Integration of Networks of Sensors and Electronics for Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Materials.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in Civil Engineering Volume 2010, Article ID 598458, 13 pages doi:10.1155/2010/598458 Research Article Integration of Networks of Sensors and Electronics for Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Materials Fabrizia Ghezzo,1 Anthony F. Starr,2 and David R. Smith1 1 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, P.O. Box 90291, Durham, NC 27708, USA 2 SensorMetrix, 10211 Pacific Mesa Blvd, Suite 408, San Diego, CA 92121, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Fabrizia Ghezzo, fabrizia.ghezzo@ Received 2 September 2009; Revised 24 February 2010; Accepted 29 March 2010 Academic Editor: Piervincenzo Rizzo Copyright © 2010 Fabrizia Ghezzo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The low-cost, widespread availability and robust nature of current electronic devices suggest the feasibility of creating a composite structure with integrated networked sensors to monitor in real time the life of civil and aerospace structures while in service conditions. For structures that need to survive to high number of life cycles under varying load-environmental conditions, it is of crucial importance that the strength, stiffness, endurance, and general load-bearing capabilities of the composite not to be severely degraded by the integrated networked components. Therefore, design tools must be developed to achieve optimized, safe, and reliable structures. High values of stress concentrations due to the presence of a rigid device within a highly anisotropic material can trigger the initiation of microcracks in the resin m