Underwater Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Propellers

Monitoring the health of composite propeller structures and identifying problems before they can affect the integrity and safe operation has been a long-term goal in naval industry. Composite propellers are being developed by the Navy for a number of potential benefits, including reducing weight and maintenance requirements, while increasing design flexibility and performance. However like all other composite construction composite propellers are prone to damage. Hence a robust Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system is required to monitor the in-service composite propeller. This will also reduce maintenance cost and also help design in more cost effective composite propeller. Acellent proposes to develop an underwater Structural Health Monitoring system for composite propeller. This development will address all the challenges such as sensor and connector design in underwater environment and in-service real-time inspection, operational and environmental variability, damage diagnosis and classification. Acellent will develop an embedded SMART layer system for composite propeller monitoring with statistical data analysis software to diagnose the health of the composite structure. Acellent"s ultimate goal will be to develop a complete SHM system for monitoring the health of composite propellers used in naval vessel.