Air force 16. 1 Small Business Innovation Research (sbir) Proposal Submission Instructions

The objective of this research is to accommodate the variability and uncertainty of jet fuel properties during the design of next-generation thermal management systems for tactical aircraft. The development and validation of modeling and simulation capabilities that incorporate key fuel parameters is an integral part of the research effort. Demonstration of the modeling and simulation capabilities to perform design space exploration of conceptual thermal management systems is required. Evaluation of both the static and dynamic responses of highly-integrated thermal management systems to fuel property variation is also required. The establishment of critical design parameters and guidelines for adoption within the community, and in particular the Government/industry partnership of Versatile Affordable Advanced Turbine Engines (VAATE), is strongly desired.

To successfully perform the work described in this topic area, offerors may request to participate in the installation and/or demonstration of prototype hardware in the Advanced Reduced Scale Fuel Systems Simulator (ARSFSS) located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH. The installation and demonstration of prototype hardware in the ARSFSS will be facilitated by Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) personnel. There is no charge for ARSFSS operations during the Phase II effort.

PHASE I: Phase I is a proof-of-concept demonstration of a modeling and simulation approach. The ability to vary any combination of fuel properties (such as constant pressure specific heat) across a range of values within, and exceeding, specification limits is required within a representative thermodynamic model of a tactical aircraft thermal management system.

PHASE II: Phase II is a validation of the modeling and simulation approach. A configuration description and experimental data for the ARSFSS will be provided during Phase II. It is expected that the modeling and simulation approach will be configured to simulate ARSFSS hardware and components, and a comparison of simulated and measured changes in fuel system performance attributable to fuel properties will be performed.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Phase III is a validation of the modeling and simulation approach at full scale conditions for both steady state and transient/dynamic modes of operation. The utilization of government/industry facility data that is used to research and develop aircraft subsystem components is expected.

REFERENCES:

1. Robert W. Morris, Jr., et al., "Evaluation of the Impact of Kerojet Aquarious Water Scavenger Additive on the Thermal Stability of Jet A Fuels," Defense Technical Information Center, AFRL-RQ-WP-TR-2015-0014.

2. Mark Bodie, et al., "Robust Optimization of an Aircraft Power Thermal Management System," 8th Annual International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, AIAA 2010-7086.

KEYWORDS: thermal, uncertainty, probabilistic, design, fuels, high-temperature

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Air Platform

OBJECTIVE: Develop a full-bore valve for air that is capable of opening quickly, sealing well against pressure, and with long fatigue life.

DESCRIPTION: The state of the boundary layer and where and when it transitions, can play a critical role in the survivability and controllability of hypersonic precision strike vehicles. Understanding the physics leading to transition will enable better prediction of boundary layer transition for strike vehicles. This will enhance their survivability and may also reduce the amount of thermal protection needed, thereby increasing the payload mass.

Flight tests are often prohibitively expensive, so the majority of hypersonic boundary-layer transition research is conducted in ground test facilities. To best simulate hypersonic atmospheric flight and study boundary-layer transition in an affordable manner, uniform, hypersonic flow must be established quickly. One increasingly popular design for cost-effective, high-speed, super- and hypersonic wind tunnels is a Ludwieg tube. In this type of facility, a long tube is filled with pressurized gas. This gas is typically isolated from downstream, low-pressure components by means of a burst diaphragm(s) or a valve. To initiate the high-speed flow, the diaphragm(s) is ruptured, or the valve is opened. This allows the high-pressure gas to expand through the nozzle and accelerate to the desired speed. After the gas pressure in the low-pressure end of the tunnel rises sufficiently, the high-speed flow stops and only subsonic flow continues.

Although diaphragms facilitate a rapid startup of the tunnel, they can be costly and time-consuming since a new diaphragm must be installed before each run. Several Ludwieg tubes utilize a fast plug valve design to avoid diaphragms[1-3]. In this case, a plug located near the area of minimum cross-section is used to separate the high- and low-pressure regions. To operate the tunnel, the valve is retracted. Gas flows around the plug and expands and accelerates to the desired speed in the nozzle. A significant drawback to this design is that both the plug and the support hardware shed wakes that can disturb the downstream flow. A full-bore ball valve has been used to start at least one hypersonic wind tunnel[4]. This is a viable option only because that tunnel has sufficient vacuum volume to accommodate the slow actuation of the ball valve. Starting with a slow ball valve is undesirable because it leads to flow with continuously changing conditions, rather than providing step changes in steady conditions.

