Embedded continuous sensor for monitoring damage evolution in composite materials

A new approach for the Health Monitoring of structural systems is described in this paper. This technique is based on detecting the acoustic emission signals from damage progression in structures using an array of sensory nodes. Two different sensor configurations that could be used for monitoring wide areas on a structure are discussed. An reliable and cost effective health monitoring system can be an enabling technology for the widespread use of newly discovered high performance materials and design concepts in structural applications. Without a reliable health monitoring system, the lack of service experience and the susceptibility of new classes of materials to unexpected and unknown failure modes will likely delay their acceptance into actual structures. The proposed sensory system mimics biological neurons in its architecture and such an architecture can reduces the cost and complexity of the monitoring system. It is potentially scalable to large and complex structures and could be integrated into the structural materials. The paper summarizes recent work related to this sensory system and provides some new results.