SHM for informed management of civil structures and infrastructure
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FOREWORD
SHM for informed management of civil structures and infrastructure Maria Pina Limongelli1 Published online: 22 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Structural health monitoring (SHM) can be seen as a process that transforms data collected on the structure into actionable information for integrity management. The design and operation of monitoring systems are driven by the decision problem that the information is intended to support. Maintenance of existing structures is currently a compelling problem worldwide: infrastructure dating back to the 1950s and the 1960s of the last century are near, or even beyond, the end of their design lives. Due to increased traffic loads, deterioration and maintenance backlogs they operate under conditions deviating from original design assumptions. The events related to the recent collapses of bridges in Italy tragically highlighted the compelling need to improve the reliability of aging transport infrastructure. Effective maintenance interventions are needed to increase safety and to reduce losses of functionality and related consequences. Furthermore, natural hazards such as earthquakes or floods create emergency conditions that must be managed efficiently to reduce downtime and service interruption. Structual health monitoring involves data collection, transmission, processing, and interpretation. The information extracted from data describes the onset or the evolution of possible damages, defects and deterioration processes and quantifies the actions the structure is required to withstand. This information plays a key role in the structure life cycle integrity management, offering the possibility to reduce the uncertainty affecting the structural condition and to build predictive models of the future structural performance. Decisions about the optimal actions, needed to keep the structure at the desired level of functionality, can be greatly improved thanks to the reduction of uncertainty that affects reliability assessment. In this respect, it is worth noting that SHM by itself does not improve the structural reliability. The role of SHM is * Maria Pina Limongelli [email protected] 1
Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
rather to provide information that reduces the uncertainties related to structural performance. This enables a more accurate and precise assessment of the structural reliability, leading to an improved selection of optimal maintenance interventions. Despite the importance of SHM as a decision support tool, research in this field is sometimes framed and bounded in the data collection and processing framework. The connection between the information provided by monitoring and data interpretation for the decision making has not been always evident. The reason probably lies in the cross-sectoral nature of the topic that involves experts in the two connected, yet distinct, domains of SHM and decision making. The aim of this special issue is to highlight the impo
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