Piezoelectric impedance-based strength gain monitoring in concrete

Abstract

This paper presented an experimental study on piezoelectric impedance based cubic and axial compressive strength gain monitoring in concrete during curing process. The piezoceramic (PZT) patch was attached on the concrete specimen to collect the monitoring signal. The electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) spectra of surface bonded PZT patch were collected using an impedance analyzer by sweeping the frequency. A regression analysis is conducted to establish the empirical relationship between the relative strength gain of concrete and the monitored relative resonant frequency change of the EMI spectra. The established empirical formula is used for concrete strength monitoring via EMI spectra. The results tell that the EMI technique is a practical and reliable nondestructive test method for concrete strength gain monitoring.