This topic seeks proposals to develop a full-bore, quick-opening valve suitable for starting high-speed Ludwieg tube wind tunnels. A candidate valve should open completely in 50 ms or less, be able to seal against 600 psi air at 450 degrees F, and have a lifetime of at least 50,000 cycles. The design effort should also include a finite element analysis of the valve components to ensure proper design and stress management. Dynamic analysis of the valve opening process should be conducted to ensure that the valve opening time is adequate and that the design is structurally sound.

Additional references may be available in the SBIR Interactive Topic Information System (SITIS).

PHASE I: Design and fully analyze a valve with a full bore unobstructed diameter of 10.0 inches, conforming to the above specifications. Construct a prototype and bench-test to demonstrate system operability and conformance to requirements. Deliver to the Air Force Research Laboratory for testing in its Mach-6 Ludwieg tube. The flanges should be 10-inch Class 600, and the actuator type can be whatever is desired.

PHASE II: Scale the design of the Phase I valve up to a 24-inch-diameter valve conforming to the above specifications. Analyze, fabricate, test, and deliver this valve for testing in the anticipated University of Notre Dame Mach-6 quiet wind tunnel. The flanges should be 24-inch Class 300, and the actuator should be pneumatic.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: It is anticipated that other high-speed wind tunnels will desire such valves for operations. The design would also have application to gas guns and blast testing. Additional demand may be found in the oil and gas industries where fast-closing valves can be useful for containment of explosions.

REFERENCES:

1. Wolf, T., Estorf, M., and Radespiel, R., "Simulation of the Time-Dependent Flow Field in the Hypersonic Ludwieg Tube Braunschweig," 4th Atmospheric Reentry Vehicles Systems (2005). Https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/ism/institut/wkanlagen/hlb.

2. Estorf, M., Wolf, T., and Radespiel, R., "Experimental and Numerical Investigations on the Operation of the Hypersonic Ludwieg Tube Braunschweig," 5th European Symposium on Aerothermodynamics for Space Vehicles (2004). https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/ism/institut/wkanlagen/hlb.

3. Chou, A., Ward, A.C., Letterman, L., Luersen, R., Borg, M., and Schneider, S., "Transition Research with Temperature-Sensitive Paints in the Boeing/AFOSR Mach-6 Quiet Tunnel," AIAA Paper 2011-3872. https://engineering.purdue.edu/~aae519/BAM6QT-Mach-6-tunnel/tunnelpapers/2011-3872.pdf.

KEYWORDS: fast valve, wind tunnel, hypersonic, full bore, quick open

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Sensors

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with section 5.4.c.(8) of the solicitation and within the AF Component-specific instructions. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws. Please direct questions to the AF SBIR/STTR Contracting Officer, Ms. Gail Nyikon, gail.nyikon@us.af.mil.

OBJECTIVE: Design and demonstrate a prototype compact "cold atom"-based guidance system (GPS-unaided) to be used in typical Air Force heavy aircraft environments.

DESCRIPTION: The military relies heavily on the Global Positioning System (GPS) for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT), but GPS access is easily blocked by methods such as jamming. In addition, many environments in which our military operates (inside buildings, in urban canyons, under dense foliage, underwater, and underground) have limited or no GPS access. To mitigate these issues, various technologies were evaluated. Cold Atom, recognized as a key technology in Defense Science Board’s report, “Technology and Innovation enablers for Superiority in 2030” (October 2013), showed potential in providing navigation guidance without external aids, at an accuracy greater than GPS. The Precision Inertial Navigation Systems (PINS) program developed an IMU that uses cold atom interferometry for high-precision navigation without dependence on external fixes for long periods of time. Atom interferometry involves measuring the relative acceleration and rotation of a cloud of atoms within a sensor case, with potentially far greater accuracy than today’s state-of-the-art IMUs. The remaining tasks are to ruggedize and miniaturize the system. While miniaturization is not necessary on heavy aircraft, it would provide a platform for early operation demonstration.

Cold atom uses a Bose-Einstein condensate and associated electronics to measure angular accelerations as the heart of an inertial navigation system. This is potentially useful in situations where Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite signals are not available or not usable. To achieve the condensate state, both physical cooling of the chamber and laser cooling of the atoms are required. Current technology is too large and too heavy for use of cold atom in aircraft. The Air Force and Navy have funded several efforts to improve and miniaturize components of the system. Note that the cold atom system must demonstrate accuracy at least equal to current GPS-aided inertial navigation systems. (Guidance accuracy includes bias instability, bias error, scale factor error, and noise.)

