Electromechanical Impedance Measurement Research Articles

An electromechanical impedance measurement-based solution for monitoring fresh concrete maturity

This paper proposes an electromechanical impedance measurement (EIM)-based solution for monitoring concrete maturity that refers to concrete strength development at the early stage. A smart aggregate (SMA) that consists of a waterproofed piezoelectric patch is developed. The working principle is explained based on the impedance theory of an electromechanically coupled system. A finite element (FE) model of the EIM-SMA unit is established. The stiffness of the applied spring foundation is varied to emulate the concrete hardening process. The simulation results reveal that a peak located between 60 and 70 kHz in the impedance plot could be used as an indication to reflect the stiffness variation of the spring foundation. A 3D-printed mold is designed for rapid production of the EIM-SMA units. In the experiment, two sample EIM-SMA units are used to monitor fresh concrete maturity in the first 6 h after casting. The results of the two sample EIM-SMA units agreed well. The experimental results matched the simulation prediction. Compared to a bar-dropping test that is widely adopted at construction sites, the impedance evolution of an EIM-SMA unit is much smoother and has better monotonicity. In general, the proposed method has been proven to be a reliable solution to monitor the maturity development of concrete.

Interface debonding defect detection for CFST columns based on EMI measurements: Experiment, numerical simulation and blind inspection in practice

Concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) members have been widely used in skyscrapers and long-span bridges. Non-uniformly distributed hydration heat during curing, inadequate compaction during construction and unavoidable shrinkage and creep of mass concrete in service most likely lead to interface debonding defects between concrete core and steel tube, which has been a common concern. The development of effective non-destructive inspection methods for interface bonding condition of existing CFST members is critical. In this study, an interface debonding defect detection method based on electromechanical impedance (EMI) measurement using surface-mounted piezoelectric-lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) sensors is proposed at first. Then, experimental study on the feasibility of the proposed approach is carried out with scaled CFST specimens with artificially mimicked interface debonding defects. EMI of surface-mounted PZT sensors at different frequency bands are measured and compared to verify the detectability of the proposed approach for the mimicked interface debonding defects. Thirdly, a multi-physics CFST-PZT coupling finite element model (FEM) with interface debonding defects is established, and EMI of surface-mounted PZT sensors at different locations is simulated. The influence of interface debonding defects on EMI measurements is illustrated. Finally, a blind inspection on the interface bonding condition of selected CFST columns in an existing skyscraper in service using the proposed approach is carried out. Both bonding and debonding defect in the tested CFST columns are detected correctly and validated with drilling hole observation. Experimental, numerical and engineering application results show the proposed approach is effective for interface debonding detection of CFST members and sensitive to minor debonding defect of 0.3 mm in CFST members.

Damage detection and localization based on different types of actuators using the electromechanical impedance method in 3D-printed material

Electromechanical impedance (EMI) measurement, using piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) in the high-frequency range is a potential method for assessing the health of lightweight structures. The major objective of this work is to comprehend how different actuators react to damage in additively manufactured (AM) polymer structures. A novel frequency-range selection technique was suggested based on the maxima of the standard deviation of the impedance frequency spectra gathered for the referential and damage cases. A 3D-printed acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plate was used for the investigation, where two PZT and one macro fiber composite (MFC) actuator were glued to the surface. Small magnets were used to simulate damage and were positioned at increasing distances from each transducer as EMI measurements were made using the MFC and 1 PZT. This served both in studying the transducers’ sensitivity to damage and selecting the proper frequency range for damage detection utilizing the standard-deviation approach. The EMI-acquired data from the MFC actuator displays damage-sensitive peaks in a low-frequency band (0–58 ), while the PZT shows a good sensitivity in a higher frequency range (94–304 ). In order to evaluate the PZT and MFC actuators’ sensitivity to damage in the 3D-printed ABS plate, impact damage is also generated in the plate’s center. The impedance-based damage indices obtained from different types of PZTs (2 PZTs and 1 MFC) were projected to the same base level and then fused—for the first time—for impact-damage localization and further added magnetic mass damage localization. The obtained damage index values of impedance are encouraging for the evaluation of AM polymer structures with a 4.48 mm positional error from a real location by fusing data in the different frequency ranges for PZTs and MFC. The damage localization error increases significantly to the new location beyond the damage sensitivity range of the PZT2 and MFC for the added magnetic mass on the 3D printed structure.

