Title:An Innovative Active Sensing Platform for Wireless Damage Monitoring of Concrete Structures
VOLUME: 1 ISSUE: 1
Author(s):Costas Providakis, Stavros Tsistrakis, Maristella Voutetaki, John Tsompanakis, Maria Stavroulaki, John Agadakos, Eleftherios Kampianakis, George Pentes and Evangelos Liarakos
Affiliation:Laboratory of Applied Mechanics, School of Architectural Engineering, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, Office : 141.B.85, Building of Sciences, P.O. Box: 73100, Chania, Greece.
Keywords:Concrete damage detection, electromechanical impedance method, extreme value statistics, Raspberry Pi, PZT sensor/
actuator.
Abstract:Background: A major concern of the current concrete structures technology
is to develop systems that can monitor their own structural integrity condition in
real time. This paper presents the development of a portable and innovative wireless
damage monitoring system based on an alternative consideration of electromechanical
impedance concept, integrating PZT sensors/actuators transducers into the concrete
structures themselves.
Methods: The proposed wireless monitoring system for active sensing is designed,
built, tested and provided with all capabilities needed to perform an integrity assessment
by means of the use of a Raspberry Pi single-board microcomputer as the
core hardware element to control the whole system function.
Results: It is found that the proposed alternative of the electromechanical impedance (EMI) technique
associated with decision boundaries based on extreme value statistics is very sensitive to the damage introduced
in concrete structures from their earliest stage. The tests run on the developed prototype prove
that the proposed monitoring platform can actually be used to perform damage detection investigation
with the required accuracy.
Conclusion: Its effectiveness and low cost make this platform a very promising contribution towards
the implementation of large-scale wireless structural health monitoring applications.
