Book excerpt: Due to the increased use of composite materials in aerospace, energy, automobile, and civil infrastructure applications, concern over composite material failures has grown, creating a need for smart composite structures that are able to self-diagnose and self-heal. Structural Health Monitoring Technologies and Next-Generation Smart Composite Structures provides valuable insight into cutting-edge advances in SHM, smart materials, and smart structures. Comprised of chapters authored by leading researchers in their respective fields, this edited book showcases exciting developments in general embedded sensor technologies, general sensor technologies, sensor response interrogation and data communication, damage matrix formulation, damage mechanics and analysis, smart materials and structures, and SHM in aerospace applications. Each chapter makes a significant contribution to the prevention of structural failures by describing methods that increase safety and reduce maintenance costs in a variety of SHM applications.