The accurate prediction of the performance of a helicopter rotor in hover is critical to the success of the design. a novel approach to the solution of the helicopter free wake hover problem is addressed by finding the self-preserving wake shape which is steady in blade-fixed coordinates. the… More

This project addresses development of advanced computationaltechniques for analysis of transient and three-dimensional effects within rocket engines. the computational efficiencyof these numerical analogs allows calculation of the complexflows which accompany the transient operation of real engines.… More

There does not exist today a unified means of evaluating the vortex intensity behind commercial jet liners prior to prototype development and testing at fullscale. over the past several years, data and analytical developments have provided much additional technology which may make possible the… More

Under ifr conditions, airport capacity is currently limited by faa separation standards between aircraft. these standards are set to avoid a landing encounter with a vortex wake. if an onboard vortex sensor an escape system could be developed which is both reliable and inexpensive, the a aviation… More

United states semi-trailer vans expend over 10,000,000,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year moving air around the vehicles. this needless waste of fuel increases our import oil dependency, as well as adds needless diesel exhaust carcinogens into our atmosphere. recently, congress has enacted… More

The collapse of a steam bubble in a pool of subcooled water is known to result in the radiation of pressure waves of enormous magnitude. these pressure waves can be used to fracture materials and/or remove material if they can be directed. development of a nozzle is proposed which will direct… More

Techniques are developed for the effective hierarchical control of large-scale processes. industrial processes are usually characterized by such attributes as large dimension ality, the interaction of many subsystems, multiple time- scales dynamic behavior, model uncertainties, and conflict ing… More

Over the past several years, under government and commercialsupport, continuum dynamics, inc. has made significant progress in computing the unsteady wakes of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. this progress, for the most part, resulted from the successful development of the basic curvedvortex element… More

Over the past several years, under government and commercial support, continuum dynamics, inc. has made considerable progress in computing the unsteady wakes of rotary wing aircraft. this progress has resulted largely from the successful development of the basic curved vortex element (bcve), as a… More

The importance of reducing the noise of the helicopter tail rotor has been recognized for many years. however, both the prediction of tail-rotor noise and the development of low noise designs has been impeded by poor ability to simulate noise-generating interactions between the main-rotor wake and… More

The rotorcraft community has a continuing need for improved design techniques for hover and axial flight. such techniques can be employed to best advantage if they are coupled with numerical optimization methods. this coupling would minimize trial and error computations when searching for… More

The reaction forces required to overcome the thrust of a handline nozzle creates tiring and unsafe conditions for fire fighters, restricts their ability to control the nozzleand also limits the pressures and flow rates which can be used to control a fire. it is demonstrated, based on newton's laws… More

There is growing evidence that under very heavy rainfall rates, airfoils will suffer aerodynamic performance penalties. rainfall rates and liquid water content (lwc) are directly correlated. nasa testing planned for later this year will attempt to quantify these penalties as a function of lwc to… More

The proposed research will test a novel and fundamentally different approach to calculations of aeroelastic and structural response of compressor and turbine engine rotors.the first phase of this effort will attempt to demonstrate the feasibility of coupling a finite difference euler code to a… More

United states semi-trailer vans expend over 10 billion gallons of diesel fuel per year moving air around the vehicles. this needless waste of fuel increases our import oil dependency, as well as adds needless diesel exhaust carcinogens into our atmosphere. recently, congresshas enacted legislation… More

The importance of reducing the noise emitted by helicopter rotors has been widely recognized for many years. previous work by continuum dynamics in the analysis of rotor aeroacoustics led to the development of an efficient and accurate lagrangian simulation of the unsteady vorticity field in the… More

The use of chlorofluorocarbons (cfc) as refrigerants/workingin air conditioning systems and their subsequent leakage, isa recognized major cause of the depletion of the ozone layer. the development of a novel new air conditioning system which eliminates the air conditioning cfc emission problem is… More

The ultimate goal of the phase i and phase ii efforts of this project is to develop a fast o(nlogn) or o(n) computational method for the treatment of a three-dimensional, unsteady, reactive flow on a concurrent computer. in the phase i feasibility study, a robust o(n(4/3)) three-dimensional vortex… More

Fuel jettisoned by aircraft in flight may pose an environmental hazard. recent decisions to convert from jp-4 jet fuel to the less volatile jp-8 jet fuel means that the likelihood for ground encounter by the jettisoned fuel is substantially increased. what is needed, for not only the u.s. air force… More

