Giulio Maier

Integrity and durability of metal structures at present can be economically assessed by quasi-non-destructive experiments such as Small Punch Tests already envisaged by international industrial codes. In this communication the following innovative provisions are presented and proposed in view of their contributions to accuracy and economy of diagnostic analyses of structural components: the test is simulated by a finite element computer code; parameters in a popular elastic-plastic material model are computed by inverse analysis; diverse parameters identification procedures are comparatively employed; Proper Orthogonal Decomposition is employed for preliminary model reduction in order to make parameters identification more economical for multiple engineering applications; Kalman filter approach is adopted for stochastic back-analysis in structural diagnosis.

A survey is presented herein of some recent research contributions to the methodology of inverse structural analysis based on statical tests for diagnosis of possibly damaged structures and for mechanical characterization of materials in diverse industrial environments. The following issues are briefly considered: identifications of parameters in material models and of residual stresses on the basis of indentation experiments; mechanical characterization of free-foils and laminates by cruciform and compression tests and digital image correlation measurements; diagnosis, both superficially and in depth, of concrete dams, possibly affected by alkali-silica-reaction or otherwise damaged.