Structural health monitoring: closing the gap between research and
industrial deployment
industrial deployment
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Cawley, P
Type
Journal Article
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.
Date Issued
2018-09-01
Date Acceptance
2017-12-04
Citation
Structural Health Monitoring, 2018, 17 (5), pp.1225-1244
ISSN
1475-9217
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Start Page
1225
End Page
1244
Journal / Book Title
Structural Health Monitoring
Volume
17
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
License URL
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Grant Number
EP/L022125/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Instruments & Instrumentation
Engineering
structural health monitoring in industry
applications
economics of structural health monitoring
system design
performance validation
data processing
global monitoring
local monitoring
machine condition monitoring
structural identification
GUIDED-WAVE
FUSELAGE STRUCTURE
COMPLEX STRUCTURES
ACOUSTIC-EMISSION
DAMAGE
IDENTIFICATION
PIPES
SENSORS
REFLECTION
AIRCRAFT
09 Engineering
Acoustics
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-01-29