Patent ID: 9618420
Date: 2017-04-11
CPC Classifications: F03D,F05B,G01M,Y02E,Y02P

Claim:
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.