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MEMS Microphone Array Sensor for Air-Coupled Impact-Echo

Impact-Echo (IE) is a nondestructive testing technique for plate like concrete structures. We propose a new sensor concept for air-coupled IE measurements. By using an array of MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) microphones, instead of a single receiver, several operational advantages compared t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Groschup, Robin, Grosse, Christian U.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4541815/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26121610
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s150714932
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author Groschup, Robin
Grosse, Christian U.
author_facet Groschup, Robin
Grosse, Christian U.
author_sort Groschup, Robin
collection PubMed
description Impact-Echo (IE) is a nondestructive testing technique for plate like concrete structures. We propose a new sensor concept for air-coupled IE measurements. By using an array of MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) microphones, instead of a single receiver, several operational advantages compared to conventional sensing strategies in IE are achieved. The MEMS microphone array sensor is cost effective, less sensitive to undesired effects like acoustic noise and has an optimized sensitivity for signals that need to be extracted for IE data interpretation. The proposed sensing strategy is justified with findings from numerical simulations, showing that the IE resonance in plate like structures causes coherent surface displacements on the specimen under test in an area around the impact location. Therefore, by placing several MEMS microphones on a sensor array board, the IE resonance is easier to be identified in the recorded spectra than with single point microphones or contact type transducers. A comparative measurement between the array sensor, a conventional accelerometer and a measurement microphone clearly shows the suitability of MEMS type microphones and the advantages of using these microphones in an array arrangement for IE. The MEMS microphone array will make air-coupled IE measurements faster and more reliable.
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spelling pubmed-45418152015-08-26 MEMS Microphone Array Sensor for Air-Coupled Impact-Echo Groschup, Robin Grosse, Christian U. Sensors (Basel) Article Impact-Echo (IE) is a nondestructive testing technique for plate like concrete structures. We propose a new sensor concept for air-coupled IE measurements. By using an array of MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) microphones, instead of a single receiver, several operational advantages compared to conventional sensing strategies in IE are achieved. The MEMS microphone array sensor is cost effective, less sensitive to undesired effects like acoustic noise and has an optimized sensitivity for signals that need to be extracted for IE data interpretation. The proposed sensing strategy is justified with findings from numerical simulations, showing that the IE resonance in plate like structures causes coherent surface displacements on the specimen under test in an area around the impact location. Therefore, by placing several MEMS microphones on a sensor array board, the IE resonance is easier to be identified in the recorded spectra than with single point microphones or contact type transducers. A comparative measurement between the array sensor, a conventional accelerometer and a measurement microphone clearly shows the suitability of MEMS type microphones and the advantages of using these microphones in an array arrangement for IE. The MEMS microphone array will make air-coupled IE measurements faster and more reliable. MDPI 2015-06-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4541815/ /pubmed/26121610 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s150714932 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Groschup, Robin
Grosse, Christian U.
MEMS Microphone Array Sensor for Air-Coupled Impact-Echo
title MEMS Microphone Array Sensor for Air-Coupled Impact-Echo
title_full MEMS Microphone Array Sensor for Air-Coupled Impact-Echo
title_fullStr MEMS Microphone Array Sensor for Air-Coupled Impact-Echo
title_full_unstemmed MEMS Microphone Array Sensor for Air-Coupled Impact-Echo
title_short MEMS Microphone Array Sensor for Air-Coupled Impact-Echo
title_sort mems microphone array sensor for air-coupled impact-echo
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4541815/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26121610
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s150714932
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