I-Corps: Wavenumber Spiral Frequency-Steerable Acoustic Transducer for Structural Health Monitoring

第一军团项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力与减少商用和军用飞机的检查和维修费用有关。随着现有飞机的平均寿命超过设计寿命，疲劳裂纹是一个主要问题，需要密切监测以确保持续适航。为了监测和确保飞机的安全性和结构完整性，已经实施了大量耗时的人工无损检查程序。波数螺旋频率可操纵声学换能器（WS-FSAT）是一种结构健康监测（SHM）传感器，可以对飞机或其他资产中存在重大结构风险的难以到达的区域进行检查，并有望在不拆卸的情况下对关键结构进行远程检查。该技术具有固有的定向传感能力，可以在相对较宽的区域内实现，从而降低了尺寸、重量和安装成本。潜在的好处包括减少检查的时间和成本，以及相关的飞机停机时间，以及通过更频繁地监测结构风险区域来降低结构完整性风险。拟议的I-Corp计划探索该技术在航空航天工业中的实施和商业化机会，以及其在结构部件检查和监测方面的更广泛适用性。这个I-Corps项目探索了波数螺旋频率可操纵声换能器（WS-FSAT）的应用和市场机会。WS-FSAT是一种新型超声换能器，能够对飞机结构进行原位无损检测，以检测影响结构完整性和安全性的缺陷。ws - fsat具有固有的定向能力，能够以明显低于其他方法的硬件和信号处理复杂性检测、定位和表征结构缺陷。WS-FSAT将波感测方向映射到接收信号频谱中的特定频率分量，极大地方便了损伤的识别和定位。这些定向能力依赖于传感衬底上电极的设计，该衬底执行与在结构中传播的波相关的机械应变转导为电信号。这种设计过程是该技术的核心，适合于复杂结构构件的检测需求。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is related to reductions in inspection and maintenance costs of commercial and military aircraft. As the average age of existing aircraft is extending beyond the design life, fatigue cracks are a major issue that requires close monitoring to ensure continued airworthiness. Extensive and time consuming manual non-destructive inspection programs have been implemented to monitor and insure the safety and structural integrity of the aircraft. The Wavenumber Spiral Frequency-Steerable Acoustic Transducer (WS-FSAT) is a Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) sensor that enables inspection of in hard-to-reach areas within an aircraft or other asset, where significant structural risk is present, and promises to enable remote inspection of critical structures without disassembly. The technology has the advantage of inherent directional sensing capabilities over relatively wide areas, which translates to lower size, weight and installation costs. Potential benefits include the reduction of the time and cost of inspections, and of the associated aircraft downtime, and of structural integrity risks through more frequent monitoring of structural risk areas. The proposed I-Corp program explores implementation and commercialization opportunities of the technology within the aerospace industry and its broader applicability for inspection and monitoring of structural components.This I-Corps project explores application and market opportunities for the Wavenumber Spiral Frequency-Steerable Acoustic Transducer (WS-FSAT). The WS-FSAT is a novel ultrasonic transducer that enables in-situ, nondestructive inspection of aircraft structures to detect defects that impact structural integrity and safety. WS-FSATs have inherent directional capabilities with the ability to detect, locate and characterize structural defects with significantly lower hardware and signal processing complexity than other approaches. The WS-FSAT maps the direction of wave sensing to a specific frequency component in the spectrum of the received signal, which greatly facilitates the identification and localization of damage. These directional capabilities rely on the design of the electrodes on a sensing substrate that performs the transduction of mechanical strains associated with waves propagating in the structure to an electrical signal. Such design process is at the core of the technology, and is suitable to meet the needs of inspection of complex structural components.