The present invention relates to diagnostics of structures, and more particularly to diagnostic network patch (DNP) systems for monitoring structural health conditions.
As all structures in service require appropriate inspection and maintenance, they should be monitored for their integrity and health condition to prolong their life or to prevent catastrophic failure. Apparently, the structural health monitoring has become an important topic in recent years. Numerous methods have been employed to identify fault or damage of structures, where these methods may include conventional visual inspection and non-destructive techniques, such as ultrasonic and eddy current scanning, acoustic emission and X-ray inspection. These conventional methods require at least temporary removal of structures from service for inspection. Although still used for inspection of isolated locations, they are time-consuming and expensive.
With the advance of sensor technologies, new diagnostic techniques for in-situ structural integrity monitoring have been in significant progress. Typically, these new techniques utilize sensory systems of appropriate sensors and actuators built in host structures. However, these approaches have drawbacks and may not provide effective on-line methods to implement a reliable sensory network system and/or accurate monitoring methods that can diagnose, classify and forecast structural condition with the minimum intervention of human operators. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,814,729, issued to Wu et al., discloses a method that detects the changes of damping characteristics of vibrational waves in a laminated composite structure to locate delaminated regions in the structure. Piezoceramic devices are applied as actuators to generate the vibrational waves and fiber optic cables with different grating locations are used as sensors to catch the wave signals. A drawback of this system is that it cannot accommodate a large number of actuator arrays and, as a consequence, each of actuators and sensors must be placed individually. Since the damage detection is based on the changes of vibrational waves traveling along the line-of-sight paths between the actuators and sensors, this method fails to detect the damage located out of the paths and/or around the boundary of the structure.
Another approach for damage detection can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,516, issued to Blazic et al., that discloses a self-contained conformal circuit for structural health monitoring and assessment. This conformal circuit consists of a series of stacked layers and traces of strain sensors, where each sensor measures strain changes at its corresponding location to identify the defect of a conformal structure. The conformal circuit is a passive system, i.e., it does not have any actuator for generating signals. A similar passive sensory network system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,399,939, issued to Mannur, J. et al. In Mannur '939 patent, a piezoceramic-fiber sensory system is disclosed having planner fibers embedded in a composite structure. A drawback of these passive methods is that they cannot monitor internal delamination and damages between the sensors. Moreover, these methods can detect the conditions of their host structures only in the local areas where the self-contained circuit and the piezoceramic-fiber are affixed.
One method for detecting damages in a structure is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,964 (Chang et al.). Chang et al. discloses a sensory network layer, called Stanford Multi-Actuator-Receiver Transduction (SMART) Layer. The SMART Layer® includes piezoceramic sensors/actuators equidistantly placed and cured with flexible dielectric films sandwiching the piezoceramic sensors/actuators (or, shortly, piezoceramics). The actuators generate acoustic waves and sensors receive/transform the acoustic waves into electric signals. To connect the piezoceramics to an electronic box, metallic clad wires are etched using the conventional flexible circuitry technique and laminated between the substrates. As a consequence, a considerable amount of the flexible substrate area is needed to cover the clad wire regions. In addition, the SMART Layer® needs to be cured with its host structure made of laminated composite layers. Due to the internal stress caused by a high temperature cycle during the curing process, the piezoceramics in the SMART Layer® can be micro-fractured. Also, the substrate of the SMART Layer® can be easily separated from the host structure. Moreover, it is very difficult to insert or attach the SMART Layer® to its host structure having a curved section and, as a consequence, a compressive load applied to the curved section can easily fold the clad wires. Fractured piezoceramics and the folded wires may be susceptible to electromagnetic interference noise and provide misleading electrical signals. In harsh environments, such as thermal stress, field shock and vibration, the SMART Layer® may not be a robust and unreliable tool for monitoring structural health. Furthermore, the replacement of damaged and/or defective actuators/sensors may be costly as the host structure needs to be dismantled.
Another method for detecting damages in a structure is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 6,396,262 ( Light et al.). Light et al. discloses a sensor for inspecting structural damages, where the sensor includes a ferromagnetic strip and a coil closely located to the strip. The major drawback of this system is that the system cannot be designed to accommodate an array of sensors and, consequently, cannot detect internal damages located between sensors.
Thus, there is a need for an efficient, accurate and reliable system that can be readily integrated into existing and/or new structures and provide an effective on-line methodology to diagnose, classify and forecast structural condition with the minimum intervention of human operators.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a diagnostic system for monitoring structural health conditions by use of a plurality of patch sensors attached to an object, each of the patch sensors being adapted to perform at least one of generating a wave upon receipt of an actuator signal and developing a sensor signal, includes: at least one bridge box having at least one analog-to-digital converter(ADC) for converting the sensor signal to a digital signal; and at least one relay switch array module that has a plurality of relay switches. The switches are adapted to establish a channel between a selected one of the patch sensors and the ADC.