Example requirements are bias stability of 1 micro deg/hr, angular random walk of greater than 10 micro deg/hr^(1/2), acceleration of 10 ng/Hz^(1/2) and sizes less than 10 liter in volume. Solutions can be close to these notional requirements and trades can be performed.

PHASE I: Based on given requirements and the technologies already funded, design a cold atom system for use on heavy aircraft that will be at least as accurate as current GPS-aided inertial navigation systems. Prepare a functional diagram and identify all the interfaces. Prepare a bill of materials for the prototype device and identify the supplier of each component. Prepare a test plan for the system..

PHASE II: Build the prototype designed in Phase I. (Prototype may be developed with a representative software, but must be in a configuration that can demonstrate the operation and functionality of the key elements of the product.) Using the test plan from Phase I, show the prototype meets the requirements. Prepare a test report. Prepare a manufacturing plan and a preliminary bill of materials for an engineering unit/brass board that could be tested in one or more aircraft in a potential Phase III.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Manufacture a pilot production set of units that could be tested in one or more aircraft. Also, explore the commercial uses of cold atom for missions such as highly sensitive quantum detectors, optic clocks, and/or meeting current and future mandates from the FAA.

REFERENCES:

1. "Cold Atom Laboratory Creates Atomic Dance," NASA News, 26 September 2014.

2. M. Prentiss, M. Vuletic, V. Kasevich, W. Ketterle, P. Meystre, "Strategic Applications of Cold Atoms," ADA499396, 7 Mar 2008.

3. "Technology and Innovation Enablers for Superiority in 2030," Defense Science Board Report, October 2013.

KEYWORDS: cold atom

AF161-079

TITLE: Embedded Computing Cyber Testing and Assessment Methods

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Nuclear Technology

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with section 5.4.c.(8) of the solicitation and within the AF Component-specific instructions. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws. Please direct questions to the AF SBIR/STTR Contracting Officer, Ms. Gail Nyikon, gail.nyikon@us.af.mil.

OBJECTIVE: Develop toolsets and metrics for cyber-security testing and vulnerability evaluations of embedded real-time computing systems.

DESCRIPTION: The Department of Defense (DoD) continually designs, acquires, and deploys best in class, highly complex and capable embedded systems. Due to their often high cost, low-density, long development timelines, and the mission criticality of the services they may provide, DoD-embedded systems present highly attractive targets to our adversaries. As the Air Force has embraced enhanced embedded system computing capabilities, in most aspects it has become increasingly vulnerable to multiple types of cyber-attack. Recent studies have shown that legacy embedded software may not be assured to high enough degrees for its mission application. In essence, software produced has historically demonstrated significant weaknesses in (or non-existence of) security and assurance requirements, possessed vulnerable implementations, and exhibited minimal verifiability.

Current embedded system engineering focuses on functional and fault-tolerance requirements that rarely include mission assurance in a cyber-contested environment. As Stuxnet and other custom cyber exploits have proven to the embedded systems community, nations can, have, and will continue to use cyber techniques to achieve their national security objectives, to include delivering combat effects against the highest-value embedded systems.

While vast resources have been invested towards preventing or identifying intrusions and anomalous behavior within our networked enterprise architectures, comparatively little has been done to enhance the mission assurance properties of our nation’s embedded computing systems, even as they operate in increasingly cyber-contested environments. These embedded systems are subject to customized attack types for which classical signature and heuristic based malware detection approaches afford no meaningful protection. Furthermore, even less attention has been paid to the development of toolsets and metrics for cyber-security testing and vulnerability evaluations of these embedded real-time computing systems. State-of-the-art techniques of embedded computing cyber testing focus on software requirements traceability, tracking and executing software test cases to ensure requirements have been satisfied. In some instances, limited amounts of automation have been employed to enhance this traceability by linking requirements to artifacts including test cases and source code. These legacy techniques are necessary but insufficient for rigorous vulnerability identification in embedded software and computing systems.

