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A general procedure for monitoring the structural integrity of prismatic structures consisting of simple isotropic linear elastic materials is presented and justified by a detailed mathematical model. This methodology is different from the usual techniques in that a smaller number of distributed sensors is shown to be sensitive to the presence of damage throughout the entire volume of a structure without determining its position. Also, this procedure inherently functions as a binary sensor which eliminates the need to gather a large amount of data.

Frequently, when designing a structure to incorporate integrated sensors, one sacrifices the stiffness of the system to improve sensitivity. However, the use of interferometric displacement sensors that tessellate throughout the volume of a structure has the potential to allow the precision and range of the component measurement to scale with the geometry of the device rather than the maximum strain in the structure. The design of stiff structures that measure all six resultant-load components is described. In addition, an advanced torsion sensor and a linear acceleration transducer are also discussed. Finally, invariant paths are presented that allow the in situ integrity of a structural volume to be monitored with a single pair of displacement sensors.