Structural Health Monitoring Technologies and Next-Generation Smart Composite Structures

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is the continuous on-board monitoring of a structure’s condition during operation by integrated systems of sensors. SHM is believed to have the potential to increase the safety of the structure while reducing its deadweight and downtime. Numerous SHM methods exist that allow the observation and assessment of different damages of different kinds of structures. Recently data fusion on different levels has been getting attention for joint damage evaluation by different SHM methods to achieve increased assessment accuracy and reliability. However, little attention is given to the question of which SHM methods are promising to combine. The current article addresses this issue by demonstrating the theoretical capabilities of a number of prominent SHM methods by comparing their fundamental physical models to the actual effects of damage on metal and composite structures. Furthermore, an overview of the state-of-the-art damage assessment concepts for different levels of SHM is given. As a result, dynamic SHM methods using ultrasonic waves and vibrations appear to be very powerful but suffer from their sensitivity to environmental influences. Combining such dynamic methods with static strain-based or conductivity-based methods and with additional sensors for environmental entities might yield a robust multi-sensor SHM approach. For demonstration, a potent system of sensors is defined and a possible joint data evaluation scheme for a multi-sensor SHM approach is presented.

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A Strain Sensing Structural Health Monitoring System for Delaminated Composite Structures

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.249-250.849 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 249-250 ◽

pp. 849-855 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Andrea Alaimo ◽

Alberto Milazzo ◽

Calogero Orlando

Keyword(s):

Structural Health Monitoring ◽

Fiber Optics ◽

Health Monitoring ◽

Composite Structures ◽

Piezoelectric Sensors ◽

Strain Sensing ◽

Health Monitoring System ◽

Structural Health ◽

Monitoring Model ◽

Element Approach

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) for composite materials is becoming a primary task due to their extended use in safety critical applications. Different methods, based on the use of piezoelectric transducers as well as of fiber optics, has been successfully proposed to detect and monitor damage in composite structural components with particular attention focused on delamination cracks.In the present paper a Structural Health Monitoring model, based on the use of piezoelectric sensors, already proposed by the authors for isotropic damaged components, is extended to delaminated composite structures. The dynamic behavior of the host damaged structure and the bonded piezoelectric sensors is modeled by means of a boundary element approach based on the Dual Reciprocity BEM. The sensitivity of the piezoelectric sensors has been studied by varying the delamination length characterizing the skin/stiffener debonding phenomenon of composite structures undergoing dynamic loads.

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