Determination of the static pressure loads on a marine composite panel from strain measurements utilising artificial neural networks.

One of the first steps in marine structural design is to calculate the wave-induced loads and load combinations. In contrast with both the hydrostatic loads and the self-weight loads which can be evaluated with a high degree of confidence, it is more difficult to measure the in-service hydrodynamic loads generated by sea waves. Direct pressure load measurement techniques can currently provide only data at finite locations while classical analytical techniques require knowledge of all the parameters that influence the load and that each parameter is studied independently. Therefore, a novel technique is required to overcome these limitations by providing a method of measuring the pressure load over large areas with relatively few sensors and minimal data collection. This paper reports research undertaken to develop an inverse problem approach utilising an artificial neural network for measurement of the pressure loads experienced by marine structures. The suitability and performance of utilising an artificial neural network for quantifying the pressure load applied to a marine structure is presented. It was found that the artificial neural network was able to estimate accurately the pressure loads applied to up to 12 locations on the structure. It is concluded that the inverse problem approach can be used to estimate the applied loads on the marine structure in real time from strain measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]