Robust Monitoring for Engineered Systems: Toward Augmented Twins

Prof. Eleni Chatzi offered a semi-plenary lecture on the theme of Robust Monitoring for Engineered Systems: Toward Augmented Twins, as part of the 9th International Conference on Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering COMPDYN 2023. 

The conference was held on 12-14 June 2023, Athens, Greece offering an exciting interdisciplinary setting for ideation and exchange.

Abstract

Structural Health Monitoring comprises a hierarchy across levels of increasing complexity aiming to i) detect, ii) localize and iii) quantify damage, and iv) finally offer a prognosis over the system's residual life. When considering higher levels in this hierarchy, including damage assessment and even performance prognosis, purely data-driven methods are found to be lacking.

For higher-level SHM tasks, or for furnishing a digital twin of a monitored structure, it is necessary to integrate the knowledge stemming from physics-based representations, relying on the underlying mechanics. This talk discusses implementation of such a hybrid approach to SHM for tackling the aforementioned challenges for robust monitoring of engineered systems. We offer a view to establishing augmented twin representations, capable of representing the structure as-is, anticipating performance under future stressors, and advising on preventive and remedial actions.