Abstract
The paper reports on a piezoresistivity response of fiber-reinforced cement mortar with graphene nano-platelets. The use of a small quantity (0.25% by the weight of cement) of nano-sized conductive particles of graphene turned conventional portland cement-based composite into a semiconductive stress-sensing material. The resistivity was measured using a surface resistivity tester, well accepted by the concrete industry, which employs an alternative current through four electrodes. Tension and compression tests of standard specimens were used to establish the relationship between the resistivity and the applied strain. Finite element analyses were employed to predict the resistivity of the slab specimen under three-point bending. The tests results and simulation indicate that the electrical resistivity of the graphene-cement composite material can be used for structural health monitoring and damage detection.
Highlights
Concrete and other cement-based composites are widely used in physical infrastructure
A transverse crack initiated at one side of the specimen within the gaged length at a stress of 1.5 MPa, which is smaller than the expected cracking stress
This may have been attributed to the slight offset and the resulting bending created by the mis-aligned grips and the different thickness in the epoxy coatings at the gripped ends
Summary
Concrete and other cement-based composites are widely used in physical infrastructure. The ability to deploy sensing into concrete can provide vital information on usage, loading, corrosion process and damage helping to avert catastrophic failures and loss of life (Sanchez and Sobolev, 2010; Aza et al, 2015; Tian et al, 2019). Piezo-resistivity can be a viable solution for concrete and cement-based composites to attain stress and damage sensing capabilities (Aza et al, 2015; Belli et al, 2018). The goal of this study is to examine a portland cement-based composite material that can detect the magnitude and distribution of applied loads as well as report on local damage. Cement mortar consists of aggregate and hardened cement (solid), air (vapor) and pore solution (fluid). As summarized by Spragg et al (2013), air is non-conductive with electrical resistivity up to 3 × 1015 kΩ·cm and aggregates are non-conductive with a resistivity of up to 4,000 (sand) and 30,000
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