Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras
Structural Health Monitoring System for Large Plate-Like Structures using Ultrasonic Guided Waves
Categories for this Invention
Technology: Structural health monitoring system using ultrasonic guided waves
Category: Assistive, Test Equipment & Design Manufacturing
Industry: Material Testing, All parts frame Manufacturing Industry
Application: Aircraft structures, storage tanks & installations
Market: The global market size was valued at $4.90 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $10.43 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 11.10%.
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Problem Statement
- Regular physical inspections of vehicles, buildings, and watercraft are essential for ensuring structural integrity.
- Plate-like structures, used in aircraft wings and substructures, require continuous monitoring for reliable operation.
- Guided-wave approaches have shown potential for structural health monitoring, but the transmitter network’s size distribution affects signal acquisition capability.
- Structural inspections of commercial aircraft are often manual and costly, with transducer systems obtaining potential defects but not processing data for trending, reporting, forecasting, and maintenance scheduling.
- MTMR and STMR types of transducers have shown promise for defect imaging in SHM approaches, but have limitations due to large scale networks and difficulty in wiring, controlling, and signal acquisition.
- There is a need for better performance and alternate technologies to the above said limitation.
Technology
- Structural Health Monitoring System for Large Plate-like Structures
- Features an array of transducers positioned spaced apart within a predetermined distance from a transmitter.
- An exciting element generates ultrasonic guided waves in at least one transducer.
- A signal processing module processes received signals to detect damage in the structure.
- An imaging module communicates with the signal processor to capture and reconstruct the structure under observation.
- Transducers are distributed in an irregular pattern using the Poisson disk technique.
Key Features / Value Proposition
- A system for structural health monitoring of plate-like structures using ultrasonic guided waves.
Configuration
- Condensed transducer configuration with a Single Transmitter and Multiple Receivers (STMR) with non-uniform distribution of transducers
Density & Distribution
- Provided a lesser transducer density through the Poisson disk sparse distribution function.
Technique
- The Poisson disk technique is used to generate non-uniform distribution of transducers in the array.
- Reduce the effects of aliasing when reconstructing images of the target domain.
- An information matrix is stored so that the location, size and orientation of the damaged area are determined.
Questions about this Technology?
Contact For Licensing
sm-marketing@imail.iitm.ac.in
ipoffice2@iitm.ac.in
Research Lab
Prof. Prabhu RajagopaL &
Prof. Krishnan Balasubramaniam
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Intellectual Property
- IITM IDF Ref. 1068
- Patent No: IN 376217
Technology Readiness Level
TRL- 3
Experimental Proof of concept;