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Instrumentation for Hypersonic, Air-breathing Engines

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Air Force
Contract: FA8650-09-M-2953
Agency Tracking Number: F083-120-0349
Amount: $100,000.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: AF083-120
Solicitation Number: 2008.3
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2008
Award Year: 2009
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2009-03-20
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2009-12-20
Small Business Information
2760 Beverly Dr. #4
Aurora, IL 60502
United States
DUNS: 927258277
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: Yes
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Donald Yuhas
 Senior Group Leader
 (630) 236-5901
 tony.falcone@ssci.com
Business Contact
 Marjorie Passini Yuhas
Title: Corporate Controller
Phone: (630) 236-5901
Email: contracts@ssci.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

The operating conditions of air-breathing propulsion engines demand designs that include cooling by the fuel and the use of lightweight materials that withstand extreme heat fluxes under oxidizing conditions.  Currently there are no means by which the fuel temperature can be non-invasively measured with the required temporal and spatial resolution.  It is important to monitor and maintain the maximum fuel temperature below critical levels in order to prevent coking.  For ground-based experiments, real-time fuel temperature measurements can be used to relax the safety constraints, thereby allowing for higher speed flow and longer length experiments. Furthermore, experience, information, and instrumentation developed as the result of ground-based experiments can form the basis for in-flight test capability.  Flight hardened test capability can be incorporated as part of a control strategy that would enhance overall combustor efficiency by balancing fuel flow rates with combustor wall temperature to yield most optimum operating conditions. In this program we apply the ultrasonic thermometry in 2 areas; 1) fuel temperature measurements in the manifold region and 2) fuel temperature in one of the combustor cooling passages.  As a by-product of the cooling passage measurement we will also measure heat flux and surface temperature on the material between the combustion inner chamber and the cooling channel.   BENEFIT: Ultrasonic thermometry offers unique capabilities to hypersonic vehicle development.  Improved thermal transport measurement methods speed development, improve understanding, and enhance our ability to validate analytical models and hardware for numerous propulsion and aeroshell applications.  The non-intrusive nature of the method is particularly attractive for hostile environment encountered in hypersonic flight.  The immediate market for this technology is primarily in military applications where there is a need for improved thermal transfer measurement tools to drive the development and evaluation of hypersonic materials and components.   In addition to the applications in hypersonic vehicle and propulsion systems, the ultrasonic temperature sensor technology has applications in the areas of space lift, space platform, combustion research, and missiles.  There is also a potential commercial market in areas where thermal transport data is needed in relatively inaccessible regions such as combustion chambers, reactors and in some glass molding operations

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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