Although the following detained description contains many specifics for the purposes of illustration, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many variations and alterations to the following detains are within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the following embodiments of the invention are set forth without any loss of generality to, and without imposing limitation upon, the claimed invention.
The substrate 102 may be attached to a host structure using a structural adhesive, typically a cast thermosetting epoxy, such as butyralthenolic, acrylic polyimide, nitriale phenolic or aramide. The substrate 102 may be an insulation layer for thermal heat and electromagnetic interference protecting the piezoelectric device 108 affixed to it. In some applications, the dielectric substrate 102 may need to cope with a temperature above 250° C. Also it may have a low dielectric constant to minimize signal propagation delay, interconnection capacitance and crosstalk between the piezoelectric device 108 and its host structure, and high impedance to reduce power loss at high frequency.
The substrate 102 may be made of various materials. Kapton® polyimide manufactured by DuPont, Wilmington, Del., may be preferably used for its commonplace while other three materials of Teflon perfluoroalkoxy (PFA), poly p-xylylene (PPX), and polybenzimidazole (PBI), can be used for their specific applications. For example, PFA film may have good dielectric properties and low dielectric loss to be suitable for low voltage and high temperature applications. PPX and PBI may provide stable dielectric strength at high temperatures.
The piezoelectric layer 116 can be made of piezoelectric ceramics, crystals or polymers. A piezoelectric crystal, such as PZN-PT crystal manufactured by TRS Ceramics, Inc., State College, Pa., may be preferably employed in the design of the piezoelectric device 108 due to its high strain energy density and low strain hysteresis. For small size patch sensors, the piezoelectric ceramics, such as PZT ceramics manufactured by Fuji Ceramic Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, or APC International, Ltd., Mackeyville, Pa., may be used for the piezoelectric layer 116. The top and bottom conductive flakes 112 and 114 may be made of metallic material, such as Cr or Au, and applied to the piezoelectric layer 116 by the conventional sputtering process. In
To sustain temperature cycling, each layer of the piezoelectric device 108 may need to have a thermal expansion coefficient similar to those of other layers. Yet, the coefficient of a typical polyimide comprising the substrate 102 may be about 4-6×10−5 K−1 while that of a typical piezoelectric ceramic/crystal comprising the piezoelectric layer 116 may be about 3×10−6 K−1. Such thermal expansion mismatch may be a major source of failure of the piezoelectric device 108. The failure of piezoelectric device 108 may require a replacement of the patch sensor 100 from its host structure. As mentioned, the buffer layer 110 may be used to reduce the negative effect of the thermal coefficient mismatch between the piezoelectric layer 116 and the substrate 102.
The buffer layer 110 may be made of conductive polymer or metal, preferably aluminum (Al) with the thermal expansion coefficient of 2×10−5 K−1. One or more buffer layers made of alumina, silicon or graphite may replace or be added to the buffer layer 110. In one embodiment, the thickness of the buffer layer 110 made of aluminum may be nearly equal to that of the piezoelectric layer 116, which is approximately 0.25 mm including the two conductive flakes 112 and 114 of about 0.05 mm each. In general, the thickness of the buffer layer 110 may be determined by the material property and thickness of its adjacent layers. The buffer layer 110 may provide an enhanced durability against thermal loads and consistency in the twofold function of the piezoelectric device 108. In an alternative embodiment, the piezoelectric device 108 may have another buffer layer applied over the top conductive flake 114.
Another function of the buffer layer 110 may be amplifying signals received by the substrate 102. As Lamb wave signals generated by a patch sensor 100 propagate along a host structure, the intensity of the signals received by another patch sensor 100 attached on the host structure may decrease as the distance between the two patch sensors increases. When a Lamb signal arrives at the location where a patch sensor 100 is located, the substrate 102 may receive the signal. Then, depending on the material and thickness of the buffer layer 110, the intensity of the received signal may be amplified at a specific frequency. Subsequently, the piezoelectric device 108 may convert the amplified signal into electrical signal.
As moisture, mobile ions and hostile environmental condition may degrade the performance and reduce the lifetime of the patch sensor 100, two protective coating layers, a molding layer 120 and a cover layer 106 may be used. The molding layer 120 may be made of epoxy, polyimide or silicone-polyimide by the normal dispensing method. Also, the molding layer 120 may be formed of a low thermal expansion polyimide and deposited over the piezoelectric device 108 and the substrate 102. As passivation of the molding layer 120 does not make a conformal hermetic seal, the cover layer 106 may be deposited on the molding layer 120 to provide a hermitic seal. The cover layer 120 may be made of metal, such as nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr) or silver (Ag), and deposited by a conventional method, such as electrolysis or e-beam evaporation and sputtering. In one embodiment, an additional film of epoxy or polyimide may be coated on the cover layer 106 to provide a protective layer against scratching and cracks.
