Guest editorial Free

P.A. Montenegro, born 1984 in Porto, Portugal, is a Postdoc Researcher of CONSTRUCT/FEUP (Portugal). He finished his MSc in Civil Engineering at FEUP, with a specialization in structures, in February 2008 and started working in a consulting engineering firm, Adão da Fonseca, Engenheiros Consultores Lda (AdF). In this company, he completed his internship, becoming a member of the Portuguese Order of the Engineer. From 2008 to 2010, he also served as an assistant professor in FEUP, teaching three different subjects related to structural mechanics. In 2010, Pedro started his PhD in railway engineering, and in 2013, he did an internship in Japan in the Kanagawa Institute of Technology in Atsugi and in the Railway Technical Research Institute in Tokyo. In 2015, Montenegro became a doctor in civil engineering and returned to AdF to work as a structural engineer, where he stayed until 2018. From 2015 to 2018, he continued to be connected with the I&D unit CONSTRUCT as an external collaborative researcher working in the H2020 European Project In2Rail and providing advanced consultancy to the Russian bridge design company Institute Gyprostroimost in a project related to the train running safety in bridges belonging to the future Russian HS line connecting Moscow to Kazan. Pedro is currently working in a full time basis in FEUP as a Doctoral Researcher and is the co-author of ten international journal papers and more than 25 proceedings in international and national conferences. He is an Invited Professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Engineering and Technologies of the University Lusófona of Porto (since 2018). His main research interests are (1) vehicle–structure interaction, (2) bridge dynamics, (3) structural dynamics, (4) railway engineering, (5) bridge and train numerical modelling, (6) fatigue of railway bridges.

José A.F.O. Correia, born 1984 in Peso da Régua, Portugal, is a Researcher of CONSTRUCT/FEUP of the University of Porto (Portugal). Since 2018, he is a Guest Teacher at the Engineering Structures Department of the Civil Engineering and Geosciences Faculty of the Delft University of Technology (Netherlands). He is an Invited Professor at the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Coimbra (since 2016/09). He obtained the degrees BSc (2007) and MSc (2009) in Civil Engineering from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. He is the co-author of more 150 scientific journal papers in the most relevant scientific journals devoted to structural integrity, fatigue and fracture of engineering materials and structures, 250 proceedings in international and national conferences, congresses and workshops, 3 book chapters and 1 book. In the Scopus platform, he is the (co)author of 245 documents in scientific journals and has an h-index equal to 30. He was/is also a team member of the organization and participated in approved national (Portugal) and European research projects (11 research projects). Proof of the international recognition of the scientific activities was the recent appointment (since January 2017) of José António Correia to the chairman of the technical committees called “ESIS TC12 - Risk analysis and safety of large structures and components” and “ESIS TC3 - Fatigue of Engineering Materials and Structures” of the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS). He is a member of technical committees, CEN TC250 SC3 WG 1-9 Fatigue and CEN TC250 SC3 WG 1-10 Fracture, of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN).

Abilio M.P. de Jesus, born in 1973 in Oliveira de Azeméis, Portugal, is teaching at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering, at the University of Porto (FEUP) since 2014 after 18 years of teaching activity at the Department of Engineering of the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal. He obtained the BSc (1996) and MSc (1999) Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Porto and the PhD Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro in 2004. Recently he won the Associate Professor position in the group of Materials and Manufacturing Processes from FEUP. He is also a researcher at the Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (INEGI) in its unit on Advanced Manufacturing and is integrated in the Associated Laboratory for Energy, Transports and Aeronautics (LAETA), being (co)responsible for the LAETA Thematic Line on Advanced Production. He is the co-author of more than 150 papers in national and international scientific journals and more than 300 papers presented in both national and international conferences. A total of 213 documents in SCOPUS and an h-index of 25 show the research consistency and visibility of the research work that has been developed in the fields of fatigue and fracture of materials and structures and manufacturing processes. He is the co-editor of the Structural Integrity Book series and member of the ESIS TC12 serving as scientific secretary. Currently, he is involved in two European projects on fatigue, FASTCOLD and SHIFT2RAIL2, and several national projects on fatigue and manufacturing such as FIBREBRIDGE, MAMTOOL and ADD.STRENGTH.

Rui A.B. Calçada is Full Professor of the Civil Engineering Department of Faculty Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), Head of the Civil Engineering Department from FEUP and Coordinator of PhD programme – iRail – Innovation in Railway Systems and Technologies. Academic background: Civil Engineer Degree from FEUP (1992); Master Degree in Civil Engineering Structures from FEUP (1995); PhD Degree from University of Porto in Civil Engineering field (2003). Years of relevant experience: 20. Main research interest/expertise: advanced models for train-infrastructure dynamic interaction; wayside (track, bridges, transition zones) and on-board condition monitoring systems; advanced algorithms for condition monitoring systems. Main activities: Principal Investigator of 12 research projects and member of the team of 10 research projects in the area of railways; supervisor of 16 PhD thesis; author of more than 300 scientific and technical publications. Other relevant information: Member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Railway Technology; Responsible for the participation of FEUP on European projects CAPACITY4RAIL, MAXBE, IN2RAIL, MRISE and SHIFT2RAIL Joint Undertaking.