This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 10166, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, and Conference Committee listing.

In 1977 McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company began a project on using fiber optic sensors to support the Delta Rocket program. This resulted in a series of fiber sensors to support the measurement of rotation, acoustics, vibration, strain, and temperature for a variety of applications and early work on fiber optic smart structures. The work on fiber optic smart structures transitioned in part to Blue Road Research in 1993 and continued in 2006 to the present at Columbia Gorge Research. This paper summarizes some of the efforts made by these companies to implement fiber optic smart structures over this forty year period.

This paper explores the use of a steady-state scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) system for the identification of transition areas between solid, liquid, and gaseous substances in an enclosed container. This technique images lateral surface velocity under the excitation of a single-frequency ultrasonic tone, produced by a piezoelectric actuator. Differences in measured spatial wavenumber at discrete measurement points of a surface scan can be used to detect the boundaries between solid, liquid and gaseous regions of material. We used the LDV system to compare the relative distributions of solid wax, liquid wax, and air in a cylindrical container based on local changes in wavenumber. Through the same methodology, we were able to distinguish the transition between solid and liquid epoxy in a container. Finally, by repeatedly scanning the container during a phase-changing reaction within the container, we established that the system can be used to monitor reactions as they progress.

Pulsed loading of piezoelectric transducers occurs in many applications, such as those in munitions firing, or when a mechanical system is subjected to impact type loading. In this paper, an electronic simulator that can be programmed to generate electrical charges that a piezoelectric transducer generates as it is subjected to various shock loading profiles is presented. The piezoelectric output simulator can provide close to realistic outputs so that the circuit designer can use it to test the developed system under close to realistic conditions without the need for the costly and time consuming process of performing actual tests. The design of the electronic simulator and results of its testing are presented.

Reserve power sources are used extensively in munitions and other devices, such as emergency devices or remote sensors that need to be powered only once and for a relatively short duration. Current chemical reserve power sources, including thermal batteries and liquid reserve batteries sometimes require more than 100 msec to become fully activated. In many applications, however, electrical energy is required in a few msec following the launch event. In such applications, other power sources are needed to provide power until the reserve battery is fully activated. The amount of electrical energy that is required by most munitions before chemical reserve batteries are fully activated is generally small and can be provided by properly designed piezoelectric-based energy harvesting devices. In this paper, the development of a hybrid reserve power source that is constructed by integration of a piezoelectric-based energy harvesting device with a reserve battery to provide power almost instantaneously upon munitions firing or other similar events is being reported. A review of the state of the art in piezoelectric-based electrical energy harvesting methods and devices and their charge collection electronics for use in the developed hybrid power sources is provided together with the results of testing of the piezoelectric component of the power source and its electronic safety and charge collection electronics.

The complex nature of tires requires very precise test data to model the structure accurately. The highly damped characteristics, geometric features and operational conditions of tires cause various testing difficulties that affect the reliability of the modal testing. One of the biggest challenges of tire testing is exciting the whole tire at once. Conventionally, impact hammers, shakers, and cleats are used as an excitation input. The shortcomings of these excitation methods are the directional and force inconsistency of hammer impacts, coupled dynamics of shakers and speed limitations of cleat excitation. Other challenges of modal testing of tires are the effect of added mass due to sensor placements and difficulty of vibration measurement of a rotating tire with accelerometers. In order to remedy these problems, we conduct experimental modal analysis (EMA) using a non-contact measurement technique and piezoelectric excitation. For non-contact measurement, a 3-D scanning laser doppler vibrometer (SLDV) is used. For the piezoelectric excitation, Micro Fiber Composite (MFC) patches are used due to their flexible nature and power capacity. This excitation method can also be crucial to the excitation of rotating tires since the cleat excitation is not adequate for low-speed measurements. Furthermore, the piezoelectric actuation could be used as sensors as well as noise controllers in operating conditions. For this work, we run experiments for a loaded tire in non-rotating condition. Experiments are carried out for the frequency bandwidth up to 500Hz to capture the structural behavior under high-frequency excitations and its potential coupled behavior to airborne noise.

