SBIR Phase I: Automated Structural Health Monitoring Sensor

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将支持具有无线数据采集能力的自动化结构健康监测传感器系统的开发，该系统能够检测金属结构和先进材料中的裂纹、腐蚀和脱落。这种新颖的传感器技术具有许多优点，包括紧凑（0.5mm x 2mm x 5mm），重量轻（几克）和低功耗（电池供电）。这是通过在应力波敏感聚合物平面波导上制造Bragg光栅实现的，该波导能够检测高级材料结构中的表面和表面以下裂缝。在第一阶段，使用Lamb波方法来证明聚合物光栅测量应力波的能力，当超声波产生致动器设备探测纤维复合材料结构时，应力波表明纤维复合材料结构中裂纹、纤维分层或腐蚀引起的损伤的存在和严重程度。这种新颖的Lamb波传感器系统通过为大型航空航天和民用结构的损伤检测提供经济有效的解决方案，将为民用和航空航天工业节省大量成本。由于有效的预警系统，新的传感器技术将加强公共安全。Lamb波传感器技术的进步将使研究人员能够利用该技术更好地了解导致大型复杂结构中材料失效的降解机制。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will support the development of an automated structural health monitoring sensor system with wireless data acquisition capability, capable of detecting crack, corrosion, and disbonding in metal structures and advanced materials. This novel sensor technology offers a number of advantages including compactness (0.5mm x 2mm x 5mm), lightweight (few grams), and low power consumption (battery powered). This is achieved by fabricating Bragg gratings on stress-wave-sensitive polymer planar waveguides, which is capable of detecting both surface and below surface cracks in advanced material structures. In Phase I, a Lamb wave method is used to demonstrate the polymer gratings' capability to measure stress waves indicating the presence and severity of damages caused by cracks, fiber delaminations, or corrosion in a fiber composite structure, when the structure is probed by an ultrasonic wave generation actuator device. This novel Lamb wave sensor system will offer significant cost saving for the civil and aerospace industries by providing a cost-effective solution for damage detection in large aerospace and civil structures. The new sensor technology will enhance public safety as a result of effective warning systems. Advances in the Lamb wave sensor technology will permit researchers to utilize this technology to better understand degradation mechanism leading to material failure in large and complex structures.