The application of 1–3 cement-based piezoelectric transducers in active and passive healthmonitoring for concrete structures

Abstract

1–3 cement-based piezoelectric composite has been developed for health monitoring ofconcrete structures. Transducers made of this type of composite have broadbandfrequency response. Plain concrete and engineered cement composite (ECC) beamswith embedded 1–3 cement-based piezoelectric transducers were prepared andtested. During experiments, the transducers were used to perform active andpassive detection of the damage evolution of the beams. In active detection, adamage index based on the average energy of the received waves was proposed andused. In passive detection, acoustic emission (AE) events were recorded and theaccumulated AE event number was analyzed with the loading history. Cracklocalization was also accomplished in the passive monitoring. The results of the twomethods demonstrated similar trends in interpreting the damage evolution of theconcrete beam. The results were also consistent with each material’s characteristics.