Title: Towards real-time health monitoring of structural systems via recursive Bayesian filtering and reduced order modelling

Authors: Giovanni Capellari; Saeed Eftekhar Azam; Stefano Mariani

Addresses: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Thessaly, Leoforos Athinon, Pedion Areos, 38334 Volos, Greece ' Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy

Abstract: A method for the structural health monitoring (SHM) of compliant, thin plates is discussed. With a specific focus on lightweight composite structures, a proposal for the optimal deployment of a network of surface-mounted inertial micro-sensors (MEMS) is reviewed. Allowing for the measurements gathered through the sensor network as (partial) observations of the structural state, a hybrid Kalman-particle filtering scheme is adopted to track the response of the plate to the external excitations and simultaneously identify unknown model parameters, among which damage or integrity indices. To move towards a real-time SHM procedure, the mentioned tracking and identification tasks are performed on a reduced-order model of the structure, continuously tuned after damage inception by a further Kalman filter. Results are reported for the exemplary case of a square plate, simply supported along its boundary, loaded by a concentrated force at its centre and developing a uniform damage in regions of its mid-plane area.

Keywords: structural health monitoring; SHM; inertial MEMS sensors; sensor networks; reduced-order modelling; proper orthogonal decomposition; particle Kalman filtering; recursive Bayesian filtering; thin plates; microelectromechanical systems; microsensors.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMSS.2015.078355

International Journal of Sustainable Materials and Structural Systems, 2015 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.27 - 51

Received: 27 Jun 2015
Accepted: 26 Feb 2016

Published online: 15 Aug 2016 *

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