higher performance package, suitable for densely populated VME integration. The result for this program shall be an advanced fully integrated development demonstration prototype. The prototype will be continuously tunable over ±10 nm (with ±10 nm extended goal) centered at 1550 nm in a 0.2 ft3. The design will be suitable for integration into a fiber-optic gas leakage and structural fault-detection system for NASA critical platforms such as X-33 and space shuttle.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Several corporations including NorTel, MCI and ONI to commercial fiber communication and CiDRA for oil & gas exploration are already seeking the Phase I design for possible commercial sale. The proposed tunable fiber modulation system is attracting interest from Boeing ISDS Phantom Works, Seattle WA. Boeing has immediate needs for optically integrable modulation for automated fault detection on JSF, space vehicles and aging aircraft.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Gareth Knowles

QorTek, Inc.

4121 Jacks Hollow Road

Williamsport , PA 17702 - 9539

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

QorTek, Inc.

4121 Jacks Hollow Road

Williamsport , PA 17702 - 9539

PROJECT TITLE: DESIGN OF A HIGH INTENSITY PULSED PLASMA (HIPP) PROPULSION SYSTEM

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Environmental degradation of adhesive bonds of composite or metallic structures affects predominantly the adhesive/adherent interface by decreasing the number of molecular bonds between the adhesive and the substrate. The objective of the proposed Phase I work is to perform a feasibility study of a novel non-linear ultrasonic method for quantitative characterization of molecular bond density with the objective of determining the local bond strength. The innovation of the proposed method is to perform an ultrasonic characterization of the interface enhanced by parametric dynamic vibrations. The density of molecular bonds, described by an equivalent interfacial spring density, is quantitatively determined using dual beam ultrasonic spectroscopy at different points of the dynamic loading curve. The method permits separating the linear and non-linear behavior of the bulk adhesive and adhesive/substrate interface. Comparison between the measured spring density at tensile and compressive loads leads to a characterization of the local interfacial strength. Based on the accomplishments of Phase I, Phase II developments will be proposed including extended study of the method applicability for assessment of adhesively bonded structures and the delivery to NASA of the dedicated Angle Beam Ultrasonic Spectroscopy acquisition system for evaluation of Adhesive Joints under Parametric Excitation.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The Stress Modulated Angle Beam Ultrasonic System is a unique ultrasonic measurement technique for localized bond strength measurement and would have broad marketing potential in the aerospace and automotive industries as well as in composite manufacturing and in other segments where adhesive joining technology is utilized.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Dr. Laszlo Adler
Adler Consultants, Inc.
1275 Kinnear Road
Columbus , OH 43212 - 1155

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR

Adler Consultants, Inc.
1275 Kinnear Road
Columbus , OH 43212 - 1155

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.07-4960 (Chron: 991952 )

PROJECT TITLE

Hybrid Thermographic Detection of Kissing Unbond Defects

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Fast, portable IR NDE systems capable of automated operation and quantitative defect measurement are now commercially available, and have been credited with significant cost savings in aerospace manufacturing and service sectors. However, despite advantages of speed and wide area, non-contact inspection, IR methods are limited in their ability to detect disbonds in which there is mechanical contact but no adhesive bond. We will investigate the feasibility of a system for detection of these "kissing unbonds" using a novel combination of pulsed thermography and applied vacuum stress. Both vacuum stress and flash heating will be applied to the part, and a differential IR image comparing the post-flash cooling of the stressed and unstressed part will be generated.

The apparatus for acquiring the image and applying the heating and vacuum stress will be housed in a portable hood with a 10" x 10" field of view, and typical acquisition times of 20 seconds. If successful, the fully realized system will extend the capabilities of thermographic NDE systems to allow inspection of skin to core disbonds in honeycomb and foam core structures, and thick composite components used in the space shuttle and X-33, as well as commercial and military aircraft.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The proposed Hybrid Pulsed Thermography (HPT) system will significantly expand the market potential of IR NDI in the aerospace and automotive industries. Aerospace applications include inspections for skin to honeycomb or foam core disbonds, which are relevant for aircraft control structures, propellers, and jet engine casings; and identification of delaminations. The proposed system will be particularly useful for inspection of large scale structures such as the Space Shuttle Orbiter payload bay door, the fixed foam fuel tank insulation for the Delta IV, and commercial aircraft rudders and elevators. At present, inspection of these structures often requires multiple passes using a combination of NDI methods (e.g. shearography and thermography for the payload bay door). The potential for application of the HPT system in automotive manufacturing is enormous, as acceptance of composites as a substitute for steel continues to grow. For example, a consortium of Ford, GM and Chrysler are currently collaborating to develop an all composite truck bed, which will require online inspection. Pulsed Thermography has been identified as the leading candidate for inspection of the bed, with the caveat that kissing unbonds may go undetected. These and many other automotive applications will be better served by the HPT system.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Tasdiq Ahmed, PhD

Thermal Wave Imaging, Inc.

18899 W 12 Mile Road

Lathrup Village , MI 48076 - 2558

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Thermal Wave Imaging, Inc.

