Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
8.2
3.5
Journals
Sensors
Special Issues
Sensors and Sensing Technologies for Structural Health Monitoring in Civil,...
sensors-logo
Submit to Special Issue Submit Abstract to Special Issue Review for Sensors Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Sensors and Sensing Technologies for Structural Health Monitoring in Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Engineering

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 1640

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Francesco Nicassio

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering for Innovation, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: aircraft design; aerospace vehicles; air navigation
Prof. Dr. Gennaro Scarselli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Interests: machine learning for structural health monitoring; damage detection; composite materials for aerospace applications; morphing structures; structural dynamics; acoustics (interior and external) and vibration; adhesion and adhesives; fracture toughness of composites
Dr. Anastasios C. Mpalaskas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace (D.U.Th.), GR-67100 Xanthi, Greece
Interests: reinforced concrete structures; structural monitoring; acoustic emission; building restoration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has emerged as a key enabler for ensuring the safety, reliability, and sustainability of engineered systems in civil, mechanical, and aerospace applications. Advances in sensor technologies and data-driven methods now allow for early detection of damage, monitoring of degradation processes, and real-time assessment of structural integrity under complex service conditions.

This Special Issue of Sensors will gather cutting-edge research on sensors, sensing principles, and integrated monitoring strategies for SHM across different engineering domains. Contributions are welcomed on topics including novel sensor design, multifunctional and self-powered sensors, wireless and distributed sensing networks, and advanced interrogation methods. Studies that integrate sensor data with machine learning, digital twins, and predictive maintenance frameworks are particularly encouraged. The scope spans experimental, theoretical, and computational approaches, with emphasis on both laboratory-scale developments and field-deployable solutions.

By bringing together advances from civil, mechanical, and aerospace engineering, this Special Issue aims to highlight the cross-disciplinary nature of SHM, foster knowledge transfer between sectors, and accelerate the development of next-generation sensing technologies for safer and more resilient structures.

Dr. Francesco Nicassio
Prof. Gennaro Scarselli
Dr. Anastasios C. Mpalaskas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • structural health monitoring (shm)
  • civil, mechanical, and aerospace structures
  • sensor technologies and networks
  • non-destructive evaluation (nde)
  • wireless and distributed sensing
  • data-driven methods and machine learning
  • digital twins and predictive maintenance
  • smart and multifunctional materials

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

25 pages, 10415 KB  
Article
Shear Mechanical Properties and Damage Deterioration of Anchored Sandstone–Concrete Under Freeze–Thaw Cycles
by Taoying Liu, Qifan Zeng, Wenbin Cai and Ping Cao
Sensors 2026, 26(8), 2458; https://doi.org/10.3390/s26082458 - 16 Apr 2026
Viewed by 365
Abstract
Acoustic emission (AE) and digital image correlation (DIC) techniques enable real-time capture of damage signals and full-field deformation at anchored rock–concrete interfaces under shear loading, which is critical for quantitatively characterizing freeze–thaw (F-T) degradation and preventing geological disasters in cold regions. This study [...] Read more.
Acoustic emission (AE) and digital image correlation (DIC) techniques enable real-time capture of damage signals and full-field deformation at anchored rock–concrete interfaces under shear loading, which is critical for quantitatively characterizing freeze–thaw (F-T) degradation and preventing geological disasters in cold regions. This study synchronously monitored full-shear-process AE signals using a broadband AE system (150 kHz resonant frequency, 5 MS/s sampling) and captured high-precision full-field deformation via a 5-megapixel monocular DIC system (25 fps). F-T cycle and direct shear tests were conducted on sandstone–concrete anchored specimens with varying F-T cycles and anchor depths to investigate their effects on shear mechanical properties, AE characteristics and failure modes. Results show that AE peak ring count first decreases by 44.9% then increases by 56.5%, while cumulative ring count exhibits a three-stage evolution. Shear crack proportion first decreases then increases, with tensile failure remaining dominant throughout. DIC reveals that F-T cycles shift failure from crack propagation to surface delamination and interface slip, while different anchor depths induce distinct failure patterns. This study confirms that AE and DIC can accurately characterize F-T degradation, providing a reliable non-destructive monitoring method for cold-region anchorage engineering. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors and Sensing Technologies for Structural Health Monitoring in Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Engineering)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

41 pages, 3483 KB  
Review
An In-Depth Review on Sensing, Heat-Transfer Dynamics, and Predictive Modeling for Aircraft Wheel and Brake Systems
by Lusitha S. Ramachandra, Ian K. Jennions and Nicolas P. Avdelidis
Sensors 2026, 26(3), 921; https://doi.org/10.3390/s26030921 - 31 Jan 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 614
Abstract
An accurate prediction of aircraft wheel and brake (W&B) temperatures is increasingly important for ensuring landing gear safety, supporting turnaround decision-making, and allowing for more effective condition monitoring. Although the thermal behavior of brake assemblies has been studied through component-level testing, analytical formulations, [...] Read more.
An accurate prediction of aircraft wheel and brake (W&B) temperatures is increasingly important for ensuring landing gear safety, supporting turnaround decision-making, and allowing for more effective condition monitoring. Although the thermal behavior of brake assemblies has been studied through component-level testing, analytical formulations, and numerical simulation, current understandings remain fragmented and limited in operational relevance. This paper discusses research across landing gear sensing, thermal modeling, and data-driven prediction to evaluate the state of knowledge supporting a non-intrusive, temperature-centric monitoring framework. Methods surveyed include optical, electromagnetic, acoustic, and infrared sensing techniques as well as traditional machine-learning methods, sequence-based models, and emerging hybrid physics–data approaches. The review synthesizes findings on conduction, convection, and radiation pathways; phase-dependent cooling behavior during landing roll, taxi, and wheel-well retraction; and the capabilities and limitations of existing numerical and empirical models. This study highlights four core gaps: the scarcity of real-flight thermal datasets, insufficient multi-physics integration, limited use of infrared thermography for spatial temperature mapping, and the absence of advanced predictive models for transient brake temperature evolution. Opportunities arise from emissivity-aware infrared thermography, multi-modal dataset development, and machine learning models capable of capturing transient thermal dynamics, while notable challenges relate to measurement uncertainty, environmental sensitivity, model generalization, and deployment constraints. Overall, this review establishes a coherent foundation for thermography-enabled temperature prediction framework for aircraft wheels and brakes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors and Sensing Technologies for Structural Health Monitoring in Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Engineering)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop