University System of Maryland

Carnegie Mellon University

Yujie Ying

Yuanwei Jin

Deshuang Zhao

Embedded piezoelectric sensors in large civil structures for structural health monitoring applications require data communication capabilities to effectively transmit information regarding the structure's integrity between sensor nodes and to the central processing unit. Conventional communication modalities include electromagnetic waves or acoustical waves. While guided elastic waves can propagate over long distances on solid structures, their multi-modal and dispersive characteristics make it difficult to interpret the channel responses and to transfer useful information along pipes. Time reversal is an adaptive transmission method that can improve the spatiotemporal wave focusing. The present disclosure presents the basic principles of a time reversal based pulse position modulation (TR-PPM) method and demonstrates TR-PPM data communication by simulation. The present disclosure also experimentally demonstrates data communication with TR-PPM on pipes. Simulated and experimental results demonstrate that TR-PPM for data communications can be achieved successfully using guided elastic waves.

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Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Yujie Ying