18899 W. 12 Mile Road

Lathrup Village , MI 48076 - 2558

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 01.07-9217 (Chron: 991932 )

PROJECT TITLE

Spin-Dependent-Tunneling Sensors for Non-Destructive Evaluation

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

The proposed innovation is a two-axis spin-dependent-tunneling (SDT) sensor which detects small magnetic signals for use in non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of defects in metallic materials and structures. The proposed SDT sensor offers several advantages for NDE eddy current detection methods: (1) High sensitivity. The ability to resolve fields of 10 nOe/root Hz or better, yet operate at room temperature, and have a broad band frequency response. (2) Two-axis magnetic field sensing. This allows vector determination of the magnetic signal in the plane of the detector. (3) Sensor arrays. Fabrication of the sensors uses silicon-based techniques, and therefore the sensors are small--roughly 2 mm on a side. Compact sensor arrays are possible and offer advantages for defect recognition and spacial determination without requiring the sensor to be scanned. Phase I will develop an innovative approach for fabricating a two-axis sensor on a single chip. The proposed sensor is suitable for many types of eddy current detection methods as well as suitable for position sensing. Phase II will use the sensor in the development of a sensing array for an eddy current NDE system.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The sensors developed in this program can be used in a wide variety of applications including NDE eddy current detection methods for metallic structures of interest to NASA as well as aircraft and ships for military and commercial use. The sensors are not limited to NDE use but would be suitable for position sensing and a range of low-field applications such as the detection and identification of buried metal objects.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Catherine Nordman

Nonvolatile Electronics, Inc.

11409 Valley View Road

Eden Prairie , MN 55344 - 3617

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Nonvolatile Electronics, Inc.

11409 Valley View Road

Eden Prairie , MN 55344 - 3617

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 02.01-0700 (Chron: 991693 )

PROJECT TITLE

Active/Passive Attenuation of Sound in Aircraft Interiors

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Active Control eXperts (ACX), Inc. proposes a Phase I research and development effort for the development, conceptual design, and proof-of-concept experiment of a hybrid active/passive sound attenuation system for aircraft interiors. While the attenuation of structural vibration and structure-borne sound using passive means is the current state-of-the-art, and active structural acoustic control (ASAC) has received wide attention in the academic community in the past decade, a functional system combining the relative advantages of both approaches has yet to be developed and tested. A successful development and demonstration of such a system will, therefore, constitute a major innovation in the field of structure-borne sound control. The proposed system is a complete sound attenuation solution, including passive-only, active-only, and hybrid surface mounted patches. These patches are completely encapsulated and ready to be bonded to the fuselage panels. The system further includes error sensor, pre-amplifiers, control implementation electronics, and power electronics for the active and hybrid patches. In addition, a comprehensive design methodology is developed for the optimal placement and sizing of the three types of patches, as well as for control law design. The development of such methodology, backed up by commercial manufacturing capability and solid design techniques, will greatly advance the goal of reducing noise pollution in aircraft interiors.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The active-passive sound attenuation technology to be developed under this program offers broad potential to commercial potential in applications across several different industries. Two specific market applications are aircraft interiors and automotive interiors. ACX estimates the annual production revenue potential of the aircraft interior application (new equipment only) to be >1M dollars annually. The automotive application offers an annual production revenue potential to ACX of >10M dollars annually.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Dr. Baruch Pletner

Active Control eXperts, Inc.

215 First Street

Cambridge , MA 02142 - 1227

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Active Control eXperts, Inc.

215 First Street

Cambridge , MA 02142 - 1227

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 02.01-2800 (Chron: 992113 )

PROJECT TITLE

Aero/Acoustic Tailoring of GA Airplanes to Reduce Certification & Cabin Noise

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

The goal of the proposed NASA SBIR project is to design, develop, FAA certify, and manufacture an integrated aero/acoustic improvement to propeller driven General Aviation airplanes to reduce cabin and community noise and increase propulsive efficiency and fuel economy. The elements of the integrated propulsion system improvement include (1) modifying the engine cowl to be more axisymmetric to reduce propeller/cowl interference noise, (2) extending and aerodynamically refining the forward portion of the cowl to reduce the amount of acoustic disturbance caused by the cowl, (3) employing a modern propeller design to reduce susceptibility to inflow distortion, and (4) modifying the wind screen configuration to reduce separated flow that causes cabin broadband noise. Recent public surveys by the NASA AGATE Program have revealed that cabin noise and airframe vibration are two of the largest detriments to public acceptance of GA aircraft for transportation. The proposed project is consistent with the objectives of RFP Topic 02 to effect dramatic reductions in light aircraft reduce community noise by 10 EPNdB within ten years and to reduce cabin noise to increase passenger comfort. It is also consistent with the NASA Acoustics Program, the goals of the NASA AGATE Program, and the proposed NASA Small Airplane Transportation System (SATS).

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The direct commercial potential for the proposed project is the manufacture and sale of:

· A general aviation airplane incorporating the proposed aero/acoustic technology.

· Production and sale of improved engine cowls to existing aircraft owners.

· Production and sale of improved engine cowls to other light aircraft manufacturers.

