Structural Health Monitoring of Smart Composites: A Review

Abstract

Materials which respond to the environmental variations and manifest their functions according to the best conditions are called smart materials. The notion of structural health monitoring (SHM) relies on a system of sensors and actuators integrated with the structure. Smart materials are the answer to the requirement of an environment-friendly, cost-effective, self-powered, in-service diagnostic system for structural health monitoring of composite structures. The multi-functionality of composite material with integrated SHM and self-repair is routed through piezoelectric embedded fiber-reinforced composites as this provides damage sensing as well as self-healing. Though a significant number of studies have dealt with smart composites, a systematic understanding of its role in SHM is lacking. This review focuses on research work on various SHM systems, particularly piezoelectric embedded composites which have been reported for the past few years. The reviewed work covers SHM strategies and technologies as well as the established study on SHM sensors.