Built-in Sensor Network for Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Structure

¹ Acellent Technologies, Inc., 155 C-3 Moffett Park Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089, USA
² US Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center, Redstone Arsenal, AL 35898, USA
³ Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

	Abstract

By implementing a built-in sensor network on a composite structure, crucial information regarding the condition, damage state, and service environment of the structure can be obtained. In this study, methods for integrating piezoelectric sensor networks into a composite structure during different fabrication processes, including the resin transfer molding (RTM) and filament winding processes, are examined. To integrate sensor networks with different contours of structures, the method to fabricate a three-dimensional (3-D) diagnostic layer is developed. It is demonstrated that a large number of sensors supported on a thin flexible dielectric film, called a SMART Layer, offers a simple and efficient way to integrate a large sensor network onto a complex 3-D structure. The sensor network permanently embedded inside the composite structures can be used with either active sensing or passive sensing to monitor the health condition of a structure throughout its lifetime.

Key Words: sensor network, composite structure, structural health monitoring, filament winding process, RTM process

First published on October 10, 2006, doi:10.1177/1045389X06064353

Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures 2007;18:39.

A more recent version of this article appeared on January 1, 2007


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