Design, fabrication and integration of large-scale stretchable strain sensor networks
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- An investigation was performed to develop a process to design, fabricate, and integrate a large-scale stretchable sensor network to measure strain distribution over a surface area. Capable of measuring actual strains of a structure is critical not only at the structural design phase to validate the design, but also useful to assure quality of the fabrication in the manufacturing phase. Furthermore, if the true measurements could be provided during service, the data could assist evaluating the integrity and safety of operation of the structures. However, the application of distributed strain gauges in an in-situ health monitoring system for critical structural components is oftentimes limited by complicated cabling and performance penalty. In this thesis, a novel method is proposed to revolutionize the traditional way of multipoint load monitoring by designing and deploying a vast quantity of microfabricated metal-foil strain gauges in the form of a stretchable sensor network to collect the measurements at each desired location under deformations and environmental conditions. Specifically, this thesis seeks to examine and tackle two essential challenging problems in embedding large-scale strain sensor networks into structures: (1) the wire effect -- because not only strain sensors but also the entire wires are attached to structures, a model was developed to establish the optimized wiring and eliminate the wire-induced error; (2) the thermal effect -- because strain measurement is strongly temperature dependent, a collocated sensor node design must be devised for accurate thermal compensation. In order to prove and validate the model and design, by taking advantage of advanced micro-electro-mechanical system fabrication and vacuum bag molding techniques, a streamlined process was developed to produce stretchable sensor networks from standard 4-inch silicon wafers and integrate them to structures of various configurations. The concept of distributed strain sensing was demonstrated through a composite panel featuring hotspot detection, load monitoring, and shape estimation functions. To conclude, potential applications of the developed approach for aerospace structures (e.g., space satellite) are proposed.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2021; ©2021 |
| Publication date | 2021; 2021 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Chen, Xiyuan (Sean) |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Chang, Fu-Kuo |
| Degree supervisor | Cutkosky, Mark R |
| Thesis advisor | Chang, Fu-Kuo |
| Thesis advisor | Cutkosky, Mark R |
| Thesis advisor | Howe, Roger Thomas |
| Thesis advisor | Senesky, Debbie |
| Degree committee member | Howe, Roger Thomas |
| Degree committee member | Senesky, Debbie |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Mechanical Engineering |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Xiyuan Chen. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2021. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/sc298fh0773 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2021 by Xiyuan Chen
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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