Summary
A longstanding goal of structural health monitoring (SHM) has been to quantify the condition of load-bearing or stressed components over time to detect damage and forecast potential failure events.
Commonly associated with civil infrastructure, SHM has been applied more recently to other engineered systems including ships, aircraft, and turbomachinery. However, widespread adoption has been limited due to the fragility of existing methods, sensor placement constraints, and the risk of sensor failure in service.
Nearly all SHM solutions today rely on surface-mounted, wired sensors that are prone to damage, require complex installation procedures, and cannot be used in extreme environments where they may provide the most value.
The goal of the Structural Evaluation through Non-contact Sensor Embedding (SENSE) Disruption Opportunity is to explore new approaches to directly embed sensors within metallic structural components during production. Recent advances in additive manufacturing for structural metals and electronics will be combined to realize hybrid approaches where sensing capability is integrated into components at the point of manufacture.
The benefits of embedding sensors include inherent protection from the external environment and the ability to position sensors strategically within a part to acquire data at or near potential failure points.
If successful, this paradigm shift will overcome existing limitations and enable the collection of detailed part-level performance data in service.