Structural Health Monitoring

 

Dr. Bhalla has achieved a major breakthrough in developing a low-cost adaptation of the electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique for structural health monitoring and non-destructive evaluation using piezo- transducer.

 

 

Low-cost adaptation of EMI technique .

Integration of Electro-Mechanical Impedance and Global Dynamic Technique for Improved Structural Health Monitoring.  Click to View     Ultra Low Cost Adaptations of Electro-mechanical Impedance Technique for Structural Health Monitoring. Click to View.

 

 

Biomechanics

 

Dr. Bhalla has pioneered the use of piezo-transducers as bio-medical sensors for monitoring the condition of the bones (see Fig. 1). Proof-of-concept studies were published in 2008 in the international journal Strain (Bhalla and Bajaj, 2008). A more comprehensive study on potential of the piezo-patches to detect density changes in bones and also to monitor their healing process has yielded very encouraging and path breaking results, which are under publication. Further, in collaboration with the Centre of Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Bhalla has developed a piezo-based foot pressure sensor which has potential application for monitoring pressure under feet of patients, a prototype of the same is shown in Fig. 2.

 

Fig. 1. Chicken femur instrumented with PZT actuator-sensor pair.

Fig. 2. Piezo-based foot pressure sensor.

 

 

A Simplified Impedance Model for Adhesively-Bonded Piezo-Impedance Transducers. Click to View.