A Hierarchical Wireless System for Distributed Strain Monitoring in Naval Structures

The U.S. Navy is currently pursuing the development of a new line of light-weight, high-speed aluminum ships to supplement their aging fleet of steel hull vessels. Because these new aluminum vessels are designed for high-speed operation, they will be exposed to demanding seaway loads with bow slamming possible. As such, technologies that can detect and quantify structural degradation or damage within an aluminum hull (such as fatigue or stress-corrosion cracking) have become increasingly sought after. In this proposal, a novel hierarchical approach to strain monitoring in Naval platforms will be developed. At the lowest level of the proposed strain monitoring architecture will be a dense network of ultra low-power, miniaturized strain sensor nodes that meet the form factor and cost demands of the U.S. Navy. These nodes will connect wirelessly to more sophisticated wireless sensor nodes that form a part of a much larger ship hull monitoring system. By employing an architecture where dense arrays of low-cost, light-weight miniaturized wireless strain sensors are seamlessly joined with a global network of intelligent wireless sensing units, shipboard strain monitoring systems can be deployed at reduced weight and cost, while eliminating problems associated with data glut and sensor density.