Global Aircraft Corporation is currently certifying its GT-3 Trainer airplane under FAA Part 23 Regulations. The Company is in the process of starting production of a revolutionary new composite propeller that has been developed under the NASA SBIR Program. The Company currently has available funding to construct the initial production facility by November 1999. Global has adequate financial reserves in the current credit facility to finance production of the Aero/Acoustic Cowl to be developed and FAA certified in Phase II.

The proposed aero/acoustic cowl will be complimentary to the Quasi-Constant Speed Composite Propeller developed by the Company and currently starting production. The combined noise reduction of the propeller (5-8 dBA) and the aero/acoustic cowl will produce significant noise reduction in both community noise and cabin noise and should be well received by aircraft owners and the general public.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Michael R. Smith

Global Aircraft Corporation

424 Hwy 12 W

Starkville , MS 39759 - 3635

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Global Aircraft Corporation

P O Box 850

Starkville , MS 39760 - 0850

PROJECT TITLE: Sensor for SOx Species by Ultra-Sensitive IR Quantum Cascade Laser Absorption

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop a compact, portable, ultrasensitive SO2/SO3 sensor system based on quantum cascade laser absorption in the 7 to 9 µm spectral region. The sensor will have applications in laboratory and combustor test stand measurements related to the development of advanced gas turbine engines for subsonic jet aircraft, and specifically addresses the need to characterize proportionation and atmospheric environmental impacts of oxidized fuel-bound sulfur in the engine exhaust. The use of novel quantum cascade laser technology in the sensor will enable the first high-sensitivity detection of SOx species at mid-IR wavelengths with a near-room temperature, single-mode laser. The proposed Phase I effort will demonstrate the feasibility and sensitivity of detection of SO2 by this method, and will design a prototype instrument for delivery to NASA in Phase II.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The SOx sensor has commercial potential in the aerospace, chemical, petrochemical, and environmental monitoring industries. The sensor can be used as a fenceline contamination or pollution monitor at airports, petrochemical processing plants, or combustion-based power generation facilities.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

W. Terry Rawlins

Physical Sciences Inc.

20 New England Business Center

Andover , MA   01810 - 1077

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR

Physical Sciences Inc.

20 New England Business Center

Andover , MA   01810 - 1077

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 02.03-4800B (Chron: 991527 )

PROJECT TITLE

Turbine Burner for High Pressure Ratio, Low NOx Gas Turbine Engines

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

The turbine burner is an innovative, potentially revolutionary concept for very low emissions and increased specific thrust while maintaining or improving cycle efficiency through increased overall pressure ratio. Heat addition in the turbine burner between the low pressure and high pressure turbine (constant temperature heat addition) is a better approximation of the ideal Carnot cycle. Moving a portion of the full power heat addition from the main combustor to the turbine burner reduces peak flame temperature which can drastically reduce NOx emissions and improve turbine life. A turbine burner must be compact, lightweight, and durable (no risk of fuel passage coking), must rapidly mix the fuel and air at a very lean equivalence ratio (to keep NOx at negligible levels), and have very low pressure drop to be successful. A turbine burner that meets these requirements and is closely integrated with the low pressure turbine stator will be developed in this SBIR project.

The overall feasibility of the turbine burner will be assessed with a numerical approach in Phase I. Numerical analyses will be used to rapidly evaluate various concepts, demonstrate low NOx emissions at full power, and show that combustion in the turbine can be achieved with acceptable weight and cost penalties. In Phase II, selected concept(s) will be further optimized and tested in rig facilities in cooperation with General Electric Aircraft Engines.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The turbine burner concept developed in this SBIR program will result in decreases in NOx emissions and/or increases in thrust-to-weight ratio in advanced gas turbine engines. A successful turbine burner concept of this type would be a potentially revolutionary break-through. General Electric has expressed interest in the technology and development in Phase II will be targeted toward application in one of their engines.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

D. Scott Crocker

CFD Research Corporation

215 Wynn Dr.

Huntsville , AL 35805 - 1926

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

CFD Research Corporation

215 Wynn Dr.

Huntsville , AL 35805 - 1926

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 02.03-9500 (Chron: 991959 )

PROJECT TITLE

Multiple jet engine pollutant measurement with tunable diode laser arrays

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

This SBIR Phase1 project will involve the development of a novel method of simultaneously measuring multiple trace chemical species in jet engine exhaust, based upon an extension of the technology of tunable diode laser (TDL) spectroscopy. We will develop and demonstrate a new means of combining the light from two or more diode lasers into a single analysis beam. This will enable a multiplication of the number of chemical species which are simultaneously measured. The type of beam multiplexing technique which we intend to investigate has not been previously demonstrated in a TDL system. This type of measurement system will serve the needs of quantifying aircraft exhaust in several ways. The simultaneous measurement of minor constituents and either CO2 or H2O allows the determination of an emission index for the minor species. A greater number of simultaneous concentration measurements allows a better understanding of the basic chemistry of the combustion process and will enable development of engine systems with reduced emissions. The proposed technology can enhance existing TDL systems, including two currently used by NASA in combustion emissions studies, and others in use in atmospheric applications.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The innovation proposed here will simplify the optical layout for multiple diode laser instruments and result in a much more attractive commercial product than is presently available. Commercial markets include multiple species measurements in aircraft engine emission characterization and engine certification tests, automobile engine emission performance measurements, the semiconductor fabrication industry, petroleum industry geochemical prospecting, and industrial process monitoring. Research markets for this technology would include atmospheric research, air pollution monitoring, and greenhouse gas emission inventory determinations.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

John Barry McManus

Aerodyne Research, Inc.

