NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA solicits inquiries 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. NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses. THE TECHNOLOGY: Scientists at NASA Langley Research Center have developed three serial advanced high performance piezoelectric hybrid synthetic jet actuators. These inventions will provide active flow control for current and future wing-borne vehicles in subsonic, transonic and supersonic flow. These inventions relate to active flow control, which is an effort to change the paradigm of aerodynamic design of current and future wing-borne systems in subsonic, transonic and supersonic flow. Active flow control will be an inherent input to the conceptual design of the next generation of commercial and military flight vehicles. Retrofitted to current fixed-wing aircraft, active flow control can clean up complex three-dimensional external flow separations on the wing top surface particularly severe under maneuvering conditions. The outcome is a reduction in overall drag of the vehicle, alleviation of unsteady loads, and prevention of the expulsion of the inlet shock system that may lead to catastrophic loss of the airframe. Synthetic jet actuators produce a jet flow using the surrounding air rather than relying on a secondary fluid. The interaction of synthetic jets with an external cross flow over the surface on which they are mounted can displace the local streamlines and can induce an apparent or virtual change in the shape of the surface, thereby effecting flow changes on length scales that are one to two orders of magnitude larger than the characteristic scale of the jets. The present inventions comprise high performance, zero-net mass-flux, synthetic jet actuators for active control of viscous, separated flow on subsonic and supersonic vehicles. These inventions are piezoelectric actuators in which all the walls of the chamber are electrically controlled synergistically to reduce or enlarge the volume of the synthetic jet actuator chamber in three dimensions simultaneously. The jet velocity and mass flow rate for the actuators will be from several times up to a couple of orders magnitude higher than conventional piezoelectric actuators. The actuator can be designed either in the horizontal or vertical position. The actuator can also be designed as a curved chamber, instead of the conventional cylinder chamber, to reduce the dead volume of the jet chamber and increase the efficiency of the synthetic jet. NASA is seeking to license this technology commercially in the United States. US Patent 8,235,309; 8,052,069; 8,662,412. To express interest in this opportunity, please respond to
[email protected] with the title of this Technology Transfer Opportunity as listed in this FBO notice and your preferred contact information. Please also provide how you foresee using the technology along with a brief background of your company. Additionally, please identify any non-US interests/subsidiaries in your company as well. For more information about licensing other NASA Langley-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Langley’s Technology Gateway at https://technologygateway.nasa.gov/ These responses are provided to members of NASA Langley’s Office of Strategic Analysis and Business Development “OSACB” for the purpose of promoting public awareness of NASA-developed 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, OSACB will follow the required formal licensing process of posting in the Federal Register. No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice.