Development of an energy-autonomous eddy current sensor system for in-situ component monitoring

Abstract

Energy-autonomous non-destructive testing (NDT) systems provide new opportunities for structural health monitoring. An NDT system that is energy-autonomous and transmits the recorded data wirelessly can be used in places that are not easily accessible for inspection. In addition, it can provide for continuous monitoring, which can improve the operational safety of various components and structures. This study presents a concept that enables energy-autonomous and wireless structural health monitoring using a splined shaft as a demonstrator. To monitor mechanical overloads, a material sensor is applied to critical areas of these components by a laser heat treatment. The structural change that occurs as a result of an overload can be monitored by the developed smart sensor system. This system consists of a material sensor, a low-cost eddy current sensor, an energy-efficient evaluation unit with an ultra-low-power microcontroller unit (MCU) and a Long-Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) data transmission unit. Wireless data transmission via LoRaWAN provides access to the Industrial Internet of Things network, enabling the collection of NDT data from multiple smart sensors in a cloud and the processing of these data to assess the condition of the component from any location. It is shown that the MCU-based eddy current testing system is able to generate a similar signal quality for material characterisation compared to an industrial eddy current testing system, despite a much more compact design and a significantly higher energy efficiency. The energy autonomy of the smart sensor system is achieved by an energy harvesting system integrated into the splined shaft. In addition, three different testing scenarios are presented, which differ mainly in the scope of data processing and evaluation on the MCU, and thus also in the energy required.