Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) is an integral part of comprehensive management of any aerospace system. NDE techniques are broadly employed to monitor materials and safety-critical components used in aerospace industry throughout their life-cycle, either in design or as part of a maintenance program. The development of novel NDE methodologies is essential, driven by the use of new materials as well as new manufacturing processes in aerospace applications. In addition, using aerospace systems beyond their design lives requires availability of reliable Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) technologies to assess damage in aging structures. The SHM process encompasses monitoring of a structure over time using dynamic response measurements from an array of specially designed sensors, extraction of features sensitive to damage, and analysis of these features to determine the state of health of the system.

This special issue focuses on fostering improvements and new developments of technology in areas related to innovative SHM and NDE methods for characterization and real-time monitoring of aerospace materials and structures, including use of advanced smart sensors and sensor networks, as well as strategies for NDE data utilization for overall system safety and performance. We invite original research articles as well as review articles that contain theoretical, analytical, and experimental investigations covering all aspects of NDE and SHM in aerospace engineering. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• NDE of material properties and damage assessment based on various nondestructive approaches (acoustic, vibration, optical, infrared, thermal, electrical, electro-magnetic, radiographic, microwave, spectroscopic, etc.)
• Continuous SHM improving measurement accuracy and inspection technologies
• Sensor technologies for SHM and NDE, MEMS/NEMS, sensor networks and smart systems for evaluation, detection, monitoring and control, and sensor integration
• Life management and system design methodologies for diagnostics and prognostics
• Integration of multiple NDE techniques for improving interpretation of results
• Modeling, simulation and technology development at multiple scales ranging from nano- and micro- scales to realistic structures
• Signal processing, data fusion, wireless sensor networks, image processing, and energy harvesting for SHM/NDE
• Bio- and nano- technology applied to SHM
• SHM and self-healing strategies
• Interdisciplinary approaches and applications for SHM and NDE

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/tswj/aerospace.engineering/smnt/ according to the following timetable: