Systems and methods for implementation of the heterodyne effect in structural health monitoring (SHM) systems are provided. A system or method can include propagating a first signal with a first frequency and a second signal with a second frequency through a subject structure, and analyzing the output response to determine if a third frequency has been created, according to the heterodyne effect.

A crack detecting system includes a tool movable along a conduit or structure and having at least one sensing device for sensing cracks in a wall of the conduit or structure. The tool includes at least one component that includes a metamaterial. The system includes an emitting source that has at least one transducer. A processor is operable to process an output of the at least one sensing device. The processor responsively determines cracks present at the wall of the conduit or structure via the processed output.

The invention concerns a Thickness Shear Mode (TSM) biosensor (1) which comprises an ex vivo living skin explant (2), the skin explant (2) comprising at least one of the skin layers among: hypodermis, dermis (2A), epidermis (2B) and the stratum corneum (2C), a TSM transducer (3) which comprises: an AT cut quartz resonator 3C which has two opposite exterior surfaces (3A,3B), and two conducting electrodes (4A, 4B), each conducting electrode being deposited on one of the two exterior surfaces (3A,3B), the TSM transducer (3) allowing to determine micro rheological characteristics of the living skin explant (2) by piezoelectric transducing using shear waves, the TSM transducer (3) presenting: measuring means (30), monitoring and calculating means (31) which monitor an evolution in time of an electrical response of the living skin explant (2), and which calculate in time, from the electrical response, micro rheological characteristics of the living skin explant (2), a bottom surface of the skin explant (2) being in contact with the TSM transducer (3), a top surface of the skin explant (2) being in contact with air.

Systems and methods of determining physical conditions of a battery, such as state of charge (SOC), state of health (SOH), quality of construction, defect, or failure state include driving two or more acoustic signals of two or more amplitudes, each acoustic signal having two or more frequencies, into the battery and detecting vibrations generated in the battery based on the two or more acoustic signals. Nonlinear response characteristics of the battery for the two or more acoustic signals are determined from the detected vibrations. The physical conditions of the battery are determined based at least in part on the nonlinear response characteristics, using nonlinear acoustic resonance spectroscopy (NARS) or nonlinear resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (NRUS).

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for nonlinear ultrasonic testing. In one aspect there is provided a method, which may include generating at least one ultrasonic wave to enable the at least one ultrasonic wave to propagate through a solid; detecting the at least one ultrasonic wave propagating through the solid; and determining a stress of the solid based on at least one of an imaginary component of a wavenumber, a wave amplitude, a wave strength, a statistical moment in a time domain, or a statistical moment in a frequency domain of the at least one ultrasonic wave.

The present disclosure relates to a method for estimating one or more compensation parameters from impedance measurements of an acoustic load. The method comprises a series of steps including providing a probe assembly measurement setup and the disclosure also relates to a system to perform impedance measurements. The compensation parameters are estimated through a minimization process, preferably minimizing an error estimate of a first real and second imaginary part of the reflectance. The resulting compensation parameters are used to restore causality of the reflectance and accordingly provide more accurate impedance measurements.

An exemplary embodiment of a method of detecting hydrocarbons in Systems and methods for sensing analytes in an aqueous solution, include pretreating a water sample to provide a test sample. A flow cell includes at least one sensor with a polymer coating having at least partial selectivity for at least one analyte. The flow cell receives a test sample and a reference sample. At least one output signal from the at least one sensor is processed with a microcontroller using a model of the sensor response and a bank of Kalman filters to estimate a concentration of at least one analyte in the aqueous solution.

A method for detecting a defect in a region of interest within a part to be tested includes the step of, for a reference part identical to the part to be tested but free from defects, determining a set of resonant modes each defining: a resonant frequency of the reference part, considering that the modulus of elasticity of the reference part is constant, and a field of mechanical stresses on and/or in the reference part that are generated when the reference part resonates at the resonant frequency. The method includes selecting the resonant mode, referred to as optimum resonant mode, that generates, in the region of interest, a maximum mechanical stress and determining a loading mode, referred to as optimum loading mode, that primarily activates the optimum resonant mode, a loading mode defining at least an excitation wave, an injection zone where the excitation wave is injected into the reference part, and an output zone where an output wave resulting from the excitation wave passing through from the injection zone to the output zone is picked up. The method includes carrying out nonlinear resonant spectrometry analysis based on the optimum loading mode, so as to determine a nonlinearity parameter for each of the part to be tested and reference part and classifying the part to be tested on the basis of the difference between the nonlinearity parameters for the part to be tested and for the reference part.

The present disclosure relates to a method for estimating one or more compensation parameters from impedance measurements of an acoustic load. The method comprises a series of steps including providing a probe assembly measurement setup and the disclosure also relates to a system to perform impedance measurements. The compensation parameters are estimated through a minimization process, preferably minimizing an error estimate of a first real and second imaginary part of the reflectance. The resulting compensation parameters are used to restore causality of the reflectance and accordingly provide more accurate impedance measurements.

A system for and a method of measuring ultrasonic wave velocities in a subterranean core specimen is provided. Ultrasonic wave velocities are measured from the side surfaces (faces) of a polygonal-shaped core specimen having at least ten sides or faces. Stress is introduced to the core specimen by hydraulic rams associated with each set of opposing sides. As stress is applied, ultrasonic waves are introduced to at least one side of the set of opposing sides and the wave transmitted through the core specimen is measured. Subsequently, the wave velocity for the ultrasonic wave can be calculated based on the measurements taken. Also, elastic properties associated with the core specimen can be calculated.