Early Damage State Detection in Gearbox Components Via Acoustic Emission Navy STTR FY2012.A Sol No.: Navy STTR FY2012.A Topic No.: N12A-T007 Topic Title: Early Damage State Detection in Gearbox Components Via Acoustic Emission Proposal No.: N12A-007-0275 Firm: X-wave Innovations, Inc. 407 Upshire Circle Gaithersburg, Maryland 20878-5238 Contact: Dan Xiang Phone: (301) 948-8351 Web Site: www.x-waveinnovations.com Abstract: To meet the US Navy's need for an innovative AE technology for extracting the true AE signal out of background noises, X-wave Innovations, Inc. (XII) and The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) propose an innovative wireless AE technology for automated detection of early stages of crack initiation and short crack propagation in rotating gearbox components. The proposed approach builds on the XII-developed wireless AE technology and JHU's significant work in quantitative materials characterization. This approach allows AE sensors to be installed in a rotating gearbox component and transmits the detected AE signals to a data acquisition device wirelessly. Through AE detection algorithms, true AE signals can be separated from the background noise in real-time. The stages of crack initiation and short crack propagation in the gearbox components can be determined from the true AE signals. In the Phase I program, XII team will build a prototype system and demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed technology. For the Phase II program, XII team will develop a working prototype and conduct extensive validation tests to improve the prototype performance. For the Phase III, XII team will finalize the technology and system and conduct technical transitioning or commercialization. Benefits: Robust health monitoring for noisy rotating machinery environments is very challenging. The success of this STTR effort will provide great benefit for complex mission-critical machinery where early detection of crack initiation and propagation is the key to ensuring safety of operation. We envision the proposed wireless gearbox AE monitoring system has many market applications in different industries such as aviation, transportation, energy, etc. The total market will increase in the future because the capability of monitoring crack initiation and propagation in rotating components will not only help better structural and metal alloy design, but also indentify immediate remedial actions for cracking in the existing mechanical systems. Early detection of cracks is invaluable for gaining understanding of structural and material response, damage initiation, progressive damage, and ultimately limit state attainment in many important mechanical systems. Therefore, the market for the wireless AE monitoring system is tremendous. Return