Events Calendar

Astani CEE Ph.D. Seminar

Speaker: Dr. Nizar Lajnef, Department of Civil Engineering, Michigan State University

Talk Title: Piezoelectric Driven Floating-Gate Sensors for Long-term Structural Usage Monitoring

Abstract:
A major step toward achieving an effective structural health and usage monitoring system is to enable autonomous sensing, reliable events identification and classification, and self-adaptive capabilities in structural components. This introduces novel design methodologies and forces a rethinking of the definition of multifunctional structures beyond the classical concept based only on load bearing elements. The main obstacle hindering such developments remains the availability of a reliable and continuous source of power. Energy harvesting from ambient signals is presented as a potential solution. In addition, many events of interest in structural engineering occur at frequencies significantly lower than one Hertz. This poses a significant challenge for developing self-powered sensors that are required not only to monitor rare infrasonic events but also to harvest the energy for sensing, computation and storage from the signals being monitored.
The objective of this talk is to present an overview of on-going work aimed at the development of novel self-powered sensing systems that can be applied toward the long-term monitoring of structural components. The novel modules are based on the integration of piezoelectric transducers and mechanically equivalent frequency modulators and energy concentrators, with an array of ultra-low power floating gate computational circuits. The miniaturized battery-less wireless sensors will be capable of detecting and recording a compressed version of the strain, acceleration, and spectral response history of the monitored structure. Associated data interpretation and damage prediction techniques, based on the strain data, are also discussed.






Host: Prof. Sami Masri

Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Evangeline Reyes