Configurable Dynamic Strain System

Strain measurements for turbine engine ground testing require extensive wiring from up to 200 stationary bonded-foil strain sensors carrying low-level signals over a significant distance in electrically noisy environments. This wiring is ultimately terminated at a remotely located instrumentation rack where the signals are amplified, conditioned, digitized, and read by a data processing system. Migration of these functions from the remote location to the test cell is desired to a) reduce engine installation time, b) improve uncertainty and bandwidth performance, c) synchronize the sampling instance of many related sensing nodes, and d) reduce signal noise. The objective of this effort is to develop a configurable dynamic strain instrumentation system that meets or exceeds all Air Force requirements and has excellent commercial potential. In the Phase I Program, Crossfield Technology developed a 32-channel data acquisition module that addresses the functionality, performance and size requirements for turbine engine instrumentation in a typical test environment.  In the Phase II Program, Crossfield will refine the hardware design developed under the Phase I Program, develop software,  and demonstrate a prototype system in Crossfield''s laboratory. BENEFITS: Network instrumentation eliminates long runs of copper cables between sensors and rack-mount instrumentation, reducing the potential for noise to corrupt precision measurements. Commercial applications include laboratories that conduct hardware-in-the-loop testing, petrochemical plants, refineries, research laboratories, automated manufacturing facilities, and other applications that require measurement of strain, pressure, temperature or other precision sensor. The processor module can be used in a broader range of applications, and its customers include game console and kiosk venders that require secure transactions over Ethernet.