Impact energy assessment of sandwich composites using an ensemble approach boosted by deep learning and electromechanical impedance

Sandwich composites are prone to delamination and fracture during service when exposed to external low-velocity impact. One hindrance to overcome before a broader deployment of sandwich composites is the issue of impact energy assessment (IEA). To promote the solution to this issue, an ensemble deep learning approach is proposed in this study. The approach comprises data expansion, series-to-image conversion, and convolutional neural networks (CNN). The data expansion is implemented using vertical average interpolation. The enhanced data are transformed into images via the Gramian angular summation field to build an image dataset for the CNN model. To validate the developed ensemble approach, hammer-dropping impact experiments on the honeycomb sandwich composites are carried out based on the piezoelectric wafer active sensor network and electromechanical impedance measurement. Accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score indicators are introduced to evaluate the ensemble approach performance. The above indicator values are all above 0.9600, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed ensemble approach in settling the IEA issue.

Sandwich Face Layer Debonding Detection and Size Estimation by Machine-Learning-Based Evaluation of Electromechanical Impedance Measurements

The present research proposes a two-step physics- and machine-learning(ML)-based electromechanical impedance (EMI) measurement data evaluation approach for sandwich face layer debonding detection and size estimation in structural health monitoring (SHM) applications. As a case example, a circular aluminum sandwich panel with idealized face layer debonding was used. Both the sensor and debonding were located at the center of the sandwich. Synthetic EMI spectra were generated by a finite-element(FE)-based parameter study, and were used for feature engineering and ML model training and development. Calibration of the real-world EMI measurement data was shown to overcome the FE model simplifications, enabling their evaluation by the found synthetic data-based features and models. The data preprocessing and ML models were validated by unseen real-world EMI measurement data collected in a laboratory environment. The best detection and size estimation performances were found for a One-Class Support Vector Machine and a K-Nearest Neighbor model, respectively, which clearly showed reliable identification of relevant debonding sizes. Furthermore, the approach was shown to be robust against unknown artificial disturbances, and outperformed a previous method for debonding size estimation. The data and code used in this study are provided in their entirety, to enhance comprehensibility, and to encourage future research.

Electromechanical impedance-based embeddable smart composite for condition-state monitoring

In the present study, an alternating current (AC) based electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique was employed to evaluate the performance of smart cementitious composite-based impedance sensor (SCC- i S) over a frequency range, and then was employed as embeddable sensor for monitoring and assessing the health of concrete structure. For this purpose, a method for developing SCC-iS by reinforcing the carboxylic group (COOH-) multi-walled carbon nanotube (COOH-MWCNT) in the cementitious composite matrix is described. The optimal CNT concentration in SCC- i S was obtained based on the AC impedance measurement technique over a specified frequency range. After finding the optimal CNT concentration in SCC- i S, their piezoresistive behaviour (in terms of change in electrical impedance or electrical conductance) was examined using an electro-mechanical impedance measurement approach under uniaxial compressive loading. Finally, the developed sensor is employed as an embedded sensor for damage monitoring of structures under flexural loading. The acquired electrical impedance- and conductance- responses from the SCC- i S were utilized to evaluate the occurrence and progression of damage in real-time. The damage metric and the shift in frequency band were used to quantify the level of damage in the structures. From the experimental study, 0.50 wt% CNT concentration is found to be optimum for developing the efficient SCC- i S. Under the uniaxial compressive loading, the electrical variation in impedance (EVZ) and electrical variation in conductance (EVC) in SCC- i S exhibit excellent correlation with compressive strain and are capable of detecting the damage. The acquired signals from embedded SCC- i S show the effectiveness and sensitivity (in both qualitative and quantitative terms) for damage monitoring of structures; even they are capable of tracing the early-stage damage initiation in concrete structures. The electrical conductance spectra within a specified frequency range show a leftward shift, indicating the degradation in stiffness of concrete structure. Overall, the developed SCC- i S is the first of its kind and is found to be very effective and durable for real-time monitoring of structures, especially in the aggressive environment. • Development of smart nanoengineered composite using functionalized CNT. • Embedded sensors for capturing the electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) signature. • Sensor characterization and evaluation of piezoresistive behavior in frequency bands. • Demonstration for damage monitoring of structures under flexural loading. • Damage metric and shift in frequency band for accurate damage quantification.

