**4. Conservation of historic cultural heritage**

Historic cultural heritage structures formulate the collective identity of a nation. It is the responsibility of current generations to ensure their safety and integrity in order to be safely maintained for future generations. This includes any conservation and/or retrofitting activities that might be required. It is expected that such structures would pose a unique challenge in that regard due to their age and the extreme environmental conditions they faced over the years. Another significant challenge is the materials used in their construction and the structural systems which in general would be inconsistent with current practices.

The introduction of structural health monitoring, as a conservation tool for such structures, is a state-of-the-art concept that would address most of the identified challenges, presented above. Structural health monitoring systems could be designed to integrate with such historic structures, thus, providing real-time monitoring mechanisms that can detect any damages, as they develop. Such early identification would ensure the timely introduction of maintenance activities that would ensure the safety of the historic structure.

#### **5. Advanced damage assessment techniques**

Damage identification is the major function of any structural health monitoring system. There is a wide range of damage assessment methods and techniques that have been employed in the published health monitoring applications. With the development of smart materials and advanced technologies, new damage assessment techniques are introduced every day. Some of these techniques could

**3**

*Introductory Chapter: Advances in Structural Health Monitoring*

**6. Reliability of monitored engineering systems**

be successful in certain areas; however, integrating them with structural health

Most of the advanced damage assessment techniques fall within the nondestructive evaluation techniques. Some of these advanced techniques are acoustic emission, infrared thermography, ultrasonic guided waves, and wavelet transforms. The introduction of composite materials and their increasing employment in building engineering systems led to the development of a new breed of damage assessment techniques using microscale strain sensors that are embedded within

The reliability of any designed engineering system is a major concern. Due to the uncertainty inherent in several types of loads and the randomness in material properties, complete safety is not possible to attain. There is always a certain probability of failure that is associated with any designed engineering system. It is only important to ensure that such probability of failure is acceptable in terms of the nature of application at hand. Furthermore, it is important to be able to evaluate such probability and thus relate that to the reliability of any designed system.

The integration of structural health monitoring, within an engineering system, is expected to enhance its reliability. It is important to consider the reliability, of such system, in two main levels, the first is the reliability of the structural health monitoring system itself and the second is the reliability of the monitored engineering system as a whole, including the health monitoring enhancement. There is not enough research activity in the area of reliability of structural health monitoring systems and their impact on the reliability of monitored systems. This requires a targeted research effort in this area which would support the practical implementation of such systems, especially when dealing with the conservation of historic cultural heritage.

The previously presented concepts are some of the new advancements in the design of structural health monitoring systems. It is envisaged that such advancements would lead to smart structural health monitoring that would result in sustainable engineering systems. Sustainability is considered an important objective in today's engineering design that is realized due to the current state of climate change and global warming, which are hugely aggravated by industrial and construction activities. It is intended through the chapters of this book to present demonstrations of and applications for such new advancements in order to encourage further research and implementation of

such advanced techniques and technologies in structural health monitoring.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85599*

monitoring is the new advancement.

composite materials.

**7. Summary**

#### *Introductory Chapter: Advances in Structural Health Monitoring DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85599*

be successful in certain areas; however, integrating them with structural health monitoring is the new advancement.

Most of the advanced damage assessment techniques fall within the nondestructive evaluation techniques. Some of these advanced techniques are acoustic emission, infrared thermography, ultrasonic guided waves, and wavelet transforms.

The introduction of composite materials and their increasing employment in building engineering systems led to the development of a new breed of damage assessment techniques using microscale strain sensors that are embedded within composite materials.
