Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Deployable and Restowable Protective Dome

Briefs: Materials

High-Tg Thermosetting Polyimide

A thermosetting polyimide called "DMBZ-15" has been developed for use as a matrix material in relatively inexpensive matrix/fiber composite materials. The glass-transition temperature (T_g) of...

Briefs: Physical Sciences

Source of Fast Oxygen Atoms for Testing Satellite Materials

We have developed an apparatus that generates a pulsed beam of fast oxygen atoms, under Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to...

Briefs: Materials

Joining of SiC-Based Ceramic and Fiber-Reinforced Composite Parts

A process that involves reaction forming has been devised to enable the joining of high-temperature-resistant structural parts made of SiC-based materials. These materials...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Probes for Measuring Pressures in Flowing Gases

Improved pressure probes have been designed to give nearly instantaneous readings of the time-varying local static pressure in flowing gases. The probes have been installed in a wind tunnel...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Better Electrochemical Profiling of III-V Semiconductors

An etching and electrolyte solution called "UNIEL" has been found to be useful for electrochemical characterization as a function of depth ("electrochemical profiling" for short) of...

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Magnetron Plasma Etching of SiC for Microfabrication

Magnetron plasma etching has been found to be a promising technique for micromachining of single-crystal silicon carbide to fabricate microscopic structures comprising integrated...

Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Electromagnetic Shaker for Flight Flutter Testing

An electromagnetic shaker based on a linear induction motor has been developed for use in flight flutter testing of aircraft. The shaker is a wing-tip-mounted unit capable of delivering...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

More Uses for Brillouin Amplification

Some additional applications have been proposed to exploit amplification by stimulated Brillouin scattering ("Brillouin Amplification" for short), building on the concepts introduced in the preceding...

Briefs: Physical Sciences

Chimera/Unstructured Hybrid Grids for Flow and Heat Transfer

A hybrid-grid scheme has been developed to afford a computationally efficient means for numerically solving equations of both (1) coupled flows of heat and mass in a fluid and (2)...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Computer System for Collection of Quality-Assurance Data

The Paperless Procedure System (PPS) is a computer-based, semiautomated electronic system for collection and management of quality-assurance data in a large organization. The original...

Briefs: Materials

Fiber-Reinforced-Plastic/Concrete Structural Members

Improved concrete structural members such as columns, piers, and piles can be manufactured by incorporating fiber-reinforced-plastic (FRP) exterior shells and FRP interior submembers. The...

Briefs: Materials

Nearly Isotropic Resin-Transfer-Molded Composites

Nearly isotropic matrix/fiber composite materials can be made quickly and at relatively low cost by resin-transfer molding. The fiber components of these materials are fine, loosely woven,...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Bidirectional Operating Actuator (BOA)

A generic actuator has been designed to amplify the piezoelectric effect. The Bidirectional Operating Actuator (BOA) amplifies the stroke of a piezoelectric element and reorients it through a kinematic...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Automated Vision System Inspects a Large Surface

The figure schematically illustrates an automated electronic vision system that operates in conjunction with a scanning robot to inspect a large surface for damage. In the original...

Briefs: Materials

Iron-Containing Carbon Materials Made From Graphite Fluoride

Experiments have shown that carbon-based materials containing pure metallic iron, alloys of iron, halides of iron, and/or oxides of iron can be synthesized from precursors of...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Reflective Coating System for High-Temperature Vacuum Use

A substrate of nickel coated with a thin layer of silver and further coated with a thin protective layer of silicon dioxide has been found to constitute an optically reflective...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Extracting Misalignments of Layers in Microfabricated Devices

Two closely related methods of optical inspection and computation yield data on misalignments between critical features in different layers of microfabricated devices. Examples...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Optoelectronic Oscillators Based on Brillouin Scattering

An improved type of optoelectronic oscillator is based on Brillouin amplification. An oscillator of this type converts light energy into an electro-optical oscillation, typically at a...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Electromagnetic Smart Washer for Detecting Bolthole Cracking

Engineers have designed a new device, called the Smart Washer, that can electromagnetically detect bolthole cracks in metal structures. The device is a metal washer that contains...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Exploiting Brillouin Scattering in Analog Signal Processing

Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) in optical fibers can be exploited to obtain frequency conversion with amplification and frequency-selective amplification in photonic...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Bounceless Switch/Monostable Multivibrator

A circuit has been designed to debounce a mechanical switch, which is used to activate a digital circuit. Contacts tend to make and break connections several times until the switch contacts settle...

Briefs: Materials

Advanced Cryogenic Insulation System for Graphite/Organic Resin Composite Cryogenic-Tank Structures

Engineers at Rockwell International Corporation's Space System Division have developed a new method of insulating composite structural...

Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Deflection of Circular Membrane Under Differential Pressure

Equations have been derived to fill a gap in previously published standard collections of stress-and-strain formulas: These are equations for deflection of a thin circular membrane...