Disposable witness corrosion sensor
OwnerSeth S. Kessler, Christopher T. Dunn +1inventors
InventorsSeth S. Kessler, Christopher T. Dunn, Yosef Stein
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Corrosion sensors are described. The corrosion sensors may include components formed from carbon nanotube structures and a corroding element formed of a material which corrodes more quickly than a target material being monitored by the corrosion sensor. The corroding material may be exposed to the environment to which the target material being monitored is exposed. The corrosion sensor may be passive, thus consuming little power.
Claims20
A low power wireless sensor system for monitoring a state of corrosion of a target material, the sensor system comprising:
- a housing;
- a witness corrosion sensor disposed within the housing and comprising a first resistive arm with a first resistance and a second resistive arm with a second resistance, the first resistive arm comprising a sensor element connected in parallel with at least one resistor comprising carbon nanotubes, and the second resistive arm comprising at least one resistor comprising carbon nanotubes;
- processing circuitry disposed within the housing and configured to measure a difference between the first resistance and the second resistance and to determine a state of corrosion of the target material based on a difference between the first resistance and the second resistance;
- an energy storage module disposed within the housing and configured to store electrical energy and to provide power to at least a portion of the processing circuitry;
- and
- a wireless communication module coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to wirelessly communicate information external to the housing.
A wireless sensor system for monitoring a state of corrosion of a target material, the sensor system comprising:
- a passive sensor apparatus comprising a first resistive arm with a first resistance and a second resistive arm with a second resistance, the first resistive arm comprising a sensor element connected in parallel with at least one resistor comprising carbon nanotubes, and the second resistive arm comprising at least one resistor comprising carbon nanotubes;
- a circuit configured to measure a difference between the first resistance and the second resistance;
- a processor configured to determine a state of corrosion of the target material based on a difference between the first resistance and the second resistance measured by the circuit;
- an energy storage module disposed within the housing and configured to store electrical energy and to provide power to at least a portion of the circuit;
- and
- transmit circuitry coupled to the circuit and configured to transmit corrosion information.
A method for operating a low power wireless sensor system comprising:
- measuring, with processing circuitry disposed in a housing of the low power wireless sensor system, a difference between a resistance of a first resistive arm and a resistance of a second resistive arm of a witness corrosion sensor comprising the first resistive arm and the second resistive arm, the first resistive arm comprising a sensor element connected in parallel with at least one resistor comprising carbon nanotubes, and the second resistive arm comprising at least one resistor comprising carbon nanotubes;
- determining, with the processing circuitry, a state of a target material based at least in part on the measured difference;
- providing, with an energy storage module disposed in the housing and configured to store electrical energy, power to at least a portion of the processing circuitry;
- and
- wireles sly communicating, with a wireless communication module, information external to the housing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.