8. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of Aerospace Composites Challenges and Opportunities
The paper starts by reviewing the composite damage types, both due to fatigue and degradation under normal operation condition and due to accidental barely visible damage (BVD) events. Next, the paper reviews two major composites structural health monitoring (SHM) concerns: (a) impact damage detection; (b) in service fatigue. Examples are given of damage sensing techniques with a variety of sensors: piezo transducers, fiber optics, strain gages, composite electrical properties, etc. Finally, the paper summarizes the major challenges for composites SHM and identifies research opportunities.