Utilizing and testing a self-monitored 3D MEMS strain sensor for SHM of mining and pipeline structures

在阿尔伯塔省北部，油砂开采已成为支持阿尔伯塔省和加拿大经济的主要产业之一。许多加拿大石油、天然气和矿业公司，如加拿大Syncrude公司，都希望通过预测容易发生故障的结构部件来延长其油砂开采和运输设备和设施的使用寿命，并降低维护成本。油砂勘探中使用的一些关键设备是铲臂、铲斗、车箱、车架和加工运输管道。金属箔应变计是目前用于监测这种结构上的应变水平的标准传感元件，以指示需要维护的临界状态。虽然箔应变片已经成功地用于结构健康监测（SHM），他们有缺点，涉及到他们的高成本，高功耗，和复杂的安装和可及性；因此，不适合作为SHM的工业物联网。需要一种替代技术来解决这些缺点，特别是提供一种简单快速的安装，可以承受恶劣的环境条件，如多尘环境、潮湿环境、大温度变化和剧烈振动。目前在微纳米机电系统（M/NEMS）和半导体方面的进步提供了一个有前途的替代方案，它可以将半导体应变计，电路和无线模块集成在一个小型微封装芯片中，以便于安装和连接。该项目的目标是开发一种基于mems的应变传感器，可用于油砂开采设备的SHM。这是阿尔伯塔大学（UofA）和加拿大辛克鲁德公司（Syncrude Canada）的合作成果。这一阶段建立在早期成功的合作基础上，为加拿大采矿和石油天然气设备的SSHM建立了一个基于3D mems的平面应变传感器平台。

In northern Alberta, oil sands mining have become one of the major industries that support the Albertan and Canadian economy. Many of the Canadian oil and gas and mining companies like Syncrude Canada would like to extend the lifetime and reduce the maintenance cost of its oil sands mining and transportation equipment and facilities through predicting only structural parts that are prone to failure. Some of the critical equipment used in oil sand exploration are shovel boom, shovel buckets, truck boxes, and truck frames and processing and transportation pipelines. Metal foil strain gauges are currently the standard sensing component used to monitor strain levels on such structures to indicate a critical condition that needs maintenance. Although foil strain gauges have been successfully used for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), they have disadvantages related to their high cost, high power consumption, and complexity of installation and accessibility; thus, not suitable to be adopted as industrial IoTs for SHM. There is a need for an alternative technique that can address these drawbacks especially providing an easy and quick installation that can withstand the harsh environmental conditions such as dusty environment, moisture, large temperature variation, and severe vibration. The current advancement in micro and Nano-electro mechanical systems (M/NEMS) and semiconductors provides a promising alternative which can integrate a semiconductor strain gauge, circuitry, and wireless module in a small micro-packaged chip for easy installation and connectivity. The objective of this project is to develop a MEMS-based strain sensor that can be deployed for SHM of oil sands mining equipment. It is a collaborative effort between the University of Alberta (UofA) and Syncrude Canada. This phase builds on the success achieved in an earlier collaborative work to build a 3D MEMS-based in-plane strain sensor platform for SSHM of mining and oil and gas equipment in Canada.