STTR Phase I: Piezoelectric Fatigue Fuse Based Wireless Sensor Network

该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，通过开发自供电结构健康监测系统，为基础设施资产的安全性和可维护性的远程实时评估奠定了基础。这种压电疲劳保险丝（PFF）将能够建立可量化的指标，以识别桥梁、石油平台、船体等资产的当前寿命状态、预计寿命和可修复性标准，并乐观地认为疲劳是主要失效模式的任何钢结构。通过PFF提供的远程访问、实时指标，资产所有者将能够就视觉和其他无损检测频率做出明智的决策，从而降低维护、检查和操作的总体成本。在传感器的设计和评估过程中，将对耦合机电系统中通过设计应力集中产生的疲劳裂纹形核和扩展的潜在影响进行评估。这项工作将阐明优化压电换能器所需的材料和几何约束，以提供足够的功率和鲁棒的信噪比，以便在现实世界的动态频谱加载场景下进行疲劳传感。这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在设计和开发压电疲劳保险丝，旨在解决美国日益严重的交通资产管理问题。美国最近发生的一系列桥梁故障，充分说明了基础设施老化带来的公共安全风险。如果没有一种方法来提高钢结构的准确性和效率，对钢结构的疲劳进行检查和监测，这些结构的安全性和可使用性将面临越来越大的风险。开发和引进PFF的目的是什么？S是提供与疲劳裂纹扩展相关的加载历史测量，以预测当前的使用状态，并为未来的检查和维修频率提供经济选择。这将通过开发一种系统来实现，该系统将结构的机械载荷转换为电能，同时用于为低功率电子设备充电，并生成与资产疲劳寿命相对应的数字数据。该项目的关键技术成果将是测量优化PFF传感器的电响应，理解机械保险丝产生疲劳损伤时的信号调制，以及使这些系统真正自供电所需的低功耗电子和无线电的要求。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to establish a precedence for remote, real time assessment of the safety and serviceability of infrastructural assets through the development of a self-powered structural health monitoring system. This piezoelectric fatigue fuse (PFF) will enable the establishment of quantifiable metrics to discern the current state of life as well as projected lifetimes and reparability criteria for assets ranging from bridges, to oil platforms, to ship hulls, and optimistically to any steel structures where fatigue is the primary mode of failure. With the remotely accessible, real time metrics provided by the PFF, asset owners will be able to make informed decisions regarding visual and other nondestructive inspection frequency and thereby reduce overall cost of maintenance, inspection and operation. Over the course of the design and evaluation of the sensors, an assessment of the underlying effects of fatigue crack nucleation and propagation through designed stress concentrations in coupled electromechanical systems will be performed. This work will illuminate the material and geometric constraints necessary to optimize piezoelectric transducers to provide adequate power and robust signal to noise ratios for fatigue sensing under real world, dynamic spectrum loading scenarios. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project to design and develop a piezoelectric fatigue fuse aims to address the growing problem of transit asset management in the United States. The recent series of bridge failures in the US exemplifies the public safety risks of ageing infrastructure and without a method to inspect and monitor fatigue in steel structures with improved accuracy and efficiency, the safety and serviceability of these structures is at an ever-increasing risk. The aim of developing and introducing PFF?s is to provide a measure of loading history that correlates with fatigue crack growth to predict current state-of-life and dictate economic options for future inspection and repair frequency. This will be accomplished by developing a system which transduces the mechanical loading of a structure into electrical energy which is simultaneously used to charge low-power electronics and generate digital data corresponding to the fatigue life of the asset. The key technical results of this program will be the measured electrical response of optimized PFF sensors, an understanding of signal modulation as the mechanical fuses accrue fatigue damage and the requirements of the low power electronics and radios necessary to make these systems truly self-powered.