DAMAGE DETECTION OF CONCRETE BEAM BASED ON ELECTRONIC-MECHANICAL IMPEDANCE TECHNOLOGY USING EMBEDDED PZT TRANSDUCERS

Since PZT transducers are only sensitive to cracks nearby, the surface-bonded PZT patches may not be able to detect accurately the deep damages. Therefore, using embedded PZT transducers has been becoming a new method for health monitoring of large size structures. First, a simulation analysis of the electromechanical coupling characteristic of the embedded PZT patch was made to survey its working condition. Further, based on the electronic-mechanical impedance method, damage detection progresses were implemented on the finite element models of concrete beams with embedded PZT transducers under various conditions. Finally damage location diagnosis of a cracked beam was simulated using distributed multiple PZT transducers. The results show that the proposed methods of using embedded PZT transducers along with the damage index RMSDI are effective in identifying the existence, severity and location of cracks in concrete structures and have great potential in structure health monitoring field.