45 Manning Road

Billerica , MA 01821 - 3976

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Aerodyne Research, Inc.

45 Manning Road

Billerica , MA 01821 - 3976

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 03.01-0822 (Chron: 992054 )

PROJECT TITLE

Expert System for Missile and Launch Vehicle Base Heating

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Base heating environment prediction for launch vehicles and missiles due to propulsion system exhaust plume/plume and exhaust plume/external flow interaction currently a complicated and very labor-intensive process.

Experienced analysts using data, empirical methods and/or Computational Fluid Dynamics models currently perform this process. Plumetech proposes to develop a Windows-based Expert System software package that integrates an experienced based convective base heating methodology with recently developed Artificial Intelligence methodologies for computing exhaust plume flowfields. With NASA becoming more directly involved in base heating environment specifications for new launch vehicle concepts, it is essential that plume induced environment models be developed that can be used to accurately evaluate launch vehicle design changes.

There are very few analysts left that possess the experience and expertise required to produce accurate missile and launch vehicle base heating environments. Accurate launch system design evaluations must be performed without compromising the quality of the analysis because of the lack of experience of the analysts with the current prediction techniques and models. The proposed Phase I study is innovative in that it combines recent advances in

Artificial Intelligence applied to plume modeling with new base heating methodologies that allow easy, accurate, and rapid computation of launch vehicle base environments.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The initial use for this technology is the specification of thermal design environments due to rocket exhaust plume/plume and plume/external flow interactions on launch vehicle and missile bases. The Phase II product will provide an accurate low cost product that can be used by private industry and government agencies to provide design environments and rapidly address the impact of design changes on safety margins of any system that is subject to base heating. This package will be easily marketable based on its versatility, simplicity, accuracy and ease of use by non-experts.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Sheldon D. Smith

Plumetech

1604 Willowbrook Dr.

Huntsville , AL 35802 - 3933

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Plumetech

1604 Willowbrook Dr.

Huntsville , AL 35802 - 3933

PROJECT TITLE: Quantifying Instability Sources in Liquid Rocket Engines

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

SECA, Inc. proposes to develop computational methodology to predict the effects of acoustic pressure oscillations on combusting flows in liquid rocket engines. The proposed methodology will serve to explain the causal physics of combustion driven acoustic resonances in liquid rocket engine combustor environments Relevant to the design strategy for controlling pressure oscillations and combustion instability. Problems arising from these processes are destructive pressure oscillations and temperature excursions which induce low and high cycle Fatigue in hot section components and in extreme cases engine failure. Such problems are particularly acute in hydrocarbon fueled engines which utilize impinger injector elements. Critical components of this methodology are: the computational algorithm in the flow solver, the chemical kinetics and spray dynamics of the combustion process, the turbulence model, the method of applying time accurate boundary conditions, and the geometric configurations of the propellant feed system and of the combustor. The proposed methodology will minimize the need for extensive, expensive trial-and-error testing which is the current design practice. The Phase II research shall validate the combusting flow methodology with an experimental study of subscale, but realistically configured, hydrocarbon liquid rocket engine combustor and analyze several full- scale combustors.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Potential users of combustor stability analysis include: NASA and DOD for liquid, solid, and hybrid rocket motors; NASA and Air Force for gas turbine engines; the Gas Research Institute for convensional and pulse gas burners; and DOE, TVA, and Southern Company Services for oil and coal burners.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Richard Farmer 
SECA, Inc. 
3313 Bob Wallace Ave., Suite #201 
Huntsville , AL   35805 - 4063

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR

SECA, Inc. 
3313 Bob Wallace Ave., Suite #201 
Huntsville , AL   35805 - 4063

PROJECT TITLE: Launch Vehicle Integrated Guidance Software - Reducing Operations Cost

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

The overall objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate an integrated guidance software system that addresses the end-to-end mission of an RLV (pre-flight planning through landing). The ultimate benefits from this technology will reduce operations (recurring) costs. The projected high flight rates based on current market studies (and necessary to keep per flight costs low) will require guidance software that is much less expensive to support and maintain relative to state of the practice approaches used in the launch industry today. Lowering operations costs involves; (1) reducing the manpower required to plan, design and validate the end-to-end mission, and (2) reducing the turn-around time of developing a validated, flight ready mission guidance load (in hours instead of months). Ascent, on-orbit, entry and abort guidance schemes will be linked to a streamlined, automated mission design environment to allow rapid mission development. Highly reliable mission software validation results from the tight coupling of the vehicle flight software in a real time flight equivalent processor integrated with a PC-based vehicle simulation environment. An improved, operationally efficient automated entry guidance algorithm will also be matured.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Significantly reducing operations cost required to design and validate the guidance system for existing launch vehicles. This enhancement will also enable lower cost expendable and re-usable launch vehicles.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Michael J. Mahoney 
Universal Space Lines, Inc. 
1501 Quail Street, Suite 102 
Newport Beach , CA   92660 - 2726

