This introduction begins with a brief history of SHM technology development. Recent research has begun to recognise that a productive approach to the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) problem is to regard it as one of statistical pattern recognition (SPR); a paradigm addressing the problem in such a way is described in detail herein as it forms the basis for the organisation of this book. In the process of providing the historical overview and summarising the SPR paradigm, the subsequent chapters in this book are cited in an effort to show how they fit into this overview of SHM. In the conclusions are stated a number of technical challenges that the authors believe must be addressed if SHM is to gain wider acceptance.

An introduction to structural health monitoring

Staff members at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) produced a summary of the structural health monitoring literature in 1995. This presentation will summarize the outcome of an updated review covering the years 1996 2001. The updated review follows the LANL statistical pattern recognition paradigm for SHM, which addresses four topics: 1. Operational Evaluation; 2. Data Acquisition and Cleansing; 3. Feature Extraction; and 4. Statistical Modeling for Feature Discrimination. The literature has been reviewed based on how a particular study addresses these four topics. A significant observation from this review is that although there are many more SHM studies being reported, the investigators, in general, have not yet fully embraced the well-developed tools from statistical pattern recognition. As such, the discrimination procedures employed are often lacking the appropriate rigor necessary for this technology to evolve beyond demonstration problems carried out in laboratory setting.

A review of structural health monitoring literature 1996-2001

Structural health monitoring and damage detection techniques are tools of great importance in the off-shore, civil, mechanical and aeronautical engineering communities, both for safety reasons and because of the economic benefits that can result. The need to be able to detect damage in complex structures has led to the development of a vast range of techniques, of which many are based upon structural vibration analysis. In the present article, some of the latest advances in Structural Health Monitoring and Damage Detection are reviewed, with an emphasis on composite structures on the grounds that this class of materials currently has a wide range of engineering applications. FOREWORD-It should be noted that this review is not intended to be a general, all-encompassing review covering the whole range of structural health monitoring (SHM); it was planned as the starting point for a study focusing on damage detection, localization and assessment for certain kinds of structure. Thus, the line of thought behind the search and the structure of this review is a result of objectives beyond the scope of the paper itself. Nevertheless, it was considered that, once the above was understood, an updated synopsis such as this could also be useful for other researchers in the same field. ©2006 SAGE Publications.

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A review of vibration-based structural health monitoring with special emphasis on composite materials

This paper concludes the theme issue on structural health monitoring (SHM) by discussing the concept of damage prognosis (DP). DP attempts to forecast system performance by assessing the current damage state of the system (i.e. SHM), estimating the future loading environments for that system, and predicting through simulation and past experience the remaining useful life of the system. The successful development of a DP capability will require the further development and integration of many technology areas including both measurement/processing/telemetry hardware and a variety of deterministic and probabilistic predictive modelling capabilities, as well as the ability to quantify the uncertainty in these predictions. The multidisciplinary and challenging nature of the DP problem, its current embryonic state of development, and its tremendous potential for life-safety and economic benefits qualify DP as a ‘grand challenge’ problem for engineers in the twenty-first century.

Damage prognosis: the future of structural health monitoring

Wireless monitoring has emerged in recent years as a promising technology that could greatly impact the field of structural monitoring and infrastructure asset management. This paper is a summary of research efforts that have resulted in the design of numerous wireless sensing unit prototypes explicitly intended for implementation in civil structures. Wireless sensing units integrate wireless communications and mobile computing with sensors to deliver a relatively inexpensive sensor platform. A key design feature of wireless sensing units is the collocation of computational power and sensors; the tight integration of computing with a wireless sensing unit provides sensors with the opportunity to self-interrogate measurement data. In particular, there is strong interest in using wireless sensing units to build structural health monitoring systems that interrogate structural data for signs of damage. After the hardware and the software designs of wireless sensing units are completed, the Alamosa Canyon Bridge in New Mexico is utilized to validate their accuracy and reliability. To improve the ability of low-cost wireless sensing units to detect the onset of structural damage, the wireless sensing unit paradigm is extended to include the capability to command actuators and active sensors.

AM Robertson

Papers

Damage Prognosis: Current Status and Future Needs