The value of SHM lies in the information it provides on structural performance as required by owners and infrastructure managers to make informed decisions on appropriate actions. Any SHM strategy should therefore encompass engineering know-how and judgment, sensor technologies as well as methods/tools for data processing, jointly implemented in an asset management decision framework.
For a given type of structure and structural performance, a selection of suitable SHM strategies can be made by qualitatively screening alternatives through knowledge and experience. Increasingly, there is a plethora of SHM technologies that can be deployed on civil engineering structures and significant research is undertaken on diverse methods/tools for data interpretation. Building on participants’ experience, a framework has been proposed to structure the different concepts involved and to illustrate how alternatives may be considered systematically.
In order to quantify the value of information brought by SHM, a consistent treatment of the corresponding uncertainties is needed. This involves the identification of uncertainties directly related to these observations, as well as their propagation. The categorization framework has been used to address the classification of uncertainty sources and their potential impact on the asset management process. A questionnaire among the participants has shown that although the presence of different kinds of uncertainties is widely acknowledged, they are often only partly quantified, and there is a lack of consistency and a need for a holistic treatment.
The summarising factsheet “SHM Technologies and Structural Performance” by Working Group 2. It is a summary of the knowledge gained from a questionnaire to assess the current practice in the treatment of uncertainties in the links between measured quantities and structural performance.
SHM: measuring performance for managing the life-cycle