Recent progress in aircraft smart skin for structural health monitoring

Through the integration of advanced sensors, actuators, and micro-processors, aircraft smart skin technology can improve the structural performance of aircraft and make them self-perception, self-diagnosis, self-adaptation, self-learning, and self-repair. Aircraft smart skin for structural health monitoring (SHM) is an important type of aircraft smart skin and has received extensive attention in recent years. Large-scale, lightweight, and low-power consumption are three key problems hindering the realization and engineering applications of aircraft smart skin for SHM. In view of these problems and restrictions of practical aircraft onboard applications, this article reviews the current research progress on aircraft smart skin for SHM, introduces their design, materials, manufacturing process, and monitoring principles in detail, and discusses how they study above problems from these aspects. Finally, perspectives are proposed on the opportunities and future developments of aircraft smart skin for SHM.