CATEC facilitates the foresight and aerostructures damage detection through a team of structural health monitoring

The concept of SHM (Structural Health Monitoring) supposes the control at any moment of the load at which a structure is subjected, so that they can quantify those loads that may exceed the established limits, postponing or, if they are serious, advancing their revisions. This procedure allows to increase security against failure and to reduce the maintenance costs of high value structures, as in the case of structures and aeronautical parts.

CATEC has a fiber optic equipment, which functions similarly to strain gages but continuously along a fiber and that allows to monitor various structures. The process is developed by specialists in the application of this technology. In aerospace, the damage is often induced in composite structures subjected to impacts out of the plane, substantially degrading the mechanical properties of the composites. With this technology it is possible to monitor these damages and solve the problems produced by them.

Among the main innovations and advantages associated with the use of this technology there is the availability of interchangeable weights, adjustable height of fall and velocities and energies of variable impact. For more information about this technology, please contact the Materials and Processes area, through its director Fernando Lasagni.