On Necessity and Possibility to Fully Exploitation of the Entire Information Inherent in Structural Analysis Data

The necessity of condition-monitoring and supervising of structures will be justified under aspects of reliability, durability and safety as well as with regard to economical reasons. The achievements in measurement techniques enable the evolution of efficient monitoring systems. The prerequisite will be pointed out, to conceive such systems in close co-ordination with the mathematical modelling of the structure. This is inalienable with concern to system identification as generally the control-parameters cannot be measured directly. They are to exploit on the basis of the mathematical model and the measurable structural response symptoms like displacements and strains, which inevitably requires solution of inverse problems. During service / operation many effects give rise for degradation of the structural resistance reducing the safety and the life-time as well. The results of system identification enable the determination of damage indicators, which provide information on the scale of degradation in the course of time to estimate the limit of service-life and the residual life-time.