Particle Filter Based Monitoring and Prediction of Spatiotemporal Corrosion Using Successive Measurements of Structural Responses.

Prediction of structural deterioration is a challenging task due to various uncertainties and temporal changes in the environmental conditions, measurement noises as well as errors of mathematical models used for predicting the deterioration progress. Monitoring of deterioration progress is also challenging even with successive measurements, especially when only indirect measurements such as structural responses are available. Recent developments of Bayesian filters and Bayesian inversion methods make it possible to address these challenges through probabilistic assimilation of successive measurement data and deterioration progress models. To this end, this paper proposes a new framework to monitor and predict the spatiotemporal progress of structural deterioration using successive, indirect and noisy measurements. The framework adopts particle filter for the purpose of real-time monitoring and prediction of corrosion states and probabilistic inference of uncertain and/or time-varying parameters in the corrosion progress model. In order to infer deterioration states from sparse indirect inspection data, for example structural responses at sensor locations, a Bayesian inversion method is integrated with the particle filter. The dimension of a continuous domain is reduced by the use of basis functions of truncated Karhunen-Loève expansion. The proposed framework is demonstrated and successfully tested by numerical experiments of reinforcement bar and steel plates subject to corrosion.