The hoop layer 104 may be made of dielectric insulating material, such as silicon nitride or glass, and encircle the piezoelectric device 108 mounted on the substrate 102 to prevent the conductive components of the piezoelectric device 108 from electrical shorting.
The patch sensor 150 may be affixed to a host structure to monitor the structural health conditions. Also, the patch sensor 150 may be incorporated within a laminate.
The hoop layer 198 may have one or more sublayers 197 of different dimensions so that the outer contour of the hoop layer 198 may match the geometry of cavity 174. By filling the cavity 174 with sublayers 197, the adhesive material may not be accumulated during the curing process of the laminate 170.
The optical fiber coil 210 may be a Sagnac interferometer and operate to receive Lamb wave signals. The elastic strain on the surface of a host structure incurred by Lamb wave may be superimposed on the preexisting strain of the optical fiber cable 224 incurred by bending and tensioning. As a consequence, the amount of frequency/phase change in light traveling through the optical fiber cable 224 may be dependent on the total length of the optical fiber cable 224. In one embodiment, considering its good immunity to electromagnetic interference and vibrational noise, the optical fiber coil 210 may be used as the major sensor while the piezoelectric device 208 can be used as an auxiliary sensor.
The optical fiber coil 210 exploits the principle of Doppler's effect on the frequency of light traveling through the rolled optical fiber cable 224. For each loop of the optical fiber coil 210, the inner side of the optical fiber loop may be under compression while the outer side may be under tension. These compression and tension may generate strain on the optical fiber cable 224. The vibrational displacement or strain of the host structure incurred by Lamb waves may be superimposed on the strain of the optical fiber cable 224. According to a birefringence equation, the reflection angle on the cladding surface of the optical fiber cable 224 may be a function of the strain incurred by the compression and/or tension. Thus, the inner and outer side of each optical fiber loop may make reflection angles different from that of a straight optical fiber, and consequently, the frequency of light may shift from a centered input frequency according to the relative flexural displacement of Lamb wave as light transmits through the optical fiber coil 210.
In one embodiment, the optical fiber coil 210 may include 10 to 30 turns of the optical fiber cable 224 and have a smallest loop diameter 236, di, of at least 10 mm. There may be a gap 234, dg, between the innermost loop of the optical fiber coil 210 and the outer periphery of the piezoelectric device 208. The gap 234 may depend on the smallest loop diameter 236 and the diameter 232, dp, of the piezoelectric device 208, and be preferably larger than the diameter 232 by about two or three times of the diameter 230, df, of the optical fiber cable 224.
The coating layer 226 may be comprised of a metallic or polymer material, preferably an epoxy, to increase the sensitivity of the optical fiber coil 210 to the flexural displacement or strain of Lamb waves guided by its host structure. Furthermore, a controlled tensional force can be applied to the optical fiber cable 224 during the rolling process of the optical fiber cable 224 to give additional tensional stress. The coating layer 226 may sustain the internal stress of the rolled optical fiber cable 224 and allow a uniform in-plane displacement relative to the flexural displacement of Lamb wave for each optical loop.
The coating layer 226 may also be comprised of other material, such as polyimide, aluminum, copper, gold or silver. The thickness of the coating layer 226 may range from about 30% to two times of the diameter 230. The coating layer 226 comprised of polymer material may be applied in two ways. In one embodiment, a rolled optic fiber cable 224 may be laid on the substrate 202 and the polymer coating material may be sprayed by a dispenser, such as Biodot spay-coater. In another embodiment, a rolled optic fiber cable 224 may be dipped into a molten bath of the coating material.
Coating layer 226 comprised of metal may be applied by a conventional metallic coating technique, such as magnetron reactive or plasma-assisted sputtering as well as electrolysis. Specially, the zinc oxide can be used as the coating material of the coating layer 226 to provide the piezoelectric characteristic for the coating layer 226. When zinc oxide is applied to top and bottom surfaces of the rolled optical fiber cable 224, the optical fiber coil 210 may contract or expand concentrically in radial direction responding to electrical signals. Furthermore, the coating material of silicon oxide or tantalum oxide can also be used to control the refractive index of the rolled fiber optical cable 224. Silicon oxide or tantalum oxide may be applied using the indirect/direct ion beam-assisted deposition technique or electron beam vapor deposition technique. It is noted that other methods may be used for applying the coating layer 226 to the optical fiber cable 224 without deviating from the present teachings.
The piezoelectric device 208 and the optical fiber coil 210 may be affixed to the substrate 202 using physically setting adhesives instead of common polymers, where the physically setting adhesives may include, but not limited to, butylacrylate-ethylacrylate copolymer, styrene-butadiene-isoprene terpolymer and polyurethane alkyd resin. The adhesive properties of these materials may remain constant during and after the coating process due to the lack of cross-linking in the polymeric structure. Furthermore, those adhesives may be optimized for wetting a wide range of substrate 202 without compromising their sensitivity to different analytes, compared to conventional polymers.
