Structural health monitoring apparatus and methodology
Disclosed is an apparatus and methodology for structural health monitoring (SHM) in which smart devices interrogate structural components to predict failure, expedite needed repairs, and thus increase the useful life of those components. Piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) are applied to or integrated with structural components and various data collected there from provide the ability to detect and locate cracking, corrosion, and disbanding through use of pitch-catch, pulse-echo, electro/mechanical impedance, and phased array technology. Stand alone hardware and an associated software program are provided that allow selection of multiple types of SHM investigations as well as multiple types of data analysis to perform a wholesome investigation of a structure.
1. A system for structural health monitoring comprising:
an automatic signal collection unit;
an array of sensors;
an oscilloscope;
a function generator;
an impedance analyzer; and
a computer, wherein the computer is programmed to perform structural health monitoring analysis based on user selectable data wherein the structural health monitoring analysis programming utilizes
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to perform a damage index analysis.
2. A system as in claim 1 , wherein the user selectable data comprises pitch-catch data.
3. A system as in claim 1 , wherein the user selectable data comprises pulse-echo data.
4. A system as in claim 1 , wherein the user selectable data comprises round-robin data.
5. A system as in claim 1 , wherein the user selectable data comprises impedance data.
6. A system as in claim 1 , wherein the user selectable data comprises capacitance data.
7. A system as in claim 1 , wherein the structural health monitoring analysis comprises embedded ultrasonics structural radar for phase-array data.
8. A system as in claim 1 , wherein the structural health monitoring analysis comprises a damage index analysis for pitch-catch and pulse-echo data.
9. A system as in claim 1 , wherein the structural health monitoring analysis comprises a damage index analysis for impedance data.
10. A system as in claim 1 , wherein the array of sensors comprises piezoelectric wafer active sensors.
11. A system as in claim 1 , further comprising an amplifier for selectively amplifying signals produced by the sensors.
12. A system as in claim 1 , further comprising a switch to activate the impedance analyzer or function generator.
13. A system as in claim 10 , wherein the sensors are wireless sensors.
14. A method for structural health monitoring comprising:
utilizing a system to perform structural health monitoring analysis based on user selectable data, the system comprising an automatic signal collection unit, an array of sensors, an oscilloscope, a function generator, an impedance analyzer, and a computer; wherein the computer performs structural health monitoring analysis based on data that is selected wherein the structural health monitoring analysis utilizes
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to perform a damage index analysis.
15. A method as in claim 14 , wherein the data that is selected comprises pitch-catch data.
16. A system as in claim 14 , wherein the data that is selected comprises pulse-echo data.
17. A system as in claim 14 , wherein the data that is selected comprises round-robin data.
18. A system as in claim 14 , wherein the data that is selected comprises impedance data.