Advanced materials and structural systems are constantly becoming a critical component of every country’s civil, energy and transportation infrastructure and manufacturing industries. However, these materials and structural systems are prone to developing defects during their manufacturing processes or damage and degradation during their service life due to factors such as normal aging process, hostile environment, accidental events, etc. Interestingly, the use of nondestructive testing and evaluation (NDT&E) and/or structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques (e.g., ultrasonic testing, acoustic emission, visual testing, infrared thermography, eddy current testing, vibration analysis, strain monitoring, terahertz pulsed imaging etc.) may help to overcome many of the challenges associated with defect development as well as damage and material degradation issues in advanced materials and structural systems, owing to their capabilities to facilitate the attainment of greater cost-effectiveness and sustainability in the development, control, and management of such structures and material systems.
The special issue focuses on the use of NDT&E and SHM means to evaluate the properties and the structural integrity of advanced materials and structures used in civil, energy and transportation infrastructure and manufacturing industries. Papers are invited on all relevant topics including, but not limited to:
- NDT&E and SHM of advanced manufactured materials and structures
- Performance analysis and enhancement of SHM of advanced materials and engineering structures
- Application of machine learning in the NDT&E and SHM of material and structures
- prognosis and asset management assisted by NDT&E and SHM methods
- Engineering structures and their NDT&E methodologies
- NDT&E of environmental loads effects on materials and structures
- Structural reliability and reliability estimation methods
- Performance of NDT&E and SHM systems for advanced materials and structures
- NDT&E and SHM of bolted joints and bonding quality in engineering structures, etc.
