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Show COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING WIRELESS ACCELERATION SENSING OF SYNTHETIC LEAF IN WINDTUNNEL Giman Lee (Shad Roundy) Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Utah The research area for plant diseases is called plant pathology. Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of plant diseases caused by pathogens (infectious diseases) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). O n e of important studies in this research area is the detection of disease outbreaks. In this study w e are challenging a n e w possible method for real-time disease monitoring based on the analysis of dynamic motion of stems or leaves that could be identified from dead bodies to live bodies. The goal of the project is to measure the acceleration of a synthetic leaf in a wind tunnel using an off-the-shelf wireless accelerometer. This is in support of a longer term research project to measure and understand the relationship between leaf motion (or flutter) and turbulent air flow in agricultural canopies. Turbulence is a key element in the dispersion of plant diseases, and therefore understanding h o w leaf motion relates to turbulent flow will help with modeling the dispersion patterns of airborne plant diseases. W e will use a commercially available wireless accelerometer kit such as the Freescale ZStar3 to instrument a synthetic leaf in a wind tunnel and measure the leaf's acceleration. The wireless board for the ZStar3, and indeed any wireless accelerometer kit, is too heavy to mount to a leaf. So, w e will attempt to de-solder the accelerometer itself, which is very small, from the wireless board and connect the bare accelerometer part with very thin wires to the wireless board. The accelerometer then can be attached to the leaf while the wireless board is mounted nearby (perhaps on the same mount as the synthetic leaf). Shad Roundy 23 |