Advanced Composites Program

Reinforcement for metal-matrix composites with such metals as titanium, titanium aluminide, aluminum, magnesium, and copper. Applications are found mostly in advanced aerospace programs and include fan blades, drive shafts, and other components. 

Mertz, D. R., Gillespie, J. W., Chajes, M. J. and Sabol, S. A. (2001), The rehabilitation of steel bridge girders using advanced composite materials , IDEA Program, Final Report for the period Feb. 1999 to Aug. 2000, Contract Number NCHRP-98-ID051. 

Abstract The present knowledge of protein science includes information on amino acid sequence and 3D structure in terms of precise models on the atomic level. Recourse to the respective databanks and advanced computer programs allows a series of molecular features to be calculated. Application of analytical surface calculation programs (SIMS, MSRoU) based on atomic coordinates or the coordinates of gravity centers of amino acids allows precise molecular dot surfaces to be calculated, in addition to numerical data for anhydrous molecular surface and anhydrous molecular volume. Usage of in-house hydration programs (HY-DCRYST, HYDMODEL) permits the putative localization of individual water molecules on the protein envelope to be addressed explicitly. To estimate the overall values of protein volume and hydration, simple approximations based on the amino acid composition and characteristic numbers for the constituents can be used. Derivation of secondary... 

Our inventory also showed that funding levels for materials vary widely across differing materials classes. R D on advanced metals received 13% (the largest fraction in 1992), composites were 11%, electronic materials were 10%, and biomaterials were also 10%. The FCCSET process proved enormously successful in focusing the federal program on materials research. 

Space technology development has also provided advanced-performance materials test beds in both communications and structural areas. The value of these programs has been passed on in many cases from space and the military to civilian aircraft. Many of the advanced-performance materials in the new generation of airline transports, such as structural composites, were first developed for spacecraft or advanced military aircraft. 

Sprenkle V, Kim JY, Meinhardt K, Lu C, Chick L, Canfield N et al. Sulfur poisoning studies on the Delphi-Battelle SECA program. Presented at The 31st International Cocoa Beach Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, 2007 Daytona Beach, FL. 

The first successful static firing of plastisol propellant took place late in 1950 as part of a broad program conducted by Atlantic Research Corp. to investigate and evaluate plastisol propellants and methods for their manufacture (16). Major attention was directed to poly (vinyl chloride), cellulose acetate, and nitrocellulose, although other polymers were tested for their suitability (17). Patent applications were filed for plastisol propellant compositions and manufacturing processes, based on poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) (19) and on nitrocellulose (18). The commercial availability of dispersion grade PVC enabled work with this resin to advance rapidly. The balance of this paper is devoted to a discussion of PVC plastisol propellants and their manufacture. 

In summary, we have described the main concepts of two components of our program, one on composite materials and the other on alloys. The experiments on composite materials are still not advanced enough to tell how effective such materials will be as electrodes. The results on the alloys show some promise, and point to the need for a more basic materials approach in order to obtain improved electrodes. This work was supported by the Solar Energy Research Institute. 

Debra R. Rolison is head of Advanced Electrochemical Materials at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). She received a B.S. in chemistry from Florida Atlantic University in 1975 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1980 under the direction of Royce W. Murray. Dr. Rolison joined the Naval Research Laboratory as a research chemist in 1980. Her research at NRL focuses on the influence of nanoscale domains on electron- and charge-transfer reactions, with special emphasis on the surface and materials science of aerogels, electrocatalysts, and zeolites. Her program creates new nano structured materials and composites for catalytic chemistries, energy storage and conversion (fuel cells, supercapacitors, batteries, thermoelectric devices), and sensors. 

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