Patent ID: 8316705

Claim:
A system for monitoring the wear, fatigue failure, or structural health of a mechanical component or structural component; the system including: a) at least one sealed chamber connected to the component, wherein the or each chamber is defined by a shell or a curved wall section and a portion of the surface of the component to which the shell or curved wall section is connected, and wherein the or each chamber contains a traceable substance in which the traceable substance is confined while the chamber is intact and, in use, at least one of said chambers ruptures or opens so as to allow the traceable substance to be discharged therefrom when either one or a combination of the following occurs i) a predetermined operating temperature of the chamber equals or exceeds a threshold value or ii) a structural failure in the portion of the component that defines at least part of the chamber causes the chamber to be opened or ruptured; and b) a detector device for detecting the traceable substance which has been discharged from at least one of the chambers.