Background, advancement, and applications of in situ structural health monitoring based on different modes of failure detection in composites: a review

Vast investigation had been going on for the past few years to overcome the gap that still hinders real-time failure detection of composites in applications such as wind turbines and their components. However, real-time monitoring has been made more applicable with the advancement of smart materials and nanotechnology thus emerging as a possible solution for better in situ monitoring of these materials in their specific application. In addition, there is another important aspect on which structural health monitoring (SHM) can be classified which includes the selection of in situ SHM techniques for specific loading conditions such as vibration loads, compression, bending, etc., and failure behaviors such delamination, reinforcement failure, matrix cracking, etc., that has limited information in the literature. This chapter provides a summary of how the introduction of nanomaterials and the development of nonmaterial approaches have revolutionized real-time SHM technology. Then, an extensive literature review on the specific applications of these advanced in situ SHM techniques to detect and monitor damage in composites under different static/quasi-static/dynamic loading parameters. This is the main objective of this article and will benefit the researchers in the selection of in-situ SHM techniques best suitable for specific damage detection in composite structures. This study is important for better durability, safety, and sustainability of operational structures such as wind turbines.