Patent ID: 9638654
Date: 2017-05-02
CPC Classifications: F16J,G01N,G01R,G06K

Claim:
1. A method of monitoring health of a composite elastomeric flexible element having an elastomer layer between rigid members, said method comprising: measuring electrical impedance of the elastomer layer; computing an indication of health of the composite elastomeric flexible element from the measured electrical impedance of the elastomer layer and trend data for the elastomer layer; measuring load upon the elastomer layer, and the computation of the indication of health of the composite elastomeric flexible element from the measured electrical impedance and trend data of the elastomer layer is responsive to the measured load upon the elastomer layer in order to discount a change in the measured electrical impedance of the elastomer layer due to a change in the measured load upon elastomer layer; and reporting the indication of health of the composite elastomeric flexible element to a human administrator.