KEYWORDS: Piezoelectric thin film actuators, Sensors, Structural health monitoring, Finite element methods, Mathematical modeling, Data modeling, Data communications, Semiconducting wafers, Aluminum, Algorithm development, Data storage
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems are proposed as a method to reduce cost and improve flight safety by monitoring environmental and vehicle conditions during space travel. For this experiment, a real-time SHM data acquisition system was designed, developed and implemented as an addition to a flight recorder on a suborbital spaceflight. The flight recorder, provided by a commercial partner, Immortal Data Incorporated, collects flight information and distributes it to several units for improved data survivability. The aim of this flight experiment was to demonstrate real time data acquisition and storage by the flight recorder and the integration of the SHM experiment into the flight recording process. The parameters of the flight environment were acquired using various sensors in the payload. The SHM experiment used a small cantilevered beam with attached piezoelectric sensor and utilized a miniaturized Canary impedance analyzer to collect the electro-mechanical impedance signatures of the beam in the particular frequency range. The Canary unit was designed to collect electro-mechanical impedance data, store it on a SD card, process stored data in real time and communicate diagnostic data features to the flight recorder during flight. An algorithm was developed to extract a small set of diagnostic features (impedance peak amplitudes and frequencies) from raw impedance data and communicate this data set to the flight recorder. The paper discusses development of the SHM experiment for a suborbital flight, describes and validates the associated analytical model for impedance signature and provides analysis of the post flight electro-mechanical impedance data. The results obtained in the sub-orbital flight experiment indicate the utility of SHM for space vehicles.
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