TASK ORDER NO. NND11CS02T COMPLETION OF DESIGN STUDY PROJECT TITLE: MONITORING OF THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS (TPS) USING ROBUST SELF-ORGANIZING OPTICAL FIBER SENSING NETWORKS THE BENEFITS OF A SYSTEM SUCH AS THIS OVER A CONVENTIONAL CENTRALLY-CONTROLLED NETWORK INCLUDE ROBUSTNESS (THERE IS NO SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE, AND THE NETWORK CAN CONTINUE TO FUNCTION IN THE PRESENCE OF DAMAGE IN SOME AREAS), SCALABILITY (THE NUMBER OF AGENTS AND SENSORS CAN BE GREATLY INCREASED WITHOUT DEGRADING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE), AND ABILITY TO RESPOND EFFECTIVELY TO DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENTS. THIS WORK WILL LEAD TO A FULL DESIGN OF THE DEMONSTRATOR AND SENSING SYSTEM IN FY2012. THIS WORK WILL BE CARRIED OUT JOINTLY BY THE DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER, THE LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER, AND THE COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANISATION (CSIRO), SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. CSIRO IS AUSTRALIA'S NATIONAL SCIENCE AGENCY AND ONE OF THE LARGEST AND MOST DIVERSE RESEARCH AGENCIES IN THE WORLD. THE WORK DEFINED IS CRITICALLY BASED ON PREVIOUS SPECIFIC ADVANCES IN THE STATE-OF-THE-ART MADE BY CSIRO IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROPRIETARY ARCHITECTURE. NASA HAS BEEN ENGAGED IN THIS RESEARCH WITH CSIRO STARTING IN 2001. THE RESEARCH WORK WILL LEVERAGE OFF DEVELOPMENTS FROM EARLIER NASA/CSIRO WORK ON STRUCTURAL HEALTH MONITORING, IN PARTICULAR ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DISTRIBUTED MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM DEMONSTRATOR FOR IMPACT DETECTION AND DAMAGE CHARACTERIZATION, WHICH WAS CO-FUNDED BY CSIRO. THE PROJECT HAS THE FOLLOWING OBJECTIVES: A) DEVELOPMENT, EVALUATION AND DEMONSTRATION OF A DYNAMICALLY RECONFIGURABLE OPTICAL FIBER SENSING NETWORK THAT IS INTERROGATED USING THE OPTICAL FREQUENCY DOMAIN REFLECTOMETRY (OFDR) TECHNIQUE. SUCH A SYSTEM WILL SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCE THE SUSCEPTIBILITY OF OPTICAL FIBER SENSING SYSTEMS TO FAILURE IN THE EVENT OF FIBER BREAKAGE. B) DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION OF A DISTRIBUTED, SELF-ORGANIZED APPROACH TO CONFIGURATION CONTROL OF AN OPTICAL FIBER SENSING NETWORK THAT IS INTERROGATED USING THE OPTICAL FREQUENCY DOMAIN REFLECTOMETRY (OFDR) TECHNIQUE. C) DEMONSTRATE FIBER OPTIC DISTRIBUTED STRAIN AND TEMPERATURE SENSING ON A SMALL-SCALE HEAT SHIELD CARRIER STRUCTURE. D) DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION OF A METHOD FOR DETERMINING OPTIMAL SENSOR PLACEMENTS WITH THE AIM OF MAINTAINING ADEQUATE ACCURACY OF IMPACT DAMAGE LOCATION. E) DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION OF ACOUSTIC DETECTION AND THERMAL EVALUATION OF IMPACT DAMAGE TO A THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEM (TPS) ATTACHED TO THE CARRIER STRUCTURE OF GOAL C) ABOVE.