A review on PZT in civil engineering

Civil engineering is not just about construction of buildings, towers, bridges etc. but also of their caring and maintenances. For this purpose all the constructed structures have to be monitored for their structural health in terms of damage detection, severity of damage etc., collectively called structural health monitoring (SHM) of structures in civil engineering. For SHM, electromagnetic impedance (EMI) technique is one of the best methods of NDTs being used in the field of civil engineering. EMI uses lead zirconate titnate (PZT) as its piezoelectric component for the purpose of measurement. PZT based devices are widely used in civil engineering. There is a huge demand for health monitoring now a days and to full fill those demands of health monitoring, PZT is one among the most reliable and cost efficient material. Piezoelectric sensor can be used to measure changes in acceleration, strain, pressure and to ensure the better safety measures. These PZT based sensors can be used for predicting the natural disasters like earthquake that helps to save the thousands of lives and can decrease property lose. The piezoelectric sensors can be used to monitor the civil structure which helps an engineer to analyses the characteristics of that structure. It is also used for collecting the data of force that is being exerted on the ground by the building, temperatures and pressure differences in environment etc. Damage detection is a technique that is used to monitor the civil structure, this can improve safety and ensure durability, and for concrete structures, damage detection plays an important role. For the purpose of SHM and damage detection PZT based sensors can be used. For civil engineering applications, PZT-cement based composites have been developed. The concrete and host structure such PZT-cement based composites shows better matching when compared to normal or other piezoelectric ceramics. In this review work we have discussed about SHM/Damage detection, Vibrational control, PZT embedded cement composites and PZT embedded in concrete.