Study on Damage Emergency Repair Performance of a Simple Beam Embedded with Shape Memory Alloys

Shape memory alloys (SMA) have generated a lot of new ideas in engineering. Application is however so far limited in the field of civil engineering. Sensing and actuation properties of SMA can be applied into civil infrastructures to improve structural performance. This paper presents an integrated self-diagnostic and emergency repair intelligent structure system embedded with shape memory alloy bars by utilizing its sensing as well as actuation properties. And this study is mainly focused on damage repair. It is verified that embedding SMA bars can effectively decrease the moment of the reinforced concrete (RC) beam through the mechanical analysis. In addition, the finite element analysis of the reinforced beam embedded with SMA bars is employed to further investigate the modification on the stress intensity around cracks by SMA bars.