From micromechanics to optimal sensor positioning in SHM applications

In order to enhance Structural Health Monitoring of engineering structures, an appropriate modelling of the underlying structures as e. g. bridges or wings is necessary. Amongst other things this includes relevant (pre-)damages as cracks, delaminations, imperfect bonding, etc. which have to be incorporated at the so-called micro- or mesoscale of the structure. However, given the overall dimensions of typical engineering structures a discrete modelling of these (pre-)damages is not feasible at the macro-/structural scale. Thus, a scale-bridging is necessary to capture the structural behaviour. One promising approach to incorporate (pre-)damages at the microscale while maintaining a numerically manageable model of the overall structure is the sub-structure technique which will be used in the current project. Since a Structural Health Monitoring using the aforementioned numerical models strongly relys on useful measurement data it is of tremendous interest to determine the optimal number and the optimal position of the respective sensors. Hence, this topic is also addressed in the current contribution.