Monitoring of Cylindrical Plunge Grinding Process by Electromechanical Impedance

One of the most promising monitoring techniques is based on electromechanical impedance (EMI) transducers, which are low-cost components and allow easy implementation. EMI signal features showed good results for some applications in previous studies, but it is still unexplored for machining processes, which is essential for metal-cutting industries. This paper presents a new approach to verify the applicability of EMI measurements to monitor surface quality after the plunge cylindrical grinding of non-flat parts, which require low roughness and tight dimensional tolerances. Tests were carried out in a camshaft grinder and two low-cost piezoelectric diaphragms were attached to each workpiece to guarantee redundancy. Roughness <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{R}_{\mathbf {a}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> was also monitored to check existence of correlation with the EMI signals and relevant discussions regarding monitoring by EMI are presented. Results showed a great correlation between EMI measurement and surface roughness: 0.94 and 0.80 for both diaphragms. Since these diaphragms cost less than 1 US dollar and good correlation was verified, this monitoring system is promising to replace the traditional ones.

Monitoring the mechanical properties of flyash incorporated cement composite using complimentary passive-active wave propagation techniques

ABSTRACT For safe construction practise, it is important to monitor the hardening process of concrete during the construction stage itself. Moreover, with the increasing use of supplementary cement-based materials (SCM) in concrete construction which adversely alters (significantly delays) the setting and strength gain in concrete, it becomes highly imperative to closely monitor and examine the development of properties of cement composite in the structural system during hardening. In view of this, the present study investigates the efficacy of the non-invasive wave propagation methods employing Acoustic Emission (AE) and electromechanical impedance (EMI), through passive and active signatures, respectively, in monitoring the hardening process of just poured SCM incorporated cement system. Results showed that AE parameters combined with the frequency analysis could be able to qualitatively provide the information on the hardening process in cement mixtures made with varying levels of flyash replacements. AE results are further correlated with the properties such as stiffness of the material system obtained through EMI measurement and strength property. Correlations are found to be very consistent and will be helpful for continuous monitoring of strength and stiffness gain in cement composite during the construction stage, through non-invasive, non-destructive, in-situ technique combining AE and EMI.

Experimental Investigation of Damage Evolution Characteristics of C50 Concrete under Impact Load

Impact loads widely exist in practical engineering and often cause cumulative damage and cracks or even fracture failure of concrete structures with their repeated long-term action. This experimental research is conducted on the damage evolution characteristics of concrete under impact loads by regarding C50 nonreinforced concrete as the research object and using a self-developed drop-weight device with electromechanical impedance measurement technology. Results show the following. (1) Under low-energy impact, concrete damage has long continuous development process and remarkable cumulative effects. An apparently sudden break characteristic appears before failure. Under high-energy impact, concrete damage accumulates rapidly, and piezoceramic patch signals grow linearly. (2) The root mean square deviation (RMSD) of the concrete increases exponentially with impact times. Particularly, when the RMSD exceeds 0.075, the concrete damage process enters the rapid development stage and approaches the critical failure state. (3) Under the experimental conditions in this study, the relationship between the ultimate impact times (damage life) and impact heights of the concrete samples shows the development trend of the power function. The above results can provide reference for the research on service life prediction methods of concrete structures under impact loads.

