Autonomous Nonbattery Wireless Strain Gage for Structural Health Testing and Monitoring in Extreme Environments

There is a need to monitor the structural health of aerospace components operating in extreme temperatures ranges (e.g. -60 to +300C) and with high accelerations. Ideally the sensors employed for this task should be passive (i.e. not powered through batteries), permanently placed on the critical components and transmit the relevant data to a remote data processing center wirelessly.  Albido is proposing to develop thin film sensors that transmit high bandwidth data to a remote reader. The sensors are powered through a combination of wireless power transmission and local energy harvesting. The sensors are small enough so not to disturb the aerodynamic properties even if left in place during actual operation.  In Phase I Albido will design and build a proof-of-concept prototype that demonstrates the sensor and the transmission capability over the above temperature range. In Phase II sensors will be fabricated to demonstrate the operation on high speed, high temperature aerospace component. Reliable operation under temperature extremes and acceleration forces up to 56,600g will be demonstrated. In Phase III the developed technology will be commercialized not only for military applications but also for commercial applications. BENEFIT: The proposed technology allows sensors to be placed on critical aerospace and other components without disturbing the aerodynamic flow. That means they can be left in place and be used for monitoring the health of the components in actual operation. The sensors are relatively inexpensive and a multitude of them can be used and monitored simultaneously. The technology is ubiquitous, that means it is applicable to a wide variety of components such as jet engine fan and compressor blades, aircraft propellers, helicopter blades, transmission parts, etc. The transmission scheme proposed allows for a data center to be remotely placed with a distance of several hundred meters.)