SBIR-STTR Award

In this proposal, Epoch Engineering, Inc. (EEI) and its subcontractor, Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI), propose a Fire Prevention Monitoring Capability (FPMC) for assessing the availability of pre-fire and hidden fire Acoustic Emission (AE) information for fire prevention. The first element of the FMPC is a non-contact and portable Robust Laser Interferometer (RLI) designed by EEI. RLI has large dynamic range (up to 180 dB in acceleration) and provides very wideband measurements (0 to 262 kHz or higher). Moreover, it has excellent linearity across the frequency range and its performance is independent of environmental temperature at the measuring poiont. A large dynamic range means the sensor can pick up small emissions buried in large vibrations. In other words, the sensor is much more sensitive than conventional contact type sensors. Wideband measurement capability means the sensor is very versatile for various diverse applications. The second element of FPMC is an automatic fault detection and isolation tool developed by IAI that consists of Fast Fourier Transform, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and a neural network classifier. We will use common aerospace materials to demonstrate the performance of FPMC. This proposal is relevant to this subtopic as it specifically asks for fire prevention. POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS Pre-fire detection in a flight vehicle is very important for flight safety. It also plays an important role in the overall maintenance approach. Since the sensor in our proposed FPMC system is very sensitive, we will be able to detect the acoustic emissions associated with "pre-fire" situations and hidden fire. Hence early diagnosis is possible now. At the end of Phase 2, we will have a tool that will be ready for real-time applications. We expect that the FPMC will be integrated into a more comprehensive total health monitoring capability that includes the demonstrated capability to also provide robust pro-active monitoring of rotating machinery, among other things