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR

Universal Space Lines, Inc. (USL) 
1501 Quail Street, Suite 102 
Newport Beach , CA   92660 - 2726

PROJECT TITLE: DESIGN OF A HIGH INTENSITY PULSED PLASMA (HIPP) PROPULSION SYSTEM

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Investigating what lies just outside our solar system has become important to understanding the dynamics of our solar system -- even to understanding the fate of our race. The possibility exists that large-scale future events, such as an increase in local interstellar gas density caused by an approaching dust cloud, may impact human existence. Such possibilities necessitate an active exploration of deep space to understand just what is out there. We propose to reinvestigate the concept of nuclear-device driven spacecraft for deep space missions. We intend to examine the feasibility of developing very low yield devices that will produce a suitable impulse to a specially designed craft. The impulse may be delivered to the craft by impact, ablation, or coupling to a magnetic field. We will also assess the architecture requirements for missions to 500 AU, to design a system that could perform such a mission, and to design a proof-of-concept experiment that would demonstrate a technology which is the basis of the system. Development of a system capable of delivering megajoules per kilogram will allow highly instrumented platforms to make fast missions to great distances. Such a development will open the trans-Pluto-neighborhood to humanity.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The commercial applications of nuclear devices has been examined in the past in Project Plowshare at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Though several were identified, the use of nuclear devices in the public domain is clearly not an option. Thus, we do not propose to develop commercial applications of the nuclear systems other than for future space missions. However, we do foresee several commercial possibilities for the techniques and computer codes that will be developed to complete this project. The MHD coupling of high-density, low-temperature plasmas to magnetic fields is an undeveloped realm in plasma physics. Extension of our capabilities to model such conditions could have application in fusion concepts, plasma deposition of materials, and the design of radiation shielding for future communications satellites. In addition, the application of plasma to enhance the properties of material surfaces is a new exciting region of research. Much of the work in this project involves accurate modeling of the plasma interactions with the surfaces of materials.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Dr. Steven D. Howe
Synergistic Technologies, Inc.
19 Karen Circle
Los Alamos , NM 87544 - 3797

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR

Synergistic Technologies, Inc.
19 Karen Circle
Los Alamos , NM 87544 - 3797

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 03.02-3646 (Chron: 991825 )

PROJECT TITLE

MagOrion-A Nuclear Propelled MagSail for Human Exploration of the Outer Planets

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Manned exploration beyond Mars requires very high specific energy. The only potential solution under discussion is fusion propulsion. However, fusion has been ten years away for forty years. We have an available solution that combines new technology with an old concept ? "Project Orion". The proposed "MagOrion" Propulsion System combines a magnetic sail (MagSail) with conventional small yield (0.5 to 1.0 kiloton) shaped nuclear fission devices. At detonation, roughly eighty percent of the yield appears as a highly-ionized plasma, and when detonated two kilometers behind a robust MagSail, approximately half of this plasma can be stopped and turned into thrust. A MagOrion can provide a system acceleration of one or more gravities with effective specific impulses ranging from 15,000 to 45,000 seconds. Dana Andrews and Robert Zubrin published a paper in 1997 that described the operating principles of the MagOrion. We have taken that concept through conceptual design to identify the major operational features and risks. During Phase I of the SBIR, we will quantify the system risks and establish either solutions or areas for risk mitigating demonstrations. The risks are considerable, but the potential payoff is staggering. Our proposed MagOrion will enable affordable exploration of the solar system.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Our MagOrion design is capable of delivering 100 metric tons to either Mars in 65 days or Jupiter in one year. It's high performance makes it the ideal choice as a reusable planetary space "freighter" to support human exploration of the solar system, development of scientific outposts, and even colonization. No other near term propulsion system, including Nuclear Thermal and Ion, can come close to matching the MagOrion's 20,000 seconds of specific impulse and half-million pounds of thrust. As we enter the third millennium, NASA has its sights set on Mars and destinations beyond. The MagOrion, which could be operating before the next decade is out, will enable NASA to cost effectively send human explorers to the primary planetary bodies of our solar system and establish bases on scientifically rich areas such as Mars and Europa. Where as the Space Shuttle is an Earth to orbit space taxi, the MagOrion is a planet to planet heavy lift space "freighter". Although the initial MagOrion customer is NASA, as humans turn to exploit space for its natural resources and entertainment potential, the low operating costs of the MagOrion (estimated at two thousand dollars per pound), could enable commercial ventures on other planets or moons.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Jason Andrews

Andrews Space & Technology

214 Main Street, PMB 195

El Segundo , CA 90245 - 6927

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Andrews Space & Technology

214 Main Street, PMB 195

El Segundo , CA 90245 - 3803

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 03.02-4646 (Chron: 992012 )

PROJECT TITLE

Friction Drag Reduction System

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Accurate Automation Corporation proposes to design a system for reducing the friction drag on an aircraft by introducing an ion space charge into the aircraft's boundary layer. We will develop a detailed model for the drag reduction mechanism; evaluate the system performance; evaluate alternative electromagnetic and/ or mechanical processes for generating a space charge in the boundary layer of an aircraft from a bipolar weakly ionized gas; and design a wind tunnel experiment to evaluate the technology. The wind tunnel experiment will be fabricated and tested, and a conceptual design for a flight test aircraft will be performed in Phase II. This is the solution to a successful Phase III flight test, evaluation and production program.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Phase III customers of the proposed program will be DoD, NASA, BMDO, and aerospace prime contractors. Applications of developed WIG technology are numerous; from business jets to rockets to military jet fighters to Naval vessels. Commercialization of this technology will be heavily directed toward the civil aviation industry with applications to the growing and very competitive transonic business jet market. AAC will also leverage the technology to compete with the large aerospace companies on new defense applications.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Richard E. Saeks, Ph.D.

