Implantable sensing technology for civil engineering structures

Abstract

Providing crack location and stiffness variation information using practical structural health monitoring technology is highly significant for in-service structures. Inspired by the fast development of implantable devices, this paper introduced an implantable sensing technology (IST) for health monitoring of a typical concrete member known as shear wall undergoing loading progression. Two collaborative monitoring steps were developed to acquire targeted damage information at different loading stages, the one was, a cylindrical concrete implantable module (CCIM) sensor-enabled IST was applied for monitoring and imaging the early cracks of the shear wall at the initial loading stage; and the other was, a concrete implantable bar (CIB) sensor-enabled IST was employed for monitoring and assessing the damage evolution at the mid-late loading stage. Experimental results showed that these two collaborative ISTs can accurately identify the early cracking regions of the shear wall and reveal its stiffness degradation processes throughout the loading.