Sign language is a method of communication for deaf-mute people with articulated gestures and postures of hands and fingers to represent alphabet letters or complete words. Recognizing gestures is a difficult task, due to intrapersonal and interpersonal variations in performing them. This paper investigates the use of Spiral Passive Electromagnetic Sensor (SPES) as a motion recognition tool. An instrumented glove integrated with wearable multi-SPES sensors was developed to encode data and provide a unique response for each hand gesture. The device can be used for recognition of gestures; motion control and well-defined gesture sets such as sign languages. Each specific gesture was associated to a unique sensor response. The gloves encode data regarding the gesture directly in the frequency spectrum response of the SPES. The absence of chip or complex electronic circuit make the gloves light and comfortable to wear. Results showed encouraging data to use SPES in wearable applications.

In this paper we present monolithic implementations of tunable mechanical seismometers and accelerometers (horizontal, vertical and angular) based on the UNISA Folded Pendulum configuration, protected by three international patents and commercially available. Typical characteristics are measurement band 10⁻⁷ / 1kHz, sensitivity down to ≈ 10^-15 m/ √ Hz, directivity > 10⁴, weight < 1.5 kg, dimensions < 10 cm, coupled to a large insensitivity to environmental noises and capability of operating in ultra high vacuum and cryogenic environments. Typical applications of this class of sensors are in the field of earthquake engineering, seismology, geophysics, civil engineering (buildings, bridges, dams, etc.), space (inertial guide).

Historically, piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters have been limited to operation at a single, structurally resonant frequency. A piezoceramic energy harvester, such as a bimorph beam, operating at structural resonance exchanges energy between dynamic and strain regimes. This energy exchange increases the coupling between piezoceramic deformation and electrical charge generation. Two BVEH mechanisms are presented that exploit strain energy management to reduce inertial forces needed to deform the piezoceramic, thus increasing the coupling between structural and electrical energy conversion over a broadband vibration spectrum. Broadband vibration excitation produces a non-sinusoidal electrical wave form from the BVEH device. An adaptive energy conversion circuit was developed that exploits a buck converter to capture the complex waveform energy in a form easily used by standard electrical components.

The application of piezo-electrically-driven synthetic-jet-based active flow control to reduce drag on tractor-trailers and to improve thermal mixing in refrigerated trailers was explored on full-scale tests. The active flow control technique that is being used relies on a modular system comprised of distributed, small, highly efficient actuators. These actuators, called synthetic jets, are jets that are synthesized at the edge of an orifice by a periodic motion of a piezoelectric diaphragm(s) mounted on one (or more) walls of a sealed cavity. The synthetic jet is zero net mass flux (ZNMF), but it allows momentum transfer to flow. It is typically driven near diaphragm and/or cavity resonance, and therefore, small electric input [O(10W)] is required. Another advantage of this actuator is that no plumbing is required. The system doesn’t require changes to the body of the truck, can be easily reconfigured to various types of vehicles, and consumes small amounts of electrical power from the existing electrical system of the truck. The actuators are operated in a closed feedback loop based on inputs received from the tractor’s electronic control unit, various system components and environmental sensors. The data are collected and processed on-board and transmitted to a cloud-based data management platform for further big data analytics and diagnostics. The system functions as a smart connected product through the interchange of data between the physical truck-mounted system and its cloud platform.

