4553results about "Elasticity measurement" patented technology

A device for monitoring a rotating shaft is provided. The device measures strain in the shaft and provides angular velocity and torque in the shaft. The device includes a sensor, sensor conditioning circuitry, a microprocessor, and a transmitter, all located on a rotating shaft. The device obtains power by harvesting mechanical energy of the rotating shaft itself. Coils are provided rotating with the shaft and permanent magnets are mounted adjacent the rotating shaft so electrical energy is induced in the coils as they rotate through the magnetic field of the permanent magnets. A battery or capacitor is connected to the coils for storing energy. A microprocessor is connected to the sensors, the storage device, and the transmitter for managing power consumption and for monitoring the amount of electrical energy stored in the storage device and for switchably connecting the storage device to the transmitter when the stored energy exceeds a threshold.

A non-destructive inspection, testing and evaluation system and process is provided for the review of aircraft components. The system provides for a structure configured to contain an inspection and testing apparatus and the aircraft components under inspection. The structure is lined with shielding to attenuate the emission of radiation to the outside of the structure and has corbels therein to support the components that constitute the inspection and testing apparatus. The inspection and testing apparatus is coupled to the structure, resulting in the formation of a gantry for supporting a carriage and a mast is mounted on the carriage. The inspection and testing equipment is mounted on the mast which forms, in part, at least one radiographic inspection robot capable of precise positioning over large ranges of motion. The carriage is coupled to the mast for supporting and allowing translation of the equipment mounted on the mast. The mast is configured to provide yaw movement to the equipment.

Described herein are wireless interrogation systems and methods that rely on a complementary sensing device and interrogator. The sensing device is disposed to measure a parameter indicative of the health of a structure. A sensor reading from the sensor indicates the level of a parameter being monitored or whether one or more particular physical or chemical events have taken place. Using wireless techniques, the interrogator probes the device to determine its identity and its current sensor reading. This often includes transmission of a wireless signal through portions of the structure. When activated, the device responds with a wireless signal that identifies the device and contains information about the parameter being measured or a particular sensor state corresponding to the parameter. The identity of the device allows it to be distinguished from a number of similar devices. Thus this invention finds particular usefulness in the context of an array of devices that can be probed by a wireless interrogation unit. In one embodiment, the devices are passive and derive power from the interrogation signal.

A multi-functional sensor system for simultaneously monitoring various parameters such as the structural, chemical and environmental conditions associated with a medium to be monitored, e.g., bridges, high-rise buildings, pollution zones, is provided wherein the system includes at least a plurality of wireless multi-functional sensor platforms embedded in the medium in which an interrogation unit transmits power and receives responses. Each wireless multi-functional sensor platform includes multiple channels for accommodating a plurality of sensor types to simultaneously monitor the parameters associated with the medium. Thus, the wireless sensor platforms are formed to include those sensor types which are considered germane to the intended medium to be monitored.

A system to monitor the health of a structure, sensor nodes, program product, and associated methods are provided. The system includes an array of health monitoring sensor nodes connected to or embedded within a structure to monitor the health of the structure. The health monitoring sensor nodes include sensor elements positioned to sense parameters of the structure and to provide data related to the parameters to a health monitoring sensor node data collector. The sensor nodes can each include an energy harvester to harvest energy to power the sensor node. The system also includes an energy distributing node positioned to provide energy to the sensor nodes, through the structure being monitored, to be harvested by energy harvester of the sensor nodes.

Methods and recordable media for monitoring structural health conditions. The present invention provides a method for interrogating a damage of a host structure using a diagnostic network patch (DNP) system having patches. An interrogation module partitions the plurality of patched in subgroups and measures the sensor signals generated and received by actuator and sensor patches, respectively. Then, a process module loads sensor signal data to identify Lamb wave modes, determine the time of arrival of the modes and generate a tomographic image. It also determines distribution of other structural condition indices to generate tomographic images of the host structure. A set of tomographic images can be stacked to generate a hyperspectral tomography cube. A classification module generates codebook based on K-mean / Learning Vector Quantization algorithm and uses a neural-fuzzy-inference system to determine the type of damages of the host structure.