Towards population-based structural health monitoring, Part II : heterogeneous populations and structures as graphs

Information about the expected variation in the normal condition and various damage states of a structure is crucial in structural health monitoring. In an ideal case, the behaviour associated with each possible type of damage would be known and classification would be possible. However, it is not realistic to obtain data for every possible damage state in an individual structure. Examining a population of structures gives a much larger pool of data to work with. Machine learning can then potentially allow inferences across the population using algorithms from transfer learning.

The degree of similarity between structures determines the level of possible knowledge transfer between different structures. It is also useful to quantify in which ways two structures are similar, and where these similarities lie. This information determines whether or not certain the transfer learning approaches are applicable in a given situation. It is therefore necessary to develop a method for analysing the similarities between structures. First, it must be decided which properties of the structure to use when measuring the similarity. For example, comparing 3D CAD models or Finite Element models is not a suitable approach, since these contain a lot of irrelevant information. It is better to abstract this information into a form that contains only the relevant information.

This paper proposes Irreducible Element (IE) models, which are designed to capture the features that are crucial in determining whether or not transfer learning is possible. This information is then converted into an Attributed Graph (AG). The Attributed Graph for a structure contains the same information as the Irreducible Element model; however, the graph carries this information as a list of attributes attached to nodes. Organising the information in this manner makes it easier for graph-matching algorithms to perform a comparison between two structures. This comparison can then be used to generate a measure of similarity between the two structures and determine the most appropriate transfer learning method.