Smart sensing for post-earthquake damage quantification in RC members using piezoceramic transducers

Abstract

This work uses post-embedded piezoceramic transducers in a distributed intelligent sensor network to detect the force-related signals of an RC infilled wall specimen under dynamic loading. Two RC wall specimens under static cyclic loading and four RC wall specimens under dynamic loading are used in this work. In the experiment with each specimen, six post-embedded piezoceramic transducers are used as sensors of force-related signals. Results of analyses reveal a strong correlation between the signals of the piezoceramic sensor and the force that was applied by the dynamic actuator. Based on the force-related signals from the piezoceramic sensors, a damage quantification method that is based on an estimated equivalent viscous damping ratio (EVDR) is proposed for an RC infilled wall in an earthquake. Additionally, a case study of the RC columns is performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed EVDR-based damage quantification method using piezoceramic sensors.