Accurate Automation Corporation

7001 Shallowford Road

Chattanooga , TN 37421 - 1716

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Accurate Automation Corporation

7001 Shallowford Road

Chattanooga , TN 37421 - 1716

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 03.02-6016B (Chron: 992689 )

PROJECT TITLE

A Fissioning Plasma Core Reactor Powered MHD-MPD Propulsion System

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

An advanced nuclear electric propulsion system based on gaseous and liquid droplet core reactor (GCR) with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) power conversion is proposed. The energy of the partially ionized fissioning gas in GCR is directly coupled to the applied magnetic field of the MHD generator to achieve high conversion efficiency at high temperatures. The high operating temperature of the combined GCR-MHD power generation system provides a unique flexibility for weight and size reduction in heat rejection radiator, which are the most dominate part of such high power systems. For multimegawatt power operation, the system features core outlet temperatures of 3000 to 5000 K at pressures of about 10 to 100 atm, MHD temperatures of 2000 to 3000 K, and radiator temperatures of 1200 to 2500 K. This combination of parameters offers the potential for low total system specific mass in the range of .5 to 2.5 kg/KWe.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Low cost space transportation for deployment asset in mid to far space orbits.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Travis Knight

New Era Technolgy, Inc. (NETECH)

2435 NW 36th Terrace

Gainesville , FL 32605 - 2633

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

New Era Technology, Inc. (NETECH)

2435 NW 36th Terrace

Gainesville , FL 32605 - 2633

PROJECT TITLE: Heatpipe Power System (HPS) In-Space Fueling, A Simplified Approach

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

A major objection to the use of nuclear energy for space applications is the perceived risk involved in the launching of a fully fueled nuclear reactor. Even when it is pointed out that the fuel is in fact not radioactive, concerns persist. It is acknowledged that to design a reactor able to withstand all conceivable launch accidents would result in an impractical heavy design. To avoid the above problem and to put to rest any concerns, it is proposed that the reactor be launched without fuel or partially fueled to avoid any possibility of the reactor attaining criticality in the event of a launch accident. This SBIR proposal describes an innovative approach to permit the reactor to be fueled in space in a simple operation.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

It is acknowledged that full commercialization of space will require major sources of energy in a compact form. The only currently feasible energy source for the foreseeable future is nuclear. The use of nuclear energy has been repearably frustrated by the concerns described above. Whether or not those concerns are viewed as realistic, in the current climate it is unlikely that nuclear energy will get off the ground unless these concerns are satisfactorily addressed. The approach described in this SBIR effectively puts these concerns at rest.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Frank Wiltshire

AMM

1798 Technology Dr

San Jose , CA   95110 - 0000

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR

Advanced Methods and  Materials (AMM)

1798 Technology Dr

San Jose , CA   95110 - 1306

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 03.03-4200 (Chron: 992401 )

PROJECT TITLE

Space Durable Flexible Tether

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

On this Phase I Program, Triton Systems will develop a novel and innovative multifunctional, multi-strand space tether that will have lower weight, lower volume, and improved flexibility compared to state of the art electrodynamic tethers. Our innovative approach will use an available high strength metal clad fiber with proven space environment resistant coatings that provide tailorable surface emissivity and conductivity. The new tether can be woven or braided into a multi-strand tether. The Phase I effort will characterize different size fiber and weight % of metal cladding for candidate tethers, leading to a down-selected tether type. In late Phase I and early Phase II, developed tethers will be measured for diameter, weight, strength, flexibility, thermal-optical characteristics, conductivity and insulation properties. The Triton team will develop, with NASA testing, a Phase II Prototype tether, and Triton will then develop a Phase III commercial tether product.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

There is significant commercial potential for the space tethers to be developed under this program. All space vehicles in LEO orbit could use electrodynamic tethers for reboosting, deboosting, and for end of orbit to minimize space debris. Tethers of the type developed here will be needed on most or all future space vehicles.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Peter Schuler

Triton Systems, Inc.

200 Turnpike Road

Chelmsford , MA 01824 - 4000

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Triton Systems, Inc.

200 Turnpike Road

Chelmsford , MA 01824 - 4000

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 03.04-1980A (Chron: 992137 )

PROJECT TITLE

A Refractory Composite X-33 Thrust Chamber

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Lightweight, lower life-cycle cost and increased performance for next generation space propulsion systems such as ucooled thrust chambers and nozzles are essential to achieve the goals of the Access to Space Initiative.