As in the case of the patch sensor 150, the hybrid patch sensor 240 may be affixed to a host structure and/or incorporated within a composite laminate. In one embodiment, the hoop layer 244 may be similar to the hoop layer 198 to fill the cavity formed by the patch sensor 240 and the composite laminate.
It is noted that the optical fiber coils 308 and 318 show in
It should be noted that the sensors described in
The material and function of the optical fiber coil 404 and the piezoelectric device 406 may be similar to those of the optical fiber coil 210 and the piezoelectric device 208 of the hybrid patch sensor 200. In one embodiment, the piezoelectric device 406 may be similar to the device 130, except that the device 406 has a hole 403. The optical fiber coil 404 and the piezoelectric device 406 may be affixed to the support element 402 using a conventional epoxy. The support element 402 may have a notch 412, through which the ends 410a-b of the optical fiber coil 404 and the pair of electrical wires 408a-b may pass.
In
As shown in
As shown in
The device 502 may be one of the sensors described in
The relay switch array module 512 may be a conventional plug-in relay board. As a “cross-talks” linker between the actuators and sensors, the relay switches included in the relay switch array module 512 may be coordinated by the microprocessor of the computer 514 to select each relay switch in a specific sequencing order. In one embodiment, analog signals generated by the waveform generator 510 may be sent to other actuator(s) through a branching electric wire 515.
The device 502 may function as a sensor for receiving Lamb waves. The received signals may be sent to the conditioner 508 that may adjust the signal voltage and filter electrical noise to select meaningful signals within an appropriate frequency bandwidth. Then, the filtered signal may be sent to the analog-to-digital converter 504, which may be a digital input card. The digital signals from the analog-to-digital converter 504 may be transmitted through the relay switch array module 512 to the computer 514 for further analysis.
The sensor 522, more specifically the optic fiber coil included in the sensor 522, may operate as a laser Doppler velocitimeter (LDV). The laser source 528, preferably a diode laser, may emit an input carrier light signal to the modulator 526. The modulator 526 may be a heterodyne modulator and split the carrier input signal into two signals; one for the sensor 522 and the other for AOM 530. The sensor 522 may shift the input carrier signal by a Doppler's frequency corresponding to Lamb wave signals and transmit it to the modulator 534, where the modulator 534 may be a heterodyne synchronizer. The modulator 534 may demodulate the transmitted light to remove the carrier frequency of light. The photo detector 536, preferably a photo diode, may convert the demodulated light signal into an electrical signal. Then, the A/D converter 538 may digitize the electrical signal and transmit to the computer 542 via the relay switch array module 540. In one embodiment, the coupler 532 may couple an optical fiber cable 546 connected to another sensor 544.
Transmission links 612 may be terminated at the bridge box 604. The bridge box 604 may connect the patches 602 to admit signals from an external waveform generator 510 and to send received signals to an external A/D converter 504. The bridge box 604 may be connected through an electrical/optical cable and can contain an electronic conditioner 508 for conditioning actuating signals, filtering received signals, and converting fiber optic signals to electrical signals. Using the relay switch array module 512, the data acquisition system 606 coupled to the bridge box 604 can relay the patches 602 and multiplex received signals from the patches 602 into the channels in a predetermined sequence order.
It is well known that the generation and detection of Lamb waves is influenced by the locations of actuators and sensors on a host structure. Thus, the patches 602 should be properly paired in a network configuration to maximize the usage of Lamb waves for damage identification.
The computer 626 may coordinate the operation of patches 622 such that they may function as actuators and/or sensors. Arrows 630 represent the propagation of Lamb waves generated by patches 622. In general, defects 628 in the host structure 621 may affect the transmission pattern in the terms of wave scattering, diffraction, and transmission loss of Lamb waves. The defects 628 may include damages, crack and delamination of composite structures, etc. The defects 628 may be monitored by detecting the changes in transmission pattern of Lamb waves captured by the patches 622.
The network configuration of DNP system is important in Lamb-wave based structural health monitoring systems. In the network configuration of DNP system 620, the wave-ray communication paths should be uniformly randomized. Uniformity of the communication paths and distance between the patches 622 can determine the smallest detectible size of defects 628 in the host structure 621. An optimized network configuration with appropriate patch arrangement may enhance the accuracy of the damage identification without increasing the number of the patches 622.
Another configuration for building up wave ‘cross-talk’ paths between patches may be a pentagonal network as shown in
The bridge box 698 may operate in two ways. In one embodiment, the bridge box 698 may operate as a signal emitter. In this embodiment, the bridge box 698 may comprise micro miniature transducers and a microprocessor of a RF telemetry system that may send the structural health monitoring information to the ground communication system 694 via wireless signals 693. In another embodiment, the bridge box 698 may operate as a receiver of electromagnetic waves. In this embodiment, the bridge box 698 may comprise an assembly for receiving power from the ground communication system 694 via wireless signals 693, where the received power may be used to operate a DNP system applied to the structure 696. The assembly may include a micro-machined silicon substrate that has stimulating electrodes, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), bipolar power regulation circuitry, hybrid chip capacitors, and receiving antenna coils.
