Structural health monitoring: Closing the gap between research and industrial deployment

Abstract

There has been a large volume of research on structural health monitoring since the 1970s but this research effort has yielded relatively few routine industrial applications. Structural health monitoring can include applications on very different structures with very different requirements; this article splits the subject into four broad categories: rotating machine condition monitoring, global monitoring of large structures (structural identification), large area monitoring where the area covered is part of a larger structure, and local monitoring. The capabilities and potential applications of techniques in each category are discussed. Condition monitoring of rotating machine components is very different to the other categories since it is not strictly concerned with structural health. However, it is often linked with structural health monitoring and is a relatively mature field with many routine applications, so useful lessons can be read across to mainstream structural health monitoring where there are many fewer industrial applications. Reasons for the slow transfer from research to practical application of structural health monitoring include lack of attention to the business case for monitoring, insufficient attention to how the large data flows will be handled and the lack of performance validation on real structures in industrial environments. These issues are discussed and ways forward proposed; it is concluded that given better focused research and development considering the key factors identified here, structural health monitoring has the potential to follow the path of rotating machine condition monitoring and become a widely deployed technology.

Crack monitoring in reinforced concrete beams by distributed optical fiber sensors

“…However, despite the great efforts made in the research and development of SHM systems, see e.g. (Cawley, 2018;Seo, Hu, & Lee, 2016), due to the lack of reliable, scalable and affordable monitoring solutions, SHM is not yet implemented as a standard practice in most civil engineering structures (Gli si c, Hubbell, Sigurdardottir, & Yao, 2013).…”

Performance Verification of a Flexible Vibration Monitoring System

“…Condition monitoring [4] is a technique which is particularly prevalent in machine monitoring applications within the automotive [5,6], aeronautical [7], and manufacturing [8] industries. Condition monitoring is used as an effective tool to promote a predictive maintenance strategy, rather than operating the traditional run-to-break strategy [9], which can lead to catastrophic failures. Structural vibration is a common measure and used in structural condition monitoring, and allows for the detection of faults within the system.…”

Optimal Design Methodology of Tapered Waveguide Transducers for Thickness Monitoring

“…There are many pressure vessels and pipes working in harsh environments, e.g., high temperature or corrosive. Online monitoring of the wall thinning caused by erosion or corrosion is very important for the safe operation of such equipment utilizing permanently installed transducers [1][2][3]. However, transducers will suffer from depolarization when they are exposed to high temperature or corrosion for a long time which considerably limits the application for conventional sensory devices in structural health monitoring (SHM) and non-destructive evaluation [4,5].…”