The birth of smart materials such as piezoelectric (PZT) transducers has aided in revolutionizing the field of structural health monitoring (SHM) based on non-destructive testing (NDT) methods. While a relatively new NDT method known as the electromechanical (EMI) technique has been investigated for more than two decades, there are still various problems that must be solved before it is applied to real structures. The technique, which has a significant potential to contribute to the creation of one of the most effective SHM systems, involves the use of a single PZT for exciting and sensing of the host structure. In this paper, studies applied for the past decade related to the EMI technique have been reviewed to understand its trend. In addition, new concepts and ideas proposed by various authors are also surveyed, and the paper concludes with a discussion of the potential directions for future works.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, are a rising topic in remote sensing technologies for structural health monitoring. With technology advancement in cameras, the visual inspection method using drones is gaining much attention in the field of civil engineering. However, although visual inspection methods are feasible for finding cracks in structures, the limitations of image processing for finding internal damage or small defects cannot be ignored. To overcome this problem, a possible application concept of UAV, combined with a vibration-based non-destructive health monitoring method, is proposed. The idea is for the drone to temporarily attach the piezoelectric transducer onto a specific region where excitation and data acquisition occurs simultaneously. This eliminates the need for a structure to be covered with hundreds of sensors for monitoring, as this concept uses a single piezoelectric transducer for monitoring a structure. The proposed work offers new areas of research by converging UAV with a vibration-based method, as associated problems are required to be solved.
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