NFPA Foundation Awards 10 Fluid Power Research Supplements

NFPA Members Invited to CCEFP Summit to Review Projects and Presentations

By Eric Lanke, NFPA President/CEO

The NFPA Education and Technology Foundation is actively working to increase the number of university students educated in fluid power, and one of the ways it does that is by supporting academic researchers in fluid power. It helps to engage current and build the careers of future university faculty who are and will be in a position to teach fluid power to undergraduate engineers on their campuses. With this purpose in mind, the NFPA Foundation has just awarded ten $10,000 research supplements to ten faculty members working on fluid power research at six universities.

The recipient universities, faculty members, and research projects are:

• Georgia Institute of Technology: Prof. Tequila Harris – Science of Pattern Coating onto Heterogeneous Surfaces Using a Hybrid Tool
• Milwaukee School of Engineering: Prof. Paul Michael – Polymer-Enhanced Fluid Effects on Mechanical Efficiency of Hydraulic Pumps (project in collaboration with UofCA-Merced)
• Purdue University: Prof. Andrea Vacca – Individual Electro-Hydraulic Drives for Off-Road Vehicles
• University of California – Merced: Prof. Ashlie Martini – Polymer-Enhanced Fluid Effects on Mechanical Efficiency of Hydraulic Pumps (project in collaboration with MSOE)
• University of Minnesota: Prof. Thomas Chase – High Efficiency Hydraulic Pump-Motors Employing Partial Stroke Piston Pressurization
• University of Minnesota: Prof. Perry Li – Liquid Piston Gas Compressor/Expander for Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) and CO2 Sequestration
• University of Minnesota: Prof. Kim Stelson – Understanding the Transient Nature of Wind Turbine Response to Create Advanced Controls to Improve the Efficiency of a Hydraulic Drivetrain Wind Turbine
• University of Minnesota: Prof. Zongxuan Sun – Modeling and Optimization of Trajectory-Based HCCI Combustion
• University of Minnesota: Prof. James Van de Ven – Efficient, Compact, and Smooth Variable Propulsion Motor
• University of Wisconsin – Madison: Prof. Eric Severson – Seamless Electric to Hydraulic Conversion

These research projects independently represent more than $4.9 million in funding from a variety of organizations, including the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP). They are an excellent sample of the growing body of fluid power research being funded by the federal government and other research organizations.

The research supplements from the NFPA Foundation are intended to provide travel support so that each faculty member and one of their graduate students can attend and present their research at a series of designated industry conferences and research summits. This will help better connect these researchers with the fluid power industry and allow better cross-fertilization of ideas. Any funds not spent on travel will be used in general support of the research project itself.

This year, the designated conferences will be the two summits of the CCEFP, scheduled for October 2018 and April 2019.