TY - JOUR
T1 - Maintaining critical infrastructure under cold climate conditions: A versatile sensing and heating concept
AU - Flatscher, Matthias
AU - Neumayer, Markus
AU - Bretterklieber, Thomas
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Measurement systems operating in cold climate regions are directly affected by harsh atmospheric conditions. Under severe conditions, e.g. ice accretion on a sensor surface can lead to a degraded performance or even a breakdown of the measurement system. In order to avoid such critical conditions, measures to prevent even partial icing of the sensor system have to be applied. E.g. weather and radiation shields are equipped with heating elements to maintain ice free conditions of a critical sensor surface. However, the control of the heating functionality is often based on little knowledge about the actual conditions on the surface. This leads to unnecessarily high power consumption of the heating module in case of a pessimistic control strategy. Hence a further sensing modality is of interest, which lowers the uncertainty in the icing prediction, eventually leading to a minimum of heating periods. In this work we present a general concept of a combined sensor and thermal actuator structure, which allows for a reliable detection and prevention of critical icing conditions on surfaces. The concept exploits a shared front-end structure for both sensing and heating to achieve space constraints comparable to traditional shields. We discuss the design of the front-end topology and the different modes of operation of the sensor and actuator system. The functionality of the approach is experimentally investigated by means of laboratory tests.
AB - Measurement systems operating in cold climate regions are directly affected by harsh atmospheric conditions. Under severe conditions, e.g. ice accretion on a sensor surface can lead to a degraded performance or even a breakdown of the measurement system. In order to avoid such critical conditions, measures to prevent even partial icing of the sensor system have to be applied. E.g. weather and radiation shields are equipped with heating elements to maintain ice free conditions of a critical sensor surface. However, the control of the heating functionality is often based on little knowledge about the actual conditions on the surface. This leads to unnecessarily high power consumption of the heating module in case of a pessimistic control strategy. Hence a further sensing modality is of interest, which lowers the uncertainty in the icing prediction, eventually leading to a minimum of heating periods. In this work we present a general concept of a combined sensor and thermal actuator structure, which allows for a reliable detection and prevention of critical icing conditions on surfaces. The concept exploits a shared front-end structure for both sensing and heating to achieve space constraints comparable to traditional shields. We discuss the design of the front-end topology and the different modes of operation of the sensor and actuator system. The functionality of the approach is experimentally investigated by means of laboratory tests.
U2 - 10.1016/j.sna.2017.09.046
DO - 10.1016/j.sna.2017.09.046
M3 - Article
SN - 0924-4247
VL - 267
SP - 538
EP - 546
JO - Sensors and Actuators A: Physical
JF - Sensors and Actuators A: Physical
ER -