Military rotorcraft will need a high degree of maneuverng capability to survive in the future battlefield operations. Conventional design methods and blade control technology offer only limited means for improving current maneuver performance levels. As a consequence, alternate technologies… More

Researchers are developing a parallel 3-d fast boundary element method with enhanced computational speed low storage requirement, and reduced interprocessor communication overhead. a preliminary 2-d calculation demonstrated the feasibility of the method. it is based on an application of a fast… More

A need to extend current second order accurate finitevolume-based flow solvers to higher order accuracy is identified.To meet this goal, a higher order compact strategy for modelingunsteady compressible and viscous flows is proposed. By formingspatia

The erosion of the river bed around bridge piers is commonly known as local scour and is induced by the recirculating juncture flow at the intersection of the pier and the river bed. bridge failure caused by this phenomenon has long been an important issue with respect to both public safety and… More

A novel instrumentation system is proposed for use in flight testing rotorcaraft to determine individual rotor blade motions and loads. Estimation of rotor blade loads and motions are required for validation of advanced high-fidelity simulators in both military flight training and operational… More

Current time-marching methods for assessing periodic blade loads consume inordinate computational time, greatly restricting analysis and design based on such approaches. This study seeks to redress this drawback by implementing a novel time-domain decomposition algorithm on a parallel computer. This… More

TELEPHONE NUMBER: (609) 734-9282 AWARDEE NUMBER: 1 R43 GM50132-01 The ultimate goal is to develop advanced computational tools, based on finite element and fast hierarchical multipole methods, for the realistic, large-scale numerical simulation of polyelectrolyte DNA supercoils using… More

Effective modelling of transonic flow, viscous effects and the prediction of noise remain serious challenges for existing computational rotorcraft analyses. The goal of this project is to couple new and innovative computational techniques into Continuum Dynamics, Inc.'s RotorCRAFT/AA analysis to… More

Control of trailing vortex wakes is an important challenge for both military and civilian applications. Ingestion of concentrated vortices in propellers can lead to undesirable noise in submarines, while the encounter of aircraft wakes with following aircraft presents a significant safety hazard… More

Helicopter vibration due to nonidentical inertial and aerodynamic properties of rotor blades continues to plague Army aviation maintenance personnel. This vibration manifests itself at the rotor rotational frequency, and is currently controlled through the addition of blade root and tip weights and… More

An improved computer module for representing rotor flow field effects on flight dynamics response is proposed for development. This model extends finite-state dynamic inflow models to address current limitations in predicting rotorcraft off-axis response to control inputs. The software module … More

An innovative combination of key contributors to ejection seat/capsule aerodynamic modeling, controller and sequencer design, and biodynamic simulation are to be integrated under the framework of a commercial software simulation tool for this Phase I project. The use of a commercial simulation… More

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop an improved bucket design that will revolutionize the approach to fire suppression. Helicopters now use slung buckets to deliver water, retardants and foam to fire sites. The urgency of time (fire control lines must be… More

To fully exploit the adverse weather potential of tilt-rotor aircraft, an ice detection system is required both for caution and warning and for management of ice protection systems. Appropriate ice detection capability will offer improved power consumption along with improved performance (e.g.,… More

Tilt rotor aircraft are required to operate in flight conditions ranging from hover and low speed edgewise flight to high speed cruise. It is not possible to achieve optimal performance in all flight conditions with rotor blades with a fixed twist distribution. The goal of this project is to conduct… More

Erosion of aerodynamic components by rain has traditionally been studied with a rotating arm, where the component is swung into a water spray simulating rainfall. This method, for obvious reasons, is not well suited for testing componets that are large and heavy. Arnold Engineering Development… More

It has been well documented that pilot ejection injuries drastically increase with increasing dynamic pressure. Further, in combat situations pilots tend to eject at much higher airspeeds leading to even higher injury rates. With the evolution of higher performance aircraft it is critical that we… More

This Phase I project will investigate using scrap tires to form a protective system for mitigating local scour around bridge piers. Local scour is the erosion of the riverbed around bridge piers, which is induced by the recirculating juncture flow at the intersection of the pier and the riverbed. … More

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop an improved bucket design that will revolutionize the approach to fire suppression. Helicopters now use slung buckets to deliver water, retardants and foam to fire sites. The urgency of time (fire control lines must be… More

