SBIR Phase I: Wireless, Embedded Sensors for Long-term Monitoring in Concrete Structures

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project focuses on the development of a new non-destructive testing and evaluation (NDT/E) sensor for in situ monitoring of temperature, stress, and corrosive chemical compounds from within the core of concrete blocks. The sensor, made of a magnetostrictive ferromagnetic ribbon embedded inside concrete structures, is remotely detected via the magnetic higher-order signature. Multiple sensors of different properties can be arrayed for simultaneously monitoring various parameters. The harmonic sensor is powered by the magnetic query field used to interrogate the sensor, thus eliminating the need of battery replacement or physical wire connections to the sensors. The sensor effectively has an unlimited lifetime, certainly comparable to that of the buildings and structures it could be used to monitor. Since each harmonic sensor costs less than a fraction of penny, the application of this sensor technology for highway and building-health monitoring can significantly reduce the maintenance cost of these structures and, perhaps more importantly, inform as to whether the building is still structurally stable after an earthquake, explosion, etc.