Module with Piezoelectric Sensor for Acoustic Emission Applications

This paper presents a wireless acoustic emission sensor module with microcontroller for monitoring systems of structures under stress, prevailed by a piezoelectric AE sensor on the investigated material surface. The module performs the analogue/digital conversion of signals, the microcontroller commands the wireless interface, may send and receive information from other emitting - receiver wireless modules. The microcontroller could vary the amplifier gain and make the appropriate analogue/digital conversion. Many wireless modules with acoustic emission sensors could be successfully applicable to the AE monitoring systems of complex construction structures in the civil engineering, using dedicated software

The Effects Induced by Microwave Field upon Tungsten Wires of Different Diameters

The effects induced by microwave field upon tungsten wires of different diameters were investigated. Tungsten wires with 0.5 and 1.0 mm diameters were placed in the focal point of a single-mode cylindrical cavity linked to a microwave generator and exposed to microwave field in ambient air. The experimental results showed that the 0.5 mm diameter wire was completely vaporized due to microwaves strong absorption, while the wire with 1 mm diameter was not ignited. During the interaction between microwaves and tungsten wire with 0.5 mm diameter, a plasma with a high electronic excitation temperature was obtained. The theoretical analysis of the experiment showed that the voltage generated by metallic wires in interaction with microwaves depended on their electric resistance in AC and the power of the microwave field. The physical parameters and dimension of the metallic wire play a crucial role in the ignition process of the plasma by the microwave field. This new and simple method to generate a high-temperature plasma from a metallic wire could have many applications, especially in metal oxides synthesis, metal coatings, or thin film deposition

A New Method for Tungsten Oxide Nanopowder Deposition on Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites for X-ray Attenuation

A new method for the synthesis and deposition of tungsten oxide nanopowders directly on the surface of a carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer composite (CFRP) is presented. The CFRP was chosen because this material has very good thermal and mechanical properties and chemical resistance. Also, CFRPs have low melting points and are transparent under ionized radiation. The synthesis is based on the direct interaction between high-power-density microwaves and metallic wires to generate a high-temperature plasma in an oxygen-containing atmosphere, which afterward condenses as metallic oxide nanoparticles on the CFRP. During microwave discharge, the value of the electronic temperature of the plasma, estimated from Boltzmann plots, reached up to 4 eV, and tungsten oxide crystals with a size between 5 nm and 100 nm were obtained. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis of the tungsten oxide nanoparticles showed they were single crystals without any extended defects. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that the surface of the CFRP sample does not degrade during microwave plasma deposition. The X-ray attenuation of CFRP samples covered with tungsten oxide nanopowder layers of 2 µm and 21 µm thickness was measured. The X-ray attenuation analysis indicated that the thin film with 2 µm thickness attenuated 10% of the photon flux with 20 to 29 KeV of energy, while the sample with 21 µm thickness attenuated 60% of the photon flux