Principal Investigator - Patricia C. Hynes, Director of the New Mexico NASA EPSCoR Program and Director of New Mexico Space Grant Consortium.
Co-Investigator, Thomas Burton, ME Head and Professor, NMSU
Co-Investigator, Sayavur Bakhtiarov, ME Chair, New Mexico Tech
Co-Investigator, Eric Butcher, Assoc. Prof. of ME, NMSU
Co-Investigator, Igor Sevostianov, Assoc. Prof. of ME, NMSU
Co-Investigator, Andrei Zagrai, Asst. Prof. of ME, New Mexico Tech

Introduction: Aerospace structural systems experience a broad spectrum of environmental and operational loads. Severe and/or prolonged load exposures may trigger the damage accumulation process even in recently deployed structures. The process of implementing a strategy of damage detection for engineering structures is referred to as structural health monitoring (SHM), which seeks to answer questions such as: Does damage exist? If so, what kind? Is the damage local or global (e.g., a large isolated crack or many small defects distributed in the material)? Is the damage in the material or in the joints and connections (or both)? Is overall structural failure likely? 
SHM is normally based on non-destructive measurement of responses that change due to damage in the structure. Comparisons of measurements made in a damaged and in a reference state allow inference of the type, location, and severity of the damage. Historically, vibration natural frequencies and mode shapes have been the most common such measurements: macroscopic damage tends to reduce the natural frequencies, and mode shapes may be sensitive to isolated damage. Vibration measurements have been used in many ways for this purpose (Doebling, et al, 1996; Sohn, et al, 2003).
Proposal - pdf
Progress Report 2007-08
Progress Report 2008-09