Piezoelectric materials are widely used as sensors in different environments. Lead zirconate Titanate (commonly known as PZT) is the most prominent piezoelectric material as it could operate at a much higher temperature and posses stronger piezoelectric effect relative to ferroelectric ceramics of other compositions.

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is the most popular piezoelectric polymer material for impact sensors. The present day development in smart structural technology is mainly centered around these two materials.

Magnetostrictive materials (MS) are a new class of materials which offer lifelong non contact sensing capability with fairly sturdy performance. With the commercial availability of the MS materials such as Terfenol-D in particulate form, it is now feasible to develop embedded particulate sensors to detect damage with minimum effect on structural integrity. In this course, the response of the MS layer at the onset of delamination is analyzed with the aim to formulate a model to sense delamination in the composite laminate and to bring out the effect of material properties, lamination schemes and placement of MS layer on it. Numerical analysis shows that the MS material embedded to the composite structures in particulate form present viable non-contact damage detection and sensing alternative on lifelong basis.