Structures must be monitored for several reasons:
- Some of structures is most important and even a small damage may be destructive. In such structures with a severe event like earthquake the operation of structure may be stopped; so this is unacceptable.
For example hospitals, schools, towers, emergency centers, broadcasting centers, water supplementary system, urban management centers, nuclear power plants and all nuclear related buildings and etc.
- In some earthquakes the major casualties is due to aftershocks. This is an important question: Is the Structure safe enough to stay in after an earthquake?
- Knowing about remain lifetime of a structure may be useful for:
A – Owner (s)
B – Insurance institutions.
C – Structural engineering companies. - Evaluation of a structure actual condition is a big challenge that is needed for many structures.
- If a structure needs retrofitting, having exact data about the location and the severity of damages is very useful.
SHM is a science for asking above challenges and questions.