There are tremendous financial costs and hazards associated with pressure vessel failures. These risks can include damage to infrastructure, environmental cleanup, and loss of human life. Given these high costs, there is a critical need for the development of tank structural health monitoring methods that can detect excessive physical strains and damage to the vessel in real time. The data must be collected in a live and continuous manner so that the owners of the pressure vessel can be immediately warned of structural health changes to the tank while in-service.

We all know that accepted PV or tank testing methods, including hydrostatic or acoustic testing procedures can find damage or corrosion.  However, to check that damage, the tank has to be taken out of circulation in many cases- which may only happen once in as many as 15 years.  You're left with visual inspection at some points when you can.  Moreover, if it's a composite tank or PV- which are increasingly used due to strength and weight advantages- the damage may not even be noticeable in a visual inspection.  Current methods for damage monitoring of composite structures can also be problematic- especially if water is involved.

MCET Technologies is one of 12 companies selected by the U.S. DOT’s highly competitive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program awards contracts to domestic small businesses to pursue research on and develop innovative solutions to our nation’s transportation challenges.

When it comes right down to it, almost every one of the 1.5M Achilles Heel, ACL replacement, and ankle sprains every year require some sort of insurance involvement, which inevitably requires documentation- and that insurance documentation has to be specific.  The clinic has to document things such as what patient is lacking, growth potential, and patient progress, which can be very difficult as the patient is only in the clinic for 1-2 hours a week.  Moreover, if the clinic cannot fully document these points, there is a risk that they may not be paid by insurance. At times this can be a real challenge, as there may be a documentation gap between “what is specified by patient” and what is measured in the clinic.