Nondestructive Sensing for Materials and Structures: Advancements, Applications, and Future Outlooks Toward Resilient Structures and Infrastructure

Nondestructive sensing and evaluation (NDS&E) has become an integral part of structural and material sensing in mechanical, structural, and several other closely related disciplines. With advancements in sensing technology and signal processing techniques, there has been an ever-increasing trend of NDS&E applications, ranging from laboratory to operational structures. With vast application domains, including but not limited to integrity assessment, health monitoring, distress identification, system identification, and so on, the application and advancement of NDS&E can be expected to rise in the future. This is particularly pronounced when accounting for resilient structures and infrastructure exposed to extreme loading.

Owing to the increased application and understanding of physics-based and interpretability-enhanced artificial intelligence techniques, NDS&E is certain to gain further momentum. To this end, integrated dissemination incorporating numerical modeling, sensing, signal processing, structural integrity assessment, structural health monitoring and condition assessment, vibration control and optimization, structural optimization under uncertain loading, uncertainty quantification, low-cost sensing techniques, novel algorithms and techniques, among others, is required to address the multifaceted challenges in structural safety and serviceability.

On many occasions, operational structures and components require periodic assessments, or integrity/deterioration assessment as part of forensic investigations. In those campaigns, it is not always possible to deploy state-of-the-art instrumentation and signal processing techniques. Thus, it is pertinent to address such challenges by incorporating multidimensional and multidisciplinary engagements. Contributions addressing theoretical advancements, applications, systematic reviews, practice-oriented formulations, and tutorials as short communications are welcome.

Any type of NDS&E is within the scope of this Research Topic, whereas calibration and benchmark studies incorporating NDS&E, semi-destructive evaluation, destructive evaluation, and numerical modeling are also encouraged. Meta-analysis-based formulations are also welcome, provided that the applications remain within structures, components, and infrastructure. Any type of dynamic loading, operational loading, degradation, fatigue, and failure is within the scope of this Research Topic; however, its connection with NDS&E should be duly established.

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This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Keywords: Nondestructive evaluation, acoustic emission, vibration sensing, resilient infrastructure, extreme loading

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.