Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/T19285/01
Title:	Active Reliability Design and Intelligent Structural Health Monitoring
Principal Investigator:	Shenoi, Professor RA
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Faculty of Engineering & the Environment
Organisation:	University of Southampton
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 July 2005	Ends:	30 June 2008	Value (£):	61,071
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Design & Testing Technology Materials testing & eng. Structural Engineering
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Manufacturing
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Fatigue loading on engineering structures results in onset of damage which, from time to time, will require repair. This can be expensive if the structure/artefact has to be taken out of service for the repair to be effected. Occasionally, if the damage is not identified at an early stage, there is a likelihood of sudden, catastrophic failure. Thus it is important for active reliability design and intelligent on-line health monitoring to determine exactly the service life and inspection periods in order to ensure safety.In order to guard against failures from unforeseen circumstances, two major approaches to structural substantiation have been devised. One is fatigue analysis and testing programme that attempts to establish a 'safe life' for the structure under assumed loading conditions. This procedure implies that life can be predicted and that before the end of this time, the structure can be inspected, repaired and restored or retired from service. If the analysis can be established fairly early on in the design process, then any deficiencies can be eliminated or minimised. It has also been recognised that inevitably some structural damage and failures would occur and that catastrophic failure is almost never tolerable. This has led to approaches that are termed 'damage tolerant' or fail safe' designs, in which the damage in designs/artefacts would be temporarily tolerated until repair can be effected or the damage assumes potentially critical dimensions. Both approaches are of interest and will be studies in this project.
Key Findings
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Potential use in non-academic contexts
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Impacts
Description This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk Summary Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Project URL:
Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.soton.ac.uk