Newsletter May 2003
Structural Integrity and Damage Assessment Network (SIDAnet)
Dr Janice Barton (University of Southampton) and Professor Keith Worden (University of Sheffield) formed the Structural Integrity and Damage Assessment network (SIDAnet) in 1998. The inaugural meeting took place in June 1998 where the mission of SIDAnet was defined as:
The network draws together experts from a variety of engineering disciplines to focus attention on the problem of damage assessment. The network includes participants from both academic and industrial backgrounds and has four main objectives:
- To fuse the disparate approaches adopted by the almost disjoint communities concerned with Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), machine Condition Monitoring (CM) and Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE).
- To evaluate and document the currently used approaches. To examine any limitations to these methods imposed by basic Physics or Engineering and propose research to mitigate problems. To provide best practice guidelines.
- To introduce new techniques suggested by the mathematical and statistical analysis of data and promote an interdisciplinary approach to the problem.
- To lay down lines of communication between Academia and Industry. Where possible, to establish guidelines for industrially based experimental programmes and to establish demonstrators of the methods on realistic industrially supplied data sets.
At this stage 40 collaborators supported the network, which was basis for obtaining EPSRC funding (50k). There are now in the region of 200 members from both academia and industry and from the UK and overseas. SIDAnet has participated in two international conferences “Damage Assessment of Structures (DAMAS)”; one in 1999 in Dublin and the other in Cardiff in 2001 both of which included substantial support from international delegates. Currently the fifth in the series of DAMAS conferences is being organised and will take place at Southampton University from 1st to 3rd July 2003. It is anticipated from the response to the call for papers that there will be around 100 delegates at the conference. Over the EPSRC funding period SIDAnet held nine themed meetings on all aspects of Damage Assessment. Full details of these meetings are provided on the web site www.sidanet.org. All of the meetings were exceptionally well attended particularly the ones in industrial locations, e.g. BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce. Using feedback from members it was decided that all meetings after the funding period would be held at industrial locations. Since the end of the EPSRC funding period two meetings have been held one at Airbus UK and the other at NPL. Both meetings were very well attended and details of these are also available on the web site. The meetings are funded by attendance fees at the meetings and by industrial members providing support for holding a meeting at their site. The next meeting will take place at BAE Systems Warton Aerodrome on 21/5/03.
The network is now organised by a small steering committee chaired by Dr John Penny from Aston University and supported by BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, and the Universities of Cardiff, Southampton and Sheffield. Any one interested in joining the network should contact Dr Janice Barton (janice@ ship.soton.ac.uk). Membership is free.
The findings of the network are being written-up into a Handbook that will be published by Wiley toward the end of 2004.
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