Thermoelastic Stress Analysis - Emerging Opportunities in Structural Health Monitoring

Abstract

The emergence recently of a thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) capability exploiting low-cost, compact and rugged microbolometer detector technology provides a significant opportunity topromote a broader use of this powerful non-contact full-field stress analysis technique. An area whereit has considerable and hitherto unexplored potential is in in-situ structural health monitoring (SHM).The present paper outlines the case for a nexus between SHMand TSA in this new form. It is proposedthat the approach should yield diagnostic and prognostic capabilities surpassing those of some existingSHM modalities. An F/A-18 centre-fuselage full-scale structural fatigue test is employed as a casestudy to illustrate the practical feasibility of the approach and to underscore some of its potential.Although the case study focuses on an aircraft structure, the concept has potential application to awide variety of different engineering assets across the aerospace, civil and maritime sectors.