An innovative combination of key contributors to ejection seat/capsule aerodynamic modeling, controller and sequencer design, and biodynamic simulation are to be integrated under the framework of a commercial software simulation tool for this Phase I project. The use of a commercial simulation… More

The optimum aircraft location for the placement of chaff (expendables) dispensers could be of significant importance for the safety of an aircraft under attack by hostile forces. This optimum location depends on the ambient flow field aroundthe aircraft, and the specific characteristics of the… More

Controlling main rotor blade-vortex interaction (BVI) noise is a central issue both in detectability of military helicopters and community acceptance of rotorcraft operations. Research to date has produced substantial insight into the BVI phenomenon, though attemps to formulate practical design or… More

Continuum Dynamics, Inc. (CDI) proposes to develop an advanced modeling capability to assess the environmental impact of sonic boom penetration and its effect upon marine mammals. The approach will utilize Computational Aeroacoustics (CAA) numerical techniques which allow the generation and… More

Not Available State-of-the-art thermal control technologies are limited in their ability and increasingly unsatisfactory in their ability to provide the performance desired for chip level electronics and aerospace applications. This effort seeks to develop novel Germanium-based quantum confined… More

Rapidly maturing smart materials technology can enable a newgeneration of turning devices for naval surface vessels. Theproposed effort will develop a new

The development of new, active flow control devices will be critical to meeting the NASA Aerospace Technology Enterprise goals of reducing air travel costs by 25% in 10 years and 50% in 25 years. Continuum Dynamics, Inc. (CDI) proposes the development of a new ¿pop-up¿ vortex generator (PUVG)… More

This SBIR Phase II project will confirm the drift reduction potential of the wingtip-mounted device developed in Phase I, through fabrication, installation on an agricultural aircraft, and field testing of the optimized design. Off-target drift of pesticides and herbicides during aerial spray… More

This SBIR Phase II project will confirm the drift reduction potential of the wingtip-mounted device developed in Phase I, through fabrication, installation on an agricultural aircraft, and field testing of the optimized design. Off-target drift of pesticides and herbicides during aerial spray… More

DESCRIPTION (Verbatim from the Applicant's Abstract): The objective of the proposed effort is to develop a hand-held aerosol inhalation delivery system, based on ultrasonic atomization, to replace or augment current metered dose inhalers for both solutions and suspensions.… More

DESCRIPTION (Verbatim from the Applicant's Abstract): The objective of the proposed effort is to develop a hand-held aerosol inhalation delivery system, based on ultrasonic atomization, to replace or augment current metered dose inhalers for both solutions and suspensions.… More

This research will revolutionize commercial software for heat conduction by using non-Fourier conduction to predict transient temperatures in solids. Here

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a novel mechanical means of reducing the skin friction of surfaces immersed in water. The concept to be analyzed and tested shows promise of reducing skin friction by 30 percent. The passive device would be fabricated in… More

Recent developments have illustrated the tremendous potential of very small-scale rotorcraft (Micro Rotorcraft or MRCs) for entirely new missions such as remote sensing, surveillance, and autonomous exploration. Vehicle design at this scale is constrained by performance limitations inherent in… More

Military and commercial aircraft use non-slip treatments on upper areas of the aircraft to provide safe walking surfaces for maintenance personnel and pilots during routine service operations and, in some cases, cockpit access. Current non-slip surfacetreatments for aircraft rely on fixed surface… More

A novel physics-based real-time computational method of representing the airwake of Navy ships to support rotorcraft shipboard landing simulation studies is proposed for research and development. In this method, the unsteady ship airwake is modeled usingvortex doublet elements shed from sharp edges… More

"In many applications of current and near-future interest, significant departures from Fourier's law are observed in the thermal conduction processes of engineering materials important to Army applications. Such discrepancies may result in inadequateprotection, excessive weight or premature… More

Recent developments have illustrated the tremendous potential of very small-scale rotorcraft (Micro Rotorcraft or MRCs) for entirely new missions such as remote sensing, surveillance, and autonomous exploration. Vehicle design at this scale is constrained by performance limitations inherent in… More

Recent developments have illustrated the tremendous potential of very small-scale rotorcraft (Micro Rotorcraft or MRCs) for entirely new missions such as remote sensing, surveillance, and autonomous exploration. Vehicle design at this scale is constrained by performance limitations inherent in… More

