Damage Assessment Of Structures

Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters CPCI-S (WoS). This collection covers the many activities, relevant to the damage assessment of engineering structures and systems, including the signal processing of sensor measurements and analytical techniques, as well as experimental case studies.

Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters CPCI-S (WoS). The primary aim of this volume was to gather together the current knowledge and expertise of scientists and engineers working, in both academia and industry, on damage assessment, structural health monitoring (SHM) and non-destructive evaluation (NDE).

1.1. SAFETY OF CIVIL STRUCTURES Society expects that the failure of civil structures is extremely rare and relies on the care and expertise of the professionals involved in the design, construction and maintenance of structures. This is in particular true for public technical systems such as transportation or energy supply systems and structures such as bridges. Structural safety may be defined as follows: “Adequate safety with respect to a hazard is ensured provided that the hazard is kept under control by appropriate measures or the risk is limited to an acceptable value. Absolute safety is not achievable.” It is thus not the structure as such that is designated safe but rather the people, goods and the environment in its surroundings. The continued use of existing structures is of great importance because the built environment is a huge economic and political asset, growing larger every year. Nowadays evaluation of the safety of existing structures is a major engineering task, and structural engineers are increasingly called upon to devise ways for extending the life of structures whilst observing tight cost constraints. Also, existing structures are expected to resist against accidental actions although they were not designed for. Engineers may apply specific methods for evaluation in order to preserve structures and to reduce a client’s expenditure. The ultimate goal is to limit construction intervention to a minimum, a goal that is clearly in agreement with the principles of sustainable development.

Extensive amounts of operational data are generated over time by the health monitoring system of a structure's management system, yet there are few analysis algorithms which can tell the exact working state of the structure on-line. Good maintenance engineers need to know the exact location and state of the structural components after an earthquake or some attack or accident involving the structure, possibly within a matter of hours, and the client also demands a rapid diagnosis of the structure before making decisions on any necessary remedial work. This book is devoted to the condition assessment of a structure under operational loading, with most of the illustrations related to a bridge deck under a group of moving vehicular loads. More generally, a wide variety of excitation forces can be exerted on a structure, from earthquake excitation, wind loading, vehicular loading or ambient excitation at the supports. Different algorithms may be used to enable real time identification with deterministic results on the state of the structure. This book also covers a group of damage-detection-oriented-models developed by the author, including a new decomposition of the system matrices of the beam element and plate element. Methods for extending the deterministic condition assessment to provide statistical information are also included. The methods and algorithms described can be implemented for the on-line condition assessment of a structure through model updating of the structure during the course of extreme loading such as an earthquake, or when under normal ambient excitation or operation excitation. Different sample structures are described and analysed, supplemented with major references. This leading-edge work will be especially useful for researchers and graduate students, and it is also heavily rooted in advanced engineering practice. Series: Structures and Infrastructures Series Structures and Infrastructurescomprises advanced-level books dealing with the maintenance, management, and cost analysis of structures and infrastructures. Topics treated include research, development and application of the most advanced technologies for analyzing, predicting, and optimizing the performance of structures and infrastructures, such as buildings, bridges, dams, underground construction, offshore platforms, pipelines, naval vessels, ocean structures, and nuclear power plants, as well as airplanes, aerospace, and automotive structures. Themes featured are mathematical modeling, computer and experimental methods, practical applications in assessment and evaluation, construction and design for durability, decision making, deterioration modeling and aging, failure analysis, field testing, financial planning, inspection and diagnostics, life-cycle analysis and prediction, loads, maintenance strategies, management systems, nondestructive testing, maintenance and management optimization, specifications and codes, structural safety and reliability, system analysis, time-dependent performance, rehabilitation, repair, replacement, reliability and risk management, service life prediction, strengthening and whole life costing.

Damage assessment of structures is an emerging field and has become increasingly important over the past decade or two. Diagnosis and prognosis of structural damage plays an important role not just in ensuring the structural integrity but also in optimizing the overall life cycle cost including the cost for operation and maintenance. Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters CPCI-S (WoS). The Special collection consists of a compilation 159 papers on all research topics relevant to damage assessment of engineering structures and systems including numerical simulations, signal processing of sensor measurements, theoretical and experimental studies. Broad areas of damage assessment covered in the publication include applications to composite materials, civil infrastructure, mechanical devices and machineries, renewable energy, sensors, signal processing, structural health and condition monitoring.

Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters CPCI-S (WoS). The study of damage evolution, location and characterisation is an important aspect of the growing area of SHM and is a major theme of the conference. The link between SHM and machine condition-monitoring is emphasised by the substantial contribution, to the proceedings, which concerns the application of damage assessment techniques to rotating machines. In order to analyse efficiently the data–rich information, provided by monitoring and NDE techniques, it is necessary to use advanced signal processing procedures. A significant proportion of the conference is therefore dedicated to signal processing and computational methods.

This book is the expanded version of the earlier (first edition) text. It presents new comprehensive rational quantitative theories (utilizing fundamental energy concepts throughout) covering the entire earthquake event from the point of view of the engineer. It starts with a mathematical analysis of an underground mechanism (the earthquake), then proceeds to determinations of the timewise and spacewise variations of the fundamental engineering damage-design parameter, the ground energy. Finally, the new theories are applied to a number of typical (actual) structural and non-structural design problems. Each chapter of the first edition has now been improved and enlarged and new chapters have been added to include recent research by the author and his graduate students. Contents:A Tensile Rupture Instability Similarity Earthquake MechanismThe Canonical Accelerogram and its ParametersThe Canonical Isoseismal Chart and its ParametersThe Earthquake Engineering Damage Assessment and Structural Design Charts and CurvesEfficiency — Focal DepthSuperposition of Canonical AccelerogramsSuperposition of Canonical Isoseismal Contour MapsApproximate Analytical Damage (Intensity umber) Assessment ProceduresSpecial Topics in Earthquake Structural EngineeringSome Non-Structural Applications of the Rational TheorySome Structural Applications of the Rational Theoryand other papers Readership: Civil, structural, construction and building engineers.