Preface

Abstract

Diagnostics and condition monitoring are aspects of a field of engineering that aims to manage the health of engineering machinery and structures, but which has increasing applicability to many other complex systems in the world from the medical care of people, through the reliability of supply chain logistics to the secure operation of a large and complex organisation. The management of health generally requires a number of sequential steps, which are usually as follows: the detection of any abnormality in the procedural operation of the system, the location of the abnormal behaviour within the system, an assessment of the severity of the abnormality and identification of the potential system vulnerabilities that result from it, a detailed diagnosis of the problem including the identification of its root cause, and finally a predictive assessment of the future prospects for the continued operation of the system, including any remedial action that should be taken to minimise impact and maximise continued operational performance.