An approach to structural health assessment and management technology

Maintenance of life safety and engine efficiency coupled with reduced life cycle cost, form the major motivations for the upgradation and development of structural health assessment and management technology (SHAMT). However, there are several major challenges to realizing the full benefits of the technology by many industries, still remain. These include, damage awareness tools and techniques, data mining and fusioning architecture and algorithms, diagnostic and prognostic modellings, instrumentation, and data processing hardware. In addition to the grand challenges of the problem, recent progress made and the experience gained by the authors are also discussed. Algorithmic approach in statistical data anomaly detection for damage diagnosis and prognosis is presented in the context of aero-engine blade system. Integration of the physics based and mechanistic models is proposed as a necessary and sufficient approach for the emerging technology.