Nanomaterial based fatigue crack sensing

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Fatigue is a ubiquitous and serious concern in mechanical structures, such as aircrafts, steel bridges, and gas tanks. The initiation and growth of fatigue cracks of components in service pose a great issue on human safety. In Canada, the fatigue issues can be more prominent and exacerbated due to the synergistic effect of mechanical loading, large temperature fluctuation, and chemical corrosion. On-site inspection using non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques involves extensive human involvement and lacks continuous monitoring of the structural health. In addition to the intermittent NDT deployment, it will be of great benefit to develop a sensitive fatigue crack sensor that allows continuous detection of fatigue cracks at its early stage for multiple sites simultaneously.The project will focus on the development of nanomaterial-based fatigue sensors that allow early detection and long-term monitoring of fatigue cracks. Multiple low-dimensional nanomaterials and their inclusion methods will be explored. The role of the nanofiller-base material interfaces will be deciphered. The understanding developed through these studies will be applied within the project to design fatigue sensors with high sensitivity and reliability. A successful conclusion to this project will enable our industry partner Laboratoire d'essai Mequaltech Inc. to translate the findings and designs created within the research project into fully operational nanomaterial-based fatigue sensors with high sensitivity and reliability. This will allow Laboratoire d'essai Mequaltech Inc. to compete more successfully in the international market for structural health monitoring. Additional benefits include the training of engineering students on the use of technical fatigue equipment and software packages.