Synthetic jet actuators are of interest for potential applications to active flow control and thermal management. Resonant piezoelectric-diaphragm-type configurations are commonly considered. Modeling of such actuators remains a challenge due to complexities associated with both electro-elastic and fluid-structure coupling, as well as potential non-linearities in both. A key metric for synthetic jet performance is the time-averaged jet momentum. Linear lumped-element modeling is an approach that has demonstrated the ability to predict jet momentum in terms of input frequency and voltage; however, it neglects nonlinearity and increasing losses at high amplitude. Full electro-elastic-fluidic finite element modeling makes the most accurate prediction but is computationally expensive for design and optimization purposes. The assumed-modes method provides an energy-based low-order model which captures electro-elastic and acoustic-structure couplings with adequate accuracy. Tri-laminar circular plates under clamped boundary conditions were modeled using the assumed-modes method. Maximization of jet momentum is considered via the maximization of surrogate device metrics: free volume displacement, effective blocking pressure, strain energy, and device coupling coefficient. The driving frequency of the actuator is treated as a constraint in the optimization which nominally matches the fundamental acoustic natural frequency of the cylindrical cavity. Device configurations were obtained for various polycrystalline and single crystal piezoelectric materials, driven at 10% of their coercive fields in the model. The optimal configurations approximate a simply-supported circular plate with complete piezo coverage. The relative merits of individual materials were also discerned from the optimization results. The low mechanical loss factor of PZT8 enables high output at resonance, while high loss factor and low stiffness limit the utility of PVDF in this application. Due to a combination of lower loss factor and higher coupling, single crystal materials modestly outperform PZT5A.

Tuned mass dampers (TMD) are heavily damped resonant devices which add damping to lightly damped, vibrational modes of a structure by dynamically coupling into the lightly damped modes. In practice, a TMD is a damped spring/mass resonator that is tuned so that its frequency is close to a lightly damped mode on the host structure. The TMD is attached to the host structure at a location of large amplitude motion for the mode to be dampened, and its motion is coupled into the host structure’s motion. If the TMD is tuned correctly, two damped vibrational modes result, which take the place of the original lightly damped mode of the host structure and heavily damped mode of the TMD. Since aerospace structures tend to respond unfavorably at lightly damped modes in the presence of a dynamic disturbance environment, introduction of one or several TMDs can greatly reduce the dynamic response of a structure by damping problematic modes. A self-tuning TMD is described that can perform all the steps necessary to automatically tune itself and minimize the response of a structure with lightly damped modes and a dynamic excitation. The self-tuning TMD concept introduced here uses a voice coil / magnet combination as -an actuator which enables an innovative stiffness adjustment mechanism -a loss mechanism for the tuned mass damper -a means of excitation for identifying lightly damped modes of the host structure Along with an accelerometer and a tethered power supply/computer, the self-tuning TMD can automatically identify and damp lightly damped modes.

Primary objective of the work is to design, fabrication and testing of a 3-dimensional Mechanical vibration test bed. Vibration testing of engineering prototype devices in mechanical and industrial laboratories is essential to understand the response of the envisioned model under physical excitation conditions. Typically, two sorts of vibration sources are available in physical environment, acoustical and mechanical. Traditionally, test bed to simulate unidirectional acoustic or mechanical vibration is used in engineering laboratories. However, a device may encounter multiple uncoupled and/or coupled loading conditions. Hence, a comprehensive test bed in essential that can simulate all possible sorts of vibration conditions. In this article, an electrodynamic vibration exciter is presented which is capable of simulating 3-dimensional uncoupled (unidirectional) and coupled excitation, in mechanical environments. The proposed model consists of three electromagnetic shakers (for mechanical excitation). A robust electrical control circuit is designed to regulate the components of the test bed through a self-developed Graphical User Interface. Finally, performance of the test bed is tested and validated using commercially available piezoelectric sensors.

The development of adaptive morphing wings has been individuated as one of the crucial topics in the greening of the next generation air transport. Research programs have been lunched and are still running worldwide to exploit the potentials of morphing concepts in the optimization of aircraft efficiency and in the consequent reduction of fuel burn. In the framework of CRIAQ MDO 505, a joint Canadian and Italian research project, an innovative camber morphing architecture was proposed for the aileron of a reference civil transportation aircraft; aileron shape adaptation was conceived to increase roll control effectiveness as well as to maximize overall wing efficiency along a typical flight mission. Implemented structural solutions and embedded systems were duly validated by means of ground tests carried out on a true scale prototype. Relying upon the experimental modes of the device in free-free conditions, a rational analysis was carried out in order to investigate the impacts of the morphing aileron on the aeroelastic stability of the reference aircraft. Flutter analyses were performed in compliance with EASA CS-25 airworthiness requirements and referring -at first- to nominal aileron functioning. In this way, safety values for aileron control harmonic and degree of mass-balance were defined to avoid instabilities within the flight envelope. Trade-off analyses were finally addressed to justify the robustness of the adopted massbalancing as well as the persistence of the flutter clearance in case of relevant failures/malfunctions of the morphing system components.

