Ravi Shanker

EVALUATION OF MINIATURE IMPEDANCE CHIP FOR HEALTH MONITORING BASED ON EMI TECHNIQUE

Inspection and maintenance of any structure is very important so that they perform optimally for a very long time. Failure of any structure results in huge losses in terms of investment, inspection and maintenance cost and could be more disastrous if involve loss of lives. An enormous cost is incurred for the inspection of such structures, as the inspection of such huge structures is not only a tedious work but also requires astute acquaintance. Structural health monitoring (SHM) in general sense is a process aimed at providing accurate and timely information about the condition and performance of a structure during its service life, to evaluate the safety and reliability of the structural system. SHM system solution offers precise information, which helps engineers and managers to assess the state-of-health of their structures, and if needed, target specific regions to inspect. SHM systems add unique value to a structure by converting it into a ‘smart’ structure with state-of-the-art sensing technology. Over the years, several different methods for performing SHM have emerged. The piezoelectric active-sensing approach is one of the most popular methods. The use of piezoelectric active-sensors provides many advantages: compactness, light weight, low power consumption, ease of integration into critical structural areas, ease of activation through electrical signals, higher operating frequencies, and low cost. Such active-sensors are very efficient at assessing the health of a localized area; however, for large-scale structures it may be necessary to incorporate hundreds or even thousands of sensors. The cost of implementing such a vast network of sensors using traditional wired systems can become very high; therefore, there has been a recent shift toward the use of wireless sensor nodes. We are planning to detect the damages in the structures using an evaluation board AD5933, LCR meter and low-cost version of EMI technique, and then comparing the results. Based on the results we will check the adequacy of AD5933 for detecting the damages in the structures. AD5933 is very cheap as compared to LCR meter and it can be remotely controlled.