Sensor-free structural health monitoring
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Structural health monitoring (SHM) is primarily applied to high-consequence assets such as floating, production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSO), LNG carriers and naval vessels, where extreme loading and fatigue exposure justify detailed measurement of structural response. However, as vessel design and operational data become more entwined, the field is transforming.
A naval architect’s design tools are highly advanced, but they remain dependent on assumed load cases and operational profiles. SHM data allows those assumptions to be validated and refined across repeat designs. This becomes particularly relevant as classification societies formalise digital frameworks such as SMART(SHM), the ABS structural health monitoring notation, and fatigue-based notations.
The ABS SMART(SHM) framework is structured across three tiers. Tier 1 is