99--TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITY AIR COUPLED ACOUSTIC THERMOGRAPHYNONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION AND INSPECTION OF STRUCTURES

NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA solicits interest from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology. License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. THE TECHNOLOGY: NASA Langley researchers have developed a novel noncontact method to identify internal damage inside structures. Air Coupled Acoustic Thermography (ACAT) was originally developed for damage identification in honeycomb sandwich structures but can also be applied to other systems. ACAT uses pulsed acoustic waves to generate movement and vibrations in areas of honeycomb structures that exhibit weakness or stress. These vibrations generate temperature differentials that can be visualized via thermography and essentially allow more exact identification of damaged regions. ACAT provides several advantages over techniques used for similar purposes such as ultrasound or vibrothermography in that the excitation source does not need to be physically coupled to the substrate of interest. This advantage allows ACAT to detect damage in curved surfaces and mitigates the risk of damaging the substrate at the coupling point. ACAT has been demonstrated to accurately visualize internal core damage as well as damage nearer to the structures skin. To express interest in this opportunity, please respond to Sean Sullivan, Research Triangle International (RTI), at: NASA Langley Research Center, Strategic Relationships Office (SRSO), 17 West Taylor St., Mail Stop 218, Building 1212, Room 110 Hampton, Virginia, E-mail: [email protected], or phone: 757-864-5055. Please indicate the date and title of the FBO notice and include your company and contact information. RTI is responsible for aggregating and acknowledging all responses. These responses are provided to members of NASA Langleys Innovative Partnerships Office within the SRO for the purpose of promoting public awareness of our technology products, and conducting preliminary market research to determine public interest in and potential for future licensing opportunities. If direct licensing interest results from this posting, SRO will follow the formal licensing process of posting in the Federal Register as required. No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice.