Wireless, Multichannel AE system for Structural Health Monitoring

MISTRAS continues to make progress in advancing wireless technology for Acoustic Emission (AE) applications. There is great promise in wireless AE, and significant progress has been made to overcome several key barriers in order for the technology to succeed and have AE become commonplace in the industry.

Two years ago, MISTRAS won a NIST, TIP (Technology Innovation Program) contract to advance the technology of wireless AE and develop a system for continuous, remote, structural health monitoring that overcomes some of the present barriers to wireless AE systems. The NIST-TIP contract is a joint venture between MISTRAS, the University of South Carolina, the University of Miami and Virginia Tech, each bringing a part of the system solution to the team. MISTRAS, with the development of a very low power, wireless multi-channel AE system with sensor fusion, Virginia Tech developing energy harvesting, in order to keep the system operating indefinitely, without the need for wired power, the University of South Carolina with its experience on NDE of metal structures and the University of Miami for its expertise in concrete structures. After 2 years of a 5 year contract, an AE 4-Channel Wireless System has been developed and is currently being tested in the field.

Some of the key features of the system include: 4-channels of very low power, wireless, Acoustic Emission monitoring and Acousto-Ultrasonics pulsing, sensor fusion with strain gages, corrosion and other environmental monitoring sensors, and Energy harvesting to provide continuous power to the AE system utilizing environmental energy sources such as wind and vibration. MISTRAS has already carried out successful demonstrations with the system operating on bridges and other structures completely wirelessly and also have interfaced the system with the AEwin for Wireless software. MISTRAS continues to develop and improve the system with lower power consumption, energy harvesting, and developing more applications software, to allow the system to run remotely and monitor indefinitely. Read More