Nasa SBIR Phase II

UMass Lowell

The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a nationally ranked public research university committed to excellence in teaching, research and community engagement. UMass Lowell strives to prepare students to succeed in college and to become lifelong learners and informed citizens in a global environment. The university offers affordable, experience-based undergraduate and graduate academic programs taught by internationally recognized faculty who conduct research to expand the horizons of knowledge and sustainable practices.

The ACMTRL (Advanced Composite Materials and Textiles Research Laboratory) located on the University of Massachusetts Lowell campus offers companies a resource for research and testing. The ACMTRL, continues the long history of the Lowell region in leading in textile advances, has as its charter the task of developing a better understanding of the design, analysis, and manufacture of high performance composite materials and textile structures. The laboratory pursues collaborative projects providing support and technology transfer to industry and government agencies. The ACMTRL is involved in active integration of analytical modeling, experimentation, and numerical simulation to understand the behavior of fiber-reinforced, polymer matrix composites and textiles.

The UMass Lowell team has expertise in the characterization of textiles, e.g. woven fabrics and braided cords, using quasi-static and high-speed testing and in the finite element modeling of such textiles. For the proposed research project, the UMass Lowell team will provide testing services to characterize parachute canopy fabrics and to evaluate the rate sensitivity and repeatability of the integrated data logger and strain gage systems. These data systems will be designed and built by Katabasis Engineering, LLC for the objective of measuring the deformation response of parachute canopies while in service.