Position estimation and control of SMA actuators based on electrical resistance measurement

Gangbing Song,Ning Ma,Ho-Jun Lee 국제구조공학회 2007 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.3 No.2

As a functional material, shape memory alloy (SMA) has attracted much attention and research effort to explore its unique properties and its applications in the past few decades. Some of its properties, in particular the electrical resistance (ER) based self-sensing property of SMA, have not been fully studied. Electrical resistance of an SMA wire varies during its phase transformation. This variation is an inherent property of the SMA wire, although it is highly nonlinear with hysteresis. The relationship between the displacement and the electrical resistance of an SMA wire is deterministic and repeatable to some degree, therefore enabling the self-sensing ability of the SMA. The potential of this self-sensing ability has not received sufficient exploration so far, and even the previous studies in literature lack generality. This paper concerns the utilization of the self-sensing property of a spring-biased Nickel-Titanium (Nitinol) SMA actuator for two applications: ER feedback position control of an SMA actuator without a position sensor, and estimation of the opening of a SMA actuated valve. The use of the self-sensing property eliminates the need for a position sensor, therefore reducing the cost and size of an SMA actuator assembly. Two experimental apparatuses are fabricated to facilitate the two proposed applications, respectively. Based on open-loop testing results, the curve fitting technique is used to represent the nonlinear relationships between the displacement and the electrical resistance of the two SMA wire actuators. Using the mathematical models of the two SMA actuators, respectively, a proportional plus derivative controller is designed for control of the SMA wire actuator using only electrical resistance feedback. Consequently, the opening of the SMA actuated valve can be estimated without using an extra sensor.

Design and control of a proof-of-concept active jet engine intake using shape memory alloy actuators

Gangbing Song,Ning Ma,Luyu Li,Nick Penney,Todd Barr,Ho-Jun Lee,Steve Arnold 국제구조공학회 2011 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.7 No.1

It has been shown in the literature that active adjustment of the intake area of a jet engine has potential to improve its fuel efficiency. This paper presents the design and control of a novel proof-of-concept active jet engine intake using Nickel-Titanium (Ni-Ti or Nitinol) shape memory alloy (SMA) wire actuators. The Nitinol SMA material is used in this research due to its advantages of high power-to-weight ratio and electrical resistive actuation. The Nitinol SMA material can be fabricated into a variety of shapes, such as strips, foils, rods and wires. In this paper, SMA wires are used due to its ability to generate a large strain: up to 6% for repeated operations. The proposed proof-of-concept engine intake employs overlapping leaves in a concentric configuration. Each leaf is mounted on a supporting bar than can rotate. The supporting bars are actuated by an SMA wire actuator in a ring configuration. Electrical resistive heating is used to actuate the SMA wire actuator and rotate the supporting bars. To enable feedback control, a laser range sensor is used to detect the movement of a leaf and therefore the radius of the intake area. Due to the hysteresis, an inherent nonlinear phenomenon associated with SMAs, a nonlinear robust controller is used to control the SMA actuators. The control design uses the sliding-mode approach and can compensate the nonlinearities associated with the SMA actuator. A proof-of-concept model is fabricated and its feedback control experiments show that the intake area can be precisely controlled using the SMA wire actuator and has the ability to reduce the area up to 25%. The experiments demonstrate the feasibility of engine intake area control using an SMA wire actuator under the proposed design.

An exploratory study of stress wave communication in concrete structures

Gangbing Song,Qing Ji,Michael Ho,Rong Zheng,Zhi Ding 국제구조공학회 2015 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.15 No.1

Large concrete structures are prone to cracks and damages over time from human usage, weathers, and other environmental attacks such as flood, earthquakes, and hurricanes. The health of the concrete structures should be monitored regularly to ensure safety. A reliable method of real time communications can facilitate more frequent structural health monitoring (SHM) updates from hard to reach positions, enabling crack detections of embedded concrete structures as they occur to avoid catastrophic failures. By implementing an unconventional mode of communication that utilizes guided stress waves traveling along the concrete structure itself, we may be able to free structural health monitoring from costly (re-)installation of communication wires. In stress-wave communications, piezoelectric transducers can act as actuators and sensors to send and receive modulated signals carrying concrete status information. The new generation of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) based smart aggregates cause multipath propagation in the homogeneous concrete channel, which presents both an opportunity and a challenge for multiple sensors communication. We propose a time reversal based pulse position modulation (TR-PPM) communication for stress wave communication within the concrete structure to combat multipath channel dispersion. Experimental results demonstrate successful transmission and recovery of TR-PPM using stress waves. Compared with PPM, we can achieve higher data rate and longer link distance via TR-PPM. Furthermore, TR-PPM remains effective under low signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. This work also lays the foundation for implementing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) stress wave communication networks in concrete channels

Position estimation and control of SMA actuators based on electrical resistance measurement

Song, Gangbing,Ma, Ning,Lee, Ho-Jun Techno-Press 2007 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.3 No.2

