These 3D Printed Lattices Can Sense Damage Before Failure

A new paper, “Full-Field Damage Monitoring in Architected Lattices Using In situ Electrical Impedance Tomography,” points to lattices being able to detect damage. This could really help composites in critical applications such as aviation detect and predict damage as it occurs. Testing and inspection are very important to keeping vehicles safe through maintenance and replacement parts. The easier and quicker you make testing, the lower the cost of the part or vehicle will be over its lifetime. Despite extensive knowledge of scheduled maintenance, wear and tear, and extraordinary circumstances, sudden, rapidly evolving, or catastrophic damage can still occur unexpectedly or be hard to predict. Adding sensors to objects increases costs and perhaps more dependencies or problems. Safety sensor