Carbon Nanotube-Fiber Optic Skin Friction and Temperature Sensor

NASA's Aviation Safety Program teams with the FAA and the aerospace industry to achieve large strides in aircraft safety under Pillar One of the Aerospace Technology Enterprise's Three Pillars for Success, Global Civil Aviation, and aims to improve aviation safety five-fold over the next 10 years and ten-fold over the next 25 years. To achieve this goal, improved health monitoring systems are required to provide maintenance personnel with accurate information of critical aircraft components to schedule preventive maintenance and indicate impending failure. There is a clear need for extremely miniaturized skin friction and temperature sensors for the design, development, and operation of next generation engines. Using leading-edge carbon nanotube and fiber optic technologies, Luna will develop skin friction and temperature sensors smaller than ever possible, allowing point measurements previously unobtainable. These sensors will give fluid dynamicists new insight to flowfields giving feedback to design engineers for future vehicle designs and feedback to on-line health monitoring systems in the completed system.