After sensors are placed at three or more non-collinear locations on a surface of the component, the system receives time-series signals from the sensors while the component operates on a representative workload. The system then defines one or more triangles on the surface of the component, wherein each triangle is defined by three vertices, which coincide with different sensor locations on the surface of the component. For each triangle, the system applies a barycentric coordinate technique (BCT) to time-series signals received from sensors located at the vertices of the triangle to determine a candidate location within the triangle to place an additional sensor. The system then compares the candidate locations for each of the one or more triangles to determine a globally optimal location for the additional sensor, and a new sensor is placed at this location. This process is repeated until a desired number of sensors are placed.