A preliminary study on the prediction of damaged areas on ordinary concrete and lightweight concrete using electromechanical impedance technique with different frequency ranges

The electromechanical impedance (EMI) method for NDE uses a single piezoelectric material to act as an actuator and a sensor simultaneously, and the EMI method is suitable for structures with complex surfaces. However, this technique still has wide range of problems which needs to be investigated. For one, locating damaged areas on a host structure precisely is known to be extremely difficult as this non-model based technique heavily relies on the variations in the impedance signatures. In this study, an attempt to locate the damaged areas on an ordinary concrete panel and a lightweight concrete panel using bottom ash is carried out by using different frequency ranges. Since the sensing range decreases as the excitation frequency of piezoelectric material increases, one can possibly predict the damaged areas by analyzing the impedance signatures from different frequency ranges. Statistical analysis method such as root mean square deviation (RMSD) is applied to determine the changes of the experimental structures, and the RMSD values of low frequency range and high frequency range are compared to verify the relationship between the frequency range and sensing range. Furthermore, the applicability of this method to locating the damaged areas is investigated on various materials including the lightweight concrete.

[1]  Masoud Sanayei,et al.  Parameter Estimation of Structures from Static Strain Measurements. I: Formulation , 1996 .

[2]  Bahador Sabet Divsholi,et al.  Application of PZT sensors for detection of damage severity and location in concrete , 2008, Micro + Nano Materials, Devices, and Applications.

[3]  Craig A. Rogers,et al.  Automated real-time structure health monitoring via signature pattern recognition , 1995, Smart Structures.

[4]  Yaowen Yang,et al.  Sensitivity of PZT Impedance Sensors for Damage Detection of Concrete Structures , 2008, Sensors.

[5]  Chee Kiong Soh,et al.  Health Monitoring Of Civil Infrastructure Using Smart PiezoelectricTransducer Patches , 2000 .

[6]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  Practical issues in the implementation of electro-mechanical impedance technique for NDE , 2002, SPIE Micro + Nano Materials, Devices, and Applications.

[7]  M. Forde,et al.  Review of NDT methods in the assessment of concrete and masonry structures , 2001 .

[8]  J. V. Filho,et al.  Optimal Frequency Range Selection for PZT Transducers in Impedance-Based SHM Systems , 2010, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[9]  Fredrik P. Glasser,et al.  Long-term leaching mechanisms of Portland cement-stabilized municipal solid waste fly ash in carbonated water , 1999 .

[10]  T. Koh,et al.  Evaluation for Contents of Contaminants and Leaching Characteristics of Bottom Ash , 2010 .

[11]  J. Meima,et al.  The leaching of trace elements from municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash at different stages of weathering , 1999 .

[12]  Suresh Bhalla,et al.  A low-cost variant of electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique for structural health monitoring , 2010 .

[13]  Rudy Tawie,et al.  Monitoring the strength development in concrete by EMI sensing technique , 2010 .

[14]  Hoon Sohn,et al.  Overview of Piezoelectric Impedance-Based Health Monitoring and Path Forward , 2003 .

[15]  Joseph Morlier,et al.  Damage localization map using electromechanical impedance spectrums and inverse distance weighting interpolation: Experimental validation on thin composite structures , 2013 .

[16]  C. Liang,et al.  Coupled Electro-Mechanical Analysis of Adaptive Material Systems-Determination of the Actuator Power Consumption and System Energy Transfer , 1997 .

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

[18]  Bahador Sabet Divsholi,et al.  Sub-Frequency Interval Approach in Electromechanical Impedance Technique for Concrete Structure Health Monitoring , 2010, Sensors.