An Ultra High-Temperature Inertial Sensor for Structural Health Monitoring of Hypersonic Vehicles

The U.S. hypersonic ground- and flight-test communities require advanced instrumentation systems that can inform a vehicle structural health monitoring (SHM) system operating in extreme hypersonic environments, with the long-term goal of deployment on an operational hypersonic aircraft allowing maintenance requirements and life predictions to be based on the vehicles/systems actual flight history and improving vehicle/system reliability. A specific extreme-environment instrumentation need, with application to both airframe and propulsion systems, is inertial vibration measurements at high temperatures and high acoustic levels. An ideal sensor would not only operate at extreme temperatures, but also be very small/lightweight, be easy to integrate, and include intelligent sensor functions such as internal data processing, temperature compensation, output in engineering units, internal health test, and supporting digital bus communications. Sporian Microsystems has significant prior experience in the development of ultra-high-temperature sensors for aerospace propulsion and ground power energy generation applications. The long-term objective of the proposed effort is to heavily leverage this prior work and translate it to realize an ultra-high temperature (1000C/1830F) inertial vibration sensor that can be integrated with hypersonic vehicle structures and ground test/flight systems for SHM. Phase II effort will include: 1) working with NASA and industry stakeholders to define system requirements am foster transition; 2) evaluating revised hardware/electronics architectures and designs; 3) proof of principle testing and demonstration using lab-scale prototype hardware; and 4) full system prototyping and relevant environment testing/demonstration to satisfy NASAs technical readiness level expectations. If successful, Sporian will be well positioned for the post-Phase II transition efforts with NASA, DoD, and industry stakeholders. The U.S. hypersonic ground- and flight-test communities require advanced Instrumentation systems that can inform a vehicle structural health monitoring (SHM) system operating in extreme hypersonic environments, with the long-term goal of deployment on an operational hypersonic aircraft allowing maintenance requirements and life predictions to be based on the vehicle’s/system’s actual flight history and improved vehicle/system reliability.  A specific extreme environment instrumentation need, with application to both airframe and propulsion systems, is inertial vibration measurements at high temperatures and high acoustic levels. An ideal such sensor would not only operate at extreme temperatures, but also be very small/lightweight, easy to integrate, and include intelligent sensor functions such as internal data processing, temperature compensation, output in engineering units, internal health test, and supporting digital bus communications. The long-term objective of the proposed effort is to heavily leverage this prior work and translate it to realize an ultra-high temperature (>1000°C/1830°F) vibration sensor that can be integrated with hypersonic vehicle structures and ground test/flight systems for SHM. Phase II technical objectives/tasks are:   Objective/Task 1: Continue to work with NASA and other stakeholders to guide the development and facilitate transition efforts.   Objective/Task 2: Develop and implement designs and fabrication processes required to realize next generation total sensor designs.   Objective/Task 3: Prototyping and rigorous lab-scale testing of the first-generation integrated system.   Objective/Task 4: Revise hardware/electronics designs and fabrication processes and Implement NASA and commercial application designs.   Objective/Task 5: Additional lab-scale testing of revised hardware and demonstrate the developed system in an application-relevant environment   End of Phase II deliverable: A TRL 6 demonstrated working prototype of the proposed hardware, along with documentation of development, capabilities, and measurements, suitable to work in ground testing and can be proven, via relevant environmental testing, to work in a flight environment.

The proposed technology addresses a need identified by NASA For a ultra-high temperature vibration sensor that can be integrated with hypersonic vehicle structures and ground test/flight systems for SHM. Such a capability would also have application to high-speed flight test demonstrators as well as ground test facilities, and broad utility across virtually all propulsion system s including liquid and solid rocket propulsion, chemical and non-chemical propulsion, boost stage, and in-space propulsion. Commercial beneficiaries would be those interested SRM, PHM, and system performance metrics at ultra-high temperatures, including propulsion (aerospace, marine, rail and locomotive), ground transportation, energy generation (nuclear, concentrating solar power, supercritical CO2, ground turbines), oil and gas, Department of Defense, government and academic laboratories.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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