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.