The development of new, active flow control devices will be critical to meeting the NASA Aerospace Technology Enterprise goals of reducing air travel costs by 25% in 10 years and 50% in 25 years. Continuum Dynamics, Inc. (CDI) proposes the development of a new ¿pop-up¿ vortex generator (PUVG)… More

A potentially key element of meeting NASA?s objective of dramatically increasing aviation system capacity is the utilization of runway independent aircraft (RIAs) to provide feeder service to major airports. Among the challenges in enabling high-volume terminal area RIA operations are identifying… More

The development of new, active flow control devices will be critical to meeting the NASA Aerospace Technology Enterprise goals of reducing air travel costs by 25% in 10 years and 50% in 25 years. Continuum Dynamics, Inc. (CDI) proposes the development of a new ¿pop-up¿ vortex generator (PUVG)… More

Active boundary layer control is effective in controlling boundary layer dynamics, but imposes a penalty because of the power and hardware required. In Phase I a family of self-excited Flow Driven Oscillating Vortex Generators (FDOVGs), which oscillate at frequencies where the induced vortical flows… More

Active boundary layer control is effective in controlling boundary layer dynamics, but imposes a penalty because of the power and hardware required. In Phase I a family of self-excited Flow Driven Oscillating Vortex Generators (FDOVGs), which oscillate at frequencies where the induced vortical flows… More

A potentially key element of meeting NASA?s objective of dramatically increasing aviation system capacity is the utilization of runway independent aircraft (RIAs) to provide feeder service to major airports. Among the challenges in enabling high-volume terminal area RIA operations are identifying… More

"The hot gas and steam environment during launch of a carrier-based aircraft can impact engine performance by forcing operation at off-design conditions and by introducing fluid dynamical instabilities. The development of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) andthe need to characterize carrier operating… More

"Proper simulation-based assessment of aircraft launch and recovery operations from Navy vessels is critically dependent upon the availability of accurate models of the airwake environment surrounding the ship. Current airwake models in use, however, arelimited to simulating only steady ship… More

"The Navy has reached the limit of propulsor system development based on conventional steady state aerodynamic theories. Further advances only appear possible through the innovative application of unsteady lift concepts like those found in biological formsof flight. Continuum Dynamics, Inc.… More

"The coming generation of small, lightweight UAVs will require new quiet propeller designs to maximize acoustic stealth while building on off-the-shelf hardware and leveraging existing design technology to minimize cost. To meet an aggressive developmentschedule, it is necessary to exploit… More

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a novel method of UV curing composite structures that will extend UV curing techniques to any size, thickness, or shape composite and with any type of reinforcing fiber by uniformly distributing UV light throughout a composite… More

Two novel approaches for providing de-icing of aerodynamic surfaces are proposed for research and development. The first represents a ?snap through? actuation mechanism that can abruptly and reversibly alter the shape of aerodynamic surfaces in-flight to discrete self-locking positions. The… More

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will produce a prototype low-rate fluid flow instrument for nuclear power plants that incorporates several novel features that permit its use as a clamp-on measurement device having minimal installation costs and complications. By… More

Attempts to simulate the dynamic interface (DI) environment of landing aircraft onto Navy ships typically incorporate extensive approximations in both the component aerodynamic models and their interaction. These lower fidelity models are employed in orderto achieve real-time throughput speeds… More

A software toolkit is to be developed to support Visual Landing Aid (VLA) design and development on the PC platform using Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) constructs. The tools leverage considerable corporate experience at Continuum Dynamics inthe application of VRML 3D modeling for a… More

A novel, cost effective method to subject test materials to rain erosion at supersonic speeds is proposed. The facility supports the BMDO/MDA mission to develop, test and flight qualify launch vehicle components during boost phase through adverseenvironment conditions including rain. The proposed… More

To fulfill the mission performance requirements for the coming generation of Army VTOL UAVs and manned rotorcraft, design tools are required that can encompass both the wide range of possible multirotor configurations and the technical challenges ofanalyzing realistic, integrated airframes. In… More

Acquisition cost reductions for future Army manned rotorcraft and UAVs will require advanced testing tools to support design development prior to flight testing. All too often, rotorcraft suffer from interactional aerodynamic effects that prolong theintroduction of new aircraft, while configuration… More

