| Acquisition Program: | |
Objective: | To develop an integrated environmental sensing system to monitor environmental effects on critical military infrastructure and weapons component health.
| Description: | Mechanical and electrical systems in military infrastructure and equipment are susceptible to a wide variety of failure modes influenced by environment and use. There is a need for an extensible and universal monitoring system that is minimally intrusive and can be rapidly configured and deployed. These systems would be useful in monitoring corrosion, fatigue and other damage modes to reduce inspection and maintenance burdens. To maximize system versatility these smart systems should be based on IEEE interface standards and must be small, light weight and low cost. Significant on board processing capabilities will be needed for embedded diagnostics and prognostics. The systems should also be compatible with a wide variety of power storage or energy harvesting devices.
Specifically, integrating the data from sensors for atmospheric, pitting, and stress corrosion cracking can yield more relevant component health information than the individual sensor data could provide. Software integration can be tailored to utilize a more universal sensor to provide individual part health.
| | PHASE I: The phase I effort will provide a prototype demonstration of the multi-mode health sensor. The Sensor must be subject to short term accelerated corrosion as well as longer term exposure validation. The initial software design for sensor control, integration and analysis shall be done at this stage.
| | PHASE II: Once the brassboard prototype is developed, it must be further reduced in size and power consumption. In addition it must be appropriately hardened for field use while maintaining sensitivity and accuracy. Hardened sensor performance should be tracked against existing sensor technology across a wide variety of simulated corrosive environments at this stage.
| | PHASE III: The end state of this research will likely be fielding at critical DoD infrastructure nodes such as bridges and vertical structures. Petroleum Oils and Lubricants (POL) uses include sensing in harsh environments like tank sludge in storage tank bottoms. Other heavy users of corrosion sensors include the petrochemical and refining industries and the emerging bio-fuels sector. Matching funds should be sought from these sectors and others.
| References: |
1. "A multi-point optical fibre sensor for condition monitoring in process water systems based on pattern recognition" Measurement Volume 34, Issue 4, December 2003, Pages 301-312, Elsevier, W. B. Lyonsa, H. Ewaldb, C. Flanagana and E. Lewis.
2. "A multi-criteria decision model to determine inspection intervals of condition monitoring based on delay time analysis" Reliability Engineering & System Safety Volume 94, Issue 5, May 2009, Pages 905-912 Elsevier, Rodrigo J.P. Ferreiraa, Adiel Teixeira de Almeidab, and Cristiano A.V. Cavalcanteb.
3. "In-situ process and condition monitoring of advanced fibre-reinforced composite materials using optical fibre sensors" C Doyle et al 1998 Smart Materials and Structures 7 145-158.
| | Keywords: | Corrosion, Material Degradation, Condition Sensor, Pitting Corrosion, Atmospheric Corrosion |