Wireless Strain Gage

The Air Force wants to develop strain sensors that can be installed inside rotating machinery to wirelessly transmit high speed, high resolution strain data to a stationary receiving system. The goal is 100 sensors transmitting 45 kHz strain data with 1 Hz resolution from within the first three stages of a jet turbine engine's compressor. Our Team believes that a combination of microwave techniques, innovative power/instrumentation/antenna designs, and existing thin-film technologies can achieve these goals. Using an existing turbine engine test bed, our Phase I work will demonstrate the feasibilty of communicating one channel of high speed data from a rotating third-stage compressor blade. In Phase II, we will extend the demonstration to multiple strain sensors that are wirelessly delivering high speed, high resolution data from an operating jet engine.