Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)

The basic idea behind structural health monitoring (SHM) is the application of nondestructive evaluation and testing (NDE/NDT) methods to survey, over an extended period of time, the condition of load‐bearing structural components, primarily for increased safety. The actual choice of components for an SHM system depends on the monitoring task and field of application, since these aspects set the boundary conditions of what to track, at which level of accuracy and time resolution, and so on. While the general purpose of SHM is to keep track of the structural state of a technical system, when implemented, this information can be used in several different ways. SHM system implementation naturally differs depending on the application area. Furthermore, in comparison with surface application, material integration may result in improved protection of the integrated system against damage.