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Improved Sensor For Agricultural Ventilation Fan Monitoring, Matthew J. Darr, Lingying Zhao, Christopher Gecik, Ji-Qin Ni

Matthew J. Darr

A new sensor for monitoring the continuous operation of exhaust fans in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) was developed and tested. The sensor relies on integrated Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (iMEMS) technology to accurately and reliably detect vibration on the external hood of agricultural fans, caused by the rotation of the fan blade. When coupled with a sensor to measure pressure drop across the fan and an appropriate fan curve, the vibration sensor can enable real-time fan specific collection of emission data from animal housing structures.The sensor integrated an iMEMS accelerometer along with various signal conditioning components to convert the …