In the present paper, a touchscreen device is proposed, based on guided wave reflection and transmission induced by the presence of an object. The principle uses the advantages of other acoustic waves devices in terms of simplicity and applicability to any thin surface but is not subject to classical drawbacks (single-touch, sensitivity to scratches or contaminant, impossibility to follow motion of contact point). The theoretical interaction of guided waves with a contact impedance are first derived in order to define the requirements of the sensor in terms of frequency range, mode, sensor type and location, and embedded electronics. Design criteria and experimental validation on a small prototype (300 x 300 mm) are proposed to demonstrate the potential of the approach for simple, robust and reliable contact detection and contact pressure estimation of point-like or extended objects for consumer electronics or biomedical applications.

Aim at simultaneously improving the safety (anti-roll performance) and ride comfort of vehicles during fast cornering or over road irregularities, the principle and configuration of magnetorheological (MR) semi-active stabilizer bar is proposed in this paper. The MR stabilizer bar featuring a rotary MR damper is used to provide small torsional torque at low speed to improve ride comfort, while large torsional torque to enhance the safety at high speed cornering. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed MR stabilizer bar, the mathematical model of the dynamic system is established, and the passive-on control performance of a specific full vehicle is studied via a dynamics simulation software ADAMS, and the performance is compared with the conventional passive stabilizer bar for ground vehicle dynamic system.

Printed sensor arrays are attractive for reliable, low-cost, and large-area mapping of structural systems. These sensor arrays can be printed on flexible substrates or directly on monitored structural parts. This technology is sought for continuous or on-demand real-time diagnosis and prognosis of complex structural components. In the past decade, many innovative technologies and functional materials have been explored to develop printed electronics and sensors. For example, an all-printed strain sensor array is a recent example of a low-cost, flexible and light-weight system that provides a reliable method for monitoring the state of aircraft structural parts. Among all-printing techniques, screen and inkjet printing methods are well suited for smaller-scale prototyping and have drawn much interest due to maturity of printing procedures and availability of compatible inks and substrates. Screen printing relies on a mask (screen) to transfer a pattern onto a substrate. Screen printing is widely used because of the high printing speed, large selection of ink/substrate materials, and capability of making complex multilayer devices. The complexity of collecting signals from a large number of sensors over a large area necessitates signal multiplexing electronics that need to be printed on flexible substrate or structure. As a result, these components are subjected to same deformation, temperature and other parameters for which sensor arrays are designed. The characteristics of these electronic components, such as transistors, are affected by deformation and other environmental parameters which can lead to erroneous sensed parameters. The manufacturing and functional challenges of the technology of printed sensor array systems for structural state monitoring are the focus of this presentation. Specific examples of strain sensor arrays will be presented to highlight the technical challenges.

This paper describes an innovational fiber reinforcement technology for cementitious composite structures by using shrinking microfibers. Unlike incumbent passive reinforcing microfiber technology, in-situ shrinking microfibers that respond to an external stimulus such as heat, pH, or moisture variations can induce pre-compression to matrix and create additional resistance from external loads. In this paper, pH-activated shrinking (pHAS) microfibers and pH passive (pHP) microfibers made from chitosan powder were used to investigate the reinforcing effect of shrinking mechanism. The specimens reinforced by the range of 0 to 2 wt% of pHAS microfibers, pHP microfibers as well as control samples were prepared, and mechanical properties were compared with three-point bending tests and compression tests. For the three-point bending tests, the reinforcing effect from pHAS microfibers were shown in the specimens with 0.5 wt%, 133 % increase in maximum bending strength compared to the control specimens. However, in compression tests, significant strength increases were not shown, for several possible reasons: (i) weak bonding between fibers and matrix, (ii) small % elongation to break of chitosan microfibers, (iii) abrupt moisture content change in cementitious matrix due to chitosan microfibers, and (iv) micro-cracks due to shrinking related de-bonding which caused more damaging in compression tests than in three-point bending tests. To solve the problems, application of microfibers made from blending Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and chitosan has been also studied.

