The Department of Defense (DoD) announced today that the University of Notre Dame (ND) was selected for a one-year, $500,000 applied research award to use additive manufacturing techniques to construct a control array module for use on hypersonic vehicle designs.
The control system design will incorporate machine learning for feedback control allowing adaptation to varying flight conditions, leading to potential increased performance of the hypersonic vehicle. The proposed research, sponsored by the Joint Hypersonic Transition Office (JHTO) through the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH), will be jointly undertaken by ND, University of Arizona (UoAZ), Texas A&M University (TAMU), and General Electric (GE Global Research).
The design, fabrication, and bench testing of the array module will be conducted at ND, cross-flow stability analysis will be performed at TAMU, and the Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) will be conducted at the UoAZ. The development of a machine learning surrogate model will be concurrently conducted at GE Global Research and ND. The development of the Fiber Bragg Grating temperature sensing array will be performed at the optoXense headquarters, San Ramon, CA and the flow field experiments will be conducted in the Mach 6 Ludwieg Tube Facility at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
One of the main objectives of the UCAH and JHTO is workforce development. In addition to supporting graduate students at the three different universities, this work will support a Ph.D. student as a research intern working on the project at the GE Global Research Center.
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The Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E) is the Chief Technology Officer of the Department of Defense. The USD(R&E) champions research, science, technology, engineering, and innovation to maintain the United States military’s technological advantage. Learn more at www.cto.mil, follow us on Twitter @DoDCTO, or visit us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/ousdre.