Development of a Piezoelectric Transducer-Based Integrated Structural Health Monitoring System for Impact Monitoring and Impedance Measurement

Structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques, which are also considered as online nondestructive testing methods, are significant in modern structural engineering due to their ability to guarantee structure safety while reducing maintenance cost. It is often necessary to combine different SHM methods to achieve a more reliable damage detection result. However, the hardware of the SHM systems is usually expensive, bulky, and heavy when they are designed separately. Therefore, this paper proposes a three-layer architecture for designing an integrated multi-function SHM system to achieve a small, lightweight, and low power consumption SHM system. Based on the architecture, an integrated SHM system with impact monitoring and electromechanical impedance measurement is developed. In addition, a scheduling module is developed to manage the two functions of the system. Furthermore, an integrated interface is developed to transfer the data and the command. Then, an integrated printed circuit board is designed and manufactured to achieve the aforementioned functions. The designed system is applied for impact monitoring and damage detection for a supporting structure of a sailplane.

An open database for benchmarking guided waves structural health monitoring algorithms on a composite full-scale outer wing demonstrator

This article reports on the creation of an open database of piezo-actuated and piezo-received guided wave signals propagating in a composite panel of a full-scale aeronautical structure. The composite panel closes the bottom part of a wingbox that, along with the leading edge, the trailing edge, and the wingtip, forms an outer wing demonstrator approximately 4.5 m long and from 1.2 to 2.3 m wide. To create the database, a structural health monitoring system, composed of a software/hardware central unit capable of controlling a network of 160 piezoelectric transducers secondarily bonded on the composite panel, has been realized. The structural health monitoring system has been designed to (1) perform electromechanical impedance measurement at each transducer, in order to check for their reliability and bonding strength, and (2) to operate an active guided wave screening for damage detection in the composite panel. Electromechanical impedance and guided wave measurements were performed at four different testing stages: before loading, before fatigue, before impacts, and after impacts. The database, freely available at http://shm.ing.unibo.it/, can thus be used to benchmarking, on real-scale structural data, guided wave algorithms for loading, fatigue, as well as damage detection, characterization, and sizing. As an example, in this work, a delay and sum algorithm is applied on the post-impact data to illustrate how the database can be exploited.

Grout compactness monitoring of concrete-filled fiber-reinforced polymer tube using electromechanical impedance

The concrete-filled fiber-reinforced polymer tube (CFFT) is a type of structural element widely used in corrosive environments. Poor grout compactness results in incomplete contact or even no contact between the fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) tube and the concrete grout, which reduces the load bearing capacity of a CFFT. The monitoring of grout compactness for CFFTs is important. The piezoceramic-based electromechanical impedance (EMI) method has emerged as an efficient and low-cost structural health monitoring technique. This paper presents a feasibility study using the EMI method to monitor grout compactness of CFFTs. In this research, CFFT specimens with different levels of compactness (empty, 1/5, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, and full compactness) were prepared and subjected to EMI measurement by using four piezoceramic patches that were bonded circumferentially along the outer surface of the CFFT. To analyze the correlation between grout compactness and EMI signatures, a compactness index (CI) was proposed based on the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD). The experimental results show that the changes in admittance signatures are able to determine the grout compactness qualitatively. The proposed CI is able to effectively identify the compactness of the CFFT, and provides location information of the incomplete concrete infill.

Experimental evaluation of load-induced damage in concrete from distributed microcracks to localized cracking on electro-mechanical impedance response of bonded PZT

