Department of the navy (don) 17. 1 Small Business Innovation Research (sbir) Proposal Submission Instructions introduction

PHASE II: Based on the results and options presented in the Phase I effort and the Phase II Statement of Work (SOW), the company will develop and deliver a Capstan Rim Friction Coating prototype for evaluation. The Rim Friction Coating prototype will be evaluated to determine its capability in meeting the performance goals defined in Phase II SOW; as well small business will demonstrate the application of the developed coating. The OA-9070B Land Based Test Facility (LBTF) has a full-up dual-capstan system that is used to evaluate SSN engineering changes. The facility will be made available to accept coating treatment on its capstan rims. System performance gains will be measured within the test facility. The new coating will be applied to capstan rims and assessed for durability and frictional levels. With a successful LBTF set of tests, the next part would be to incorporate the new coating in an in-service platform for shipboard testing and evaluation in the desired end-use environment. The company will prepare a Phase III development plan to transition the technology for Navy and potential commercial use.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The company will apply the knowledge gained in Phase II to further refine the Rim Friction Coating. Working with the Navy and applicable industry partners, the company will demonstrate application and develop a production process that will allow incorporation of the coatings in an operational environment. Additionally, process controls and coating compliance methods needs to be developed to ensure proper application as well as some techniques for inspection that signal the need for a re-coat. The company will be expected to support the Navy in transitioning the technology to Navy use. Private Sector Commercial Potential: There are many oceanographic winching applications in the private sector that focus on seismic exploration, fisheries, and underwater cable laying. All of these applications have the potential to benefit from a field-installable protective coating that can withstand the harsh rigors of ocean submersion.

REFERENCES:

1. Stuart, I.M. “Capstan equation for strings with rigidity.” British Journal of Applied Physics, Volume 12, Number 10.

2. Jung, Jae Ho; Pan, Ning; and Kang, Tae Jin. " Generalized capstan problem: Bending rigidity, nonlinear friction, and extensibility effect.” Tribology International Volume 41, Issue 6, June 2008. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301679X07001909 .-

KEYWORDS: Towed Array; Towed Array Handler; Friction Material; Capstan; Towed Array Deployment; Ballast Tank.

Questions may also be submitted through DoD SBIR/STTR SITIS website.

N171-069

TITLE: Submarine Safety (SUBSAFE) Compliant Connection for External Sensors

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Battlespace, Electronics, Sensors

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMS392 (Strategic & Attack Submarine Program Office), PMS450 Class Program Office), PMS397 (OHIO Replacement Program Office), SEA 073 (Advanced Submarine Systems Development Program)

OBJECTIVE: Develop an innovative hull penetration system / communications interface to support long duration undersea interface for communication with external sensors vehicles while complying with current Submarine Safety requirements.

DESCRIPTION: Currently, probes used onboard Navy submarines to obtain conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) information are deployed from Non-Seawater Piping and Mechanical SUBSAFE systems (i.e., torpedo tubes, trash disposal units, and counter-measures launchers). Probes and external sensors developed to date use wire and fiber optic-based communication systems, which require the SUBSAFE systems to be in an “open” position while the sensor collects and transmits data. This is a safety issue because of the size of the opening and the extended periods it is required to be open.

The Navy seeks to develop a hull penetration system / communications interface that can augment the existing probe(s) or launchers with innovative methods of communication relay which support current wire or fiber optic-based technologies while allowing hull penetrations to remain in the “closed” position, which would drastically drive down safety concerns with existing and future external sensor interfacing.

Innovations proposed under this effort should not take into consideration modifying an existing external sensor to no longer be wire or fiber optic-based, but rather modifying the communications interface between the ship and the sensor to allow full (two closure) safety from the sea. Additionally, proposals should take into consideration factors such as sea-depth and wall thickness of the counter-measures launcher and torpedo tube doors. Proposed concepts or technologies should: 1) meet the high integrity standards of SUBSAFE Requirements Manual NAVSEA 0924-062-0010; 2) be capable of utilizing existing deployed external sensors; and 3) be capable of performing communication data transfer at current required rates (MIL-STD-1678-6 Fiber Optic Cable Topology Installation Standard Methods for Naval Ships).

PHASE I: The company will demonstrate the feasibility for the development of a hull penetration system / communications interface to support long duration undersea interface for communication with external sensors vehicles. The company will also show that proposed concept meets Navy needs for an innovative method/concept for interfacing with external sensors/vehicles through sealed (“closed”) SUBSAFE systems. The company will prove the concept of external communication that only requires modifying existing interfaces while accounting for alternatives to wire/fiber optic-based interfaces, develop a report based on analysis and trial to determine the viability of the approach, and provide the Navy with feasible options to successfully interface with external sensors/vehicles while SUBSAFE systems remain sealed. The Phase I Option, if awarded, will include the initial design specifications and capabilities description to build a prototype in Phase II.

