Erallo’s Structural Health Monitoring Capabilities

Erallo’s innovative SHM systems provide the ability to effectively monitor the health of metal, composite, and concrete structures that need continuous, real-time monitoring, inspection and maintenance, including:

• Physical Structures – like bridges, tunnels, buildings, dams, pipelines
• Aeronautics –airframes, fuselages, landing gears, rotor blades and bulkheads for both fixed wing and rotor wing aircraft
• Automotive –

Erallo provides cost effective and scalable solutions for the real-time monitoring of important structural force responses such as strain, cracks, vibration, tilt, inclination, moisture, humidity, etc. Our SHM systems can provides real-time information to help quickly identify damaged area(s) which can lead to a reduction in discovery time and business interruption. Read More

Erallo SHM systems can dramatically reduce the costs and complexities associated with monitoring structures. Structural response monitoring can detect conditions and states influencing the entire structure. This advanced detection capability enhances coverage and increases the opportunities for the early responses that can minimize property and casualty losses.

Strain Energy Mode Shapes (SEMS) for Structural Health Monitoring

Erallo’s research on structural analysis, including fatigue, was funded by the US Army under a SBIR Phase II program and based on research conducted earlier (2004) on the Army’s armoured vehicle-launched bridges (AVLB). Our approach uses Strain Energy Mode Shapes (SEMS) techniques to identify cracks and metal fatigue (developed by Dr. Hota GangaRao and his team at the West Virginia University (WVU)). Erallo has teamed with WVU on this research and development. We are in the second year of our SBIR Phase II; the technique has successfully been demonstrated to the US Army. We are currently working on the final modifications to the hardware and software for the SHM System.

Strain Energy-based Mode Shape (SEMS) Techniques for SHM: Strain energy-based mode shape for SHM is a proven technique. In the past, the work on this SHM technique was performed using laser sensors and accelerometers to detect strain energy-based mode shapes. Our innovation is the use of strain gage sensors to detect and determine strain energy-based mode shapes and evolving the methodology to a field deployable application, in terms of use, durability and accuracy of algorithm development.

The system can also be deployed for use in aircraft monitoring, especially on structural components such as airframes, fuselages, landing gears, and bulkheads. The damage identification method, based on the analysis of strain energy modal analyses is a very sensitive indicator of damage. And the method can be applied to both two dimensional as well as three dimensional structures. The technique was successfully demonstrated on wide flange beams as well as two dimensional plates and fully assembled Army Bridges.

Comparison to Other SHM Methods: When comparing PZT and guided wave technology to strain energy-based SHM, a number of differences and advantages become apparent. The main advantage of using strain gauges (resistive or FBG) is reduced noise, ease of data reduction, and accuracy while evaluating algorithms for crack detection. The data reduction enables the use of on-board data processing and the accuracy enables feature isolation, which results in a tremendous advantage for real time notification and evaluation. Another advantage of the strain energy mode shape based system is that it can be deployed to monitor structures in loaded conditions – which would enable event-based sensor monitoring on aircraft structures. The monitoring events could be triggered based on activities (like take offs, landings or G-forces) or on a scheduled basis. The data can be processed in real-time and thus, any abnormal conditions identified in real-time.

SEMS-based SHM System - Critical Functions

The critical functions included in Erallo’s SEMS-based Structural Health Monitoring system are:

• Highly Accurate Time Synchronization
• Baseline or non-baseline methodologies
• Innovative “strain energy mode shape methodology”
• Specialized models and algorithms to identify and locate micro-cracks
• Specialized noise suppression and data filtering techniques
• On-board, real-time processing
• Real-time alarms triggered by pre-defined events, schedules or parameter limits
• Access to data and reports from anywhere using SensorCloud Web Interface
  

SHM System - Applications

Erallo’s SEMS-based Structural Health Monitoring System can be applied to many types of materials, structures, and monitoring needs:

• Temporary Structures: Temporary bridges, scaffolding and embankments
• Flexible Structures: Long-span bridges, steel cables
• Rigid Metal Structures: Short-span bridges, cranes, pipes, dams
• Composite Materials: Fixed and rotor wing aircraft aeronautical components, vehicles, wind turbines, construction equipment, specialized mats
• Smart Materials: Materials with embedded sensors to create “smart materials”
• Condition based Monitoring (CM): for monitoring of specific conditions or events
• Predictive Maintenance: remaining life estimations for use and maintenance schedules