The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 04, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 13, 2000
Mannur J. Sundaresan, Greensboro, NC (US);
Anindya Ghoshal, Greensboro, NC (US);
Mark J. Schulz, Summerfield, NC (US);
North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC (US);
Abstract
A sensor array for nondestructively monitoring a structure to detect a critical event. The sensor array includes a plurality of discrete sensor nodes, each of the discrete sensor nodes producing an electrical signal in response to a structural event. In the preferred embodiment, the sensor nodes include a plurality of piezoceramic fibers arranged in a planar array in which the fibers are aligned substantially parallel to each other, each of the fibers having a plurality of polarized regions that are substantially oriented according to their polarity in either a series, parallel, or combined arrangement of series and parallel orientations, and an electrical interface connecting the plurality of polarized regions of each fiber in series with one another. A signal adder receives and combines the electrical signals from each of the discrete sensor nodes to form a single sensor array output signal. In the preferred embodiment, the electrical interface further includes at least one electrical bus substantially aligned with the fibers and a signal processing module for receiving and processing the single sensor output signal. The signal processing module is linked through the digital data bus to a central processing unit. The plurality of discrete sensor nodes may further be divided into discrete subgroups, each located at a different structural location to provide a degree of sensing and determining the location of the structural event. In the preferred embodiment, the discrete sensor nodes are electrically connected in series, thereby forming a continuous series connection between each of the discrete sensor nodes to improve the likelihood that a critical structural event will be detected.