Author Description

Health Assessment of Engineered Structures has become one of the most active research areas and attracted multi-disciplinary interest. Since available financial recourses are very limited, extending the life of existing bridges, buildings and other infrastructures has become a major challenge to the engineering profession world-wide. Some of the related areas are in the development phase. As the area matures, more new areas are being identified to implement the concept. The available information may not be available in an organized way for interested parties who are not expert in the area. This edited book will cover some of the most recent developments (theoretical, experimental, and application potentials) in structural health assessment areas. These areas are not matured enough to write book on them. Students (undergraduate and graduate), researchers (university and industrial), and practitioners (government and private) will be interested in the topics presented in the book. After discussing the general concept, various currently available methods of structural health assessment will be presented. A chapter also will discuss future directions in structural health assessment area since the area is evolving. Smart sensors are routinely used to assess structural health. Sensor types, platforms and data conditioning for practical applications will be presented. Wireless collection of sensor data, sensor power needs and on-site energy harvesting will be discussed. Uncertainty in the collected data will be extensively addressed. Long term monitoring of structures will also be presented. Each chapter will be authored by the most active scholar(s) in the area.