Structural Health Monitoring

Partner Call open until: Q2 2026

Project Start: Q4 2025

Structural Health Monitoring is especially critical for lightweight materials, which offer exceptional strength-to-weight ratios, but also present unique challenges regarding damage detection, safety, and maintenance. The objective of this project is to enable the early detection of crack formation, mechanical stress, temperature changes, delamination, and other structural anomalies on fiber-reinforced composites, sandwich panels, and similar materials. This requires a unique sensing approach for which the development and discreet embedding of additively manufactured sensors or direct fabrication of sensors on the materials is foreseen in the project.

The use of additive manufactured sensors is ensuring structural integrity, reliable data acquisition, mechanical compatibility, cost-effectiveness, and scalability for industrial use.

The Main Challenges:

• Ensuring sensor functionality across varying environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, aging, mechanical stress)
• Adapting solutions to different material combinations
• Maintaining the structural and mechanical integrity of the panels with integrated/embedded sensors

Research Topics:

• Design and fabrication of printed sensor structures for real-time structural health monitoring of lightweight composites
• Integration techniques for embedding sensors within composite panel structures
• Signal analysis methods for identifying weakening of structural integrity etc. caused by delamination etc.
• Evaluation of sensor performance under environmental and mechanical stresses
• Compatibility of sensor systems with different material pairings
• Development of low-cost, scalable manufacturing processes for sensor integration

• Improved quality and process control through real-time monitoring during production and use
• Lower costs by minimizing warranty claims, recalls, and complaints
• Design optimization enabled by reduced safety factors, leading to lighter designs
• Enhanced market position via innovative embedded sensor technology
• Seamless integration with IoT systems for predictive maintenance
• Increased sustainability through early defect detection and reduced material waste