A Lexington, Kentucky, high-tech firm has won a NASA research award under the aerospace agency’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to develop a capability for computer-based analysis and modeling of aerospace vehicles ranging from conventional aircraft to advanced spacecraft.
Advanced Dynamics, Inc., will be tasked to provide an essential software design tool not currently available in an integrated dynamic fluid-structure interaction environment. The software tool is expected to be significantly more robust and computationally efficient than traditional analysis methods, and could potentially lead to savings in time and cost as a result of improved specification, design, and operational performance for a range of aerospace vehicles and increase U.S. aerospace mission effectiveness.
“Aeroservothermoelasticity is the study of the interaction between aerodynamics (aero), the control system and control surface dynamics (servo), thermodynamics (thermo), and the structural dynamics (elasticity) of an aerospace vehicle in flight,” explained Marty Brenner of the Aerostructures Branch at NASA Dryden, technical representative for this project. “The major issues involved in this modeling and simulation development will include full coupling between fluid/structure/control dynamics, viscous and turbulent aerodynamic effects, shock and shock-boundary layer interactions, and the large unsteady and highly complex aerothermal effects on the vehicle structure.”
Advanced Dynamics’ proposal was chosen based upon technical merit and innovation, the firm’s performance with an earlier Phase I SBIR project, value to NASA, commercial potential and company capabilities.
Phase I awards support evaluation of the scientific or technical merit of a proposed concept, and are funded up to a maximum of $100,000 for a six-month period. Phase II selections are made from high-performing Phase I projects, and are oriented to development of a marketable product. About 40 to 50 percent of Phase I contracts are selected for the Phase II follow-on.
Those firms successfully completing work under a Phase I or II grant may enter a third phase of the SBIR program without competition to commercialize their product or service. Phase III funding is provided by private financing or non-SBIR federal funding. Overall, 102 small, high-technology firms in 27 states will share in about $72 million in SBIR Phase II awards from NASA this year, with several receiving more than one contract. The 120 projects funded were selected from 243 proposals submitted by firms completing SBIR Phase I projects.
The NASA SBIR program is intended to stimulate technological innovation, increase the use of small business – including women-owned and disadvantaged firms – in meeting federal research and development needs, and increase private sector commercialization of innovations derived from federally funded research. NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., manages the SBIR program for the agency’s Innovative Partnership Program office. NASA’s 10 field centers, including NASA Dryden, manage individual projects.
For a list of all of the selected companies, visit: http://sbir.nasa.gov
NOTE TO EDITORS: Further information about Advanced Dynamics, Inc., and its NASA SBIR project can be obtained by contacting Patrick Hu at
(859) 699-0441, or via e-mail at patrick.g.hu@advanceddynamics-usa.com. The firm is located at 1500 Bull Lea Road, Suite 203, Lexington, KY 40511– 0017.
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