Structural Health Monitoring and Simulation of RC Frames Subjected to Shake Table Excitations

Abstract

Structural health monitoring of RC structures under seismic loads has recently attracted attention in the earthquake engineering research community. In this paper, a piezoceramic-based device called smart aggregate was used for the health monitoring of RC frame structures under earthquake excitations. Four RC moment frames instrumented with smart aggregates were tested using a shake table. The distributed piezoceramic-based smart aggregates embedded in the RC structures were used to monitor the health condition of the structures during the tests. The sensitiveness and effectiveness of the proposed piezoceramic-based approach were investigated and evaluated by analyzing the measured responses. The displacement ductility demand of the structural members was calculated and compared with the damage index determined from the health monitoring technology using the smart aggregate. The comparison has shown that the damage index is compatible with the calculated ductility demand.