Electromechanical impedance (Electromechanical impedance)-based methods as potential nondestructive evaluation (NDT) techniques have been widely used in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM), especially for the civil, mechanical, and aerospace engineering fields. However, it is still difficult to apply in practical applications due to the limitations of the impedance measurement hardware, which is usually expensive, bulky, and heavy. In this paper, a small, lightweight, and low power consumption EMI-based structural health monitoring system combined with the low-cost miniature impedance board AD5933 was studied experimentally to investigate its quantifiable performance in impedance measurement and structural damage identification. At first, a simple impedance test with a free PZT patch was introduced to present the impedance calibration and measurement procedure of AD5933, and then its calibration performance was validated by comparing the signature with the one measured by a professional impedance analyzer (WK6500B). In order to further validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the AD5933 board in practical applications, a threaded pipe connection specimen was assembled in the laboratory and then connected with the AD5933 to acquire its impedance signatures under different loosening severities. The final results demonstrated that the impedance measured by the AD5933 show a good consistency with the measurements by the WK6500B, and the evaluation board could be successfully utilized for the loosening severities identification and quantitatively evaluation.

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