PHASE II: Based on the Phase I results and the Phase II Statement of Work (SOW), the small business will develop and deliver a prototype interface for evaluation. The prototype will be evaluated to determine its capability in meeting the performance goals defined in Phase II SOW and the Navy need to comply with current Submarine Safety requirements, while interfacing with external sensors. The small business will prepare a Phase III development plan to transition the technology for Navy production and potential commercial use.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The company will be expected to support the Navy in transitioning the technology to Navy use. The company will apply the knowledge gained in Phase II to further refine an advanced model/instruction, suitably packaged as defined by Navy requirements. Working with the Navy and applicable industry partners, the company will demonstrate the application with alternative wire/fiber optic-based interfaces to be implemented within shipboard and/or a land-based test site to support external interface in other applications. The company will support the Navy for test and validation to certify and qualify the system for Navy use. The company shall explore the potential to transfer to other military and commercial systems. Market research and analysis shall identify the most promising technology areas and the company shall develop manufacturing plans to facilitate a smooth transition to the Navy. Private Sector Commercial Potential: This technology may have dual-use applicability in commercial, deep-sea exploration that use manned submersibles and remote sensors to analyze the sea bed or other deep-sea phenomenon.

REFERENCES:

1. NAVSEA 0924-062-0010 Submarine Safety (SUBSAFE) Requirements Manual Revision C. (Public Release version available upon request).

2. Bishop, Charles M. “Sensor dynamics of autonomous underwater gliders.” Master’s thesis, 2008. Memorial University of Newfoundland. http://research.library.mun.ca/9330.

3. Laval, Bernard,Bird, John S. and Helland, Peter D.. "An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for the Study of Small Lakes." Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, January 2000. http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/1520-0426%282000%29017%3C0069%3AAAUVFT%3E2.0.CO%3B2.

4. MIL-STD-1678-6 Fiber Optic Cable Topology Installation Standard Methods for Naval Ships-

KEYWORDS: SUBSAFE interface; External sensors; Unmanned Underwater Sensors; Underwater Communications Interface; Submarine Payload Integration; Open Ocean Interface

Questions may also be submitted through DoD SBIR/STTR SITIS website.

N171-070

TITLE: Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) of Additively Manufactured (AM) Parts

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Materials/Processes

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Systems Engineering/Technical Authority (SE/TA) Operations & Maintenance, Navy (O&MN)

OBJECTIVE: Develop a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methodology that will enable inspection of additive manufactured (AM) parts.

DESCRIPTION: The Naval fleet suffers from long lead times to obtain replacements for broken, worn, or otherwise failed parts. Additive manufacturing (AM) technology has the potential to reduce supply chain issues and enable new designs through unique layer-by-layer fabrication capabilities. The significant advance in AM technology recently has been demonstrated in the private sector. The private sector is currently limited in its ability to inspect AM components using NDE techniques. The only techniques that have been found suitable are X-ray CT systems and the use of penetrant testing (PT) for determining surface breaking cracks. Techniques like adaptive x-rays are still in conceptual stages of development.

To enable the Navy to harness metallic AM capabilities for end-use items, the ability to inspect AM manufactured parts becomes a critical issue. Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technologies have served a valuable role in quality control and testing of components in the field to determine their structural integrity. The application of NDE technologies is unique to the component being inspected and leverages decades of active contributions from a variety of sectors including defense, nuclear, and transportation to develop detailed NDE guidelines, procedures, and requirements. Parts that are made using metallic AM are uniquely difficult to inspect due to significant microstructural variability and their geometric complexities that inhibit many conventional NDE techniques such as Ultrasonic Testing, Eddy Current Testing and Acoustic Emission. The intricate link between the use of AM technology and the ability of NDE technologies to inspect AM parts is vital in moving forward toward the implementation of this new technology for Navy use. Microstructural variability is very high.

There are wide technological gaps in inspecting AM parts and there is a need to explore both the capabilities and shortcomings of currently used NDE. The technology developed under this SBIR will address the following aspects of the technological gaps outlined below.