The structure of the bridge box 698 may be similar to the outer layer of the host structure 696. In one embodiment, the bridge box 698 may have a multilayered honeycomb sandwich structure, where a plurality of micro strip antennas are embedded in the outer faceplate of the multilayered honeycomb sandwich structure and operate as conformal load-bearing antennas. The multilayered honeycomb sandwich structure may comprise a honeycomb core and multilayer dielectric laminates made of organic and/or inorganic materials, such as e-glass/epoxy, Keviar/epoxy, graphite/epoxy, aluminum or steel. As the integrated micro-machining technology evolves rapidly, the size and production cost of the micro strip antennas may be reduced further, which may translate to savings of operational/production costs of the bridge box 698 without compromising its performance.
The scope of the invention is not intended to limit to the use of the standard Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and the wireless markup languages for a wireless structural health monitoring system. With a mobile Internet toolkit, the application system can build a secure site to which structural condition monitoring or infrastructure management can be correctly accessed by a WAP-enable cell phone, a Pocket PC with a HTML browser, or other HTML-enabled devices.
As a microphone array may be used to find the direction of a moving source, a clustered sensor array may be used to find damaged locations by measuring the difference in time of signal arrivals.
It is noted that, in
Signals 912a-n may represent sensor signals received by sensors. As can be noticed, each signal 912 may have wave packets 926, 928 and 930 separated by signal extracting windows (or, equivalently envelops) 920, 922 and 924, respectively. These wave packets 926, 928 and 930 may have different frequencies due to the dispersion modes at the sensor location. It is noted that the signal partitioning windows 916 have been applied to identify Lamb-wave signal from each sensor signal. The wave packets 926, 928 and 930 correspond to a fundamental symmetric mode S0, a reflected mode S0
Portions 914 of sensor signals 912 may be electrical noise due to the toneburst actuator signal 904. To separate the portions 914 from the rest of sensor signals 912, masking windows 916, which may be a sigmoid function delayed in the time period of actuation, may be applied to sensor signals 912 as threshold functions. Then, moving wave-envelope windows 920, 922 and 924 along the time history of each sensor signal may be employed to extract the wave packets 926, 928 and 930 from the sensor signal of 912. The envelope windows 920, 922 and 924 may be determined by applying a hill-climbing algorithm that searches for peaks and valleys of the sensor signals 912 and interpolating the searched data point in time axis. The magnitude and position of each data point in the wave signal may be stored if the magnitude of the closest neighborhood data points are less than that of the current data point until the comparison of wave magnitude in the forward and backward direction continues to all the data points of the wave signal. Once wave envelopes 918 are obtained, each envelope may break into sub envelope windows 920, 922 and 924 with time spans corresponding to those of Lamb-wave modes. The sub envelop windows 920, 922 and 924 may be applied to extract wave packets 926, 928 and 930 by moving along the entire time history of each measured sensor signal 912.
The bridge boxes 604 (
The bridge box 1000 receives oscillation signal data from the data acquisition system 1020 connected to the computer 1022 and sends an actuator signal to an active sensor, say 1002a. The oscillation signal data is related to the actuator signal, i.e., in response to the actuator signal, the active sensor 1002a emits a diagnostic wave 1003 that is received by an active sensor 1002c. The bridge box 1000 also processes and relays the sensor signal received by the active sensor 1002c to the computer 1022 via the data acquisition system 1020.
The bridge box 1000 can generate oscillation signal data upon receipt of a command signal from the data acquisition system 1020, send an actuator signal to the active sensor 1002a according to the oscillation signal data, analyze signal data received from the active sensors 1002 to thereby perform digital signal processing (DSP) and obtain structural diagnosis parameters, and send the structural diagnosis parameters to the computer 1022. The computer 1022 may be connected an external control device that can control the bridge box 1000 and communicate data to the bridge box 1000. More information of the structural diagnosis parameters can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,286,964 and U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/509,198, 11/827,244, 11/827,319, 11/827,350, and 11/827,415, which are herein incorporated by reference by their entirety.
The bridge box 1000 includes one or more relay switch array modules 1008, one or more A/D converters 1018, a waveform generator 1010, a signal conditioner 1016, a waveform amplifier 1012, and a processor 1004. It is noted that the bridge box 1000 may include multiple number of each component thereof. Also, even though not shown in
The bridge box 1000 may include, for example, a firmware system having a Windows CE™ operating system or a Linux™ operating system. In another example, the bridge box 1000 has a controller card of Windows™ operating system that corresponds to a processor and is installed in a chassis with a backplane of a compact PCI or a VXI bus, an A/D converter module, a D/A converter, a switch array, and a signal conditioning and amplifying module in the form of a card. In still another example, the bridge box 1000 includes chips having various functions and fabricated using a system-on-chip (SoC) technique. In such a miniature bridge box, the processor 1004, A/D converters 1018, waveform generator 1010, signal conditioner 1016, a relay switch array module controller, an internal memory, an FPGA, and communication devices have a low voltage source and are included in one SoC chip. Also, the amplifier 1012, a switch driver, and switches have a high voltage source and are formed in a CMOS chip by use of a high-voltage CMOS technique.
