ABSTRACT
The ‘eld of structural health is a complex ‘eld. It includes many components, and cover numerous disciplines, subjects, and concerns. The complexities of the ‘eld are also due to the fact that many of its components and methodologies are fairly new to the civil engineering practice. For example: wide use of nondestructive testing (NDT), though known in civil engineering applications for long time, has not been an integral part of the practice. For proper and ef‘- cient execution of SHCE, the methodologies of NDT must be utilized and applied. This would require ingenious applications and perhaps some changes in NDT applications as they have been practiced in other ‘elds such as aeronautics or mechanical engineering. Similarly, structural identi‘cation (STRID) or damage identi‘cation (DMID) methods have been utilized in other ‘elds, such as mechanical or aerospace ‘elds. Both STRID and DMID methodologies and tools must be retooled for ef‘cient and successful applications in the SHCE ‘eld. In addition, there are emerging design paradigms and concepts in the civil engineering ‘eld such as performance based engineering, multihazards considerations, life cycle analysis (LCA) and component and system resiliency. All of those paradigms and concepts need to be included in the SHCE ‘eld. Their inclusion and interaction with SHCE ‘eld adds to the complexity and wide reach and coverage of the ‘eld.
