Structural Health Monitoring Standards

Although Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) techniques can be considered relatively mature, at least from the scientific point of view, they have not yet become a standard practice in civil engineering because of several reasons. One of these reasons has been individuated in the lack of comprehensive standards addressing the complete SHM process and especially potential utilization. The paper is aimed at briefly reviewing existing standards and tracing the lines for possible extensions, based on experiences gathered from the field and the actual evolution of SHM techniques. Lifecycle approaches including SHM are considered as well. In addition, the relationships between Structural Health Monitoring and Design Standards are addressed, raising the question whether in the design of a monitored structure and of a traditional one, the same safety coefficient should be applied. Consideration is given to the aspect of uncertainty modelling in both cases.