The proposed Phase II effort develops a bio-inspired delay stall propulsor (BDSP) concept employing delayed stall unsteady lift enhancement to increase the lift on propeller blades without adding any complexity to the propulsor. The approach is simple tomanufacture, rugged, and easy to retrofit into… More

The proposed Phase II effort develops a bio-inspired delay stall propulsor (BDSP) concept employing delayed stall unsteady lift enhancement to increase the lift on propeller blades without adding any complexity to the propulsor. The approach is simple tomanufacture, rugged, and easy to retrofit into… More

The Phase II program proposed here represents a novel approach to provide a PC-based tool for the design and evaluation of Visual Landing Aids (VLAs) in supporting Naval aviation launch and recovery operations. The software is based on the use of a suite of tools built around Virtual Reality… More

In Phase I, a demonstration SUpersonic Rain Erosion (SURE) facility was developed which demonstrated the capability of producing spherical, millimeter-sized droplets repeatedly at velocities up to 1200 feet per second. Data were collected to extend the speed range of the facility and droplet size. … More

Current Navy simulations for representing Dynamic Interface (DI) operations are often restricted to include only one aircraft interacting with a ship airwake structure. Phase I work identified extensions to Continuum Dynamics, Inc.'s CHARM module for computing free vortex wake structures from… More

Current turbomachinery designs have been optimized, for the most part, using "average flow" design concepts and tools. Future advances in engine performance, especially with regard to increasing per stage pressure ratio, stall margins, and reduced sensitivity to inlet distortion in… More

Enabling a new generation of high speed civil aircraft will require breakthrough developments in propulsion design, including novel techniques to optimize inlet performance across a wide speed range. Maximizing propulsive performance while minimizing weight and mechanical complexity is a key goal… More

Accurate performance prediction is crucial to the simulation, analysis and flight testing support of rotorcraft. In this regard, current analysis tools inadequately model key phenomena like blade dynamic stall, rotor tip loads, and rotor downwash because of their failure to predict the true… More

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will produce a prototype low-rate fluid flow instrument for nuclear power plants that incorporates several novel features that permit its use as a clamp-on measurement device having minimal installation costs and complications. By… More

Enabling a new generation of high-speed civil aircraft will require breakthrough developments in propulsion systems, including novel techniques to optimize inlet performance in multiple operating conditions. Maximizing propulsive performance while minimizing weight and mechanical complexity is a… More

Accurate rotorcraft performance prediction is essential to both the design and development of rotorcraft, and also the support of flight testing, establishing of safe flight envelopes and analysis of flight operations. While current Lagrangian- and Eulerian-based analysis tools can, in principle,… More

A critical operational problem for current Army rotorcraft is the prediction of landing conditions in a sand/dust/snow laden environment where rotorwash picks up loose ground cover leading to a condition of obscured visibility known as "brownout". The proposed effort will develop both a… More

A critical operational problem for Army rotorcraft is "brownout" caused by excessive dust and debris kicked up by helicopter rotorwash during take-off and landing. This can eliminate visibility and severely damage engine parts and rotor blades. Brownout is causing significant hazards for… More

UAV operations in known icing conditions present a problem whose solution critically depends upon their flight testing in artificial icing environments. Unfortunately, instrumentation, control, and operational procedures have yet to be developed to support this testing behind manned aircraft, such… More

This proposal outlines a plan for enhancing and integrating new breakthrough technologies to provide accurate real-time noise prediction of V/STOL aircraft in maneuvering flight within a flight simulation environment. Loading, thickness and BVI noise sources, which often dominate the noise… More

This proposal provides research and development of an autonomous UAV upset recovery control system to enhance survivability during operations outside the normal flight envelope. Unmanned aircraft, like manned aircraft, are susceptible to upsets resulting from aerodynamic disturbances, icing,… More

Current technology aerial refueling drogues cannot accommodate the desired range of Navy/Marine refueling missions in a single design configuration. A novel drogue design approach that incorporates aeroelastic structural elements, capable of accommodating a wide range of flight speeds and aircraft… More

Noise mitigation for subsonic transports is a continuing high priority, and recent work has identified successful exhaust mixing enhancement devices that have demonstrated substantial capability for reducing aircraft engine noise in critical takeoff and landing conditions. Existing fixed-geometry… More

Two novel flight control actuation concepts for UAV applications are proposed for research and development, both of which incorporate shape memory alloy (SMA) wires as prime movers. These actuators promise considerable savings in weight, power, and volume over existing electomechanical and… More

