52 -- Interrogating a Large Number of Active Sensors and Actuators for Structural Health Monitoring / Structural Integrity Monitoring

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), operated by the University of California under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is seeking one or more industrial partners to assist in advancing and commercializing LANLs Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) / Structural Integrity Monitoring (SIM) technologies. Partnerships may take the form of Cooperative Research & Development Agreements (CRADA) and/or commercial licenses. Commercial licensees will have the option to obtain, up to and including, a non-exclusive license to the intellectual property in a pre-negotiated, defined field of use for reasonable compensation. CRADAs are expected to include funds-in to the Lab. LANLs SHM / SIM includes methods for interrogating a large number of active sensors/actuators. The technology involves a relay-based electronics hardware system that allows for the efficient sensing (interrogating/actuating) of piezoelectric (or similar) sensors for use the field of SHM / SIM. This hardware serves as an active multiplexer that not only condenses previously actuated signals, but also provides the signals for the physical actuation of the sensors themselves. The use of the methods described in prior work is both time and cost prohibitive for current SHM / SIM practice. Advantages include: > Designed for local, active sensing vs. low frequency global system responses > Because of frequency ranges, this method is more sensitive to small defects in a structure > Scalability: Can accommodate large number of sensors/actuators without suffering from cabling or wiring issues, which usually make large scale project prohibitively expensive > Adaptability and Flexibility: Can accommodate any type of actuator or sensor. It does not have to be piezoelectric. The method can also adopt any SHM method, including wave propagation, impedance methods, and time-series analysis > Improves and alleviates the current limitation of wireless SHM systems For more information please visit http://www.lanl.gov/partnerships/license/technologies