Concrete-encased composite structure exhibits improved strength, ductility and fire resistance compared to traditional reinforced concrete, by incorporating the advantages of both steel and concrete materials. A major drawback of this type of structure is the bond slip introduced between steel and concrete, which directly reduces the load capacity of the structure. In this paper, an active sensing approach using shear waves to provide monitoring and early warning of the development of bond slip in the concrete-encased composite structure is proposed. A specimen of concrete-encased composite structure was investigated. In this active sensing approach, shear mode smart aggregates (SAs) embedded in the concrete act as actuators and generate desired shear stress waves. Distributed piezoceramic transducers installed in the cavities of steel plates act as sensors and detect the wave response from shear mode SAs. Bond slip acts as a form of stress relief and attenuates the wave propagation energy. Experimental results from the time domain analysis clearly indicate that the amplitudes of received signal by lead zirconate titanate sensors decreased when bond slip occurred. In addition, a wavelet packet-based analysis was developed to compute the received signal energy values, which can be used to determine the initiation and development of bond slip in concrete-encased composite structure. In order to establish the validity of the proposed method, a 3D finite element analysis of the concrete-steel bond model is further performed with the aid of the commercial finite element package, Abaqus, and the numerical results are compared with the results obtained in experimental study.
Concrete-encased composite structure is a type of structure that takes the advantages of both steel and concrete materials, showing improved strength, ductility, and fire resistance compared to traditional reinforced concrete structures. The interface between concrete and steel profiles governs the interaction between these two materials under loading, however, debonding damage between these two materials may lead to severe degradation of the load transferring capacity which will affect the structural performance significantly. In this paper, the electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique using piezoceramic transducers was experimentally investigated to detect the bond-slip occurrence of the concrete-encased composite structure. The root-meansquare deviation is used to quantify the variations of the impedance signatures due to the presence of the bond-slip damage. In order to verify the validity of the proposed method, finite element model analysis was performed to simulate the behavior of concrete-steel debonding based on a 3D finite element concrete-steel bond model. The computed impedance signatures from the numerical results are compared with the results obtained from the experimental study, and both the numerical and experimental studies verify the proposed EMI method to detect bond slip of a concrete-encased composite structure.
Acoustic emission (AE) is a nondestructive evaluation technique that is capable of monitoring the damage evolution of concrete structures in real time. Conventionally, AE sensors are surface mounted on the host structures,however, the AE signals attenuate quickly due to the high attenuation propertiesof concrete structures. This study conducts a feasibility study of using smart aggregates (SAs), which area type of embedded piezoceramic transducers, as embedded AE sensors for the health monitoring of concrete structures. A plain concrete beam with two surface mounted AE sensors and two embedded SAs was fabricated in laboratory and loaded under a designed three-point-bending test. The performance of embedded SAs werecompared with the traditional surface mounted AE sensorsin their ability to detect and evaluate the damage to the concrete structure. The results verified the feasibility of using smart aggregates as embedded AE sensors for monitoringstructural damage in concrete. Potentially, the low cost smart aggregates could function as embedded AE sensors,providing great sensitivity and high reliability in applications for thestructural health monitoring of concrete structures.
Compared to conventional concrete, polyvinyl alcohol fiber reinforced engineering cementitious composite (PVA-ECC) offers high-strength, ductility, formability, and excellent fatigue resistance. However, impact-induced structural damage is a major concern and has not been previously characterized in PVA-ECC structures. We investigate the damage of PVA-ECC beams under low-velocity impact loading. A series of ball-drop impact tests were performed at different drop weights and heights to simulate various impact energies. The impact results of PVA-ECC beams were compared with mortar beams. A combination of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) thin-film sensors and piezoceramic-based smart aggregate were used for impact monitoring, which included impact initiation and crack evolution. Short-time Fourier transform (STFT) of the signal received by PVDF thin-film sensors was performed to identify impact events, while active-sensing approach was utilized to detect impact-induced crack evolution by the attenuation of a propagated guided wave. Wavelet packet-based energy analysis was performed to quantify failure development under repeated impact tests.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.