Technological and Digital Innovation in Structural Health Monitoring of Civil Structures and Infrastructures

Dear Colleagues,

Structural health monitoring (SHM) allows operators to acquire real-time data on the state of several key elements of the built environment, especially strategic infrastructures such as viaducts and tunnels, which deteriorate over time due to a complex range of degradation processes. Currently, the implementation of SHM systems is limited by several issues related to data management and interpretation, as well as the high costs of deployment and maintenance of dense sensor networks. The recent digital transition of the construction sector opens new avenues for the SHM-driven management of civil structures and infrastructure. This transition requires digital systems for permanent monitoring, with automatic and remote acquisition and management of data in analogy with the self-monitoring and self-healing biological systems. These digital systems will require the integrated use of technical innovations, both on the hardware side (instruments, optimal positioning of sensors, and indirect and remote acquisition techniques) and the software side (data analysis, treatment, and interpretation).

This Special Issue invites high-quality contributions addressing the current state of the art, recent developments, and future perspectives in the field of the SHM of civil structures and infrastructures in a digitalizing world. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• development of new methodologies for the signal processing of experimental data;
• development of new forms of data-driven surrogate models, based on the most recent advances in artificial intelligence, neural networks, and machine learning;
• online and real-time management of continuously monitored physical quantities;
• compensation of environmental and operating variations (EOV) from the measured quantities;
• emerging technologies for monitoring civil structures and infrastructures, e.g., indirect and remote SHM;
• SHM-driven management of civil structures and infrastructures, including value of information analysis.

Interesting applications or validations will be considered, especially those considering interdisciplinary approaches, and/or tested on real and highly relevant case studies, for any sort of structural typology, construction material (e.g., masonry, reinforced concrete, and steel) or state of deterioration. The use of experimental data, both from laboratory tests and/or in situ surveys or embedded systems, is highly encouraged.

Dr. Pier Francesco Giordano
Dr. Angelo Aloisio
Dr. Marco Civera
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Infrastructures is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• structural heath monitoring
• damage identification
• informed structural management
• innovative SHM techniques
• data-driven SHM
• environmental and operational effects
• value of information