Citation: Silva-Campillo, A.;
Pérez-Arribas, F.; Suárez-Bermejo, J.C.
Health-Monitoring Systems for
Marine Structures: A Review. Sensors
2023, 23, 2099. https://doi.org/
10.3390/s23042099
Academic Editors: Sergio Stefanni,
Jacopo Aguzzi, Simone Marini,
Giacomo Picardi, Sascha Flögel,
Daniel Mihai Toma, Peter Weiss and
Damianos Chatzievangelou
Received: 29 December 2022
Revised: 4 February 2023
Accepted: 8 February 2023
Published: 13 February 2023
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
Review
Health-Monitoring Systems for Marine Structures: A Review
Arturo Silva-Campillo
1
, Francisco Pérez-Arribas
1,
* and Juan Carlos Suárez-Bermejo
2
1
Department of Naval Architecture, Shipbuilding and Ocean Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de
Madrid (UPM), 28040 Madrid, Spain
2
Department of Material Science, Structural Materials Research Centre (CIME), Universidad Politécnica de
Madrid (UPM), 28040 Madrid, Spain
* Correspondence: francisco.perez.arribas@upm.es
Abstract:
This paper presents a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art developments in health
monitoring of marine structures. Monitoring the health of marine structures plays a key role in
reducing the risk of structural failure. The authors establish the different sensors with their theoretical
foundations and applications in order to determine the optimal position of the sensors on board.
Once the data were collected, it was necessary to use for subsequent treatment; thus, the authors
identified the different methodologies related to the treatment of data collected by the sensors. The
authors provide a historical review of the location of different sensors depending on the type of ship
and offshore platform. Finally, this review paper states the conclusions and future trends of this
technology.
Keywords: marine structural health; monitoring; sensors; ship structures; offshore platforms
1. Introduction
Maritime transport is the main mode of international trade (up to 80% of goods);
thus, marine structures are critical because of its specific influence to trade. Ships and
offshore structures are used worldwide for a variety of functions and in a variety of water
depths and environments. The correct selection of vessels and offshore platforms along
with drilling methods, as well as the correct planning, design, fabrication, transportation,
installation and commissioning of these offshore structures are hence very relevant [1].
Structural capability deteriorates with time as a result of damage accumulation, mate-
rial wastage due to corrosion, and wear and tear [
2
]. The ability of the structure to maintain
its original level of structural reliability over its service life can be significantly improved
by several actions, e.g., corrosion control and structural monitoring plan in terms of in-
spections. Structural health monitoring (SHM) involves the observation and analysis of a
component or system over time to identify the variation in any of its characteristics (physi-
cal, chemical or electrical), leading to a degradation of its present or future performance [
3
].
The incorporation of a health-monitoring system makes it possible to optimize the design,
operation and/or maintenance, moving from criteria based on experience or conservative
estimates, to others that take advantage of source of information about real-time in-service
behavior. Structural monitoring also makes it possible to reveal the start of damage in
structures that would otherwise remain invisible until a catastrophic/unexpected manifes-
tation of damage occurs, allowing for decisions such as decommissioning for unscheduled
maintenance actions or continuing until the next scheduled maintenance.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) recommends the fitting of hull-stress-
monitoring systems to facilitate the safe operation of ships. The use of this system will
provide real-time information on the motions and global stresses that the ship experiences
while navigating and during loading and unloading operations. The IMO recommendations
are published in the Maritime Safety Committee circular, MSC/Circ.646 [4].
The main Classification Societies have included, in their normative review, different
aspects related to the inclusion of the structural monitoring system. DNV GL uses HMON
Sensors 2023, 23, 2099. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042099 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
