CENTER FOR NON DESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION

CNDE

UBIQUITOUS SENSING

Continuous Distributed Sensing using Ultrasonic Waveguide based Sensors

Ultrasonic waveguide sensing technologies are discrete in nature. The key advantage of this technique is the improved robustness as well as the temperature range of operations (-100 C to +1500 C). These sensors can measure process parameters such as ambient temperature, rheology of surrounding fluids, level and flow rate of fluids, etc. simultaneously using multiple guided wave modes. Using discrete sensor located along the length of the waveguide, it is feasible to obtain multiple measurements at different locations along the length of the waveguide. The CNDE at IITM is currently considered the leading group in the world in this technology and have an incubated company XYMA Analytics that is carrying this work into the commercial world with applications in high temperature measurements and structural health monitoring. The discrete nature of the measurements is again a limitation in the current technologies. Hence, it is envisaged in this work to explore phonon interaction mechanisms using ultrasonic wave-mixing approach for the isolation of information along the length of the waveguide. The phonon interactions are known to exist for ultrasonic waves, but have been explored to only a lesser extent with applications in the materials characterisation of materials. The CNDE at IITM along with National Metallurgical Laboratory in Jamshedpur has been working in this field over the past 5 years. The use of the phonon interactions for measurements of physical parameters and for health monitoring is a relatively new and unexplored field.

Structured Materials for Imaging