Introduction to Structural Health Monitoring

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) consists of embedding sensors in a structure to periodically monitor its health. The main motivations for this are to increase safety, optimize, and anticipate maintenance operations, and to extend the working life of the structure. Longer term applications of SHM consist of reducing mechanical safety margins with subsequent weight savings. SHM emerges from the field of smart structures and encompasses various disciplines such as materials, fatigue, nondestructive testing, sensors, signal processing, communication systems, and decision-making processes. It is an emerging field, with a very active research community, and the initial industrial deployments are being demonstrated as effective. SHM is at the beginning of the structuring process, with standardization of the techniques and methodologies still being worked on. However, major developments are expected in the near future due to the current tremendous progress of embedded device technologies in daily use brought about by Internet of Things applications. In this short introductory paper, the current challenges of SHM are illustrated with some examples coming from different industrial applications.