The primary objective of this work is to introduce an integrated portable system to operate a flexible active surgical needle with actuation capabilities. The smart needle uses the robust actuation capabilities of the shape memory alloy wires to drastically improve the accuracy of in medical procedures such as brachytherapy. This, however, requires an integrated system aimed to control the insertion of the needle via a linear motor and its deflection by the SMA wire in real-time. The integrated system includes a flexible needle prototype, a Raspberry Pi computer, a linear stage motor, an SMA wire actuator, a power supply, electromagnetic tracking system, and various communication supplies. The linear stage motor guides the needle into tissue. The power supply provides appropriate current to the SMA actuator. The tracking system measures tip movement for feedback, The Raspberry Pi is the central tool that receives the tip movement feedback and controls the linear stage motor and the SMA actuator via the power supply. The implemented algorithms required for communication and feedback control are also described. This paper demonstrates that the portable integrated system may be a viable solution for more effective procedures requiring surgical needles.

Developing technologies that would enable future NASA exploration missions to penetrate deeper into the subsurface of planetary bodies for sample collection is of great importance. Performing these tasks while using minimal mass/volume systems and with low energy consumption is another set of requirements imposed on such technologies. A deep drill, called Auto-Gopher II, is currently being developed as a joint effort between JPL’s NDEAA laboratory and Honeybee Robotics Corp. The Auto-Gopher II is a wireline rotary-hammer drill that combines formation breaking by hammering using an ultrasonic actuator and cuttings removal by rotating a fluted auger bit. The hammering mechanism is based on the Ultrasonic/Sonic Drill/Corer (USDC) mechanism that has been developed as an adaptable tool for many drilling and coring applications. The USDC uses an intermediate free-flying mass to transform high frequency vibrations of a piezoelectric transducer horn tip into sonic hammering of the drill bit. The USDC concept was used in a previous task to develop an Ultrasonic/Sonic Ice Gopher and then integrated into a rotary hammer device to develop the Auto-Gopher-I. The lessons learned from these developments are being integrated into the development of the Auto- Gopher-II, an autonomous deep wireline drill with integrated cuttings and sample management and drive electronics. Subsystems of the wireline drill are being developed in parallel at JPL and Honeybee Robotics Ltd. This paper presents the development efforts of the piezoelectric actuator, cuttings removal and retention flutes and drive electronics.

Within the framework of the JTI-Clean Sky (CS) project, and during the first phase of the Low Noise Configuration Domain of the Green Regional Aircraft – Integrated Technological Demonstration (GRA-ITD, the preliminary design and technological demonstration of a novel wing flap architecture were addressed. Research activities were carried out to substantiate the feasibility of morphing concepts enabling flap camber variation in compliance with the demanding safety requirements applicable to the next generation green regional aircraft, 130- seats with open rotor configuration. The driving motivation for the investigation on such a technology was found in the opportunity to replace a conventional double slotted flap with a single slotted camber-morphing flap assuring similar high lift performances -in terms of maximum attainable lift coefficient and stall angle- while lowering emitted noise and system complexity. Studies and tests were limited to a portion of the flap element obtained by slicing the actual flap geometry with two cutting planes distant 0.8 meters along the wing span. Further activities were then addressed in order to increase the TRL of the validated architecture within the second phase of the CS-GRA. Relying upon the already assessed concept, an innovative and more advanced flap device was designed in order to enable two different morphing modes on the basis of the A/C flight condition / flap setting: Mode1, Overall camber morphing to enhance high-lift performances during take-off and landing (flap deployed); Mode2, Tab-like morphing mode. Upwards and downwards deflection of the flap tip during cruise (flap stowed) for load control at high speed. A true-scale segment of the outer wing flap (4 meters span with a mean chord of 0.9 meters) was selected as investigation domain for the new architecture in order to duly face the challenges posed by real wing installation. Advanced and innovative solutions for the adaptive structure, actuation and control systems were duly analyzed and experimentally validated thus proving the overall device compliance with industrial standards and applicable airworthiness requirements.