The processor 1004 communicates with various components of the bridge box 1004 and handles 1/0 requests transmitted from various components of the bridge box 1000 via a local bus. For each component of the bridge box 1000, the processor 1004 reads or writes the I/O value of control/status registers corresponding to the component in a designated memory address. The waveform generator 1010 receives actuating waveform data from the processor 1004 via the data/control local bus lines 1006, generates a high-frequency low-voltage waveform signal using a digital-to-analogue converter (D/A converter), and sends the high-frequency low-voltage waveform signal to the amplifier 1012 via signal lines 1014. Simultaneously, the waveform generator 1010 sends a waveform signal to one of the analogue-to-digital converters (A/D converters) 1018 via the signal lines 1014. The waveform generator 1010 also sends a sync-output control signal to another A/D converter 1018 so that at least two A/D converters 1018 get trigger signals and start sampling. The processor 1004 receives waveform data from one of the A/D converters 1018 and stores the data in a memory.
The amplifier 1012 amplifies a waveform signal into a high-frequency high-voltage pulse signal so that the actuator patch of an active sensor, say 1002a, attached to the host structure can generate a diagnostic wave, such as acousto-ultrasonic wave, having a sufficient intensity. The switch array 1009 directs an electric pulse signal to the active sensor 1002a, causing the sensor to generate the diagnostic wave 1003 that propagates through the host structure to other sensors 1002b-1002c. Each of the sensors 1002b-1002c generates a sensor signal of tens of milivolts in response to the propagated wave and transmits the sensor signal to the switch array 1009. The switch array 1009 directs the sensor signal to the signal conditioner 1016 that amplifies the sensor signal, adjusts a DC offset, filters the sensor signal using a band-pass filter, and transmits the conditioned sensor signal to one of the A/D converters 1018 via the signal lines 1014. The processor 1004 receives the converted sensor signal from one of the A/D converters 1018 and stores into a memory. The processor 1004 measures the difference in time-of-arrival between the waveform data received from two of the AND converters 1018 and the converted sensor signal data received from one of the A/D converters 1018.
The processor 1004 fetches address values of the switches corresponding to an actuator patch channel and a sensor patch channel from a memory. Subsequently, the processor 1004 uses a switch controller (FPGA/CPLD) or a multiplexing logic circuit of the bridge box 1000 to send a control signal to the relay switch array module 1008. Then, the relay switch array module 1008 sends a control signal to an internal switch driver so that the switches in the switch array 1009 are operated to form an actuator patch channel and a sensor patch channel. Upon establishing the channels, the actuator signal is sent to the sensor 1002a and the sensor signal is sent from the sensor 1002c to the processor 1004. The switches of the relay switch array module 1008 include reed relay switches, high-voltage CMOS field-effect transistor (FET) switches, and/or solid-state-relay (SSR) switches.
The waveform generator 1010 and the amplifier 1012 can be replaced by a pulse generator that generates a bipolar pulse train having a higher center frequency than the cut-off frequency of the amplifier 1012 and sends the bipolar pulse to the sensor 1002a. For that purpose, the processor 1004 may generate, instead of using the waveform data, a clock signal set to the actuator excitation frequency, input the clock signal to a CPLD to generate an output control signal within a preset time interval, and cause high-voltage FET switches to generate the bipolar pulse train of a high frequency. Also, a high-voltage filter is used to reduce the noise of the sensor signal and remove high frequency components of the high-voltage pulse train.
In one embodiment, one of the terminals 118a, 118b of the patch sensor 100 (
The relay switch array module 1048 sends control signals to a switch driver of the high-voltage switch array 1049 to open/close a signal channel to one of the active sensors 1042 and to a switch driver of the low-voltage switch array 1051 to open/close a signal channel to one of the passive sensors 1045. The processor 1044 sends the control signals to the relay switch array module 1048 by use of a switch controller (FPGA/CPLD) or a multiplexing logic circuit of the bridge box 1040.
The bridge box 1040 may have the same components as the bridge box 1000, except that the relay switch array module 1048 has two switch arrays 1049, 1051. As in the case of the bridge box 1000 of
Also, as in the case of the bridge box 1000 of
The switch selector 1112 is a multiplexing logic circuit, such as CPLD and FPGA. The selection address memory 1110 stores a list of port addresses corresponding to the sensors 1102, where each element of the list is the resister value of a memory address. More specifically, the selection address memory 1110 includes a range memory space divided into prioritized memory pages, and each paged range memory space includes a list of port addresses. The switch selector 1112 fetches port address values stored in the registers of paged range memory space and sends the fetched port address values to the switching driver 1114 so that the switches in the switch array 1116 are operated to form an actuator patch channel and a sensor patch channel.
