Infrastructure security

Soundwave Technology To Locate Faults In Critical Infrastructure

Scottish researchers have developed an ultrasound sensor that is able to detect cracks and faults in buildings and facilities, such as oil pipelines and nuclear reactors, based on a system similar to the hearing mechanisms in bats, dolphins and moths.

According to the research, published in the Journal of Applied Mathematics, scientists at Strathclyde University (Glasgow, Scotland) have developed a transducer (a component that converts physical to electrical signals and vice versa) that can detect physical faults via variable supersonic frequencies. The transducer has a flexible structure based on fractals, a geometric form that is composed of copies of itself of diminishing sizes, like snowflakes or cauliflower.

One of the researchers, Tony Mulholland, explained that man-made transducers have a normal geometric form, similar to a chess-board, and this limits the technology’s potential in finding cracks and faults in buildings and infrastructure where safety is vital.