The safety and performance of all commercial, civil, and military structural dynamic systems deteriorate with time. Because current inspection procedures are time consuming, costly, insensitive to small variations in structural health, and prone to error in severe and mild operating environments, there are urgent economic and technological needs to deploy automated structural diagnostic instrumentation for seamless evaluation of structural integrity and reliability. The proposed collaborative research and business initiative between The Modal Shop and Purdue University will develop and validate techniques for structural Diagnostics using Nonlinear Analysis (sDNA) in conjunction with "smart" wireless sensor arrays. Significant innovations include the processing algorithm for characterizing the existence and extent of damage in passive/active operating modes while accommodating nonlinearity and uncertainty, and the processing architecture, which is distributed across a network of measurement packets and decision-making nodes. Phase I R&D will culminate in an informative report, strong justification and preliminary plan for Phase II, and a simple prototype to demonstrate important features of the proposed product. Successful efforts in Phases II-III will produce flexible "turn-key" on-line structural health and condition monitoring devices, which will benefit the sponsoring agency directly while securing The Modal Shop a competitive edge in a rapidly expanding marketplace.Potential Commercial ApplicationsPotential commercial applications in aircraft and rotorcraft, reusable launch vehicles, automotive systems, civil infrastructure, and industrial machinery make this a compelling investment for the qualified team of researchers and for the sponsoring agency. Immediate applications of the product include: civil infrastructure damage detection and prognostics (e.g. highway overpass support bearings), industrial diagnostics for tracking manufacturing glitches (e.g. tool chatter), and data acquisition for aircraft flight and ground vibration testing and on-road vehicle testing. The proposed product could also potentially impact the following markets: automotive maintenance and service (e.g. service and warranty extension), aircraft avionics, performance, and life cycle determination, and aerospace reusable vehicle design for maintenance (e.g. damage detection, localization, and prognosis in composite structures).
