Affiliations: [a] Dipartimento Ingegneria Civile, Energia, Ambiente e Materiali (DICEAM), “Mediterranea” University, Reggio Calabria, Italy | [b] Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’ Informazione, dell’ Infrastrutture e dell’ Energia Sostenibile (DIIES), “Mediterranea” University, Reggio Calabria, Italy | [c] Department of Health Science, “Magna Grecia” University, Catanzaro, Italy | [d] Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Physical Sciences and Earth Sciences (MIFT), University of Messina, Messina, Italy
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Mario Versaci, DICEAM, “Mediterranea” University, Via Zehender, I-89122, Reggio Calabria, Italy. Tel.: +39 965 1692273; E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: The uncertainty that characterizes the external mechanical loads to which any connection plate in steel structures is subjected determines the non-uniqueness of the isochoric deformation distributions. Since the eddy currents induced on the plates produce magnetic field maps with a high fuzziness content, similar to those of the isochoric deformations, their use can be exploited to evaluate the extent of the external load that determines a specific induced current map. Starting from an approach known in the literature, according to which the map-external load association is operated through fuzzy similarity computations, in this paper, we generalize this method by reformulating it in terms of intuitionistic fuzzy logic by proposing a classification based on divergence computations. Our approach, acting adaptively on the fuzzification of the maps, results in a better classification percentage, besides significantly reducing the presence of doubtful cases due to the uncertainty of each applied load. Furthermore, a FEM software tool was developed, which turned out to be, to a certain extent, a substitute for the experimental procedure, notoriously more expensive. Even if the procedure was applied on plates subjected to bi-axial loads, it could be used for other types of loads since the classification operator processes the eddy current maps exclusively, regardless of their cause.