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 NASA Langley develops innovative technologies to control fluid flow in ways that will ultimately result in improved performance and fuel efficiency. Often called fluidic oscillators, sweeping jet actuators or flip-flop oscillators, these flow control devices work based on the Coanda effect. They can be embedded directly into a control surface (such as a wing or a turbine blade) and generate spatially oscillating bursts (or jets) of fluid to improve flow characteristics by enhancing lift, reducing drag, or enhancing heat transfer. Recent studies show up to a 60% performance enhancement with oscillators. NASA offers two new fluidic oscillator designs that address two key limitations of these oscillators: coupled frequency-amplitude and random oscillations. One oscillator effectively decouples the oscillation frequency from the amplitude. The other design enables synchronization of an entire array. The new oscillators have no moving parts oscillation, decoupling, and synchronization are achieved entirely via internal flow dynamics. Both oscillators are flow control devices based on novel geometric designs. They have no moving parts and produce spatially oscillating jets. Each was designed to address a particular limitation of current oscillators. The first design gains control authority by decoupling frequency and amplitude in a novel way. Existing oscillators are limited in that the frequency of oscillation is controlled by input pressure or mass flow ratethe frequency and amplitude (mass flow rate) are coupled, limiting control authority over the oscillators. The new oscillator design decouples the frequency from the amplitude by employing a novel design featuring a main oscillator that controls the amplitude and a small oscillator that controls the frequency of the oscillations. The decoupled oscillator delivers high (or low) mass flow rates without changing the frequency and vice versa. The second design gains control authority by synchronizing the entire oscillator jet array. Existing oscillators in an array oscillate randomly. While this is useful for mixing enhancement, synchronized flow may be more beneficial for active flow control applications. The simple design of the new Langley synchronized oscillator achieves synchronization without having electro/mechanical or any other moving parts. The new oscillator enables synchronization of an entire array by properly designing the feedback loops to have one unique feedback signal to each actuator. Once each actuator has the same feedback signal, each main jet attaches to one side of the Coanda surface at the same time, allowing synchronized oscillation. 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 the nature of your interest in the technology along with a brief background of your company. For more information about licensing other NASA-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Technology Transfer Portal at http://technology.nasa.gov/ . These responses are provided to members of NASA Langleys 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.