Latest Stories
Briefs Manufacturing & Prototyping
Improvements in Manufacturing BMI/Fiber Composites Using AFP
A program now in progress is dedicated to making improvements in automated fiber placement (AFP) for the manufacture of advanced composite-material (matrix/fiber) structural...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Prototype Rocket Engine for a Nanosat Launch Vehicle
A paper discusses a prototype rocket engine for a suborbital Reusable Nanosat Launch Vehicle (RNLV). The engine must operate with thrust levels from 3,000 to 5,000 lbf. The engine is comprised of three major subassemblies: the injector, igniter, and the combustion chamber nozzle. Propellants are...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Stability of Rotors Supported by Hydrodynamic Film Bearings
The document, "Hydrodynamic Fluid Film Bearings and Their Effect on the Stability of Rotating Machinery" represents a lecture in a series "Design and Analysis of High-Speed Pumps," held in 2006 under the auspices of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The document introduces the basic...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
SparkJet Actuators for Controlling Flows
SparkJet actuators are under investigation as means of controlling flows — especially supersonic and hypersonic flows. In one important class of potential applications, SparkJet actuators would be...
Briefs Materials
Thermal Characterization of Thin Films for MEMS Applications
Dielectric thin films play a very important role in the development of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). These dielectric materials often are used as insulating layers in...
Briefs Materials
Lubrication Considerations for Military Equipment
Military equipment is subject to increasingly harsh environmental conditions and performance requirements. Simultaneously, engineers and equipment operators are demanding longer service life and less maintenance. The proper approach to lubrication is critical to minimizing equipment failures and...
Briefs Materials
Barium Ferrite Materials for Microwave Circulators
Barium ferrite thick disks have been fabricated for incorporation in self-biased microwave devices. The process uses barium ferrite nanopowder mixed with epoxy. The mix is placed on alumina substrates to fabricate 500 μm thick disks of BaM to achieve good magnetic properties such as magnetic...
Briefs Materials
Films Containing Nanostructures and/or Reactive Scavengers
Several advances have been made in research in the art of tailoring polymeric films to be, variously, (1) much more effective as barriers to diffusion of liquids and gases than they...
Briefs Materials
Composites Containing Nanostructured Shape-Memory Alloys
A continuing program of research is devoted to understanding composite materials that include nanostructured shape-memory alloy (SMA) constituents and to developing methods of fabricating components from such materials. This research is intended to improve the utilization of SMAs in...
Briefs Materials
Silicon Nanowires for Anodes of Rechargeable Li Power Cells
Silicon nanowires have been investigated as alternatives to the graphite heretofore widely used as an anode material in rechargeable lithium-ion power cells. The theoretical specific...
Briefs Software
Tool for Processing and Displaying Genomics Data in Spreadsheets
ChromaBlast is a computer program that facilitates and accelerates processing and display of data by use of Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet software that affords similar capabilities. The development of ChromaBlast was prompted by a need for improved means of analyzing and...
Briefs Materials
Flexible Biohybrid Nanomembranes for Multifunctional Sensors
A document describes recent activities in a continuing effort to develop devices, based on biohybrid nanomembranes, that would perform diverse sensory functions. The term "biohybrid nanomembranes" signifies flexible organic/inorganic composite membranes, of the order of tens of nanometers...
Briefs Materials
Oxide and Nitride Films for Tunable Capacitors and HEMTs
A report describes research on thin oxide films intended for use as variable-high-permittivity dielectrics in advanced tunable capacitors and on thin nitride films as starting materials for advanced high-electron- mobility transistors (HEMTs). In this research, a custom molecular-beam-epitaxy...
Briefs Materials
Aligned MWCNTs as Thermal Conductors in Adhesive Joints
A developmental method of increasing the thermal conductance of an adhesive joint in a composite-material structure (or between a composite-material structure and another structure)...
Briefs Materials
Electrochromic Devices for Controlling Infrared Emissivity
Electrochromic devices that exhibited adjustable infrared emissivity were developed in a research program that was part of a larger effort to develop adaptive infrared camouflage....
