[NTIACNews]Fiber optic health monitoring

[Chris Coughlin]

Hello All,

The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News is reporting 
that a team from the University of Ottawa is developing an optical fiber 
health monitoring system for pipelines and other civil structures.  The 
complete article is available from the AIP website at 
http://www.aip.org/pnu/2006/split/768-2.html .

The system is based on the Brillouin effect in which the local index of 
refraction in the fiber is affected by the strain induced by an 
ultrasonic or acoustic wave; in this case, by the vibrations emanating 
from the pipe as it experienced tension and compression.  The system was 
able to localize deformations to within 5 centimeters of the actual 
location and can measure strains down to 20 microstrain.

More information on the Brillouin effect is available from 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brillouin_scattering and 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acousto-optic_effect .  Xiaoyi Bao's 
website is at http://www.science.uottawa.ca/~xbao/index.html .

In other news, George Matzkanin and I will each be giving presentations 
at next week's ASNT Research Symposium on Tuesday.  George's talk is 
entitled "Specification Of Detectable Discontinuity Sizes In NDE," while 
I'll be talking about using standards in NDE and condition-based 
maintenance systems development in "LAHMP-Open Standards For Sensors and 
Data Acquisition For Health Monitoring."  Hope to see some of you there.

Regards,
Chris

-- 
Chris Coughlin / NTIAC / 415 Crystal Creek Drive / Austin TX 78746
Phone (800)684-2239 or (512)263-2101x227 / FAX (512)263-3530
Email ccoughlin@ntiac.com <mailto:ccoughlin@ntiac.com> / Web http://www.ntiac.com ; http://www.chriscoughlin.com