Asset Management of Structures Using Hybrid Structural Health Monitoring and Structural Uncertainty Analysis Procedure

The safety and mobility of the population is dependent on the structural integrity of existing infrastructures. This requires a continuous monitoring program for condition assessment of infrastructures to guarantee their safe and reliable operation. A comprehensive structural health monitoring system involves a combination of advanced structural analyses integrated with field investigation using sensors and performance data acquisition. In this work a new engineering decision-making method for condition assessment of infrastructures is developed that is based on a hybrid experimental structural health monitoring (performance of nondestructive tests for structure's response) and theoretical structural uncertainty analyses (interval finite element analysis of structures) procedure. In many cases, the application of results obtained from the health monitoring program of a structure is limited. Furthermore, the conventional deterministic structural analyses are incapable of considering uncertainties in experiments, system properties and loads, thereby resulting in error when estimating the state of health of a structure. This work proposes a new methodology that utilizes the results from structural health monitoring applications, combined with uncertainty analyses, in an effort to offer a more robust process for estimating the condition, energy conservation, and sustainable design of a given structure. On a broad sense, the results of this study will be applicable to the decision making process in determining a structure's demand for retrofit or reconstruction. The developed methodology along with an illustrative example is presented.