Continuum Dynamics, Inc. (CDI) has developed a Multiple Aircraft Simulation Tool (MAST) that revolutionizes the ability to predict and assess wake interactions associated with multiple aircraft operating in the vicinity of one another. This tool incorporates CDI's state-of-the-art free-vortex wake… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Advances in computational hardware and molecular modeling techniques have revolutionized our ability to simulate electrostatic interactions which play a fundamental role in the stability, structure, folding and function of bio-molecules. Currently, the continuum… More

Accurate performance prediction is essential to the development of Army rotorcraft as well as the support of flight operations. While current numerical analysis tools can, in principle, model complete rotorcraft, in practice these implementations are severely hampered by accuracy limitations… More

Qualifying UAVs for operation in known icing conditions presents a problem whose solution critically depends upon the ability to conduct flight tests in controlled icing environments. Unfortunately, instrumentation, control, and operational procedures have yet to be developed to support this… More

Two novel flight control actuation concepts for UAV applications are proposed for prototype development, both of which incorporate shape memory alloy (SMA) wires as prime movers. These actuators promise considerable savings in weight, power, and volume over existing electomechanical and hydraulic… More

Accurate aerodynamic modeling is crucial to simulation, analysis and flight testing support of rotorcraft. In this regard, current analysis tools inadequately model key phenomena like blade dynamic stall, rotor tip loads, and rotor downwash because of their failure to predict the true unsteady… More

Current technology aerial refueling drogues cannot accommodate the desired range of Navy/Marine refueling missions in a single design configuration. A novel drogue design approach that incorporates aeroelastic structural elements, capable of accommodating a wide range of flight speeds and aircraft… More

Noise mitigation for subsonic transports is a continuing high priority, and recent work has identified successful exhaust mixing enhancement devices (chevrons) that have demonstrated substantial capability for reducing aircraft engine noise in critical takeoff and landing conditions. Existing… More

Recent developments have made clear the strong potential of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) for a wide range of surveillance and tactical reconnaissance functions, particularly if the challenging but critical hovering capability can be achieved. Implementation of a practical hovering air vehicle at very… More

Ongoing work under NASA sponsorship is defining promising High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) demonstration vehicle designs for remote sensing, communication relay, environmental monitoring, and other critical missions. Continuing challenges in preparing these vehicles for flight test include… More

Rotorcraft operations are critical to current and future Navy missions, and thus the imperative to provide high fidelity, distributed training with enhanced realism for the aircrew and ship's company will inevitably intensify in coming years. The technology proposed here will enable the development… More

Continuum Dynamics, Inc. has recently developed breakthrough technologies that allow real-time solutions of full-span, free-vortex rotor wake models coupled with fast panel fuselage/empennage models. These technologies have been incorporated into aerodynamic modules for integration into flight… More

Rotorcraft flight operations in the shipboard environment, called the Dynamic Interface, is extremely challenging due to the motion of the ship deck and the surrounding turbulent ship airwake. Higher bandwidth flight controls can improve vehicle handling qualities for supporting both manned and… More

Wind turbines must improve both overall efficiency and reliability if they are to compete successfully with alternate energy sources on a cost-per-kilowatt-hour basis. High efficiency operation typically requires some form of adaptation of the turbine to variable wind speed conditions, while… More

Recent R&D associated with designing high speed rotorcraft has been greatly hampered by a lack of test data and confidence in predictions for rotors operating above advance ratio 1.0. This proposal outlines a plan for addressing this situation through a series of rotor tests and analytical… More

A surface-mounted instrumentation system for measuring rotor blade motions on rotorcraft, for use both in flight and in wind tunnel testing, is proposed for development. The technology builds upon previous Navy-sponsored SBIR work in the design of a system for measuring rotor blade motion and… More

This proposal describes a system for detecting upset conditions and providing the corresponding control recovery actions to maintain flight integrity for general application to aircraft. To maintain and improve aircraft safety as air capacity grows as part of the Next Generation Air Transportation… More

SOCOM requires a method to field repair multiple materials as well as to mount armor and related hardware for a variety of tactical purposes with a composite material. To address this need, we propose application of a "Modular UV Patch" (MUVP) system that incorporates ultraviolet curing resin… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): By combining several innovative numerical methods, solutions to the modified Poisson-Boltzmann equation (mPBE) will be computed an order of magnitude faster than currently possible. The effort builds upon a previously d eveloped efficient Poisson-Boltzmann solver… More

