Structural Health Monitoring Sensor Development at NASA Langley Research Center

NASA is applying considerable effort on the development of sensor technology for structural health monitoring (SHM). This research is targeted toward increasing the safety and reliability of aerospace vehicles, while reducing operating and maintenance costs. Research programs are focused on applications to both aircraft and space vehicles. Sensor technologies under development span a wide range including fiber-optic sensing, active and passive acoustic sensors, electromagnetic sensors, wireless sensing systems, MEMS, and nanosensors. Because of their numerous advantages for aerospace applications, fiber-optic sensors are one of the leading candidates and are the major focus of this presentation. In addition, recent advances in active and passive acoustic sensing will also be discussed.