Introductory Chapter: Advances in Structural Health Monitoring

Abstract

Structural health monitoring has emerged as a viable tool for damage detection and preventive maintenance procedures. There is a wide range of proposed applications that were documented in the literature over the past two decades. Recently, the notion of sustainable design has emerged as an important attribute of all engineering designs. Sustainable design is defined as one that would result in systems that are smart, optimum, and reliable. In this book, the concept of sustainable design is the backbone of the design of a structural health monitoring system. Within the backdrop of the presented definition, this book attempts to present structural health monitoring as a tool that would result in a sustainable engineering system. There are several aspects that are now being introduced to the conventional notion of structural health monitoring which are expected to contribute to such objective. Smart systems, smart materials, wireless sensor networks, conservation of historic cultural heritage, and autonomous systems are some of these aspects. The book explores the design of smart structural health monitoring systems, using smart technologies and/or materials. It presents the issue of conservation of heritage structures using structural health monitoring tools. It explores the optimum employment of sensor networks that would render the most optimum structural health monitoring system. This book attempts to present such advanced concepts and/or technologies as the new direction of structural health monitoring. This chapter briefly presents several advanced observations and/or applications that are considered to augment structural health monitoring techniques currently in practice.