Dynamic sensing properties of a multifunctional cement composite with carbon black for traffic monitoring

Abstract

The growing concern in monitoring civil infrastructures, combined with recent technological advances in sensing and information technology led to a concept known as 'smart infrastructures'. Recently, nanotechnology has been contributing with the development of innovative and multifunctional building materials. For example, cementitious composites with specific conductive composition allow the detection of mechanical stresses and may be used not only to build infrastructures but to monitor them as well. In this paper, a stress-sensitive cement composite integrating a conductive carbon black filler (CB) is investigated for traffic monitoring purposes, relying on piezoresistivity. The sensitivity of the composite was evaluated in specific specimens by performing traffic-like loading experiments, at temperatures between 15 °C and 45 °C. Experiments showed linear and reversible piezoresistive responses with average gauge factors registered between 40 and 50 and demonstrated that such composites may act as stress-sensitive materials for traffic monitoring, such as traffic flow, vehicular speed and weigh-in-motion measurements.

Hybrid Carbon Microfibers-Graphite Fillers for Piezoresistive Cementitious Composites

“…An advantage of self-sensing structural materials over traditional techniques is in the enhanced mechanical bonding [ 18 , 19 ] and durability [ 20 , 21 ]. They are also known to yield better sensing performance resulting from the significantly enhanced piezoresistive effect.…”

Smart Graphite–Cement Composite for Roadway-Integrated Weigh-In-Motion Sensing

“…It can be identified through experimental [8,9], analytical [10,11], and numerical [12,13] approaches. Some popular conductive fillers used in the fabrication of self-sensing materials are carbon nanotubes [14][15][16][17][18], carbon black [17,[19][20][21][22], graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) [17,23], and carbon fibers [17,20,24,25]. Other less popular fillers have been researched, including nickel [26,27], aerographite [28], sodium silicate [29], and coal [30].…”

Carbon Fiber-Based Cementitious Composites for Traffic Detection and Weighing In Motion

“…Potable water for mixing and super plasticizer as a high performance superplasticizer concrete admixture (HPSCA) with a density of 1.084 Kg/liter were also used in order to reach an acceptable workability. The HPSCA also works as a dispersant agent and helps to compensate for the lack of water required for cement hydration process due to of the adding the conductive fillers [22]. The chemical and physical properties of both PC, FA are illustrated in Table 1.…”

“…After 24 hours, the specimens were removed from their moulds and moved into water tanks and kept them until one day before installation, which is 28 days. Twenty-four hours before the installation date, the specimens have been removed from the water tanks and kept in an oven at 60oC to eliminate the undesired water, which has effects on the ER measurements by polarization [22]. Figure 3 illustrates the preparation of casting and curing process.…”