Quasi-Self-Powered Piezo-Floating-Gate Sensing Technology for Continuous Monitoring of Large-Scale Bridges

Developing a practical framework for long-term structural health monitoring (SHM) of large structures, such as a suspension bridge, poses several major challenges. The next generation of bridge SHM technology needs to continuously monitor conditions and issue early warnings prior to costly repair or catastrophic failures. Additionally, the technology has to interpret effects of rare, high-impact events like earthquakes or hurricanes. The development of this technology has become an even higher priority due to the fact that many of the world's bridges are reaching the end of their designed service lives. Current battery-powered wireless SHM methods use periodic sampling with relatively long sleep-cycles to increase a sensor's operational life. However, long sleep-cycles make the technology vulnerable to missing or misinterpreting the effect of a rare event. To address these practical issues, we present a novel quasi-self-powered sensing solution for long-term and cost-effective monitoring of large-scale bridges. The approach we propose combines our previously reported and validated self-powered Piezo-Floating-Gate (PFG) sensor in conjunction with an ultra-low-power, long-range wireless interface. The physics behind the PFG's operation enable it to continuously capture and store local, cumulative information regarding dynamic loading conditions of the bridge in non-volatile memory. Using extensive numerical and laboratory studies, we demonstrate the capabilities of the PFG sensor for predicting structural conditions. We then present a system level design that adapts PFG sensing for SHM in bridges. A challenging aspect of SHM in large-scale bridges is the need for long-range wireless interrogation, as many portions of the structure are not easily accessible for continual inspection and portions of the bridge cannot be frequently taken out-of-service. We show that by combining self-powered PFG sensors with a small battery and optimized long-range active wireless interface, we can realize a quasi-self-powered system that easily achieves a continuous operating lifespan in excess of 20 years. The efficiency and feasibility of the proposed method is verified in a case study of the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan, the longest suspension bridge across anchorages in the Western Hemisphere. Associated data from the deployment are discussed, in addition to limitations, challenges, and additional considerations for widespread field deployment of the proposed SHM framework

Data Compression Approach for Long-Term Monitoring of Pavement Structures

Pavement structures are designed to withstand continuous damage during their design life. Damage starts as soon as the pavement is open to traffic and increases with time. If maintenance activities are not considered in the initial design or considered but not applied during the service life, damage will grow to a point where rehabilitation may be the only and most expensive option left. In order to monitor the evolution of damage and its severity in pavement structures, a novel data compression approach based on cumulative measurements from a piezoelectric sensor is presented in this paper. Specifically, the piezoelectric sensor uses a thin film of polyvinylidene fluoride to sense the energy produced by the micro deformation generated due to the application of traffic loads. Epoxy solution has been used to encapsulate the membrane providing hardness and flexibility to withstand the high-loads and the high-temperatures during construction of the asphalt layer. The piezoelectric sensors have been exposed to three months of loading (approximately 1.0 million loads of 65 kN) at the French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks (IFSTTAR) fatigue carrousel. Notably, the sensors survived the construction and testing. Reference measurements were made with a commercial conventional strain gauge specifically designed for measurements in hot mix asphalt layers. Results from the carrousel successfully demonstrate that the novel approach can be considered as a good indicator of damage progression, thus alleviating the need to measure strains in pavement for the purpose of damage tracking

fatigue monitoring

floating gate injector for self-powere

A surface crack in a graded coating bonded to a homogeneous substrate under general loading conditions

The elastostatic problem of a surface crack in a graded coating bonded to a homogeneous substrate under general loading conditions is considered. The coating is graded along the thickness direction and modeled as a nonhomogeneous medium with an isotropic stress-strain law. The problem is solved under the assumption of plane strain or generalized plane stress conditions. The crack surfaces are subjected to arbitrary loadings which give rise to mixed fracture modes which can be uncoupled due to the fact that the crack axis is parallel to the material gradient. Therefore, the opening and sliding mode problems may be formulated separately. For each problem, the solution of the composite medium may be determined by obtaining the solution of the homogeneous substrate and that of the graded layer. The latter solution may be expressed as the sum of two solutions, namely an infinite graded medium with a crack and a graded strip without a crack. The resulting mixed-boundary value problem is reduced to a set of two uncoupled singular integral equations which are solved numerically using Jacobi polynomials. The main objective of the paper is to study the effect of the layer thickness and nonhomogeneity parameter on the crack tip mixed-mode stress intensity factors for the purpose of gaining better understanding on the behavior of graded coatings

A Novel Data Reduction Approach for Structural Health Monitoring Systems

The massive amount of data generated by structural health monitoring (SHM) systems usually affects the system’s capacity for data transmission and analysis. This paper proposes a novel concept based on the probability theory for data reduction in SHM systems. The beauty salient feature of the proposed method is that it alleviates the burden of collecting and analysis of the entire strain data via a relative damage approach. In this methodology, the rate of variation of strain distributions is related to the rate of damage. In order to verify the accuracy of the approach, experimental and numerical studies were conducted on a thin steel plate subjected to cyclic in-plane tension loading. Circular holes with various sizes were made on the plate to define damage states. Rather than measuring the entire strain response, the cumulative durations of strain events at different predefined strain levels were obtained for each damage scenario. Then, the distribution of the calculated cumulative times was used to detect the damage progression. The results show that the presented technique can efficiently detect the damage progression. The damage detection accuracy can be improved by increasing the predefined strain levels. The proposed concept can lead to over 2500% reduction in data storage requirement, which can be particularly important for data generation and data handling in on-line SHM systems

Self-Triggered Thermomechanical Metamaterials with Asymmetric Structures for Programmable Response under Thermal Excitations

In this study, we propose self-triggered thermomechanical metamaterials (ST-MM) by applying thermomechanical materials in mechanical metamaterials designed with asymmetric structures (i.e., microstructural hexagons and chiral legs). The thermomechanical metamaterials are observed with programmable mechanical response under thermal excitations, which are used in mechanical metamaterials to obtain chiral tubes with negative Poisson’s ratio and microgrippers with temperature-induced grabbing response. Theoretical and numerical models are developed to analyze the thermomechanical response of the ST-MM from the material and structural perspectives. Finally, we envision advanced applications of the ST-MM as chiral stents and thermoresponsive microgrippers with maximum grabbing force of approximately 101.7 N. The emerging ST-MM provide a promising direction for the design and perception of smart mechanical metamaterials