Laboratory of Smart Structures and Structural Integrity (SSSI)

Smart, Safe and Reliable Structures

Module 1- Introduction to SHM

Dr. Samir Mustapha

MECH 632 - Structural Health Monitoring 1

Outline
• What is a damage?
• Definition of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)
• Motivation for SHM
• The process of SHM

MECH 632 - Structural Health Monitoring 2

What is a damage?
• Damage is defined as the change that may occur in a structural or
mechanical system that may affect the current or future performance
of the system.
• The change/deference may include materials, geometry or boundary
conditions (BCs).
Corrosion in pipes
Missing bolt  change
Cracks  change in stiffness Scour  change in BC change in mass
in connectivity

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What causes damage?

Machining and
Engineering Service and
Manufacturing assembly
analysis – maintenance –
defect/lack of damage/
exceeding aging and
quality control during
design limits degradation
construction

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Symptoms of damage
• Changes in dynamic properties at low and high frequencies
› Modal data like frequency, shape, curvature, etc.

› Seismology like stress waves, etc.

• Changes in static properties

› Deformation

› Stiffness/compliance

• Changes in electrical and chemical properties

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Example of change in static properties
– BVID on a composite panel
Deformation of the panel after an impact damage

Deformation of the
composite panel after
S Mustapha et.al - Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 2016 impact

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Example of change in electrical properties
– BVID on a composite panel
Deformation of the panel after an impact damage

Impact damage assessment of GF/EP laminates (left: 2.0 wt.%

CB, right: 2.0 wt.% CB and CC) with in-plane electrical resistivity
tomography.

D Zhang, L Ye, D Wang, Y Tang, S Mustapha, Y Chen - Composites Part A:

Applied Science and …, 2012
C-scan images of damage areas in GF/EP
laminates, (a) neat epoxy resin, and (b)
modified epoxy resin with 2.0 wt.% CB MECH 632 - Structural Health Monitoring 7
How can we detect damage?

PROBLEMS

› Human experience.
› Some location cannot easily be accessed.
› Cost

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 Demo 1 – Video available on Stream
Aim: use of ultrasonic scanning to identify flaw and measure
depth/thickness of materials.

https://radiologykey.com/transducers/
Last retrieved on the 24th of Jan. 2023

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Definition of Structural Health Monitoring

• Structural Health Monitoring is the process of implementing a damage detection

strategy for aerospace, civil and mechanical engineering structure.

• Implementation depends of specific application attributes, for example differences in

time scale on which damage evolved:

› For long term SHM, the output of this process is periodically updated information regarding the
ability of the structure to perform its intended function in light of the inevitable aging and
degradation resulting from operational environments.
› After extreme events, such as earthquakes or blast loading, SHM is used for rapid condition screening
and aims to provide, in near real time, reliable information regarding the integrity of the structure.

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Long term SHM
• Enables condition based maintenance
• Detects incidents as they happen -overloading, bird strike,
• Diagnose structural condition immediately after strike, flooding
• Provides more data for numerical engineering models
• Measure loading over long period of time
• Enables predictive maintenance

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Motivations for SHM
• Economic and life-safety advantage
–Move from time-based maintenance to condition-based
maintenance (reduction in cost)

• Driven by these motivations the SHM process enables users to make

more informed decisions about use, operation, maintenance,
retirements (i.e. lifecycle management)

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Advantages for SHM
• Increased understanding of in-situ structural behavior
• Early damage detection
• Assurances of structural strength and serviceability
• Decreased down time for inspection and repair
• Development of rational maintenance / management strategies
• Increased effectiveness in allocation of scarce resources
• Enables and encourages use of new and innovative materials

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SHM system Mimicking the human sensing
capabilities in aircraft inspection

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SHM/ Body analogy
Medical Doctor SHM Engineer

• Monitor patient’s health • Monitor condition of

Diagnosis
structures
• Uses medical equipment to
check overall health • Uses sensors to check overall
structural health
Treatment • Prescribes corrective medicine
if required • If excessive stress or
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deformation, correct situation
 Components of an SHM system
Sensor # and location,
Instrumentation type of sensors, wiring

High loading, stress,

Decision making repair, maintenance, Sampling rate, frequency
Data acquisition interaction with of collection
and visualization
inspectors and engineers

Data Feature extraction, data

Processing and reduction, time/ Wireless/ wired,
communication frequency analysis, database, data retrieval
data analytics
and storage damage index etc..

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SHM- passive/ active
Active approach Passive approach

Sensor/Actuator Sensor

Only sensor are needed to measure changes

Direct assessment using both sensors and in structural response after events such as
actuators. impact or cracks and damage.
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Applications
• Bridges
• Buildings – historical buildings/ towers
• Aircrafts
• Wind turbines
• Pipelines

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SHM Attempts to Answer the Following
Questions
1) Is there a damage or not?
2) Where is the damage located?
3) What is the size of the damage?
4) How the damage impacts the
performance of the structures and
what is the remaining life?

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Next…
Main elements of an SHM system:
1) Sensors selection
2) Sensors distribution
3) Communication
4) Storage
5) Data analytics
6) Etc.

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Assignment 1
Consider a structure that you find interesting and think of a strategy of
how you can monitor it.
• What type of sensors you would use? Temp., strain, vibration
• What information are you looking for?
• How would you use this data?
• How can you process this data?
• How do you want to see this data?
• Map you ideas together on a one PowerPoint slide (include
schematics, sensors, output data, visualization, end user)
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