As a functional material, shape memory alloy (SMA) has attracted much attention and research effort to explore its unique properties and its applications in the past few decades. Some of its properties, in particular the electrical resistance (ER) based self-sensing property of SMA, have not been fully studied. Electrical resistance of an SMA wire varies during its phase transformation. This variation is an inherent property of the SMA wire, although it is highly nonlinear with hysteresis. The relationship between the displacement and the electrical resistance of an SMA wire is deterministic and repeatable to some degree, therefore enabling the self-sensing ability of the SMA. The potential of this self-sensing ability has not received sufficient exploration so far, and even the previous studies in literature lack generality. This paper concerns the utilization of the self-sensing property of a spring-biased Nickel-Titanium (Nitinol) SMA actuator for two applications: ER feedback position control of an SMA actuator without a position sensor, and estimation of the opening of a SMA actuated valve. The use of the self-sensing property eliminates the need for a position sensor, therefore reducing the cost and size of an SMA actuator assembly. Two experimental apparatuses are fabricated to facilitate the two proposed applications, respectively. Based on open-loop testing results, the curve fitting technique is used to represent the nonlinear relationships between the displacement and the electrical resistance of the two SMA wire actuators. Using the mathematical models of the two SMA actuators, respectively, a proportional plus derivative controller is designed for control of the SMA wire actuator using only electrical resistance feedback. Consequently, the opening of the SMA actuated valve can be estimated without using an extra sensor.

Design and control of a proof-of-concept active jet engine intake using shape memory alloy actuators

Song, Gangbing,Ma, Ning,Li, Luyu,Penney, Nick,Barr, Todd,Lee, Ho-Jun,Arnold, Steve Techno-Press 2011 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.7 No.1

It has been shown in the literature that active adjustment of the intake area of a jet engine has potential to improve its fuel efficiency. This paper presents the design and control of a novel proof-of-concept active jet engine intake using Nickel-Titanium (Ni-Ti or Nitinol) shape memory alloy (SMA) wire actuators. The Nitinol SMA material is used in this research due to its advantages of high power-to-weight ratio and electrical resistive actuation. The Nitinol SMA material can be fabricated into a variety of shapes, such as strips, foils, rods and wires. In this paper, SMA wires are used due to its ability to generate a large strain: up to 6% for repeated operations. The proposed proof-of-concept engine intake employs overlapping leaves in a concentric configuration. Each leaf is mounted on a supporting bar than can rotate. The supporting bars are actuated by an SMA wire actuator in a ring configuration. Electrical resistive heating is used to actuate the SMA wire actuator and rotate the supporting bars. To enable feedback control, a laser range sensor is used to detect the movement of a leaf and therefore the radius of the intake area. Due to the hysteresis, an inherent nonlinear phenomenon associated with SMAs, a nonlinear robust controller is used to control the SMA actuators. The control design uses the sliding-mode approach and can compensate the nonlinearities associated with the SMA actuator. A proof-of-concept model is fabricated and its feedback control experiments show that the intake area can be precisely controlled using the SMA wire actuator and has the ability to reduce the area up to 25%. The experiments demonstrate the feasibility of engine intake area control using an SMA wire actuator under the proposed design.

Active monitoring of pipeline tapered thread connection based on time reversal using piezoceramic transducers

Xiaobin Hong,Gangbing Song,Jiaobiao Ruan,Zhimin Zhang,Sidong Wu,Guixiong Liu 국제구조공학회 2016 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.18 No.4

The monitoring of structural integrity of pipeline tapered thread connections is of great significance in terms of safe operation in the industry. In order to detect effectively the loosening degree of tapered thread connection, an active sensing method using piezoceramic transducers was developed based on time reversal technique in this paper. As the piezoeramic transducers can be either as actuators or sensors to generate or detect stress waves, the energy transmission for tapered thread connection was analyzed. Subsequently, the detection principle for tapered thread connection based on time reversal was introduced. Finally, the inherent relationship between the contact area and tightness degree of tapered thread connection for the pipe structural model was investigated. Seven different contact area scenarios were tested. Each scenario was created by loosening connectors ranging from 3 turns to 4.5 turns in the right tapered threads when the contact area in the left tapered threads were 4.5 turns. The experiments were separately conducted with a highly noisy environment and various excitation signal amplitudes. The results show the focused peaks based on time reversal have the monotonously rising trend with the increase of the contact areas of tapered threads within an acceptable monitoring resolution for metal pipes. Compared with the energy method, the proposed time reversal based method to monitor tapered threads loosening demonstrates to be more robust in rejecting noise in Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applications.

