Maria Naoum, PhD, George Sapidis, Nikolaos Papadopoulos and Constantin Chalioris, PhD
Department of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece

Part of the book: The Challenges of Disaster Planning, Management, and Resilience

Abstract

Nowadays, due to the deterioration in existing structures, there is an extended need for precocious damage detection in Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures. Real-time applications of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) via piezoelectric sensors are up to this task. The present study presents Synthetic Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) prismatic specimens with dimensions of 150 × 150 × 450 mm subjected to a four-point bending test. At first, prisms are subjected to repeated loading (loading, unloading, reloading) using different loading levels at every state. Then, specimens were reloaded until their consumption of load-carrying capacity and fractured from pure bending in the mid-span. The real-time evaluation of the structural integrity of the examined structural member was carried out via the Electrο-Μechanical Impedance (EMI) method on an array of Piezoelectric lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) transducers that have been epoxy bonded to the surface of the SFRC specimens. The EMI method aimed to correlate the frequency response changes of the attached PZT transducers with the crack propagation and the damage formation. Quantitative damage evaluation was achieved using the frequency signal measurements of the PZT transducers and comparisons of several commonly used statistic damage index values (such as RMSD, MAPD, and CCD). Test results of this study indicate a strong potential for precocious identification of damage in SFRS specimens. Simultaneously, a crucial observation for the prompt damage diagnosis prior to catastrophic failure is the strategic positioning of PZT transducers in the specimen surface to secure their structural resilience.

Keywords: Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), Reinforced Concrete (RC), Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC), Piezoelectric lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT), real-time structural monitoring, damage diagnosis

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