Prognosis of low-strain fatigue induced damage in reinforced concrete structures using embedded piezo-transducers

Abstract Fatigue induced damage under low-strain conditions is a commonly encountered phenomenon in reinforced concrete (RC) structures subjected to continuous vibrations, such as bridges under vehicular loads, buildings under wind and structures directly supporting or in the vicinity of vibration emitting machinery. This type of fatigue tends to weaken the structure silently, and quite often, its timely cognizance is missed out in the life-cycle management of the structure. Among the various structural health monitoring (SHM) frontiers, very scarce research has been devoted to this kind of damage in RC structures. This paper covers a long-term experimental study related to low-strain fatigue damage monitoring encompassing a real-life sized RC structure. The experimental specimen was subjected to over eight million cycles of flexural loading with the maximum bending strain values restricted to 50 µm/m. The structure was instrumented with piezo-based composite concrete vibration sensors (CVS), which were embedded inside the beam near the surface. The CVS operated in dual mode, acting as sensor for the global vibration technique as well as the local electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique. As EMI sensors, they facilitated the determination of the equivalent stiffness parameter (ESP), and were found to be very expedient for damage detection as well as localization during the incipient stages of fatigue damage, coinciding with the appearance of first few cracks. The ESP served to represent the diminishing trend to actual residual stiffness fairly well during the initial stages. Acting in the global mode, determination of the overall stiffness of the structure by the same CVS provided an alternate damage measure, in terms of a realistic estimate of the overall residual flexural stiffness. This proved useful parameter during moderate to severe damage conditions, and in particular near the final failure of the structure. The monitoring paradigms presented in the paper pave way for effective prognosis of fatigue induced damage in real-life RC structures.

[1]  G. Ruiz,et al.  Effect of the loading frequency on the compressive fatigue behavior of plain and fiber reinforced concrete , 2015 .

[2]  F. Ellyin.  Fatigue Damage, Crack Growth and Life Prediction , 1996 .

[3]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Performance of smart piezoceramic patches in health monitoring of a RC bridge , 2000 .

[4]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Calibration of piezo-impedance transducers for strength prediction and damage assessment of concrete , 2005 .

[5]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Prognosis of fatigue and impact induced damage in concrete using embedded piezo-transducers , 2018 .

[6]  Nadja Oneschkow,et al.  Fatigue behaviour of high-strength concrete with respect to strain and stiffness , 2016 .

[7]  E. Brühwiler,et al.  Tensile fatigue behaviour of Ultra-High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete combined with steel rebars (R-UHPFRC) , 2014 .

[8]  P. Stroeven.  Low-cycle compression fatigue of reinforced concrete structures , 2010 .

[9]  Byung Hwan Oh,et al.  Fatigue Analysis of Plain Concrete in Flexure , 1986 .

[10]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Structural impedance based damage diagnosis by piezo‐transducers , 2003 .

[11]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Structural Health Monitoring by Piezo–Impedance Transducers. II: Applications , 2004 .

[12]  J. M. Chicharro,et al.  An approximated methodology for fatigue tests and fatigue monitoring of concrete specimens , 2006 .

[13]  J. M. Chandra Kishen,et al.  A multiscale approach for modeling fatigue crack growth in concrete , 2017 .

[14]  Daniel J. Inman,et al.  IMPEDANCE-BASED HEALTH MONITORING OF CIVIL STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS , 2000 .

[15]  David J. Ewins,et al.  Modal Testing: Theory, Practice, And Application , 2000 .

[16]  Rama Shanker,et al.  Dual use of PZT patches as sensors in global dynamic and local electromechanical impedance techniques for structural health monitoring , 2011 .

[17]  Surendra P. Shah,et al.  Fatigue crack growth prediction in concrete slabs , 2009 .

[18]  Chee Kiong Soh,et al.  Fatigue life estimation of a 1D aluminum beam under mode-I loading using the electromechanical impedance technique , 2011 .

[19]  Dong-Il Chang,et al.  A study on the fatigue strength behavior of reinforced concrete structures , 1989 .

[20]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  A continuum based modelling approach for adhesively bonded piezo-transducers for EMI technique , 2014 .

[21]  Victor Giurgiutiu,et al.  Experimental Investigation of E/M Impedance Health Monitoring for Spot-Welded Structural Joints , 1999 .

[22]  Edward F. O'Neil,et al.  CRACK PROPAGATION IN FLEXURAL FATIGUE OF CONCRETE , 2000 .

[23]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Structural identification and damage diagnosis using self-sensing piezo-impedance transducers , 2006 .

[24]  Gilles Foret,et al.  A continuum damage modeling of quasi-static fatigue strength of plain concrete , 2012 .

[25]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Ultra Low-cost Adaptations of Electro-mechanical Impedance Technique for Structural Health Monitoring , 2009 .

[26]  Jian Zhao,et al.  Monitoring of rocks using smart sensors , 2007 .

[27]  H. Askes,et al.  Microstructural length scale parameters to model the high-cycle fatigue behaviour of notched plain concrete , 2016 .

[28]  Craig A. Rogers,et al.  Coupled Electro-Mechanical Analysis of Adaptive Material Systems — Determination of the Actuator Power Consumption and System Energy Transfer , 1994 .

[29]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Structural Health Monitoring by Piezo-Impedance Transducers. I: Modeling , 2004 .

[30]  Andrei N Zagrai,et al.  Damage Identification in Aging Aircraft Structures with Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensors , 2004 .

[31]  R. Clough,et al.  Dynamics Of Structures , 1975 .

[32]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Integration of Electro-mechanical Impedance and Global Dynamic Techniques for Improved Structural Health Monitoring , 2010 .

[33]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Piezoelectric Materials: Applications in SHM, Energy Harvesting and Bio-mechanics , 2016 .

[34]  Kolluru V. L. Subramaniam,et al.  Failure mechanism of concrete under fatigue compressive load , 2004 .

[35]  S. Bhalla,et al.  Diagnosis of carbonation induced corrosion initiation and progression in reinforced concrete structures using piezo-impedance transducers , 2016 .

[36]  S. Bhalla,et al.  Piezo-impedance transducers for residual fatigue life assessment of bolted steel joints , 2012 .

[37]  Daniel J. Inman,et al.  Improving Accessibility of the Impedance-Based Structural Health Monitoring Method , 2004 .

[38]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Combined Energy Harvesting and Structural Health Monitoring Potential of Embedded Piezo-Concrete Vibration Sensors , 2015 .

[39]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  A mechanical impedance approach for structural identification, health monitoring and non-destructive evaluation using piezo-impedance transducers. , 2004 .

[40]  Craig A. Rogers,et al.  Qualitative impedance-based health monitoring of civil infrastructures , 1998 .

[41]  K. D. Raithby,et al.  FLEXURAL FATIGUE BEHAVIOUR OF PLAIN CONCRETE , 1979 .