Self-diagnosing structures

摘要

In a future that may seem to be science fiction to some, a technological leap is being heralded in the design and operation of major engineering structures. Through the development of smart-structures technology, high-value assets such as aircraft and civil infrastructure will become "intelligent", having the capability to detect when they have become damaged and analyse the effect of this damage on their performance well before the human operator is aware of any problem. The image that has often been used in science fiction of a spacecraft warning its occupants of imminent failure may become reality sooner than you might think. The smart-structures technology that is currently emerging into the commercial arena foreshadows a revolution in the structural design, manufacturing and maintenance of aircraft and civil infrastructure, and has promoted intense interest from many engineering sectors in the field of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). The rapid advances that have been made in the past two decades in sensor technology, multifunctional materials and innovative structural concepts are now leading into the practical use of SHM. The future in creating and operating engineering structures will be increasingly shaped by our ability to monitor them in a fashion more analogous to medical science than traditional engineering.