ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Designing a Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system starts by identifying the risks associated with the specific structure and their probability. The risk analysis will lead to a list of possible events and degradations that can possibly affect the structure. Example of risks and uncertainties are corrosion, loss of pre-stressing, creep, subsidence of foundations, earthquake strike, unauthorized overloads, impact, inaccuracy of Finite Elements Models, poor building material quality and poor execution. The severity and probability of each risk will be classified using the usual risk analysis procedure to produce a ranking of risks. In this context, risks that are more likely to occur simultaneously or cascading will deserve special attention. Some risks will be retained, others will be addressed by regular inspection and the remaining will be dropped because of a low impact and/or probability. The result is a ranked list of risks that must be addressed by the SHM system.
