Damage detection of concrete piles subject to typical damages using piezoceramic based passive sensing approach

Abstract

Pile foundations are typically comprised in concealed construction work. In recent years, some major categories of concrete piles subject to typical damages have caused a lot of engineering disasters and accidents. These accidents have been caused by collapse of civil structures resulting in great casualties and economic loss. Therefore, damage detection and real-time health monitoring on foundation piles is an urgent research requirement. In this research, a piezoceramic based passive sensing approach is proposed to detect typical damages types of concrete piles, including partial mud intrusion, secondary concrete pouring interface, circumferential crack, and full mud intrusion. In this passive sensing approach, induced stress waves are generated by the impact hammer on the top surface of a pile and one smart aggregate embedded on the bottom of each pile is used as a sensor to receive the propagating wave signals. These sensors are embedded before pouring concrete. Structural defects affect the natural frequency of the pile. The power spectrum of piles with different types of damage were compared by plotting the sensor signals in frequency domain. The natural frequency decreases with the increase in defect severity. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach can detect all four typical damage types in concrete piles.

Quantitative evaluation of compactness of concrete-filled fiber-reinforced polymer tubes using piezoceramic transducers and time difference of arrival

“…The method based on piezoelectric transducers was applied to interfacial debonding detection of various structures, including reinforced concrete structures, concrete-filled steel tubes, and concrete-encased composite structures [31][32][33][34][35]. Using the PZT-based active sensing method, damage detection of various structures was carried out [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. However, research on concrete infill compactness detection in CFFT is very limited.…”

Modeling of the attenuation of stress waves in concrete based on the Rayleigh damping model using time-reversal and PZT transducers

“…In addition, in recent years Song et al developed a multi-functional piezoelectric smart aggregate (SA), which can be used in concrete structures to avoid damaging the PZT material [22][23][24]. Feng et al applied SAs to test the damage in concrete piles using the piezoelectric wave method [25]. Zeng et al embedded shear mode SAs in a concrete-encased composite structure to monitor the bond-slip between steel and concrete based on the piezoelectric wave method [26].…”

Estimation of impact location on concrete column

“…While concrete is widely used and recognized for their strength and flexibility, cracks are a major source of damage affecting the integrity of the concrete structures [4] and decrease their load-carrying capacity [5], water-tightness [6] and durability [7]. To supply reliable and affordable safety control for concrete structures, cracks or damage inside concrete structures were evaluated using embedded lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducers in experimental studies [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. The P-waves, which can be measured by the PZT transducers, are sensitive to the properties of the concrete in which it propagates, and was utilized by researchers in different applications of SHM, such as detecting the change in stiffness of early-age concrete [15] monitoring of water seepage [16] and evaluation of concrete strength [17].…”