Application of self-diagnosis FRP to concrete pile for health monitoring

The function and performance of the self-diagnosis composites embedded in concrete blocks and piles were investigated by bending tests and electrical resistance measurements. Carbon powder (CP) and carbon fiber (CF) were introduced in glass fiber reinforced plastics composites to obtain electrical conductivity. The CP composite has commonly good performances in various bending tests of block and pile specimens, comparing to the CF composite. The electrical resistance of the CP composite increases in a small strain to response remarkably micro-crack formation at about 200 μ strain and to detect well to smaller deformations before the crack formation. The CP composite posses a continuous resistance change up to a large strain level near the final fracture of concrete structures reinforced by steel bars. It has been concluded that the self-diagnosis composite is fairly useful for the measurement of damage and fracture in concrete blocks and piles.