Damage Detection of Common Timber Connections Using Piezoceramic Transducers and Active Sensing

Abstract

Timber structures have been widely used due to their low-cost and environmental-friendly properties. It is essential to monitor connection damage to ensure the stability and safety of entire timber structures since timber connection damage may induce catastrophic incidents if not detected in a timely manner. However, the current investigations on timber connections focus on mechanical properties and failure modes, and the damage detection of timber connection receives rare attention. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate the damage detection of four common timber connections (i.e., the screw connection, the bolt connection, the decussation connection, and the tooth plate connection) by using the active sensing method. The active sensing method was implemented by using a pair of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducers: one PZT patch is used as an actuator to generate stress waves, and the other works as a sensor to detect stress waves after propagating across the timber connection. Based on the wavelet packet energy analysis, the signal energy levels of received stress waves under different damage extent are quantified. Finally, by comparing the signal energy between the intact status and the damage status of the timber connection, we find that the energy attenuates with increasing severity of the connection damage. The experimental results demonstrate that the active sensing method can realize real-time monitoring of timber connection damage, which can guide further investigations.

Monitoring the Structural Health of Glass Fibre-Reinforced Hybrid Laminates Using Novel Piezoceramic Film

“…The static test results show a general comparability with the results of the damage index by Song, but this is not evident in the dynamic tests. In most cases in literature, an active measurement method is used [ 33 , 34 , 36 ], so does Song [ 32 ]. This allows for a restriction of the frequency ranges to be considered and defines an exact measurement point in time.…”

“…However, most state-of-the-art methods use the wavelet packet-based energy index [ 33 , 34 , 35 ] for various applications like monitoring timber connection [ 36 ], railway axles [ 37 ] or wood utility poles [ 38 ] and for fibre-reinforced laminated composites [ 39 , 40 ]. In addition, Song et al describes a damage index representing the proportion of transmission energy losses caused by damages based on continuous wavelet transform (CWT), which has been successfully applied to bridge bent-caps as an indicator of the health state [ 32 ].…”

A Novel Piezoceramic-Based Sensing Technology Combined With Visual Domain Networks for Timber Damage Quantification

“…Piezoelectric materials, such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT), have attracted increasing attention in real-time monitoring of structural damage for their high stability, small size, great linearity, and piezoelectric effects (Yang et al, 2018;Yuan et al, 2020). The feasibility, applicability, and reliability of PZT sensors have been widely validated in the past decade (Dansheng et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2018a;Zhang et al, 2018b;Han et al, 2019). PZT-based detection mainly includes stress wave sensing and electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) method (Huo et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2021), while the high-cost equipment requirement impedes practical applications of the EMI method.…”

Detecting Debonding between Steel Beam and Reinforcing CFRP Plate Using Active Sensing with Removable PZT-Based Transducers

“…The WPEI defined by Equation (3) has been applied to evaluating the structural health condition in concrete structures [56] and other applications [57][58][59][60]. In this study, the total energy of received signal by S2 can be characterized through the WPEI.…”