Detection of Concrete Reinforcement Damage Using Piezoelectric Materials - Analytical and Experimental Study

An effort for the detection of damages in the 
reinforcement bars of reinforced concrete members using PZTs is 
presented. The damage can be the result of excessive elongation of 
the steel bar due to steel yielding or due to local steel corrosion. In 
both cases the damage is simulated by considering reduced diameter 
of the rebar along the damaged part of its length. An integration 
approach based on both electromechanical admittance methodology 
and guided wave propagation technique is used to evaluate the 
artificial damage on the examined longitudinal steel bar. Two 
actuator PZTs and a sensor PZT are considered to be bonded on the 
examined steel bar. The admittance of the Sensor PZT is calculated 
using COMSOL 3.4a. Fast Furrier Transformation for a better 
evaluation of the results is employed. An effort for the quantification 
of the damage detection using the root mean square deviation 
(RMSD) between the healthy condition and damage state of the 
sensor PZT is attempted. The numerical value of the RSMD yields a 
level for the difference between the healthy and the damaged 
admittance computation indicating this way the presence of damage 
in the structure. Experimental measurements are also presented.

 





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