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Biaxial and Shear Testing Apparatus With Force Controls
An apparatus for in-plane biaxial tension/compression and in-plane shear testing of fabrics, other flexible sheet materials, or relatively rigid thin plate materials has been invented. The...
Briefs Materials
Testing Silver-Coated Nylon Fibers as Electrical Conductors
Tests have been performed in an effort to gain understanding of electrical and mechanical properties of silver-coated nylon fibers subjected to stresses and strains and exposed to...
Briefs Materials
Kinetic Modeling of Laser-Induced D-T Fusion
A computational- simulation study was performed to assess the feasibility of laser-induced fusion of deuterium nuclei with tritium nuclei as a means of generating neutrons for use in neutron...
Briefs Materials
Progress in Design and Synthesis of Nanostructured Materials
A five-and-a-half-year integrated multidisciplinary research project has been characterized by three themes pertinent to the development of advanced materials having tailorable...
Briefs Materials
GOx/CNT/Silica Composites for Bioelectrodes
Composites of glucose oxidase (GOx), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and biologically synthesized silica have been synthesized and tested. These composites are prototypes of biological/electrical interfacial...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
MEMS Offset-Beam Torsional Electrothermal Actuators
Prototypes of microelectromechanical system (MEMS) rotational actuators based on a principle of torsion induced by thermal expansion of electrically heated offset beams have been designed,...
Products Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Actuator Protection Boot
Polymer Technologies (Clifton, NJ) has developed a transparent calibrated moisture boot that protects the rotating shaft and seal in the UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter Pitch Trim Actuator, a flight control component that...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Tethered, Remotely Operated Miniature Submarine
A tethered, remotely operated, armed underwater vehicle has been conceived to satisfy a need for an uninhabited vehicle for Navy missions in which positive identification of targets is needed....
Briefs Materials
Dimensional Stabilization of Composite Space Structures
A research project has yielded progress on several fronts toward the goal of minimizing thermal and aging distortions of composite-material (specifically, polymer- matrix/graphite-fiber)...
Briefs Materials
Gold-Based Nanoparticle Liquids for Electronic Applications
Electrically conductive, solventless nanoparticle liquids, consisting of gold nanoparticles chemically functionalized with large organic molecular groups, have been investigated for...
Briefs Materials
Incorporating Functional Fillers into Silicone Elastomer Systems
Silicones can be developed into fluids, gels, adhesives, elastomers, and resins designed with unique properties that make them ideal for specific application uses in the defense...
Articles Electronics & Computers
Data-Based Paradigm for Rapid Development of Advanced Avionics Displays
The database concepts, tools, and runtime software described in this article provide a methodology for creating advanced avionics human-machine interfaces (HMIs), such as...
Briefs Manufacturing & Prototyping
Progress Toward Carbon-Nanotube Arrays for Probing Cells
Progress has been reported in research oriented toward the goal of fabricating arrays of interconnected single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) that could serve as probes for measuring...
Briefs Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Miniature Wheel-Leg Mobile Robots
Mini-Whegs™ are small mobile robots, designed according to abstracted cockroach locomotion principles, that can run and can climb obstacles taller than themselves. Mini-Whegs are derived from larger mobile...
Top Stories
INSIDERRF & Microwave Electronics
FAA to Replace Aging Network of Ground-Based Radars
PodcastsDefense
A New Additive Manufacturing Accelerator for the U.S. Navy in Guam
NewsSoftware
Rewriting the Engineer’s Playbook: What OEMs Must Do to Spin the AI Flywheel
Road ReadyPower
2026 Toyota RAV4 Review: All Hybrid, All the Time
INSIDERDefense
F-22 Pilot Controls Drone With Tablet
INSIDERRF & Microwave Electronics
L3Harris Starts Low Rate Production Of New F-16 Viper Shield
Webcasts
Automotive
Hydrogen Engines Are Heating Up for Heavy Duty
Power
SAE Automotive Podcast: Solid-State Batteries
Automotive
SAE Automotive Engineering Podcast: Additive Manufacturing
Aerospace
A New Approach to Manufacturing Machine Connectivity for the Air Force
Software
Optimizing Production Processes with the Virtual Twin