The main focus of this paper is monitoring evolution of damage in concrete, from distributed microcracks to localized cracking, under compressive loading using bonded lead zirconate titanate (PZT) patches. Incremental load-induced material damage, from distributed microcracks to localized cracks, is evaluated experimentally using measures of mechanical compliance and surface displacements obtained using a full-field optical technique based on digital image correlation. The relationships between forms of material damage, visual indication of damage, mechanical compliance of the material and resonant mode in the electro-mechanical (EM) impedance measurement of a PZT bonded to a concrete substrate, are investigated. Incipient damage in the form of distributed micro-cracks results in a decrease in the frequency and a change in the amplitude of the resonant peak in the conductance spectrum obtained from EM impedance measurement. Evolution of microcracks produce an increase in substrate compliance and an increase in material damping, which produce consistent changes in EM conductance. Localization of damage in the form of major cracks produces broadening of the resonant peak in the conductance spectrum. Significant variability in the response of the PZT is produced because of the spatial heterogeneity introduced by the crack. The root mean square deviation derived from conductance spectrum centered on the resonant peak indicates trends identical to the changes in the mechanical compliance of the substrate produced by damage.

Application of the Fatigue Crack Opening/Closing Effect for SHM Using Electromechanical Impedance Technology

Earlier the effect of fatigue crack opening/closing (FCOC) to ultrasound guided wave propagation was investigated. The purpose of this article is to evaluate this effect to the electromechanical impedance (EMI) of the system "piezoelectric transducer / host structure. Experimental study performed using the flat samples of aluminum alloy. One of them had the 4 mm central hole. Other sample after fatigue testing had central fatigue crack of 40 mm length (including a 4 mm central hole for the initiation of a fatigue crack. Each sample was loaded by tensile axial static load from zero to 12 kN and the EMI measurement after eacn 2 kN incrementat of load. The EMI was measured in the frequency range of 20-40 kHz. It is established that the FCOC effect to magnitude and reactance of EMI mainly associated with variation of the capacitance of PZT under mechanical load. But the effect to the PZT resistance is more complex and more significant. The result of the study is the base of some procedure of fatigue crack detecting by the EMI method without baseline use. The developed model of EMI of ’host structure – PZT’ that is based on the modal decomposition of dynamic response of this system allows to solve main problems of the SHM system designing and optimizing of its parameters.

Influence of support conditions and temperature on the EMI characteristics

The present work reports results from an extensive set of measurements which has been performed in order to formulate standard method to remove temperature changes from impedance measurements. The other issue addressed here is the investigation of influence of boundary condition and temperature changes on electromechanical impedance measurement for structural member. Due to electromechanical coupling, changes in dynamic characteristics can be seen in electrical impedance of piezoelectric transducer. Two different systems have been used during this measurement process. System based on FBG sensors has been used for temperature changes measurement while PZT transducers mounted on the structure with impedance analyser were used for electrical parameters measurement. During research electrical impedance and resistance of piezoelectric transducer were measured in order to analyze changes in amplitude of peaks and the frequency shift of peaks due to temperature variations and different configurations of the beam.

Electromechanical impedance measurement from large structures using a dual piezoelectric transducer

This study develops a new electromechanical (EM) impedance measurement technique specifically for continuous monitoring of large structures. Conventionally, a single surface-mounted lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducer is often used to measure the EM impedance of a coupled PZT-structure system for damage diagnosis. However, when the target structure is massive, the impedance measurement becomes challenging. In this study, a dual piezoelectric transducer, composed of two separate but concentric PZT segments, is used for effective measurement of the EM impedance from large-scale structures. The impedance measurement using the dual PZT is theoretically formulated and numerically verified. Then, a series of experiments are carried out on a laboratory-size specimen and full-scale bridge and building structures. The experimental results reveal that the proposed technique successfully measures the EM impedance signals from massive structures with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and good repeatability even when the conventional techniques fail to do so. At the same time, the proposed technique allows low-cost and fast measurement of impedance signals.

Monitoring of Laminated Composites Delamination Based on Electro-Mechanical Impedance Measurement

This paper paves the way for a multi-damage monitoring system for composite structures. The final goal of this work being to design a monitoring system able to predict the damage in the composite structure under static and fatigue loading. This system will be based on the simultaneous use of measurement and damage predicting models. We describe the first step of this work, which consists in the use of electro-mechanical impedance measurement to detect delamination. An electro-mechanical model of a beam into which delamination has been introduced is presented and compared with experimental results. The influence of geometrical parameters is studied and future improvements of our method are outlined.