Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is the process of continuously or periodically assessing the condition of a structure using measured data, such as vibrations, strains, or other physical responses.
The goal of SHM is to detect changes in structural behavior that may indicate damage, deterioration, or changes in operating conditions.
Structural Health Monitoring systems collect data from sensors installed on a structure and analyse it to evaluate its condition.
The process typically involves:
These steps allow engineers to monitor structures in real time or over long periods.
SHM systems can measure different types of structural response, including:
The choice of measurement depends on the structure and monitoring objectives.
SHM is widely used in engineering applications where safety and reliability are critical.
Typical applications include:
Many SHM systems are based on vibration measurements.
In these cases, changes in modal parameters such as natural frequencies, damping ratios, and mode shapes are used to detect structural changes.
This approach is often referred to as vibration-based Structural Health Monitoring and is closely related to Operational Modal Analysis.
Structural Health Monitoring often relies on software tools for processing measurement data and identifying changes in structural behaviour.
In vibration-based SHM, this includes modal analysis techniques implemented in tools such as ARTeMIS Modal Pro.
