Airframe Health Monitoring using Acoustic Emission Crack

RLW, Inc. and SBS with support of Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding will design and demonstrate (in a laboratory environment) a wireless smart machinery space network infrastructure. The effort will include an RF survey of a specific shipboardmachinery space chosen in conjunction with the customer. The wireless network will employ a combination of BluetoothT and IEEE 802.11b to provide robust, cost-effective networking of smart, equipment sensors. The monitoring points will be selected usingreliability-centered principles and measure appropriate parameters and perform onboard analyses to provide a reliable estimation of remaining useful life of equipment for CBM. The compartment-level wireless network(s) will report to a single-access pointthat can be accessed via a ship-wide network and/or a wireless portable digital assistant from within the compartment. These complementary access approaches provide the ability to avoid manual data collection and paper-based reporting as well as providingwireless access to off-ship technical support while performing maintenance and repair. In order to enable true wireless operation, selected nodes in the network will be equipped with thermal power scavenging based on COTS technology. Other ambient energysources (e.g., vibration and rotational) will be investigated for applicability. Implementation of wireless networks of sensors creating