STRUCTURES 2025: A HIGH FIDELITY, DATA RICH, PARADIGM FOR STRUCTURAL TESTING

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The overarching aim is to develop a facility for the testing and evaluating of large structures, called Structure 2025. To construct such a facility it is necessary to purchase specialist equipment, which comprises imaging, loading and control systems. Structures 2025 will provide a novel integrated imaging and loading system that is flexible, and can be used for the testing and assessment of a wide range of structures across industry sectors. The unique feature of Structures 2025 is that it will, for the first time, enable data-rich studies of the behaviour of large components and structures subjected to realistic loading scenarios mimicking the behaviour of a structure in service. It will be possible to model the loads felt by aircraft in flight, railway structures, bridges and cars and understand better how the structure supports the load experienced in service. Structures 2025 will enable the introduction of new lightweight materials into transport systems allowing energy savings and a more sustainable approach to design. The uniqueness of Structures 2025 is predicated on imaging, where large amounts of data can be collected to provide information about the structural response. The imaging will be based on both visible light and infra-red camera systems which capture data from the loaded structure and used to evaluate strains and deformations. Traditional sensors take only point readings, whereas images provide data over a wide field of view, since each sensor in the imaging device provides a measurement, the terminology 'data-rich' is applied. A complete system integration will be developed and implemented, that combines the load application using a multi-actuator loading system with the imaging systems. The combination of techniques into a single integrated system will be unique internationally, and will enable the accurate assessment of the interactions between material failure mechanisms/modes and structural stiffness/strength driven failure modes on a hitherto unattainable level of physical realism. Structures 2025 will provide what can be termed high-fidelity data-rich testing of structural components, to integrate with multi-scale computational modelling to provide better predicitive models of structural failure and create safer and more efficient structures. Structures 2025 will be developed in close collaboration with 16 industry partners, representing the rail infrastructure, civil engineering, experimental technique development, energy systems, marine and offshore, and aerospace sectors, as well as several university partners.