Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of lattice core sandwich panel via embedding strain gauges

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is a method in which the structural health is monitored in order to detect damages before catastrophic failure. In composite laminates, the layer-by-layer fabrication process makes it possible to embed strain sensors between the layers to make the part intelligent with respect to the incoming loads and to obtain information about the stress state inside the structure. The innovation of the present article is to use the health monitoring system for sandwich structures with lattice core in such a way that it would be economical. For this purpose, during the construction of the sample, a strain gauge is embedded between the core and the shell to monitor the common failure mode in this type of structure, i.e. the delamination of the shell from the core. The results of this research show that it is possible to make the sandwich panel smart and monitor its health using the present method in the elastic range and in quasi-static loading with good accuracy. Outside of the elastic range, the data obtained from the strain gauge is mainly affected by the damage and failure near the strain gauge.