Lab-on-fiber technology: a new avenue for optical nanosensors

The "lab-on-fiber" concept envisions novel and highly functionalized technological platforms completely integrated in a single optical fiber that would allow the development of advanced devices, components and sub-systems to be incorporated in modern optical systems for communication and sensing applications. The realization of integrated optical fiber devices requires that several structures and materials at nano- and micro-scale are constructed, embedded and connected all together to provide the necessary physical connections and light-matter interactions. This paper reviews the strategies, the main achievements and related devices in the lab-on-fiber roadmap discussing perspectives and challenges that lie ahead

New materials and technologies in aero and space research

Space technology plays an integral and indispensable role in our daily lives. Whether we are talking about live broadcasts of World Cup matches, satellite-assisted emergency management efforts, or the nightly weather forecast, one thing is true: our lives would be very different without satellite images or satellite-based communication and navigation systems. Space technology is key to our modern, knowledge-based society. Today space makes a vital contribution when it comes to promoting research and development, education and innovation, economic growth, providing highly qualified jobs, improving our quality of life, protecting the Earth, ensuring our security and defence and furthering international cooperation. Military platforms—such as ships, aircraft, and ground vehicles— rely on advanced materials to make them lighter, stronger, and more resistant to harsh environmental conditions. Currently, the process for developing new materials frequently takes longer than a decade. This lengthy process often means that developers of new military platforms are forced to rely on decades-old, mature materials, because potentially more advanced materials are still being developed and tested and are considered too large a risk to be implemented into platform designs. Al alloys have been the primary material for the structural parts of aircraft because of their well known performance, well established design methods, manufacturing and reliable inspection techniques. Fiber reinforced polymer composites have been increasingly used in aerospace. Fiber Metal Laminate (FML) is a new kind of hybrid composite. Materials used to construct spacecraft and protective gear—including the International Space Station and space suits for astronauts—must be lightweight yet strong enough to guard against cosmic dust that travels at hypervelocity

Bridges Structural Health Monitoring and Deterioration Detection Synthesis of Knowledge and Technology

INE/AUTC 10.0

The NASA SBIR product catalog

The purpose of this catalog is to assist small business firms in making the community aware of products emerging from their efforts in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. It contains descriptions of some products that have advanced into Phase 3 and others that are identified as prospective products. Both lists of products in this catalog are based on information supplied by NASA SBIR contractors in responding to an invitation to be represented in this document. Generally, all products suggested by the small firms were included in order to meet the goals of information exchange for SBIR results. Of the 444 SBIR contractors NASA queried, 137 provided information on 219 products. The catalog presents the product information in the technology areas listed in the table of contents. Within each area, the products are listed in alphabetical order by product name and are given identifying numbers. Also included is an alphabetical listing of the companies that have products described. This listing cross-references the product list and provides information on the business activity of each firm. In addition, there are three indexes: one a list of firms by states, one that lists the products according to NASA Centers that managed the SBIR projects, and one that lists the products by the relevant Technical Topics utilized in NASA's annual program solicitation under which each SBIR project was selected

HEC-RAS hydraulic model for floodplain area in Sembrong river

The study of floodplain is significant to human life and social economy. It can be seen that by using most computer models, locations of structures affected by floodwaters, such as bridges and roads cannot be effectively compared to the floodplain location in stream floodplain analysis. The purpose of this study is to develop an output of Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) hydraulic model and to enable one dimensional steady flow analysis. This study is applied to Sembrong river catchment area, located in Batu Pahat. Floodplain data features such as length of streams, bank position, streamline and cross-sections were used to produce river flow and its cross-sectional shape for each station along the study area. Total of 7 flow rate values were used to indicate an increase in the water level in order to accommodate the additional amount of water that flow into river. The results show that water will overflow into the floodplain at maximum flow rate of 24 m3 /s. The hydraulic model had indicated that 33 out of 65 stations were unable to accommodate the maximum flow rate and thus will led to flooding. By developing the hydraulic model, it clearly shows that the results are more reliable and the affected area can be easily identified. The developed flood model can be a very useful tool in flood management of Sembrong river in terms of river development planning, flood mitigation measures, flood evacuation planning and addressing public awareness. This study proved that HEC-RAS is one of effective instrument for analysis and modeling

Progress in advanced high temperature materials technology

Significant progress has recently been made in many high temperature material categories pertinent to such applications by the industrial community. These include metal matrix composites, superalloys, directionally solidified eutectics, coatings, and ceramics. Each of these material categories is reviewed and the current state-of-the-art identified, including some assessment, when appropriate, of progress, problems, and future directions

Coherent modulation up to 100 GBd 16QAM using silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) devices

We demonstrate the generation of higher-order modulation formats using silicon-based inphase/quadrature (IQ) modulators at symbol rates of up to 100 GBd. Our devices exploit the advantages of silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) integration, which combines silicon-on-insulator waveguides with highly efficient organic electro-optic (EO) cladding materials to enable small drive voltages and sub-millimeter device lengths. In our experiments, we use an SOH IQ modulator with a {\pi}-voltage of 1.6 V to generate 100 GBd 16QAM signals. This is the first time that the 100 GBd mark is reached with an IQ modulator realized on a semiconductor substrate, leading to a single-polarization line rate of 400 Gbit/s. The peak-to-peak drive voltages amount to 1.5 Vpp, corresponding to an electrical energy dissipation in the modulator of only 25 fJ/bit