Health monitoring of concrete structures using self-diagnosis materials

The authors have been continuously conducting a series of research on the development of the fiber reinforced composites as self-diagnosis materials. The fiber reinforced composite, which is the glass fiber reinforced plastics containing carbon particles to give electrical conductivity, has been confirmed to possess excellent sensitivity as self-diagnosis material. With the aim of developing the technology for maintaining safety of civil infrastructures, several types of self-diagnosis materials have been developed for the monitoring sensor to detect damage to structures. Subsequently, the applicability of the self-diagnosis materials for the monitoring of the integrity of structures has been evaluated through experimental studies. In this paper, the performance of the proposed self-diagnosis materials to detect damage to concrete structures is discussed in detail.