Advanced composite materials defects/damages and health monitoring

With the rapid application of Advanced Composite Materials (ACM), more load-bearing structures and components are used with ACM instead of conventional engineering materials. However, ACM are inevitably suffered damages in the complex service environment, as well as defects formed in manufacturing process, the health monitoring for ACM become more important for the structural life. This paper describes a review of the defects/damages and health monitoring of ACM. Firstly, the defects from manufacturing process and damages in service are characterized by morphology features. Secondly, health monitoring methods of ACM are concluded, especially the applications of the Acoustic Emission (AE) technique, residual modulus and resistance change measurement. Finally, this paper puts forward the most important problems and the future of health monitoring for ACM.