The technological gaps for AM include the need to develop a better understanding of the influence of microstructure of the AM parts and its impact on the ability to be inspected using NDE technologies. The grain size, shape, and orientation are not well established to determine suitable techniques to inspect the components. There is a need for the development of innovative technologies that can address the issues in using conventional NDE techniques. In addition, there is a lack of understanding of the types and sizes of defects that could be critical for the functionality of AM parts. It is important to determine defects like porosity, crack, delamination, volumetric flaws and surface roughness that are commonly found in AM components and also if the sizes could be structurally critical. Due to varying degree of geometrical complexities, the conventional NDE techniques are restricted in their abilities to provide quantitative information on the defects in AM components. The geometrical complexities vary from parts that provide access to all surfaces for NDE inspection to parts where in the access to surfaces begins to narrow with embedded features in the components, thereby reducing inspectability and the application of conventional NDE techniques.

Due to the evolving nature of this topic, the development of Probability of Detection (POD) curves will be limited to the variables within the manufacturing process adopted, the microstructural variation, types and size of defects, and the parameters of the NDE technology used to evaluate the parts with number of specimens being one of the POD parameters.

The ability to inspect AM parts will enable usage of metallic AM parts to reduce long lead times on replacement parts, mitigate issues with part obsolescence, and result in new component designs for increased performance. Through this SBIR, the company will develop and demonstrate the performance of the NDE technology to accurately account for microstructural variability in its ability to locate and size embedded defects.

PHASE I: The company will develop an NDE concept that is capable of imaging the interior features of micro structurally and geometrically complex AM parts. The company will demonstrate the feasibility of the concept in meeting Navy needs and will establish that the concept can be developed into a useful product for the Navy. Testing and analytical modeling will establish feasibility. The company should include specifics on the type AM process that will be used, the types of defects (volumetric, cracking/delamination, surface roughness) that will be observed, and identify the proposed complexity of the metallic AM part. The Phase I Option, if awarded, will include the initial design specifications and capabilities description to build a prototype in Phase II.

PHASE II: Based on the results of Phase I and the Phase II Statement of Work (SOW), the company will develop and deliver a prototype NDE system for evaluation. The prototype will be evaluated to determine its capability in meeting the performance goals defined in the Phase II SOW and the Navy requirements for the NDE methodology. The system performance will be demonstrated through prototype evaluation and testing to occur through monitoring of the AM part during the buildup process and/or inspecting the final product and validation of the results through destructive testing and metallographic analysis. Testing will demonstrate the performance of the NDE technology to accurately account for microstructural variability in its ability to locate and size embedded defects. Probability of detection (POD) curves will be developed within the scope of the work carried out under Phase II and will be required. Evaluation results will be used to refine the prototype into an final design that will meet Navy requirements. The company will prepare a Phase III development plan to transition the technology to Navy and potential commercial use.

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The company will be expected to support the Navy in transitioning the technology for Navy use under the Systems Engineering/Technical Authority (SE/TA) Operations & Maintenance, Navy (O&MN). The company will further refine an AM methodology according to the Phase II development plan for evaluation to determine its effectiveness in operationally relevant environment. The company will support the Navy for test and validation to certify and qualify the system for Navy use. Private Sector Commercial Potential: This technology has potential applications in a wide number of sectors including medical, aerospace, automotive and other commercial industries. The ability to provide NDE tools to qualify and certify AM parts will enable transitioning of AM technology for critical applications.

REFERENCES:

1. NAVSEA Tech Publication, T9074-AS-GIB-010/271; http://ntpdb.ddlomni.com/TechPubs/271/TP%20271%20Rev%201.pdf

2. Waller, Jess M., Regor L Saulsberry, Bradford H Parker, Kenneth L Hodges, Eric R Burke and Karen M Taminger, Summary of NDE of additive manufacturing efforts in NASA. AIP Conf. Proc. 1650, 51 (2015); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4914594

3. Christopher Brown, Joshua Lubell and Robert Lipman, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Additive Manufacturing Technical Workshop Summary Report, Technical Note (NIST TN) – 1823, December 04 2013.

4. ASTM-I F2792: Standard Terminology for Additive Manufacturing Technologies; http://www.astm.org/FULL_TEXT/F2792/HTML/F2792.htm

5. Waller, Jess M., Regor L Saulsberry, Bradford H Parker, Kenneth L Hodges, Eric R Burke and Karen M Taminger, Nondestructive Evaluation of Additive Manufacturing: State-of-the-Discipline Report. NASA/TM-2014-218560; http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20140016447-

KEYWORDS: Non-destructive evaluation; non-destructive testing; additive manufacturing; 3D printing; rapid prototyping; microstructural impact

Questions may also be submitted through DoD SBIR/STTR SITIS website.