The weight of the X-33 thrust chamber now made in silicated columbium can be reduced by at least 75% when constructed in SiC/SiC composites as well as providing increased temperature performance. A team of MER and Aerojet proposes to optimize reinforcement architecture in SiC/SiC composites that have five times the thermal conductivity of state-of-the-art SiC/SiC which dramatically reduces thermal stresses including investigating matrix doping with ZrC to minimize nozzle erosion and increase operation temperature and performance. The composite properties will be modeled to design an X-33 thrust chamber which will be fabricated in Phase I for test in Phase II.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The commercial applications in addition to rocket engines include combustors in gas turbins, burner tubes, internatl combustion engine components, furnace fixtures, brakes, electronic boards and thermal managements planes, etc.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Dr. J.C. Withers

MER Corporation

7960 S Kolb Rd

Tucson , AZ 85706 - 9237

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

MER Corporation

7960 S. Kolb Rd.

Tucson , AZ 85706 - 9237

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 03.04-6365 (Chron: 992209 )

PROJECT TITLE

Solid Freeform Fabrication of ZrC/WRe Composites for Propulsion Applications

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

The goal of this program is to develop a rapid and low-cost solid free form fabrication (SFF) technique to produce critical non-eroding propulsion components. The propulsion materials required for these applications must be able to demonstrate excellent ablation and oxidation resistance at temperature approaching 3000 deg. C, an adequate load bearing capabilities, non-catastrophic failure modes, and be able to withstand transient thermal shock.

Under previous NASA program ACR has developed carbide-based Fibrous Monolith composites and High Pressure Extrusion Rapid Prototyping of Ceramics. Recently, ACR has had success with the consolidation of FM composites by Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). The implication of this success is that green ceramic parts grown directly from a Rapid Prototyping Machine can be directly loaded with no additional tooling into a HIP and consolidated to near net shape, regardless of their geometric complexity. This eliminates labor intensive hand lay-up processing, tooling, and costand process limitations of Hot Pressing. To this end, ACR proposes to develop a SFF processing and HIP consolidation to fabricate low cost near net shape ZrC/WRe FM ceramic composite components for propulsion-related applications.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The proposed technology has tremendous potential for commercial applications. Ceramic composites produced by Fibrous Monolith technology are proven materials propulsion-related applications. In conjuction with SFF and hot isostatic pressing, these materials will be produced at a lower cost and faster rate, making them more attractive for high temperature propulsion related applications.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Mark Rigali

Advanced Ceramics Research

3292 East Hemisphere Loop

Tucson , AZ 85706 - 5013

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Advanced Ceramics Research, Inc.

3292 East Hemsiphere Loop

Tucson , AZ 85706 - 5013

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 03.05-0822 (Chron: 992032 )

PROJECT TITLE

Unified Test Stand Design and Environmental Model

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

The design of propulsion test stands and impact of new engines on existing test stands and surrounding environments requires the calculation of exhaust plume environments (pressure, radiative and convective heating, acoustics and environmental contamination). The current process is very labor-intensive and requires the use of a multitude of individual non-interacting models that requires several experts. Plumetech (PT) proposes to develop a PC Windows-based software package that integrates a CAD geometry module with the individual components of plume induced environments that can be used by personnel not versed in all models, to rapidly calculated the plume induced environments and determine the subsequent impact on the design, the environment and hardware in the area surrounding the stand. With NASA becoming more directly involved in test stand design and testing of propulsion systems, it is essential that NASA have the ability to provide the environments and determine the impact of the environments on test stands in a rapid, cost effective manner. The proposed Phase I study is innovative as it combines recent CAD surface geometry modeling advances with plume, plume induced environment and thermal response models that allow easy, accurate, and rapid computation/evaluation of the impact of the induced environments on test stands.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The initial use for this technology is the specification of pressure, thermal, acoustic and environmental design environments and the impact of the environments on the test stands and surrounding structure and environment.

The Phase II product will provide an accurate low cost product that can be used by private industry and government agencies to provide design environments and rapidly address the impact of design changes on safety margins of any engine testing facility. This package will be easily marketable based on its versatility, simplicity, accuracy and ease of use by personnel who are not experts in all aspects of plume induced environment and/or test stand design.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Sheldon D. Smith

Plumetech

1604 Willowbrook Dr.

Huntsville , AL 35802 - 3933

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

Plumetech

1604 Willowbrook Dr.

Huntsville , AL 35802 - 3933

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 03.05-1460A (Chron: 991771 )

