Friday, January 29, 2010
IFOS announces award of Phase I STTR contract for Highly Reliable Structural Health Monitoring of Smart Composite Vanes for Jet Engine

IFOS, and its research partner Auburn University, propose a Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) integrated Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) sensor system capable of providing in-situ crack detection, location and quantification of damage, as well as validating structural models, using recent advances in non-destructive dynamic testing of composite structures such as smart, composite jet engine vanes. These new techniques make it possible to analyze complex structures not only non-destructively, but also without physically contacting or implanting electrical elements into test samples. The state-of-art FBG sensor system will be capable of measuring strains, stress, temperature and pressure and monitor damage to the structure under test at the same time at wide temperature ranges. Potentially, the solution could evolve into an autonomous onboard monitoring system to inspect and perform NDE and SHM. The proposed project has direct applications in automated NDE of fault development in structural components, including flight control systems and self-monitoring structures with alarm and abort capabilities. For aerospace vehicle health monitoring applications, this fiber sensor network and method will significantly increase the sensing capability, extending the applicability of fiber-optic sensors systems and at low cost, as well as enabling a dynamically configurable deployment of embedded transducers into a structure. Further applications include instrumentation for jet turbines and flight control systems, oil exploration, marine structures and nuclear power plants requiring real-time control and monitoring, and critical infrastructure monitoring.

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