Physical Asset Protection and Monitoring

The built environment - and its functionality and safety - is at the core of modern civilization, socioeconomic well-being, and our way of life. Yet, aerospace, civil, and mechanical structures can deteriorate over time and can possibly result in unexpected failure when exposed to extreme loads. Moreover, hazardous conditions, harsh environments, and a lack of maintenance can accelerate structural degradation, which significantly shorten structural service lifetimes and can cause catastrophic loss. 

Structural health monitoring (SHM) and nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods aim to prevent catastrophic structural failure by the timely identification of critical damage so that appropriate interventions can be performed to maintain structural performance and safety. In other words, SHM and NDE seek to translate data to actionable information to decisions. Specifically, this can be achieved by acquiring relevant structural response sensing streams, which are then analyzed through a cybermodel or Digital Twin to assess current performance and to predict future structural behavior. The ARMOR Lab specializes in sensing technologies that help generate the most appropriate and spatially distributed data streams suitable for directly assessing damage and structural behavior. The various active and completed projects below highlight our efforts in advancing the state-of-the-art in SHM and NDE for the purpose of enhancing the performance and safety of our physical assets.