Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090199643 | ACTUATION SYSTEM - A method and system for creating highly nonlinear solitary waves for use in performing nondestructive evaluation of structures and materials. The method and system use an apparatus having a spring loaded adjustable striker, a chain of granular particles, and a reloading device that allows for repeated activation of the adjustable striker. | 08-13-2009 |
20090204344 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION AND MONITORING OF MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES - A method and apparatus for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of structures and materials using a highly nonlinear medium for the generation and detection of one or multiple highly nonlinear pulses (or highly nonlinear waves) impinging on a material or structure. The apparatus includes pulse exciters that induce the propagation of highly nonlinear, weakly nonlinear or linear stress waves in the material, system, or structure to be inspected and/or detectors for the observation and the detection of the output waves from the material/structure being tested. The NDE method includes the use of the tunable highly nonlinear apparatus as impulse exciter alone, or in combination with an accelerometer or a nonlinear sensor to detect the outgoing pulse. | 08-13-2009 |
20090229910 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FORMATION OF HIGHLY NONLINEAR PULSES - A method and system supporting the formation and propagation of tunable highly nonlinear pulses using granular chains composed of non-spherical granular systems. Such a method and system may be used to support the creation of tunable acoustic band gaps in granular crystals formed of particles with different geometries (spherical or not) in which the tunability is achieved by varying the static precompression, type of excitation and/or pulse amplitude in the system. | 09-17-2009 |
20110209940 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONTROLLING HIGHLY NONLINEAR ACOUSTIC WAVES OR PULSES - Systems and methods for creating sound bullets are described. Such sound bullets are created by controlling and/or redirecting highly nonlinear acoustic waves or pulses propagating through an array of actuators. The controlling and/or redirecting of the acoustic waves or pulses is achieved though methods such as applying pre-compressive forces to the array of actuators or by selection of size, shape and/or material of the actuators. | 09-01-2011 |
20120181104 | SYSTEM FOR FORMATION OF HIGHLY NONLINEAR PULSES - A system supporting the formation and propagation of tunable highly nonlinear pulses using granular chains composed of non-spherical granular systems. Such a system may be used to support the creation of tunable acoustic band gaps in granular crystals formed of particles with different geometries (spherical or not) in which the tunability is achieved by varying the static precompression, type of excitation and/or pulse amplitude in the system. | 07-19-2012 |
20130033339 | BIFURCATION-BASED ACOUSTIC SWITCH AND RECTIFIER - A tunable frequency acoustic rectifier that is a granular crystal composed of a statically compressed one-dimensional array of particles in contact, containing a light mass defect near a boundary. The tunable frequency acoustic rectifier is nonlinear and contains tunable pass and stop bands in their dispersion relation. Vibrations at selected frequencies applied to the granular crystal from the side near the defect will cause the system to bifurcate at a critical input amplitude and subsequently jump to quasiperiodic and chaotic states with broadband frequency content. Some of this frequency content lies within the pass bands and will propagate through the crystal. Vibrations at the same frequencies applied to the other side of the granular crystal will not bifurcate, and little energy is transmitted. | 02-07-2013 |
20130187094 | GRANULAR CRYSTAL - Granular crystals with one or more chains of particles are described. A geometry of at least one particle is chosen to provide highly nonlinear pulses having selected characteristics. Contact interactions between the particles are non-Hertzian. | 07-25-2013 |
20130220729 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR WAVE GENERATION AND DETECTION USING TENSEGRITY STRUCTURES - A tensegrity apparatus having multiple tensegrity units for the transmission of solitary waves with adjustable profiles into a material or structure, and the detection of such waves from a material or structure. | 08-29-2013 |
20130280515 | MULTILAYER FOAM STRUCTURES OF NOMINALLY-ALIGNED CARBON NANOTUBES (CNTS) - A method for making a multilayer foam structure of nominally-aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is disclosed. The method comprises synthesizing a layer of CNTs and sandwiching the layer of CNTs between two polymeric layers, or between two metallic layers or foils. | 10-24-2013 |
20130301113 | DEFORMABLE MIRRORS AND METHODS OF MAKING THE SAME - A deformable mirror is configured to be deformed by surface-parallel actuation. In one embodiment, the deformable mirror includes a first piezoelectric active layer on a first surface of a substrate. The first piezoelectric active layer has a substantially uniform thickness across the first surface of the substrate. The mirror also includes a first electrode layer on the first piezoelectric active layer. The first electrode layer has a plurality of electrodes arranged in a first pattern and has a substantially uniform thickness across the first piezoelectric active layer. The mirror may further include a second piezoelectric layer on the first electrode layer, and a second electrode layer on the second piezoelectric layer. The electrodes of the first and second electrode layers are configured to supply a voltage to the piezoelectric active layers upon actuation to thereby locally deform the shape of the mirror to correct for optical aberrations. | 11-14-2013 |
20130302633 | THIN FILM BI-MATERIAL LATTICE STRUCTURES AND METHODS OF MAKING THE SAME - A micro-scaled bi-material lattice structure includes a frame comprising a first material having a first coefficient of expansion and defining a plurality of unit cells. The bi-material lattice structure further includes a plurality of plates comprising a second material having a second coefficient of expansion different from the first coefficient of expansion. One of the plates is connected to each unit cell. The bi-material lattice structure has a third coefficient of expansion different from both the first coefficient of the expansion and the second coefficient of expansion, and the bi-material lattice structure has a thickness of about 100 nm to about 3000 microns. | 11-14-2013 |
20140011007 | CARBON NANOTUBE FOAMS WITH CONTROLLABLE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES - Syntheses of carbon nanotubes (CNT) are disclosed. The syntheses can take place on a thermally oxidized silicon surface placed inside a furnace prior to a reaction. The setup can have many variables that could affect the resulting CNT arrays, including flow rate and composition of carrier gas, flow rate and composition of precursor solution, and temperature. By varying such variables the density of the resulting CNT arrays can be controlled. | 01-09-2014 |
20140097562 | TUNABLE PASSIVE VIBRATION SUPPRESSOR - An apparatus and method for vibration suppression using a granular particle chain. The granular particle chain is statically compressed and the end particles of the chain are attached to a payload and vibration source. The properties of the granular particles along with the amount of static compression are chosen to provide desired filtering of vibrations. | 04-10-2014 |
20140205829 | METHOD FOR CONTROLLING MICROSTRUCTURAL ARRANGEMENT OF NOMINALLY-ALIGNED ARRAYS OF CARBON NANOTUBES - A method for controlling the microstructural arrangement of nominally-aligned arrays of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and a foam structure of CNTs are disclosed. The method includes a functionalization of CNT surfaces, for example, a non-covalent functionalization. The non-covalent functionalization of CNT surfaces can be obtained by way of a wetting process, for example by the use of a solution of surfactant or silica (SiO | 07-24-2014 |
20140245522 | SOUND PROOF HELMET - Novel methods and systems for acoustic proofing are disclosed. A sound proof helmet can be designed by optimizing several layers of different materials, thickness, and physical properties. The thickness of the layers can be smaller than the wavelength of the sound waves which are meant to be reduced. | 09-04-2014 |