Rotorcraft brownout, which is caused by the entrainment of dust and ground debris by the rotorwash during take-off and landing, is a critical operational problem, and has caused a significant number of military helicopter accidents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Brownout affects safe operations due to… More

Development of a new generation of high speed rotorcraft has been hampered by both an absence of strong predictive methods for rotors operating at very high advance ratio and a dearth of relevant test data. Phase I initiated work on these challenges with rotor tests and development of enhanced… More

Recent advances have strengthened interest in supersonic cruise aircraft, though achieving economic viability for these vehicles will require dramatic improvements in cruise efficiency without excessively penalizing off-design performance. Optimization of inlet design offers a potent method for… More

Recent developments have made clear the strong potential of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) for a wide range of surveillance and reconnaissance missions, particularly if the challenging but critical hovering capability can be achieved. Implementation of practical hovering MAVs, however, requires… More

Advanced microcontrollers having digital signal processing features have enabled the capability to distribute on-board computation for remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Distributed processing can result in a lighter weight avionics suite with improved performance, by locating data conversion units… More

Flight operations of military aircraft, including those derived from commercial transports, are subject to highly dynamic conditions over broad operational envelopes, which may be further complicated by off-design configurations caused by ballistic damage. Flight simulation, including training… More

Continuum Dynamics, Inc., has recently developed innovative, real-time physics-based models of rotary-wing aerodynamics for flight simulations that improve upon previously used math models. By directly modeling the physics of rotary-wing aerodynamics in real-time, these models provide high fidelity… More

Advanced rotorcraft induced velocity models have been developed that provide real-time solutions of the full-span, free-vortex rotor wake combined with fast panel models. It has been demonstrated in Phase I that these physically-based methods may be applied to model complex interactions between the… More

A follow-on research effort to develop a means to improve rotorcraft handling in the Dynamic Interface (DI) environment is proposed. This work will investigate the use of both rotor state feedback and enhanced ship motion sensing systems for providing improved disturbance rejection during DI launch… More

Ongoing work in unconventional air-vehicles, i.e. deformable mold-lines and bio-mimetics, is beginning to provide the insight necessary to exploit performance benefits associated with unsteady flow phenomena. However, the current generation of conceptual design/analysis tools, based on empirical… More

To improve aviation safety with anticipated growth in capacity, it is necessary to develop flight control technologies that enable safe operations as anomalous conditions occur. These developments are particularly important to reduce fatal loss of control accidents due to aircraft degradation and… More

Accurate performance prediction is essential for developing rotorcraft and supporting flight operations. Current grid-based CFD can, in principle, model the complete rotorcraft, but is hampered by excessive numerical dissipation of vorticity. Thus, common methods fail to predict adequately the… More

Reduction of noise is critical to the public acceptance and mission suitability of rotorcraft. Accurate prediction of rotorcraft noise is directly related to the ability to predict the highly complicated interaction between the aerodynamic surfaces and their wakes, and while current numerical tools… More

A surface-mounted instrumentation system for measuring rotor blade motions on rotorcraft, for use both in flight and in wind tunnel testing, is proposed for development. The technology builds upon previous Navy- and NASA-sponsored SBIR work in the design of a system for measuring rotor blade motion… More

Recent advances in propulsion, aerodynamic, and noise technologies have led to a revived interest in supersonic cruise aircraft; however, achieving economic viability for these vehicles requires dramatic improvements in cruise efficiency. Optimization of inlet performance offers a potent method for… More

Continuum Dynamics, Inc., has recently developed innovative, real-time physics-based models of rotary-wing aerodynamics for flight simulations that improve upon previously used math models. By directly modeling the physics of rotary-wing aerodynamics in real-time, these models provide high fidelity… More

A novel system for the measurement of rotor states is proposed for development, to be used as part of a control system in the support of advanced helicopter (and tiltrotor) handling qualities and flight dynamics improvements. The design builds on extensive prior rotor instrumentation work that has… More

Fast, accurate computational models of rotorcraft aerodynamics and dynamics are critical for analysis and design. The strong coupling between aerodynamics and dynamics characteristic of rotary-wing aircraft greatly complicates the task of comprehensive rotorcraft analyses aspiring to this goal. … More

