System and method for a surface strain gauge

摘要

A system and method for a surface strain gauge is described which has direct application to wind turbine structures and wind turbine blades and wind turbine struts. The invention is equally applicable to other airfoil structures such as aircraft wings and aircraft fuselages. The strain gauge comprises an array of carbon fiber material integrated with one or more microcontroller modules wherein the entire array may be incorporated into the surface of the structure to be monitored during manufacture of the structure. The array comprises separate sheets of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy which are linked together and which each comprise a separately addressable element such as a microcontroller wherein the microcontrollers are connected to a power supply and to a central bus which itself links to a central system controller. Differential measurements of the resistance of separate carbon fiber reinforced epoxy sheets may be determined in real time as well as the resistance between two or more sheets. In this way real time dynamic load monitoring can be performed and compared with original values determined at time of manufacture to provide data on fatigue of the structure with time before damage and failure occurs.

主权项

1. A smart surface strain gauge comprising:
a material having electrical resistance-changing properties, changing reversibly with tension or compression, wherein the material comprises an array of at least one sheet or fiber element connected to at least one other sheet or fiber element, each separate sheet or fiber element comprising one or more control points; at least one microcontroller, the one or more control points integrated with the at least one microcontroller, the at least one microcontroller configured to measure any change in resistance at the one or more control points, the at least one microcontroller further configured to be separately addressable; a power supply connected to the microcontroller; and a central data communication link connected to the microcontroller, the at least one separately addressable microcontroller configured to communicate with at least one system controller over the central data communication link, the said system controller configured to process data received from each microcontroller and compute the strain on part or all of the total structure, or the rate of development of fatigue of part or all of said total structure.