Intuitionistic fuzzy divergence for evaluating the mechanical stress state of steel plates subject to bi-axial loads
Mario Versaci, Giovanni Angiulli, Fabio La Foresta, Filippo Laganà, Annunziata Palumbo
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.