Developing an Autonomous On-orbit Impedance-based Shm System for Thermal Protection Systems

Deployment of structural health monitoring systems for permanent damage detection is limited by the availability of sensor technology. The development of a DSP based prototype is the focus for initial efforts in realizing a fully self-contained active sensor system utilizing impedance-based structural health monitoring. The active sensing system interrogates a structure utilizing a self-sensing actuator and the low cost impedance method, and all the data processing, storage, and analysis is performed at the sensor location. A wireless transmitter is used to communicate the current status of the structure. With this new low cost, field deployable impedance analyzer, reliance on traditional expensive, bulky, and power consuming impedance analyzers is no longer necessary. Experimental validation of the prototype is performed on a representative structure and compared to traditional methods of damage detection.