The switch selector 1112 may fetch a port address value from the top list in the memory page of the highest priority or a port address at a fixed memory address location in accordance with a preset sequence order stored in a separate networking memory space. The processor 1104 determines and changes the port address value and stores the port address value in the paged memory space range via the data/control bus lines 1106. To analyze sensor signals and establish an optimum network environment among the active sensors 1102, the processor 1104 determines and changes memory address list values of the sequence order and stores the memory address list values in the networking memory space. The switch selector 1112 fetches port address values of the memory address of the paged range memory space, where the memory address is the register value of the networking memory space.
The relay switch array module 1148 sends control signals to a switch driver of the high-voltage switch array 1156 to open/close a signal channel to one of the active sensors 1142 and to a switch driver of the low-voltage switch array 1151 to open/close a signal channel to one of the passive sensors 1142. The processor 1144 sends the control signals to the relay switch array module 1148 by use of a switch controller (FPGA/CPLD) or a multiplexing logic circuit of the bridge box 1140.
The bridge box 1140 includes the same components as the bridge box 1100, except that the relay switch array module 1148 has two switch arrays 1151, 1156. As in the case of the bridge box 1100 of
The bridge box 1200 receives oscillation signal data from the data acquisition system 1224 via a cable link 1222 and sends an actuator signal to an active sensor 1202a. In response to the actuator signal, the active sensor 1202a emits a diagnostic wave 1203 that is received by an active sensor 1202c. The bridge box 1200 also relays the sensor signal received by the active sensor 1202c to the computer 1226 via the data acquisition system 1224.
The bridge box 1200 can generate oscillation signal data upon receipt of a command signal from the data acquisition system 1224, send an actuator signal to the active sensor 1202a according to the oscillation signal data, analyze signal data received from the active sensor 1202c to thereby perform digital signal processing (DSP) and obtain structural diagnosis parameters, and send the structural diagnosis parameters to the computer 1226. The computer 1226 may be connected to an external control device that can control the bridge box 1200 and communicate data to the bridge box 1200. Optionally, the bridge box 1200 may include a global positioning system (GPS) reader 1219 for calculating the location of the bridge box 1200 and providing the location information by use of a GPS-TRACK satellite 1237 via antenna 1235 attached to the GPS reader 1219. The bridge box 1200 can send its location and structural condition data to the data acquisition system 1224 and the mobile internet toolkit 1232 via the antennae 1235, 1228, and 1234 so that the structural conditions of a mobile host structure/platform, such as vehicle, airplane, or ship, can be remotely monitored by tracking the bridge box 1200 through its GPS reader 1219.
The bridge box 1200 includes at least one relay switch array module 1205, a signal conditioner module 1206, a miniature transducer module 1212, and a processor 1204. The signal conditioner module 1206 includes at least one signal conditioner 1208 and a waveform amplifier 1210. The miniature transducer 1212 includes at least one A/D converter 1214 and a waveform generator 1216. The bridge box 1200 also includes a bus interface controller 1220 for interfacing the data acquisition system 1224 and a wireless network controller 1218 for controlling data transfer via the antennae 1228,1234, and 1230 attached to the data acquisition system 1224, mobile internet toolkit 1232, and the bridge box 1200, respectively. As an example, multiple bridge boxes 1200 may be installed in an airplane to monitor structural conditions of major parts. More specifically, multiple sets of sensors are attached to the major parts of the airplane, and the bridge boxes coupled to the multiple sets of sensors collect the sensor signals, process the sensor signals to analyze the structural conditions of the major parts, and send the analyzed information to the data acquisition system 1224 and the mobile internet toolkit 1232 of the ground control 692 (
The functions and structures of the components of the bridge box 1200 are similar to those of their counterparts of the bridge box 1000 in
The wireless network controller 1314 is managed by I/O requests of the processor 1304 transmitted via data/control bus lines 1311 and operates as an integrated communication module for wireless networking among bridge boxes and for communication between the bridge box 1300 and the mobile internet toolkit 1340. The bus interface controller 1312 bridges and controls communications between a local bus and a host bus, such as USB, peripheral component interconnect (PCI), personal computer memory card international association (PCMCIA), Mil-Std-1553B, and aeronautical radio, incorporated 429 (ARINC429).
