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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Two techniques have been proposed (see figure) for controlling the buoyancies and thus the altitudes of robotic lifting balloons (aerobots) that would carry scientific instruments...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A mathematical model has been developed for analyzing the steady-state performances of vortex pyrolysis reactors used to convert particles of raw biomass materials (usually small wood chips)...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A rectangular-constellation-based blind-equalization (RECBEQ) technique implemented by a real-time, recursive algorithm has been developed to improve the performances of radio receivers...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A mathematical model has been developed to predict the behavior of an isolated drop of a first fluid surrounded by a second fluid, under quiescent conditions at supercritical...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A computer-controlled ultrasonic C-scan instrumentation system that was developed primarily for use in finding defects inside solid material specimens can also be used to obtain three-dimensional profiles of...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Several microwave-cavity devices at various stages of development are designed for heating material samples or process streams with uniform temperature-versus-time histories. These devices...
Briefs: Materials
An improved method of synthesis of crystalline tin monoxide (SnO) powder for use in anodes of lithium-ion electrochemical power cells has been developed. The carbon used in anodes of...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Improved pressure-relief valves have been developed for systems that contain gases and liquids in a variety of pneumatic, hydraulic, and cryogenic applications. These valves could prove...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Inflatable Fresnel lenses are being developed for use as optical concentrators in solar power systems. These lenses are of two types: dome (point-focus) lenses and cylindrical...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
The figure schematically illustrates a developmental automated hybrid acoustic/electrostatic apparatus for levitating both electrically charged and electrically neutral liquid drops with sizes...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Low-Distortion Imaging Spectrometers
"Pushbroom" imaging spectrometers of a proposed type would exhibit little or no distortion in either the spectral or spatial direction. These spectrometers would feature modified Offner optics, which afford a desirable combination of compactness and a high degree of optical correction. Although Offner optics...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Lateral-transfer optical retroreflectors can now be made extremely stable to both external and internal fluctuations and gradients of temperature. As explained in more detail in the fourth...
Briefs: Information Technology
Some recent and continuing efforts to develop a software system for simulations of flows in gas-turbine combustors by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) have addressed such major...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
An improved solvent-extraction/infrared-analysis technique has been devised to replace an older technique for measuring very small concentrations of nonvolatile residues of industrial...
Briefs: Materials
Zn4Sb3 has been identified as a high-performance thermoelectric material. In p-type, Zn4Sb3 samples have exhibited the greatest dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit ever observed...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Snapshot CCD Camera With Microelectromechanical Shutter
A proposed charge-coupled-device (CCD) camera would be mechanically shuttered by a planar array of micromachined, electromechanically actuated shutters. This proposal has arisen as part of the solution to the problem of designing a visible/near-infrared imaging spectrometer using a commercial...
Briefs: Motion Control
Wiping devices that exploit fingerlike bending motions produced by electroactive polymeric (ionomeric) actuators are undergoing development. These wiping devices function similarly to...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Spectrum would be utilized more efficiently than in CDMA and FDMA.
Briefs: Test & Measurement
A segmented-image emission velocimeter (SIEVE) is an optical instrument for measuring the velocity of a luminous turbulent flow. More specifically, it measures a component of flow...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
This filter closely approximates the desired wave shape, regardless of the bit rate.
Briefs: Motion Control
It is not necessary to allocate valuable forebody volume to strake-deployment mechanisms.
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A Magnetic Random-Access Memory (MagRAM) is an array of bistable magnetic memory elements with semiconductor amplifier and addressing circuitry. MagRAMs are in the early stages of development, which has been...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A dc-to-dc switching power converter of the three-level, pulse-width-modulated, buck type has been designed, built, and verified to operate at temperatures from ambient down to -196 °C...
Briefs: Motion Control
The figure presents a partial cross section of two poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) tubes with machined ends butted and sealed together in a special coupling fixture. This coupling scheme, in...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Ceramic Hybrid Electromechanical Systems
Ceramic hybrid electromechanical systems (CHEMS) have been proposed to overcome some of the disadvantages while retaining most of the advantages of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Whereas MEMS are fabricated mostly by micromachining of silicon and have typical feature sizes of the order of microns or...
Briefs: Materials
Cold Hibernated Elastic Memory (CHEM) Expandable Structures
Experiments have confirmed the feasibility of a new class of lightweight, reliable, simple, and low-cost expandable structures. The concept called "cold hibernated elastic memory" (CHEM) utilizes the shape memory polymers (SMPs) in open cellular structures. Basically, these structures are...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Color interference filters for individual pixels in solid-state electronic image and display devices would be made of thin metal and dielectric films, according to a proposal. The proposed...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Interdigital overlay capacitors have been invented to decrease the amount of integrated-circuit chip area needed to accommodate a given amount of capacitance. In most very-large-scale...
Briefs: Test & Measurement
Pressurization and Leak Testing of Sample-Return Canisters
A technique that involves pressurization with a radioactive gas has been proposed to solve two problems associated with canisters used to transport samples from remote bodies (planets, moons, asteroids, or comets) back to Earth. The canisters must be sealed at the sampling locations. The...
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