Fatigue Sensing for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)

We have developed a revolutionary technology to measure fatigue life of structural members. It is a small sensor similar to a postage stamp. It is applied over critical area of the structure and tells you how much fatigue life is left in the part. This technology has its own website at fatigpro.com

You are welcome to visit dedicated website to learn more about this amazing technology.

What is metal fatigue and why should we be concerned?

Metal fatigue is a serious problem which is the cause of 90% of all industrial accidents. Metal fatigue is the cancer of the metal which remains silent until the metal fractures. There is no way to tell apart a fatigued part from a new part. To see how serious this problem watch the video below.

The technology we have developed is unique because it tells you how much life is left in the metal part from the beginning. It gives you “real data” in “real time” and tells you repeated warnings as you get closer to the end of the life of the structural part. And here comes the most incredible part of our sensor. It takes “0” power to operate. This is very important because fatigue is a slow process and and it takes years for a structural part to get fatigued. We use battery to only to communicate the state of the sensor. That is why our battery can serve 10+ years.

Data from the fatigue sensor can be collected using RFID, Lora, BLE, NBIoT, WiFi or any other technique you want.

Actually our fatigue sensor works best in “Edge Computing” mode. In this mode fatigue sensor is totally silent and only sends you a heart beat once every two weeks to tell you that it is alive. When fatigue life reaches the predetermined service level, it sends you a message on its own. It is like a mileage sign telling you to schedule your maintenance. This is edge computing at its best. And it can do this with a button cell for 10 years.

Aviation is one of the most critical application areas of Fatigue sensor. Fatigue caused accidents are usually catastrophic and cause loss of lives and property. The new patented sensor placed at critical locations of the aircraft can track the fatigue age and give advanced warning before the part reaches its end of life. The data from the sensor can be collected through RFID or any other IoT communication technologies.

We will be very happy to work with aircraft manufacturers and aviation regulators to establish an effective Structural Health Monitoring system for all aircraft. We believe our technology is a perfect fit for aviation and hopefully will be making air transportation safer and saving many lives.

Rail transportation is one of the sectors which suffers most from metal fatigue. From rails to axles, any fracture causes derailment of the train and cause loss of lives and property. Especially with increasing number of high speed rail lines, monitoring fatigue life of critical parts becomes very important. Since our fatigue sensor performs edge computing and sends message only when fatigue reaches at a predefined limit, the system is expected to work very efficiently.

Typical IoT data collection scheme require collecting data regularly from every node. This means collecting data from thousands of nodes every so often. Since our fatigue sensors are “smart”, they only send data when the structural parts reaches the predefined age limit. This means even if you have millions of nodes installed, there will be limited data traffic. Every node may be powered by a button cell and serve for 10 years without changing battery. This is edge computing at its best.

We will be very happy to work with railroad authorities and develop an effective Structural Health Monitoring system for railroads all around the world.

Ships are known to break in half due to fatigue. This causes catastrophic environmental disasters in case of tanker ships. Offshore oil platforms also take continuous beating from waves and get fatigued over time. All marine vessels including submarines and offshore platforms suffer from metal fatigue. Application of fatigue sensor into critical structural parts of the vessels enable us to monitor structural health of these structures.

Monitoring structural health of vessels will be very important for environmental monitoring organizations, insurance companies as well as organizations certifying marine vessels.

We will be very happy to work with representatives of certification organizations and insurance companies to develop an effective Structural Health Monitoring system for marine vessels.

Bridges and pipelines age and get fatigued over time. Fatigued parts need to be replaced to maintain the bridge. Our fatigue sensor technology is ideal for monitoring structural health of infrastructure.

Pipelines also suffer from fatigue and eventually burst due to fatigue induced by pressure fluctuations and temperature cycles. Fractured pipes are known to cause environmental disasters.

Data from fatigue sensors can be collected through RFID readers or wireless IoT technologies like LORA, NBIOT or BLE.

Aging structures is a big problem. There are total of 1.5 million aging bridges in North America and Europe. Our sensor technology can be adapted to monitor the health state of aging structures and give warning before an imminent collapse.