Patent ID: 8285495
Filing Date: 2012-10-09
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A corrosion inspection and monitoring (CIM) system for detection and monitoring of corrosion in a structure by direct measurement of material loss in the structure, comprising: a microcontroller including memory; a function generator in communication with said microcontroller for generating a high-frequency tone burst excitation signal; a power amplifier connected to said function generator for conditioning the high-frequency tone burst excitation signal; an actuator connected to said power amplifier and in contact with said structure for imparting each said conditioned high-frequency tone burst excitation signal into said structure as a wave packet to generate a mechanical disturbance into the structure; a plurality of sensors mounted on said structure and spatially-displaced from said actuator for sensing mechanical deformation in said structure due to said wave packet wave propagation and for converting said mechanical deformation into voltage feedback signals; an analog-to-digital converter connected between said plurality of sensors and said microcontroller for digitizing the feedback signals and transmitting the digitized signals to the microcontroller; and software stored in said microcontroller memory and configured to execute instructions for initiating said function generator to generate said high-frequency tone burst excitation signal through said power amplifier and actuator imparting a wave packet vibration to said structure, to cause said analog-to-digital converter to digitize feedback signals obtained at each of said plurality of sensors as a result of propagation of said wave packet vibration through said structure, to extract differential phase information from the digitized feedback signals quantifying a differential phase shift of said wave-packet at one or more of said plurality of sensors as a result of propagation of said wave packet vibration through said structure, to repeat the foregoing steps over a prolonged period of time and in each instance storing said differential phase information, to calculate a cumulative differential phase shift over said prolonged period of time, and for correlating said cumulative phase shift over said prolonged period of time with material loss from progressing corrosion damage in said structure.