Analysis and Report on SD2000: A Workshop to Determine Structural Dynamics Research for the Millenium

摘要

This ONR grant was to facilitate the meeting of an international group of researchers to examine the future of structural dynamics. A group of about 40 researchers (see Appendix 1) was brought together from industry, universities and government labs, incorporating several age perspectives. The hope of the group was to help point the way forward for structural dynamicists. Perhaps the greatest wisdom in this regard came from our most experienced member, Dr. Stephen Crandall. He pointed out that during World War II, he came in contact with the newly-formed discipline of automatic control and promptly dismissed it as an intellectual pursuit not useful in structural dynamics. In reflecting back over his career, he now views this as a mistake. We find ourselves exactly in this same situation. New technologies are emerging at a rapid pace (computing, communications, micro-mechanical devices, smart materials, mechatronics, etc.) and determining the appropriate interaction between these new advances and structural dynamics was one of the major concerns addressed by the forum. In addition, significant effort was spent assessing the current state of the art, examining developing technologies, deciding ways to improve the image of structural dynamics and formulating 'grand challenge' problems for structural dynamics.