Influence of SHM and adaptivity concepts on time-dependent reliability of Structures

Lifecycle management of structural systems represents an approach to face with the time-dependent reliability problem. Ageing or degradation of structural components due to the effect of varying loads implies a reduction of the reliability indices along with the life of the structure. In the proposed paper, the concept of structural adaptivity (i.e. the ability of a structure to modify its characteristics in response to a given condition that is detected by a Structural Health Monitoring system) is exploited with the aim to explore the possibility of reducing the effect of varying loads by automatically modifying the structural shape. To perform the adaptivity function, an approach recently developed by the Authors and called Finite State Control Strategy is adopted. According to this approach, a finite number of optimal structural configurations is searched a priori, based on a classification of the possible structural states and/or external excitation into a finite number of classes. The mechanisms for implementing configuration changes can also be optimized. An example of application to building envelopes is finally developed