METIS DESIGN CORPORATION — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: A17A-T009
METIS DESIGN CORPORATION — STTR Phase I award from Department of Defense.
Phase I STTR feasibility signal
- Phase I awards fund proof-of-concept work. For capture teams, they mark early interest from Department of Defense in a technical approach.
- Watch for Phase II follow-ons from the same firm/topic family — that conversion path is where budgets and transition pressure rise.
- Obligated amount $149,999. Cross-check similar awards in the same agency and technology tags for going-rate context.
- Topic code A17A-T009 links this award to a solicitation family — search the same topic stem for incumbents and recompete timing.
- Amount
- $149,999
- Agency
- Department of Defense · Army
- Program / Phase
- STTR · Phase I
- Topic
- A17A-T009
- Solicitation
- 2017.0
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- MA
- Period
- 2017-08-09 → 2018-02-08
Description
Composites are being adopted increasingly in aerospace structures due to their superior specific stiffness and strength, their resistance to fatigue and ability to greatly reduce part count. They present additional challenges for design however, due to their heterogeneity and anisotropy, and for inspection since damage often occurs beneath their surface. Currently successful laboratory non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods are impractical for service inspection of large-area composite structures due to their complexity. Thus new approaches for NDE are necessary to assure structural integrity for composite structures. During this proposed research, Metis Design Corporation in collaboration with Arizona State University will investigate the use of embedded mechanophores to detect damage initiation in composite materials through fluorescent response. The work will also be extended to embedded self-healing architectures.