Abstract: The paper provides a methodology for the optimal sensor location of two-dimensional components of structure based on combinatorial optimization principle. Firstly, the measuared two-dimensional displacement components are combined, so the response at unmeasured locations can be predicted by the information from these measured points using bilinear interpolation. Secondly, fitness functions of the optimal sensor location are adopted to optimize sensor locations by checking if the total errors of the predited responses are minimized. Finally, this proposed method is applied to designing the optimal locations for measuring the asymmetric bending deformation of a cantilever rectangular plate. The combinatorial optimization results prove the feasibility and validity of proposed method.