Monitoring of a high speed naval vessel using a wireless hull monitoring system
As the U.S. Navy acquires high-performance littoral combat ships, there is a growing need for cost-effective hull monitoring systems. High-performance ships are typically constructed from light-weight construction materials such as aluminum. In addition, they are designed with multi-hull forms resulting is complex hull behavior during high-speed operation. Hull monitoring systems installed in these ships can illuminate the behavior of the hull during extreme operational conditions (e.g., highspeed operation) in addition to serving as a long-term hull health monitoring system. To keep the costs of hull monitoring systems low while accommodating a large number of sensors in their design, wireless communication between sensors in the hull monitoring system is proposed. In this study, a dense network of Narada wireless sensor nodes are installed on the FSF-I SeaFighter to create a wireless hull monitoring system. The strain and acceleration response of this high-speed aluminum ship is monitored during seakeeping trials. Response data collected by the wireless hull monitoring system is compared to data collected by the ship's permanent hull monitoring system which is wired.
