In steel structural engineering, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are improving accuracy, efficiency, and automation. This review explores AI-driven approaches, emphasizing how AI models improve predictive capabilities, optimize performance, and reduce computational costs compared to traditional methods. Inverse Machine Learning (IML) is a major focus since it helps engineers to minimize reliance on iterative trial-and-error by allowing them to identify ideal material properties and geometric configurations depending on predefined performance targets. Unlike conventional ML models that focus mostly on forward predictions, IML helps data-driven design generation, enabling more adaptive engineering solutions. Furthermore, underlined is Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), which enhances model transparency, interpretability, and trust of AI. The paper categorizes AI applications in steel construction based on their impact on design automation, structural health monitoring, failure prediction and performance evaluation throughout research from 1990 to 2025. The review explores challenges such as data limitations, model generalization, engineering reliability, and the need for physics-informed learning while examining AI’s role in bridging research and real-world structural applications. By integrating AI into structural engineering, this work supports the adoption of ML, IML, and XAI in structural analysis and design, paving the way for more reliable and interpretable engineering practices.

Settlements severely affect historic masonry arch bridges worldwide. There are countless examples of structural dislocations and ruins in recent years due to severe settlements at the base of pier foundations, often caused by shipworm infestation of wooden foundations or scouring and riverbed erosion phenomena. The present paper proposes an original way to approach the failure analysis of settled masonry arch bridges. The proposed method combines two different 2D numerical models for the prediction of masonry arch bridge capacity against settlements and for safety assessment. The first one is the Piecewise Rigid Displacement method, i.e. a block-based limit analysis approach using the well known Heyman's hypotheses; the second one is a continuous Finite Element approach. The case study of the four-span Deba Bridge (Spain, 2018) failure is presented with the aim to illustrate how the methods work. The failure analysis produced satisfactory results by applying both methods separately, in confirmation of their reliability. Their combination also allowed to obtain a significantly reduction in computational cost and an improvement of prediction accuracy. A sensitivity and a path-following analysis were also performed with the aim to demonstrate the robustness of the presented method. The obtained simulations highlighted that the results do not depend on the friction angle and that a proper prediction of the evolution of the structural behavior can be obtained only taking into account geometric nonlinearities. Such results demonstrate once again that in settled masonry arches geometry prevails over the mechanical parameters. The current study paves the way for the fruitful use of the proposed approaches for a wider range of applications, as, for example, the mechanism identification or the displacement capacity assessment of masonry structures under overloading as seismic loads.

Dynamic instability in the mechanics of elastic structures is a fascinating topic, with many issues still unsettled. Accordingly, there is a wealth of literature examining the problems from different perspectives (analytical, numerical, experimental etc.), and coverings a wide variety of topics (bifurcations, chaos, strange attractors, imperfection sensitivity, tailor-ability, parametric resonance, conservative or non-conservative systems, linear or non-linear systems, fluid-solid interaction, follower forces, etc.). This paper provides a survey of selected topics of current research interest. It aims to collate the key recent developments and international trends, as well as describe any possible future challenges. A paradigmatic example of Ziegler paradox on the destabilizing effect of small damping is also included.

The present work studies the geometrically nonlinear response of class θ = 1 tensegrity prisms modeled as a collection of elastic springs reacting in tension (strings or cables) or compression (bars), under uniform uniaxial loading. The incremental equilibrium equations of the structure are numerically solved through a path-following procedure, with the aim of modeling the mechanical behavior of the structure in the large displacement regime. Several numerical results are presented with reference to a variety of physical models, which use two different materials for the cables and the bars, and show different aspect ratios associated with either “standard” or “expanded” configurations. An experimental validation of the predicted constitutive response is conducted with reference to a “thick” and a “slender” model, observing rather good theory vs. experiment matching. The given numerical and experimental results highlight that the elastic response of the examined structures may switch from stiffening to softening, depending on the geometry of the system, the magnitude of the external load, and the applied prestress. The outcomes of the current study confirm previous literature results on the elastic response of minimal tensegrity prisms, and pave the way to the use of tensegrity systems as nonlinear spring units forming tunable mechanical metamaterials.

This study formulates numerical and analytical approaches to the self-equilibrium problem of novel units of tensegrity metamaterials composed of class θ = 1 tensegrity prisms. The freestanding configurations of the examined structures are determined for varying geometries, and it is shown that such configurations exhibit a large number of infinitesimal mechanisms. The latter can be effectively stabilized by applying self-equilibrated systems of internal forces induced by cable prestretching. The equilibrium equations of class θ = 1 tensegrity prisms are studied for varying values of two aspect parameters, and local solutions to the self-equilibrium problem are determined by recourse to Newton–Raphson iterations. Such a numerical approach to the form-finding problem can be easily generalized to arbitrary tensegrity systems. An analytical approach is also proposed for the class θ = 1 units analyzed in the present work. The potential of such structures for development of novel mechanical metamaterials is discussed, in the light of recent findings concerned with structural lattices alternating lumped masses and tensegrity units.