Measurement Apparatus, System, and Method for Obtaining Conductivity Measurements of a Surface of a Structure

A measurement system for obtaining conductivity measurements of a surface of a structure, the measurement system comprising:

• a measurement apparatus comprising:
• a housing;
• a pair of support legs depending from the housing, each support leg having a first end, wherein the first ends define a support leg plane, and each support leg further having a slide rail formed along an inner side of each support leg;
• a pair of conductive measurement probes slidably disposed between the support legs, each conductive measurement probe having a slide groove formed in an outer side of each conductive measurement probe, wherein each slide rail is configured to slide along each corresponding slide groove;
• and
• at least one spring coupled to the housing, the at least one spring applying a biasing force to cause the pair of conductive measurement probes to extend a predetermined distance beyond the support leg plane;
• and
• a computer system coupled to the measurement apparatus, the computer system comprising at least a computer, a processor device for executing one or more computing functions of the computer, and a computer software program configured to perform data analysis of data comprising the conductivity measurements obtained with the measurement apparatus,
• wherein a downward applied force applied to the housing, when the conductive measurement probes are in contact with the surface, causes a displacement of the conductive measurement probes, until the first ends of the support legs contact the surface, such that compression of the at least one spring by the displacement provides a predetermined probe contact force against the surface, that is independent of the downward applied force, whereby the conductivity measurements between the conductive measurement probes are consistently obtained to thereby improve conductivity measurement accuracy.

A measurement method for obtaining conductivity measurements of a surface of a structure, the measurement method comprising the steps of:

• assembling a measurement apparatus comprising:
• a housing;
• a pair of support legs depending from the housing, each support leg having a first end, wherein the first ends define a support leg plane;
• a pair of conductive measurement probes slidably disposed between the support legs;
• and
• at least one force applying member coupled to the housing, the at least one force applying member applying a biasing force to cause the pair of conductive measurement probes to extend a predetermined distance beyond the support leg plane;
• positioning the measurement apparatus on the surface of the structure to be measured for conductivity, so that a first contact end of each of the conductive measurement probes is in contact with the surface;
• applying a downward applied force to a top end of the housing, causing a displacement of the conductive measurement probes, until the first ends of the support legs contact the surface, resulting in a consistent application of the downward applied force on the surface of the structure;
• providing, via compression of the at least one force applying member by the displacement, a predetermined probe contact force against the surface, the predetermined probe contact force being independent of the downward applied force;
• and
• moving the measurement apparatus across the surface, and consistently measuring and obtaining conductivity measurements between the conductive measurement probes.