Identification of the Anisotropic Rigidities and Damping of Composite Panels for Radomes and Shelters

CSSI will develop a smart pultruded structural member (SPSM) that contains the sensory cable network for fiber optics as well as accelerometers. This SPSM will be used for the repair and health monitoring of assets which are rapidly aging and failing. The failure rate of towers will be reversed because action will occur long before inspection discloses damage, and cost for repair will only be a fraction of what it currently is. Additionally CCSI will pultrude a smart tower leg component (STLC). This part will provide a sensory cable network into the legs of new all composite towers and radome supports. This will allow the Air Force to minimize risks in adopting new technology as well as benefit from the life cycle advantages of composite materials. Modal updating and very precise spectral analysis capability of the sensor data was demonstrated by CSSI in Phase-I. This is the key to processing the vast wealth of information and providing useful and simple measures of a structure’s current health status. This technology is directly applicable to thousands of radome and radar equipment towers onto which countless millions of dollars worth of mission critical Air Force (AF) communications technology is installed in various configurations. BENEFIT: The Integrated Health Monitoring System benefits for the air force are that millions of maintenance dollars can be saved. The investment in the Health Monitoring System is estimated to be no more than 1% of the acquisition cost of each tower. Based on experience in the bridge sector one can expect to extend the life of assets with one to two decades because maintenance dollars are spent pro-active at the right time and in the right place. Similar benefits apply to the monitoring of electrical utility towers for transmission and distribution. These towers will be part of the future “smart grid,” and need to be reliable and long-lasting. One electrical utility (Southern California Edison) has pledged it cooperation following this SBIR project. Another company which is manufactures a key component for the 21st century smart grid has expressed considerable support to invest in new smart products and services which incorporate our vision of Structural Health Monitoring by using smart pultrusions with embedded sensory networks. The global higher transportation network operates about 2.5 million bridges. Composite materials technology for both repair and new construction has become attractive for these applications as well.