Credible and accurate methods for cyber testing and evaluation of embedded software, devices, and associated embedded computing systems are necessary to guide mitigation investments and risk management. The focus of this topic is to develop usable, provable, and repeatable toolsets and associated metrics for cyber-security testing and vulnerability evaluations, within the context of embedded, real-time computing systems in a segregated classified environment. Architectural, specification, or implementation vulnerability or weakness metrics must account for not only the technological characteristics of the system but also their assessment relative to the cyber threat spectrum they face across their lifecycle. Government-furnished information (GFI) will include system-specific cyber threat assessments and details of current embedded system cyber vulnerability assessment techniques. This toolset will advance the state-of-the-art by instilling rigor in the provability, correctness, and vulnerability identification and mitigation of embedded computing applications.

Phase I demonstrations will be conducted on a commercially available prototype development board in an unclassified environment.

PHASE I: Develop a proof-of-concept for a cyber-security testing and vulnerability evaluation toolset and associated metrics, within the context of a selected real-time embedded system. As a capstone deliverable, demonstrate the evaluation toolset on an embedded computing system prototype development board.

PHASE II: Mature and optimize the cyber-security testing and vulnerability evaluation toolset and associated metrics developed in Phase I to an assigned DoD embedded computing system, real-time operating system, and associated mission software (items provided as GFE). As a capstone deliverable, demonstrate the evaluation toolset against the provided embedded computing environment.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Utilize the toolset and metrics to conduct a cyber-security testing and vulnerability evaluation against an assigned embedded computing system. Provide toolset engineering support to a government-led RED team cyber assessment against an assigned embedded computing system.

REFERENCES:

1. MacDonald, Douglas G. et al. “CYBER/PHYSICAL SECURITY VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT INTEGRATION.” United States: INMM, Deerfield, IL, United States (US)., 2011. Print.

2. AIR FORCE INSTRUCTION 63-125 NUCLEAR CERTIFICATION PROGRAM.

3. AIR FORCE INSTRUCTION 91-101 AIR FORCE NUCLEAR WEAPONS SURETY PROGRAM.

KEYWORDS: cyber vulnerability assessment, dynamic analysis, static analysis, binary analysis tools, software assurance, embedded system cyber security, cyber resiliency, cyber vulnerability mitigation, symbolic analysis, trace analysis

AF161-080

TITLE: Additive Manufacturing Techniques

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Nuclear Technology

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with section 5.4.c.(8) of the solicitation and within the AF Component-specific instructions. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws. Please direct questions to the AF SBIR/STTR Contracting Officer, Ms. Gail Nyikon, gail.nyikon@us.af.mil.

OBJECTIVE: Identify cost effective additive manufacturing techniques sufficient to prototype and produce future components supporting current and future ICBM programs.

DESCRIPTION: Additive manufacturing (AM) is a process where parts are “printed” a single layer at a time in an additive process rather than traditional subtractive machining process. This additive process makes it easier to manufacture complex parts, especially those that have internal channels or other complex internal geometries. It also results in less material waste since material is added to parts in a near net-shape fashion rather than removed from an initial material billet as is done with milling processes. As a result significant cost savings can be achieved by reducing fabrication costs for complex parts and by reducing material waste.

The concept of additive manufacturing is not new. Historically, AM has not been used for high rate production, but has been very effective in some prototyping programs. However, it has not been until recently that the field has undergone a series of major advances in materials and manufacturing processes to the point where many fabrication machines and processes have become commercial products purchasable by most people. The drawback of most systems available today for Air Force use is that they do not produce materials and parts with satisfactory materials or material properties demanded by weapon systems.

Benefits of additive manufacturing are many fold with benefits to the DoD community. Additive manufacturing would allow for the production of spares, many of which are no longer manufactured, in a cost effective manor on an "on-demand" basis. AM also provides the ability for combined parts manufacture or the ability to include additional functionality into parts. For example, parts could be fabricated with high-Z materials to improve the radiation tolerance of the system without required add mass for shielding. Finally, parts can be fabricated as a single unit as opposed to multiple pieces/materials which require assembly. Complete single component end item manufacturing provides savings by reducing labor and materials costs while offering operational benefits by reducing maintenance through lower parts count, easier acquisition of spares, and reduced system weight.

The goal of this solicitation is to identify and develop cost effective additive manufacturing materials, processes, and techniques sufficient to prototype and produce future components supporting current and future ICBM programs. Specific areas to address for maximum future benefit include reducing the cost to manufacture structural parts, reducing the mass or fabrication cost of complex components, or creating an in-house capability for depots and maintenance personnel to manufacture spares on-demand. Also of interest are concepts for adding extra functionality to existing parts such as printed circuit boards with integrated shielding with the end goal of creating production parts which are inherently hardened without a requirement for additional external shielding to reduce parts count, material, and mass.