N171-071

TITLE: Plug-and-play Analytical Framework for Distributed Structured and Unstructured Data Sets for Condition Based Maintenance Plus (CBM+)

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Information Systems

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS) 1.0 – AEGIS Combat System

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 Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws.

OBJECTIVE: Create an agnostic algorithmic software framework, which consumes disparate sources of structured and unstructured data to increase the accuracy and fidelity of Prognostic Health Management (PHM) results.

DESCRIPTION: Condition Based Maintenance Plus (CBM+) is maintenance performed based on evidence of need and integrating Reliability Center Maintenance analysis with those enabling processes, technologies, and capabilities that enhance the readiness and maintenance effectiveness of DoD systems and components (reference 1). The analytical component of CBM+, Prognostic Health Management (PHM), relies upon mathematical algorithms fed by equipment condition data, both historical and current. A significant barrier to using this data for informed maintenance and subsequent operational decision-making is that the data often resides in disconnected systems, which do not have the flexibility to include new approaches, combine results, or be accessible as a single source. Additionally, the analysis environments often exclude data sources that are not primary or they deal with known data inputs and include preset factors to take the place of the unknown data sets. Current approaches to data analysis and/or mining lock data within disparate organizations have no ability to provide a comprehensive and integrated picture. The Navy seeks a “plug-and-play” Analytical Framework that can deploy on board naval platforms in order to increase the scope, validity, veracity, and speed of PHM results. The framework should be flexible enough to accept both structured/unstructured data sources and multiple/changing analytical packages, and respond with a single comprehensive model of health. The framework must increase the flexibility of the analysis and be data-agnostic with inputs in order to take the analysis of equipment condition to a higher fidelity. The increased fidelity is required to help the AEGIS community accurately assess failure trends, improve system design, lead to more accurate maintenance and mission planning, and increase logistics response (reference 2).

The primary function of the plug-and-play framework for equipment health management developed will be to link disparate unstructured and structured data sources. This includes data from the Operational Readiness Test System (ORTS) as well as unstructured data from 2-kilos and/or ships’ logs. The framework must also accept a wide variety of micro diagnostic capabilities in order to create a comprehensive PHM solution. It is expected that the software framework solution will ultimately link individual analysis capabilities (or advanced algorithms) which address specific and targeted areas of maintenance need. These algorithms will likely be supplied by a wide variety of experts from Government and industry, wherein domain experts will develop targeted analytics capabilities focused on determining the best path for the detection and understanding of equipment health based on the elements, components, and systems involved. As can be imagined, the number of individual elements and components within an integrated system of systems can grow to be very large. As such, the framework should be created with an extensible architecture in order to take advantage of future technological developments and new algorithms. Both the quality of the data to be analyzed and the ability to analyze it will thereby improve and provide future expansion of capabilities that do not require a new software platform.

The final system requirement will be the ability to handle large amounts of data such as those found in Big Data ingestion and streaming applications. Novel techniques for handling large data ingestion and streaming should still enable the solution to be configurable to integrate from many different sources, even as these sources change. Proposed approaches should ensure that the results of analysis could be made available to credible subscribers.

Once operational, the solution must be able to assemble disparate data and information into actionable knowledge to increase Operational Availability without overwhelming the Sailor and provide insight to shore-based activities.

PHASE I: The company will develop an initial concept approach and design for a plug-and-play analytical framework that includes disparate data that may be structured and/or unstructured. The company will also advance a method for developing a software platform capable of integrating multiple data sources and producing actionable results from the framework. The company will explore the feasibility of the proposed technology/approaches to meet the intent of expanded CBM+ and electronic prognostics in support of shipboard maintenance. Feasibility will be determined through testing at a land-based test site that allows for the use of existing CBM-related data sets. Government test capabilities are available for use at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC)-Port Hueneme (CA) and NSWC-Dahlgren (VA) or the company could utilize structured and unstructured data provided by the Government at a test site of their choosing. The company will also define a plan of action for technology development, testing, and integration into a Combat Systems cross-domain environment.

PHASE II: Based on the approach explored in Phase I and the Phase II Statement of Work (SOW), a prototype software solution with the ability to launch multiple analytical packages will be demonstrated in a simulated combat system environment. The prototype must be delivered and be capable of demonstrating a method for aggregating and utilizing disparate sources of data in the analysis and prognostication of maintenance decision paths. The offeror will provide a detailed test plan to demonstrate the deliverable meets the intent of advanced CBM+ and electronic prognostic efforts. A Phase III qualification and transition plan will also be provided at the end of Phase II.