Remote sensor system for monitoring the condition of earthen structure and method of its use
First Claim
1. A system simultaneously employing complementary techniques to detect and locate hidden anomalies in structure, comprising:
- an RF sub-system comprising;
at least one pair of transmitter and receiver ported coaxial cables;
at least one RF source in operable communication with at least said transmitter ported coaxial cable,wherein said RF source provides at least one analog signal; and
at least one RF receiver in operable communication with at least said receiver ported coaxial cable,wherein said RF receiver receives at least portions of said analog signal leaked from ports of said ported transmitter coaxial cable as provided by said receiver ported cable;
an optics sub-system comprising;
at least one fiber optic cable;
at least one optical transceiver in operable communication with said at least one fiber optic cable;
wherein said optical transceiver provides at least one analog optical signal and receives reflections of said analog signal from said fiber optic cable; and
a control sub-system for at least operating said RF sub-system and said optical sub-system, said control sub-system in operable communication with each of said RF and said optical sub-systems, said control system comprising;
at least one processor;
at least one display in operable communication with said at least one processor;
at least one I/O device in operable communication with at least said processor and said display; and
at least one communications apparatus in operable communication with at least said I/O device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and associated method permit remote monitoring of subsurface structure for purposes of early detection and location of hidden anomalies, e.g., water seepage in levees. Anomalies may be due to sand boils or displacement of underlying soil. Representative systems provide continuous monitoring via two complementary means: parallel pairs of ported (leaky) coaxial cables and a fiber optic cable, each pair of coaxial cables associated with a fiber optic cable. A fiber optic system, with associated light source, processor and display, together with an RF system, provides data to a remote location via telemetry or cellular phone, or both. The fiber optic cable(s) allow monitoring of displacement and vibrations within the structure. The ported coaxial cables, with associated RF source, using the same processor, display and telemetry used with the fiber optic sub-system, provide data for monitoring moisture change correlated to changes in the dielectric constant of surrounding material.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A system simultaneously employing complementary techniques to detect and locate hidden anomalies in structure, comprising:
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an RF sub-system comprising; at least one pair of transmitter and receiver ported coaxial cables; at least one RF source in operable communication with at least said transmitter ported coaxial cable, wherein said RF source provides at least one analog signal; and at least one RF receiver in operable communication with at least said receiver ported coaxial cable, wherein said RF receiver receives at least portions of said analog signal leaked from ports of said ported transmitter coaxial cable as provided by said receiver ported cable; an optics sub-system comprising; at least one fiber optic cable; at least one optical transceiver in operable communication with said at least one fiber optic cable; wherein said optical transceiver provides at least one analog optical signal and receives reflections of said analog signal from said fiber optic cable; and a control sub-system for at least operating said RF sub-system and said optical sub-system, said control sub-system in operable communication with each of said RF and said optical sub-systems, said control system comprising; at least one processor; at least one display in operable communication with said at least one processor; at least one I/O device in operable communication with at least said processor and said display; and at least one communications apparatus in operable communication with at least said I/O device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method simultaneously employing complementary techniques to detect and locate hidden anomalies in structure, comprising:
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providing an RF sub-system comprising; at least one pair of transmitter and receiver ported coaxial cables; at least one RF source in operable communication with at least said transmitter ported coaxial cable, wherein said RF source provides at least one RF analog signal; and providing at least one RF receiver in operable communication with at least said receiver ported coaxial cable, wherein said RF receiver receives at least portions of said RF analog signal leaked from ports of said ported transmitter coaxial cable as provided by said receiver ported cable; providing an optics sub-system comprising; at least one fiber optic cable; at least one optical transceiver in operable communication with said at least one fiber optic cable; providing a control sub-system for at least operating said RF sub-system and said optical sub-system, said control sub-system in operable communication with each of said RF and said optical sub-systems, said control system comprising; at least one processor; at least one display in operable communication with said at least one processor; at least one I/O device in operable communication with at least said processor and said display; and at least one communications apparatus in operable communication with at least said I/O device; installing said pairs of ported cables and said fiber optic cables entirely within said structure, paralleling the longitudinal axis of said structure; connecting said optical sub-system to said fiber optic cable and said control sub-system;
connecting said RF sub-system to said ported cables and said control sub-system;operating said RF sub-system and said optical sub-system to obtain, process, display and archive baseline data; and operating said system in accordance with user requirements to detect and locate said hidden anomalies by comparing dynamically received data with archived baseline data. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
wherein said inducer and said covering facilitate the formation of micro-bends in said optical fiber upon impinging of said fiber optic cable by solid media external to said covering.
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23. The method of claim 15, providing said Time Domain Reflectometer as at least one RF pulse-modulated reflectometer.
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24. The method of claim 15, employing a step function with a fast rise time to simulate a pulsed analog RF signal.
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25. The method of claim 15, providing said analog signal as a RF pulse-modulated signal on an RF carrier frequency.
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26. The method of claim 15 in which said processing further provides at least a measure of the time for a known portion of said optical analog signals to travel from said source end to at least a first location along the length of said fiber optic cable and the at least partial reflection of at least part of said optical signal back to said source end.
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27. The method of claim 26, said processing further employing an algorithm to extract at least location of said anomaly along the length of said structure.
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28. The method of claim 26 further comparing said at least one feature of said at least one reflection to at least one reference to yield additional information for decision making.
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29. The method of claim 26 further providing for digitizing said reflected signal and processing it using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm,
wherein said processing yields a power spectrum from which location and relative amplitude may be identified and displayed on a computer monitor as said display.
Specification