A low cost miniature PZT amplifier for wirelessactive structural health monitoring

Claudio Olmi,Gangbing Song,Leang-San Shieh,Yi-Lung Mo 국제구조공학회 2011 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.7 No.5

Piezo-based active structural health monitoring (SHM) requires amplifiers specifically designed for capacitive loads. Moreover, with the increase in number of applications of wireless SHM systems, energy efficiency and cost reduction for this type of amplifiers is becoming a requirement. General lab grade amplifiers are big and costly, and not built for outdoor environments. Although some piezoceramic power amplifiers are available in the market, none of them are specifically targeting the wireless constraints and low power requirements. In this paper, a piezoceramic transducer amplifier for wireless active SHM systems has been designed. Power requirements are met by two digital On/Off switches that set the amplifier in a standby state when not in use. It provides a stable ±180 Volts output with a bandwidth of 7k Hz using a single 12 V battery. Additionally, both voltage and current outputs are provided for feedback control, impedance check, or actuator damage verification. Vibration control tests of an aluminum beam were conducted in the University of Houston lab, while wireless active SHM tests of a wind turbine blade were performed in the Harbin Institute of Technology wind tunnel. The results showed that the developed amplifier provided equivalent results to commercial solutions in suppressing structural vibrations, and that it allows researchers to perform active wireless SHM on moving objects with no power wires from the grid.

A nonlinear structural experiment platform with adjustable plastic hinges: analysis and vibration control

Luyu Li,Gangbing Song,Jinping Ou 국제구조공학회 2013 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.11 No.3

The construction of an experimental nonlinear structural model with little cost and unlimited repeatability for vibration control study represents a challenging task, especially for material nonlinearity. This paper reports the design, analysis and vibration control of a nonlinear structural experiment platform with adjustable hinges. In our approach, magnetorheological rotary brakes are substituted for the joints of a frame structure to simulate the nonlinear material behaviors of plastic hinges. For vibration control, a separate magnetorheological damper was employed to provide semi-active damping force to the nonlinear structure. A dynamic neural network was designed as a state observer to enable the feedback based semi-active vibration control. Based on the dynamic neural network observer, an adaptive fuzzy sliding mode based output control was developed for the magnetorheological damper to suppress the vibrations of the structure. The performance of the intelligent control algorithm was studied by subjecting the structure to shake table experiments. Experimental results show that the magnetorheological rotary brake can simulate the nonlinearity of the structural model with good repeatability. Moreover, different nonlinear behaviors can be achieved by controlling the input voltage of magnetorheological rotary damper. Different levels of nonlinearity in the vibration response of the structure can be achieved with the above adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control algorithm using a dynamic neural network observer.

A new approach to deal with sensor errors in structural controls with MR damper

Han Wang,Luyu Li,Gangbing Song,James B. Dabney,Thomas L. Harman 국제구조공학회 2015 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.16 No.2

As commonly known, sensor errors and faulty signals may potentially lead structures in vibration to catastrophic failures. This paper presents a new approach to deal with sensor errors/faults in vibration control of structures by using the Fault detection and isolation (FDI) technique. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach, a space truss structure with semi-active devices such as Magneto-Rheological (MR) damper is used as an example. To address the problem, a Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) based fixed-order H∞ FDI filter is introduced and designed. Modeling errors are treated as uncertainties in the FDI filter design to verify the robustness of the proposed FDI filter. Furthermore, an innovative Fuzzy Fault Tolerant Controller (FFTC) has been developed for this space truss structure model to preserve the pre-specified performance in the presence of sensor errors or faults. Simulation results have demonstrated that the proposed FDI filter is capable of detecting and isolating sensor errors/faults and actuator faults e.g., accelerometers and MR dampers, and the proposed FFTC can maintain the structural vibration suppression in faulty conditions.

Concrete structural health monitoring using piezoceramic-based wireless sensor networks

Peng Li,Haichang Gu,Gangbing Song,Rong Zheng,YL Mo 국제구조공학회 2010 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.6 No.6

Impact detection and health monitoring are very important tasks for civil infrastructures, such as bridges. Piezoceramic based transducers are widely researched for these tasks due to the piezoceramic material inherent advantages of dual sensing and actuation ability, which enables the active sensing method for structural health monitoring with a network of piezoceramic transducers. Wireless sensor networks, which are easy for deployment, have great potential in health monitoring systems for large civil infrastructures to identify early-age damages. However, most commercial wireless sensor networks are general purpose and may not be optimized for a network of piezoceramic based transducers. Wireless networks of piezoceramic transducers for active sensing have special requirements, such as relatively high sampling rate (at a few-thousand Hz), incorporation of an amplifier for the piezoceramic element for actuation, and low energy consumption for actuation. In this paper, a wireless network is specially designed for piezoceramic transducers to implement impact detection and active sensing for structural health monitoring. A power efficient embedded system is designed to form the wireless sensor network that is capable of high sampling rate. A 32 bit RISC wireless microcontroller is chosen as the main processor. Detailed design of the hardware system and software system of the wireless sensor network is presented in this paper. To verify the functionality of the wireless sensor network, it is deployed on a two-story concrete frame with embedded piezoceramic transducers, and the active sensing property of piezoceramic material is used to detect the damage in the structure. Experimental results show that the wireless sensor network can effectively implement active sensing and impact detection with high sampling rate while maintaining low power consumption by performing offline data processing and minimizing wireless communication.