Pipelines, as critical infrastructure in energy transmission, municipal facilities, industrial production, and specialized equipment, are essential to national economic security and social stability. This paper systematically reviews the domestic and international research status of pipeline in-line inspection (ILI) technologies, with a focus on four major technological systems: electromagnetic, acoustic, optical, and robotic technologies. The operational principles, application scenarios, advantages, and limitations of each technology are analyzed in detail. Although existing technologies have achieved significant progress in defect detection accuracy and environmental adaptability, they still face challenges including insufficient adaptability to complex environments, the inherent trade-off between detection accuracy and efficiency, and high equipment costs. Future research directions are identified as follows: intelligent algorithm optimization for multi-physics collaborative detection, miniaturized and integrated design of inspection devices, and scenario-specific development for specialized environments. Through technological innovation and multidisciplinary integration, pipeline ILI technologies are expected to progressively realize efficient, precise, and low-cost lifecycle safety monitoring of pipelines.

In this paper, we present a novel and unified model for studying the vibration of cylindrical shells based on the three-dimensional (3D) elastic theory and the Carrera Unified Formulation. Our approach represents a significant advancement in the field, as it enables us to accurately predict the vibrational behavior of cylindrical shells under arbitrary boundary conditions. To accomplish this, we expand the axial, circumferential, and radial displacements of the shell using Chebyshev polynomials and Taylor series, thereby reducing the dimensionality of the expansion and ensuring the precision and rigor of our results. In addition, we introduce three groups of artificial boundary surface springs to simulate the general end boundary conditions of the cylindrical shell and coupling springs to strongly couple the two surfaces of the cylindrical shell φ = 0 and φ = 2π to ensure continuity of displacements on these faces. Using the energy function of the entire cylindrical shell model, we obtain the characteristic equation of the system by finding the partial derivatives of the unknown coefficients of displacement in the energy function. By solving this equation, we can directly obtain the vibration characteristics of the cylindrical shell. We demonstrate the convergence, accuracy, and reliability of our approach by comparing our computational results with existing results in the literature and finite element results. Finally, we present simulation results of the frequency features of cylindrical shells with various geometrical and boundary parameters in the form of tables and figures. Overall, we believe that our novel approach has the potential to greatly enhance our understanding of cylindrical shells and pave the way for further advancements in the field of structural engineering. Our comprehensive model and simulation results contribute to the ongoing efforts to develop efficient and reliable techniques for analyzing the vibrational behavior of cylindrical shells.

With continuous improvements in integration, totalization and automation, remaining useful life predictions of mechanical equipment have become a key feature of technology and core element of equipment prediction and health management. The traditional method based on degradation mechanisms is not fully capable of predicting remaining useful life, especially for special power plants that use industrial transmissions, barrel launchers, etc. The expected service requirements are higher for condition monitoring and remaining service life prediction. The effective prediction of the remaining useful life of such special power plants is a major challenge and technical bottleneck in the industrial field and national defense equipment construction. This paper analyzes and expands on the research on the remaining life prediction methods for special power plants and analyzes the remaining life prediction methods of existing dynamic models, as well as data-driven and data–model fusion drives, and specific ideas for future research and development in four aspects, including remaining useful life prediction tests supplemented with soft measurements. Additionally, future research directions for the remaining life prediction of special power plants are provided.

In response to the urgent need for performance predictions of damaged aerospace structures, this study undertakes a comprehensive investigation into the flutter characteristics of damaged variable-stiffness composite laminate (VSCL) plates. The governing boundary value problem for the dynamics of damaged VSCL plates is formulated using first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT). Additionally, the first-order piston theory is utilized to model the aerodynamic pressure in supersonic airflow. A novel coupling methodology is developed through the integration of penalty function methods and irregular mapping techniques, which effectively establishes the interaction between damaged and undamaged plate elements. The vibration characteristics and aeroelastic responses are systematically analyzed using the Chebyshev differential quadrature method (CDQM). The validity of the proposed model is thoroughly demonstrated through comparative analyses with the existing literature and finite element simulations, confirming its computational accuracy and broad applicability. A notable characteristic of this research is its ability to accommodate arbitrary geometric configurations within damaged regions. The numerical results unequivocally demonstrate that accurately predicting the flutter characteristics of damaged VSCL plates constitutes an effective strategy for mitigating structural stability degradation. This approach provides valuable insights for aerospace structural design and maintenance.

In this paper, a full-domain stochastic response analysis is performed based on the meshless method to reveal the time–frequency dynamic characteristics, including the power spectral density (PSD) responses in the frequency domain and the evolving PSD distribution in the time domain for a sandwich trapezoidal plate–shell coupled system. The general governing equations are derived based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT), linear piston theory and Hamilton’s principle, and the stochastic excitation is integrated into the meshless framework based on the pseudo-excitation method (PEM). By constructing the meshless shape function covering the entire structural domain from Chebyshev polynomials and discretizing the continuous domain into a series of nodes within a square definition domain, the points are assembled according to the sequence number and the equilibrium relationship on the coupling edge to obtain the overall vibration equations. The validity is demonstrated by matching the mode shapes, PSD responses, time history displacement and critical flutter boundaries with FEM simulation and reported data. Finally, the time–frequency characteristics of each substructure under global and single stochastic excitation, and the effect of aerodynamic pressure on full-domain stochastic vibration, are revealed.

High-overload testing equipment is a key platform for evaluating mechanical performance under extreme conditions, requiring specialized functional design to meet stringent operational demands. The current design process faces numerous challenges, including overreliance on designers’ experience, incomplete requirement analysis, and insufficient automation, resulting in suboptimal solutions. To address these issues, in this study, we propose an integrated method based on axiomatic design (AD) and the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). This method systematically decomposes technical specifications, maps requirements to a structural framework, and resolves design conflicts using inventive principles. The method employs a comprehensive evaluation framework combining the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and quality function deployment (QFD) to quantitatively assess candidate designs. It facilitates the development of efficient, standardized high-load testing equipment solutions, enhancing design reliability and innovation capabilities.