CORROSION INSPECTION AND MONITORING SYSTEM
First Claim
1. An apparatus for detection and monitoring of corrosion in a structure by direct measurement of material loss in the structure, comprising:
- a microcontroller including memory;
a function generator in communication with said microcontroller for generating a high-frequency tone burst excitation signal;
a power amplifier connected to said function generator for conditioning the high-frequency tone burst excitation signal;
an actuator connected to said power amplifier and in contact with said structure for imparting each said conditioned high-frequency tone burst excitation signal into said structure as a wave packet to generate a mechanical disturbance into the structure;
a plurality of sensors mounted on said structure for sensing mechanical deformation in said structure due to said wave packet wave propagation and for converting said mechanical deformation into voltage feedback signals;
an analog-to-digital converter connected between said plurality of sensors and said microcontroller for digitizing the feedback signals and transmitting the digitized signals to the microcontroller; and
software stored in said microcontroller memory for initiating said function generator to generate said high-frequency tone burst excitation signal, to extract phase and magnitude information from the digitized feedback signals from said analog-to-digital converter, and for correlating said phase and magnitude information with corrosion damage in said structure.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for in-situ near-real-time detection and monitoring of corrosion in structures with the ability to directly track the presence and growth of corrosion on a structure by measurement of material loss in the structure attained by analysis of high frequency wave propagation dynamics. The Corrosion Inspection and Monitoring (CIM) system utilizes low-weight in-situ transducers and unique data reduction software for detection and monitoring of corrosion in structural systems in near real-time for corrosion related damage. The CIM system provides a corrosion monitoring and tracking tool that can be deployed in the field with the structural system, and no maintenance personnel are needed for corrosion analysis.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. An apparatus for detection and monitoring of corrosion in a structure by direct measurement of material loss in the structure, comprising:
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a microcontroller including memory; a function generator in communication with said microcontroller for generating a high-frequency tone burst excitation signal; a power amplifier connected to said function generator for conditioning the high-frequency tone burst excitation signal; an actuator connected to said power amplifier and in contact with said structure for imparting each said conditioned high-frequency tone burst excitation signal into said structure as a wave packet to generate a mechanical disturbance into the structure; a plurality of sensors mounted on said structure for sensing mechanical deformation in said structure due to said wave packet wave propagation and for converting said mechanical deformation into voltage feedback signals; an analog-to-digital converter connected between said plurality of sensors and said microcontroller for digitizing the feedback signals and transmitting the digitized signals to the microcontroller; and software stored in said microcontroller memory for initiating said function generator to generate said high-frequency tone burst excitation signal, to extract phase and magnitude information from the digitized feedback signals from said analog-to-digital converter, and for correlating said phase and magnitude information with corrosion damage in said structure. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for detection and monitoring of corrosion in a structure by direct measurement of material loss in the structure, comprising the steps of:
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generating a high-frequency tone burst excitation signal; amplifying said high-frequency tone burst excitation signal; transmitting said high-frequency tone burst excitation signal to an actuator in contact with said structure and thereby imparting each said conditioned high-frequency tone burst excitation signal into said structure as a wave packet to generate a mechanical disturbance into the structure; sensing mechanical deformation in said structure due to said wave packet wave propagation and converting said mechanical deformation into feedback signals; digitizing the feedback signals; extracting phase and magnitude information from the digitized feedback signals; and correlating said phase and magnitude information with corrosion damage in said structure. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. An apparatus for detection and monitoring of corrosion in a structure by direct measurement of material loss in the structure, comprising:
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a microcontroller including memory; a function generator in communication with said microcontroller for generating an excitation signal; an amplifier connected to said function generator for amplifying the excitation signal; an actuator connected to said amplifier and in contact with said structure for imparting said excitation signal into said structure as a wave packet to generate a mechanical disturbance into the structure; at least one sensor mounted on said structure for sensing mechanical deformation in said structure due to said wave packet wave propagation, and for generating a feedback signal there from; and software stored in said microcontroller memory for extracting phase and magnitude information from the feedback signal and for correlating said phase and magnitude information with corrosion damage in said structure. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification