Structural health monitoring in aerospace environments

Structural Health Monitoring in Military Environments

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) in aerospace environments involves the continuous or periodic assessment of critical assets—such as launchers, payload fairings, satellites, —using advanced sensing technologies. The goal is to detect fatigue, load, impact, vibration, thermal stress, and other structural degradations in real-time or during maintenance cycles.

Aerospace platforms operate in extreme and unpredictable conditions: high-G manoeuvres, exposure to EMI, space debri, vibration, shock, and extreme temperatures. Traditional inspection methods are time-consuming, have a large footprint, are sensitive to EMI, are often invasive, and rely heavily on manual labor and conservative maintenance schedules.

By integrating ruggedized SHM systems—such as fiber optic sensing based on Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG)—aerospace operators can:

• Improve mission availability and operational readiness

• Enable predictive maintenance and reduce unscheduled downtime

• Replace periodic manual inspections with real-time diagnostics

• Monitor components in hard-to-access or safety-critical areas

• Extend the lifespan of assets and reduce lifecycle costs

SHM is particularly relevant for, reusable missile containers, and advanced composite structures used in modern air fleets. It supports Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) strategies and aligns with aerospace priorities such as data-driven logistics, reduced manpower reliance, and enhanced platform survivability.

Fiber optic sensing is also ideally suited for monitoring batteries.