Comparative assessment of a multitudinal piezo arrangement for non-destructive evaluation of construction steel: An experimental study

Abstract

Recently, sensor-based health diagnostic methods have attracted remarkable attention and can be replaced with conventional nondestructive techniques due to their robustness, reliability, and ease of implementation. Multisensing, reusable, and non-bonded configurations of PZT patches for impedance-based health monitoring are gaining popularity because of their simplicity and robustness. However, the steel bar's complex or uneven surface restricts the PZT patch's direct bonding to the host structure. This article evaluates the effectiveness of different multisensing configuration of PZT patch to monitor the loading effect and structural damage in constructional steel rebar, i.e., surface bonded, clamped and metal wire (MW) attached. Statistical and piezo frequency-based damage indices were used to assess the PZT's effective configuration. The experimental findings of this study have shown the efficacy of multi modal piezo configuration for monitoring damage and loading effects, particularly. Furthermore, the study has expanded to find piezo-equivalent structural parameters for multitudinal piezo position to identify its suitability and effectiveness for better structural health assessment and monitoring. The comparison of indices was highlighted to find a more productive PZT configuration for sensing structural change and damage highlighting the effectiveness of the non-bonded PZT patch configuration. The overall results demonstrate good agreement of employing multisensing array for monitoring damage and progressive loading, specifically the non-bonded configuration of the PZT patch.