Estimation of airframe weight reduction by integration of piezoelectric and guided wave–based structural health monitoring

Current design rules are analyzed and challenged by considering better damage-detection capabilities offered by structure health monitoring systems. The weight-saving potential associated to the integration of such sensing systems is discussed with regards to structural and structure health monitoring system design. Three prospective scenarios are analyzed and considered in a specific use case. According to the most promising scenario (i.e. robust detectability of damages larger than 300 mm²), structural weight reductions of approximately 9% can be achieved. Considering the weight added by the structure health monitoring system, effective weight savings in the order of 5% are achievable. Although this potential is rather modest, applying structure health monitoring systems on structures mainly driven by the damage tolerance criterion is expected to provide reductions far beyond 5%.