PROJECT TITLE

On-Line Propellant Monitoring System

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Current rocket engine test, propellant quality sampling techniques require multi-point sample extraction and laboratory analysis. This is time consuming and expensive. NexGen Research proposes to develop a remotely distributed, multi-point, in-line, continuous monitoring system that will detect both particulate matter and trace contaminants in propellants and support gases in real time. NexGen will integrate miniaturized fiber optic based turbidity sensors and state-of-the-art fiber optic micromirror chemical sensor technology with remote, microprocessor based, signal processing to yield a low cost, reliable propellant system monitor that is intrinsically safe for explosive mixtures and free from electromagnetic interference. The fiber optic nature of the sensors (small size, light weight, low power requirements, ruggedness, reliability, and long distance telemetry) will allow for many low cost sensors to be distributed throughout the facility at critical points, including supplier inlets and test article supply ports. Real time, multi-point, monitoring will improve the overall quality control and lower facility operational costs. This Phase I project will demonstrate the proof of concept by fabricating and testing a small fiber optic based turbidity sensor for the detection of particulate mater, and two fiber optic chemical sensors for the detection of hydrocarbon and water trace contaminants.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The distributed, multi-point, fiber optic based sensor is a novel approach to both chemical sensing and turbidity measurement and will have wide spread uses in both military and commercial applications. The turbidity sensor can be used anywhere particulate contamination in liquid or gas is of interest and samples are being taken. This includes such applications as: aviation fuel monitoring, industrial process monitoring, water production, and waste water treatment. The moisture and hydrocarbon sensors also have many uses in industrial and environmental monitoring applications.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address,

City/State/Zip)

Mark Wuestling

NexGen Research Corporation

12710 Hoover St.

Garden Grove , CA 92841 - 4167

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)

NexGen Research Corporation

12710 Hoover Street

Garden Grove , CA 92841 - 4167

PROJECT TITLE: Miniature Sapphire Propulsion Sensor Suite

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Miniature, low cost, high-temperature instrumentation is needed for rocket propulsion testing and other aerospace applications. F&S and their development partners propose a miniature sapphire propulsion sensor suite capable of measuring hydrogen, temperature, pressure, and wall shear stress to temperatures in excess of 1500oC. Each of these sensors uses F&S' patented extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer (EFPI) technology to measure critical propulsion test parameters. During this Phase I program, F&S will focus on developing and demonstrating sapphire hydrogen and temperature sensors for propulsion test applications. These sensors will then be integrated with sapphire pressure and wall shear stress transducers currently under development by F&S through development of a common, low cost, high frequency, multi-channel measurement system. In the Phase II portion of this program, F&S will focus on ruggedization, optimization, and commercialization of the multi parameter measurement system and demonstrate the system at NASA Stennis Space Center and industry beta sites. F&S has a successful history of bringing novel fiber optic sensing concepts from the laboratory to marketable products and will use this experience to ensure near-term markets of the system.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

The proposed sensor instrumentation suite will find widespread commercial application in propulsion and high speed aircraft and spacecraft development, nuclear, chemical and material processing, and automotive industries.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Thomas Wavering 

F&S, Inc. 

2851 Commerce Street 

Blacksburg , VA   24060 - 6657

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR

F&S, Inc. 

2851 Commerce Street 

Blacksburg , VA   24060 - 6657

PROJECT TITLE: Improved Components for Cryogenic Propellant Transfer Systems

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Technology for ground testing of propulsion systems is often as demanding as that of the flight system. While weight is not a restriction, reliability, cost, safety and performance are important. In particular, long-life, liquid-oxygen- compatible seal technology is essential to reduce recurring costs and provide personnel/equipment safety. A new material surfacing process, Laser Induced Surface Improvement (LISIsm), has demonstrated technical properties that make it promising for this application. The patent-pending surface alloying process permits a wide variety of metal and/or ceramic ingredients to be incorporated in a thin surface coating on component metals of interest. LISIsm forms unique non- equilibrium alloys with enhanced properties; i.e., properties not possible in bulk materials. The surface is permanent; i.e., cannot be separated via physical abuse or thermal cycling. The surface alloy can contain constituents that make it less susceptible to liquid oxygen, yet have hardness as required to protect from particulate scratching. Other research has focused on the process to make sealing surfaces softer (for better sealing) and to protect Inconnel from hydrogen embrittlement. Phase I will experiment with designated surface additives to substrate materials of interest. Phase II will extend these results to real hardware which can be tested in an operating environment.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Ground-based transfer systems for cryogenic fluids is a big business, both for the U.S. Government and commercial interests. In particular, the production of liquid-oxygen-compatible components which are not scratch-sensitive and are longer lasting can make LISIsm surface alloying a necessary part of production. This technology will permit safer, more reliable and probably less-costly components. High-pressure air systems may also benefit from the research. Many businesses that are not space related use cryogens.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Michael A. Riley 
Surface Treatment Technologies, Inc. 
P.O. Box 907, 1940 Elk River Dam Road 
Tullahoma , TN   37388 - 9998

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR

Surface Treatment Technologies, Inc. 
P.O. Box 907, 1940 Elk River Dam Road 
Tullahoma , TN   37388 - 9998

PROPOSAL NUMBER 99-1 03.06-2624 (Chron: 991906 )

PROJECT TITLE

In-Mold Electron-Beam Curing of Large Resin Transfer Molded Composites

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Radius Engineering proposes to develop in-mold electron-beam (e-beam) curing of large, one-piece, integrated composite structures produced by resin transfer molding (RTM). The key to in-mold e-beam curing lies with the unique open lattice tooling structure and materials that have been engineered by Radius to minimized attenuation of the e-beam during curing. The open lattice structure results in a tool that is nearly an order of magnitude lower in density with a concurrent increase in curing efficiency than current tooling appro