The bridge box 1300 also includes a buffer memory 1306 coupled to the processor 1304, a power management controller 1308, and a local bus controller (FPGA/CPLD) 1310 coupled to the miniature transducer 1326. Also, even though not shown in
The relay switch array module 1305 has a structure and functions similar to those of the relay switch array module 1148 (
The bridge box 1400 includes: a switch selector 1406, at least one A/D converter 1414, a waveform generator 1408, a signal conditioner 1412, a waveform amplifier 1410, and a processor 1404. Also, even though not shown in
The relay switch array module 1417 includes: two switch arrays 1418a and 1418b that are respectively connected to passive sensors 1403 and active sensors 1401; and a switching driver 1420 for actuating the two switch arrays. The relay switch array module 1419a (or 1419b) includes one switch array coupled to active sensors 1402a (or 1402b) and a switching driver 1421a (or 1421b). It should be apparent to those of ordinary skill that the bridge box 1400 can be coupled to any other suitable number of relay switch array modules and that each relay switch array module can be coupled to any other suitable number of active and/or passive sensors.
The processor 1404 uses switch selector (FPGA/CPLD) 1406 or a multiplexing logic circuit of the bridge box 1400 to send a control signal to one of the remote relay switch array modules 1417, 1419a-b so that the remote relay switch array modules can control the switch arrays.
In the wireless SHM system of
To establish a wireless network of sensor-clustered bridge boxes, the bridge boxes are connected using the Bluetooth™ communication technology. A Piconet is a wireless personal area network (WPAN) and allows master/slave bridge boxes in a region to share a frequency band, which prevents any interference from bridge boxes of other Piconet. Each Piconet has one master bridge box and communicate with other master bridge boxes to form a Scatternet. In a bridge box WPAN based on the Zigbee™ communication technology, RFDs (reduced-function-device) are used as network-edge devices and functions and features of IEEE 802.15.4 are provided. Also, bridge boxes may include full-function-devices (FFD) and that can be used as network routers or network-edge devices, and the bridge boxes may form a personal-network-network (PAN).
The master bridge boxes 1512, 1550 and the slave bridge boxes 1514 form a Piconet and/or a Scatternet based on the Bluetooth™ communication technology. If the bridge box WPAN for the wireless SHM system employs the IEEE 802.15.4 based ZigBee™ technology, the master bridges 1512a-b are full-function devices (FFD) while the mater bridge 1550 is a FFD/PAN (personal-area-network) coordinator and the slave bridge boxes 1514a-c are reduced-function devices (RFD). The gateway bridge box 1516 communicates with the data acquisition system 1504 via a wireless communication link as well as the cable links 1518.
Each of the master and slave bridge boxes 1512, 1550, and 1514 includes a wireless network controller having a processing module based on the Bluetooth™ communication technology. The gateway bridge box 1516 includes a wireless network controller having a Bluetooth processing module and a remote communication module, such as, CDMA, GSM, or Wireless LAN communication module. The master bridge boxes 1512, 1550 can process sensor signals received from sensors 1520 connected thereto and send the processed data to the gateway bridge box 1516. In the case where the bridge boxes are disposed close to each other, a master bridge box can also perform the functions of a gateway bridge box. The gateway or master bridge box can send data to the mobile internet toolkit 1508 and/or the computer 1502 by use of Ipv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) based BcN (Broadband Convergence Network), where the BcN includes a WAP/ME (Wireless Application Protocol/Mobile Explorer), Intranet, LAN (Local Area network), PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), MCN (Mobile Communication Network), and BCN/SGS (Broadcasting Communication Network with Satellite and Ground Systems).
The master (FFD/PAN) bridge box 1550 receives monitoring data from the slave (RFD) bridge boxes 1514 and, when the amount of the received data exceeds a preset threshold value, sends the data to the mobile internet toolkit 1508, the data acquisition system 1504, and the computer 1502 by use of a CDMA/GSM MCN or Wireless/Ethernet LAN. A master bridge box can communicate with a mobile device using a CDMA/GSM MCN and send a warning message to a mobile device within a CDMA zone. A master bridge box may include an additional serial controller for controlling passive sensors that have a communication capability using RS-232 standard and for receiving sensor signals from the passive sensors.
The master (FFD/PAN) bridge box 1550 may include a control module for handling an emergency situation and sending a warning signal to an external device. Each of the master (FFD/PAN) bridge box 1550 and the slave bridge boxes 1514 may include: a watch dog timer to perform self-check operations and prevent errors; and an LED (Light Emitting Diode) for allowing a human operator to check operational status of the sensors.
While the present invention has been described with reference to the specific embodiments thereof, it should be understood that the foregoing relates to preferred embodiments of the invention and that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/861,781, filed on Sep. 26, 2007, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/397,351, filed on Apr. 3, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,281,428, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/942,366, filed on Sep. 16, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,117,742, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Applications No. 60/505,120, filed on Sep. 22, 2003.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60505120 | Sep 2003 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11397351 | Apr 2006 | US |
Child | 11861781 | US | |
Parent | 10942366 | Sep 2004 | US |
Child | 11397351 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11861781 | Sep 2007 | US |
Child | 12214896 | US |