SOCOM requires a method to field repair multiple materials as well as to mount armor and related hardware for a variety of tactical purposes with a composite material. To address this need, we propose application of a "Modular UV Patch" (MUVP) system that incorporates ultraviolet curing resin… More

Accurate performance prediction is critical to rotorcraft design and development, and while significant gains have been made in rotorcraft CFD-CSD methods, predicting unsteady wake aerodynamics remains a significant challenge. Current analysis tools can theoretically model the complete rotorcraft,… More

Fast, accurate computational models of rotary-wing aerodynamics and dynamics are critical for the analysis and design of rotorcraft. To address this need, the U.S. Army has developed the Rotorcraft Comprehensive Analysis System, RCAS, which has state-of-the-art computational structural dynamics… More

While past research has demonstrated the utility and benefits to be gained with the application of advanced rotor system control concepts, none have been implemented to date on a production military or commercial rotorcraft. A key contributor to this fact is the inherent cost associated with… More

Wind power has an important role in satisfying the power needs of the United States. Since wind power is a clean renewable source of energy, it also serves an important role in reducing dependence on fossil fuels, in particular foreign oil supplies, as well as reducing greenhouse gas and carbon… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Advances in computational hardware and molecular modeling techniques have revolutionized our ability to simulate electrostatic interactions, which play a fundamental role in the conformational stability, structure, fold ing and function of biomolecules. One… More

Current comprehensive rotorcraft analyses typically use lifting line theories coupled with 2D look-up tables to determine rotor blade lift, drag and pitching moment. These methods cannot directly capture 3D flow effects that influence the aerodynamic characteristics of advanced planforms, complex… More

Enhancing rotorcraft safety due to engine or drive train failures has been a primary concern throughout the history of vertical flight operations. Recent work on autorotation trajectory optimization has shown potential for improved flight control and guidance solutions, but work remains to implement… More

Since submarines operate in an ionic seawater environment, there exists the possibility that any of several recognized electro-kinetic mechanisms may be excited and produce potentially detectable electromagnetic fields. Of particular focus in the proposed effort is the electroacoustic mechanism… More

While past research has demonstrated the utility and benefits to be gained with the application of advanced rotor system control concepts, none have been implemented to date on a production military or commercial rotorcraft. A key contributor to this fact is the inherent cost associated with… More

This proposal outlines a plan for developing new technology to provide accurate real-time noise prediction for rotorcraft in steady and maneuvering flight. Main rotor and tail rotor thickness and loading noise, including Blade-Vortex Interaction noise and Tail-Rotor Interaction noise, will be… More

Wind power has an important role in satisfying the power needs of the United States. Since wind power is a clean renewable source of energy, it also serves an important role in reducing dependence on fossil fuels, in particular foreign oil supplies, as well as reducing greenhouse gas and carbon… More

An analysis methodology and associated software toolbox is proposed for development that models aircraft/ship securing and deck handling loads in the Dynamic Interface (DI) environment. The software is unique in that it adds both enhanced physical modeling and a novel multibody formulation to the… More

Current technology health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) equipment are very aircraft-specific, as they are based on data-driven methodologies that require significant flight test data to define sensitivities and measurement norms. The proposed approach incorporates an embedded aeromechanical… More

Both NASA and the FAA have identified large civil tiltrotors (LCTRs) as the most promising method for meeting FAA goals for extending future airport capacity, flexibility, efficiency and safety. This has led to important research at NASA exploring flight dynamics and handling qualities associated… More

ABSTRACT: Noise alleviation for tactical jet aircraft is critical for community acceptance of military operations. While new fixed-geometry engine nozzles can mitigate noise, adaptive concepts can adjust to multiple flight conditions and reduce noise without compromising other performance metrics.… More

Rugged tactical vehicles are critical to the success of U.S. Navy and Marine missions and must be transported around the globe at a moment"s notice. Many of these vehicles, such as the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), Interim Fast Attack Vehicle (IFAV) and Light Strike… More

An advanced rotorcraft induced velocity software module has been developed for enhancing the fidelity of real-time piloted simulations of rotorcraft shipboard operations. This software module is built upon real-time solutions of the full-span, free-vortex rotor wake combined with fast panel models.… More

Current comprehensive rotorcraft analyses typically use lifting line theories coupled with 2D look-up tables to determine rotor blade lift, drag and pitching moment. These methods cannot directly capture 3D flow effects that influence the aerodynamic characteristics of advanced planforms, complex… More