Date of Award

12-2009

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Muralidhar K. Ghantasala

Second Advisor

Dr. Daniel Kujawski

Third Advisor

Dr. Bade Shrestha, S.O.

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Ho Sung Lee

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Campus Only

Abstract

A novel fatigue damage monitoring (FDM) sensor for detecting and monitoring the fatigue damage and estimating the remaining life of machine components subjected to cyclic loads is conceived. Sensor consists of alternate slots and strips having different strain magnification factor with respect to the nominal strain. The sensor is designed in such a way that the strips will experience the strains which closely resemble the actual strain distribution in the critical area of the component. The sensor is attached to the surface of structural member which is being monitored. The strips fail in a sequential manner from the strip experienced the highest strain magnification to the lowest. Each strip failure corresponds to the particular fatigue damage accumulated by the structure being diagnosed. This information allows for predicting remaining component life. One of the major advantages of this sensor is that it can be used with or without associated signal conditioning and processing hardware, facilitating ease of use and significant cost reduction.

This project mainly involves the design and theoretical and experimental analysis. At the outset the sensor is designed using simple analytical modeling methods. However, this design is further optimized using numerical simulation techniques. Simulations were carried out using elastic and elasto-plastic stress-strain characteristics. The details of the simulations along experimental studies are discussed in this thesis.

Off-campus Download

Share

COinS