Diagnostic system for monitoring structural health conditions

• US 7,246,521 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2006
• Issued: 07/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hyeung-Yun Kim
• Original Assignee: Hyeung-Yun Kim
• Inventors: Kim, Hyeung-Yun
• Primary Examiner(s): Williams; Hezron
• Assistant Examiner(s): MILLER, ROSE MARY
• Application Number:
  US11/445,452
• Publication Number:
  US 20070006653A1
• Time in Patent Office: 417 Days
• Field of Search: 735/87, 735/92, 736/60
• US Class Current: 73/587
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 11/00 Measuring mechanical vibrations or ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves by detecting changes in electric or magnetic properties
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 11/08 using piezoelectric devices
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 9/004 using fibre optic sensors light guides per se G02B6/00, acousto-optical devices specially adapted for gating or modulating in optical wave guides G02F1/125
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 11/086 Details about the embedment of the optical fiber within the DUT
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 5/0033 by determining damage, crack or wear
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 5/0066 by exciting or detecting vibration or acceleration vibration testing of structures G01M7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 5/0091 by using electromagnetic excitation or detection
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/011 Velocity or travel time
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/015 Attenuation, scattering
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/02491 Materials with nonlinear acoustic properties
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/0258 Structural degradation, e.g. fatigue of composites, ageing of oils
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/0422 Shear waves, transverse waves, horizontally polarised waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/0423 Surface waves, e.g. Rayleigh waves, Love waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/0427 Flexural waves, plate waves, e.g. Lamb waves, tuning fork, cantilever
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/106 one or more transducer arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/043 in the interior, e.g. by shear waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/0609 Display arrangements, e.g. colour displays indicating or recording in connection with measuring in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/0672 by acoustic tomography medical tomography A61B8/13
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/07 by measuring propagation velocity or propagation time of acoustic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/223 Supports, positioning or alignment in fixed situation mounting transducers per se G10K11/004
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/245 : Ceramic probes, e.g. lead zirconate titanate [PZT] probes
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/2475 : Embedded probes, i.e. probes incorporated in objects to be inspected
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/2493 : Wheel shaped probes
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/28 : providing acoustic coupling , e.g. water impedance matching G10K11/02
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/4418 : with a model, e.g. best-fit, regression analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/4463 : Signal correction, e.g. distance amplitude correction [DAC], distance gain size [DGS], noise filtering

Abstract

Sensors and systems for monitoring structural health conditions. The present invention provides a device for monitoring structural health conditions including a dielectric substrate, a piezoelectric device for actuating and/or sensing Lamb waves, a molding layer deposited over the piezoelectric device, a cover layer deposited over the molding layer and a hoop layer surrounding the piezoelectric device and being attached to the substrate. The device further includes an optical fiber coil sensor attached to the dielectric substrate, where the coil sensor has a rolled optical fiber cable and a coating layer applied to the rolled optical fiber cable. The present invention also provides a diagnostic patch network that includes a plurality of patch sensors attached to a host structure and a bridge box connected to the patch sensors. The bridge box sends information of structural health conditions to and receive power from a ground control system using a wireless communication technique.

Claims

1. A diagnostic system for monitoring the health condition of a host structure having one or more sensors coupled thereto, comprising:

a bridge box including;

at least one miniature transducer coupled to the sensors and operative to receive sensor signals from the sensors and to generate transducer signals, said sensor signals carrying information of the health condition of the host structure;

a microprocessor operative to receive the transducer signals from the miniature transducer and to generate a radio frequency (RF) signal carrying the transducer signals; and

a multi-layered honeycomb sandwich structure having an outer plate that includes at least one conformal load-bearing antenna for receiving the RF signal from the microprocessor and broadcasting the RF signal,

wherein the RF signal broadcasted by the bridge box is received by a remote device and analyzed to monitor the health condition of the host structure.

2. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 1, wherein said outer plate includes a plurality of dielectric laminates and wherein one of said dielectric laminates contains the conformal load-bearing antenna.

3. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 2, wherein each of said dielectric laminates is made of at least one of an organic material and an inorganic material.

4. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 1, wherein said bridge box forms a portion of the host structure.

5. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a computer for operating the sensors and the bridge box, said computer being coupled to the bridge box.

6. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 5, further including a data acquisition system interposed between the computer and the bridge box, said data acquisition system including a relay switch array module that has a plurality of switches and being operative to control the switches in a predetermined sequencing order, each of the switches being coupled to one of the sensors.

7. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the sensors is an optic fiber sensor for generating optical sensor signals and wherein the bridge box is operative to condition, filter and convert the optical signals into digital sensor signals.

8. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 1, wherein the conformal load-bearing antenna has a coil shape.

9. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 1, wherein the conformal load-bearing antenna is a micro strip antenna.

10. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 1, wherein the RF signal is formatted in accordance with a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).

11. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 1, wherein the RF signal is composed in a wireless markup language.

12. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 1, wherein the RF signal is accessible to a mobile internet toolkit.

13. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 1, wherein the conformal load-bearing antenna is operative to receive electromagnetic waves transmitted wirelessly from a remote source and to generate electrical currents using the electromagnetic waves, and wherein said bridge box further includes a silicon substrate connected to the conformal load-bearing antenna and operative to collect the electrical currents from the conformal load-bearing antenna, to condition the electrical currents, and to provide the electrical currents for the sensors.

14. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 13, wherein said silicon substrate includes at least one stimulating electrode for receiving the electrical currents from the conformal load-bearing antenna, at least one complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) for receiving the electrical currents from the stimulating electrode and converting the electrical currents into DC currents, at least one bipolar power regulation circuitry for filtering the DC currents to remove signal ripples in the DC currents, and at least one hybrid chip capacitor.

15. A diagnostic system for monitoring the health condition of a host structure having one or more sensors coupled thereto by use of electromagnetic waves wirelessly transmitted from a remote source, comprising:

a bridge box connected to the sensors and operative to receive, from the sensors, sensor signals that carry information of the health condition of the host structure, said bridge box having a multi-layered honeycomb sandwich structure that includes first and second layers, said first layer containing at least one conformal load-bearing antenna for receiving the electromagnetic waves and for generating electrical currents using the electromagnetic waves, said second layer including a silicon substrate connected to the conformal load-bearing antenna and operative to collect the electrical currents from the conformal load-bearing antenna, to condition the electrical currents, and to provide the electrical currents for the sensors,

wherein said sensors are operative to generate the sensor signals using the electrical currents.

16. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 15, wherein said silicon substrate includes at least one stimulating electrode for receiving the electrical currents from the conformal load-bearing antenna, at least one complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) for receiving the electrical currents from the stimulating electrode and converting the electrical currents into DC currents, at least one bipolar power regulation circuitry for filtering the DC currents to remove signal ripples in the DC currents, and at least one hybrid chip capacitor.

17. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 15, wherein said first layer is made of at least one of an organic dielectric material and an inorganic dielectric material, and wherein said bridge box forms a portion of the host structure.

18. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 15, further comprising:

a computer for operating the sensors and the bridge box, said computer being coupled to the bridge box.

19. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 15, further including a data acquisition system interposed between the computer and the bridge box, said data acquisition system including a relay switch array module that has a plurality of switches and being operative to control the switches in a predetermined sequencing order, each of the switches being coupled to one of the sensors.

20. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 15, wherein at least one of the sensors is an optic fiber sensor for generating optical sensor signals and wherein the bridge box is operative to condition, filter and convert the optical signals into digital sensor signals.

21. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 15, wherein the conformal load-bearing antenna has a coil shape.

22. A diagnostic system as recited in claim 15, wherein the conformal load-bearing antenna is a micro strip antenna.