Seismic Health Monitoring of a Space RC Frame Structure Using Piezoceramic-Based Sensors

In this study, a piezoceramic-based active sensing system was used for the health monitoring of a two story on bay space reinforced concrete (RC) frame structure under earthquake excitations. The RC moment frame instrumented with piezoceramic-based sensors was tested by using shake table with different ground excitation intensities. The distributed sensors embedded in the RC structures were used to monitor the health status of the structures during the tests. The sensitiveness and effectiveness of the proposed piezoceramic-based approach were investigated and evaluated by analyzing the measured piezoelectric signals. A simple and accurate method is proposed for the simulation of the dynamic responses of the RC frame. The displacement ductility demands of the structural members were calculated using the proposed method and compared with the damage indices determined from the sensing system. The comparison shows that the damage indices have an excellent agreement with the calculated ductility demands.