Sensor Technologies for Direct Health Monitoring of Tires

Structural health monitoring of tires is increasingly becoming very important and a number of studies have been or are being conducted to develop appropriate means to accomplish this very difficult task. A key to achieving this goal would be the development of appropriate sensors for predicting, and thus ultimately preventing, onset of failure in tires. The failure modes in tires are many and it may require a large number of sensors to detect onset of these failure modes. This article summarizes some of the sensors that are currently available for sensing strain in tires. Specifically, we review noncontacting sensors such as the sidewall torsion sensor, the developments of the Apollo project, a laser-sensing system, micropower impulse radar, ultrawideband (UWB) radar–based health monitoring, chromasonic sensors based on acoustic emission, acceleration sensing, force/friction sensing, and strain sensing. Keywords: capacitance-based sensing; fiber-optics-based sensing; smart tires; structural health monitoring; sensors