Description of Different Technologies for Ship’s Hull Structural Health Monitoring

Abstract

Traditional ship maintenance protocols rely primarily on preventive strategies based on scheduled inspections or accumulated operational cycles. While effective in ensuring baseline safety, these approaches are often inefficient, leading to unnecessary maintenance or unanticipated failures. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems enable a paradigm shift towards predictive maintenance by continuously assessing the ship’s condition in real time. This paper, developed under the scope of the EDF dTHOR project, reviews current and emerging sensor technologies used for hull SHM. Particular attention is paid to acoustic signature monitoring, a key element in defense applications.