A new paper by Yaobin Yang, Gyu-Beom Shin, Loizos Pelecanos, Chien-Chih Wang, Linqing Luo, and Kenichi Soga, titled “Inference of pile capacity from distributed strain sensing via PDE-constrained optimization,” has been published in Computers and Geotechnics.
The study develops a PDE-constrained optimization framework for interpreting distributed fiber-optic strain measurements from instrumented piles. Distributed fiber-optic sensing provides high-resolution strain data along a pile, but these measurements can be difficult to interpret because field data often contain spatial oscillations and noise. The proposed framework uses mechanical equilibrium as a constraint, allowing the method to infer pile rigidity, soil stiffness, shaft friction, and pile radius variations in a physically consistent way.
This work advances the use of distributed sensing for pile integrity assessment and soil–structure interaction analysis, moving beyond traditional layered interpretations toward higher-resolution, mechanics-informed pile evaluation.