Structures can experience harsh environmental conditions due to fatigue loading, corrosive environment, etc. when they are in operation. This can lead to undesired consequences such as human life losses, financial losses, and environmental pollution. To minimize such risks, it is important to continuously monitor the health of structures by using sensors located at different parts of structures by establishing their “digital twin”, so that necessary actions can be taken before catastrophic consequences occur. There are various structural health monitoring approaches available for this purpose. In this seminar, a novel methodology as a combination of inverse Finite Element Method (iFEM) and peridynamics approaches will be presented.

iFEM has various advantages for being fast and robust which makes it suitable for real-time monitoring. Moreover, it is not necessary to measure loading acting on the structure which may not be an easy task under operational conditions. iFEM has been utilized for monitoring different types of structures which will be demonstrated as part of this seminar. In addition, the importance of determination of the location and number of sensors will be highlighted.

While iFEM is a useful technique for detecting damage in a structure, it is also important to predict how damages can evolve in the future. Prediction of fracture and failure is a challenging research area. Peridynamics is a very suitable approach for predicting crack initiation and propagation in structures subjected to different types of loading and environmental conditions. In this seminar, various applications of peridynamics will be demonstrated.