Improved sensor performance through advanced modeling

The use of advanced modeling for improved understanding of fundamental sensor processes over life is investigated. Power plant performance suffers when sensor accuracy and reliability degrade. Degradation is unavoidable given the presence of environmental driving potentials that cause atoms to diffuse across material interfaces, cracks and porosity to develop in the bulk, and individual atoms to transmute. A mechanistic understanding of degradation processes and their impact on the measured value of the sensed quantity can, however, provide for a number of advances in sensor technology. It may be possible to achieve greater reliability and service life through an optimized choice of dimensions and materials based on a better understanding of fundamentals. Service life might also be increased by a more informed placement of the sensor based on an improved understanding of the interaction between materials and environment. A self-calibrating capability might be achieved where the sensor reading is corrected for the influence of degradation mechanisms that have been modeled. And finally a more accurate estimate for failure time might be obtained when the degradation processes are tracked and modeled as a function of operating conditions over life.