Experimental Research on Damage Detection of Concrete Structures Based on Piezoelectric Smart Aggregates

Abstract

The piezoelectric ceramic (PZT) smart aggregates as sensor and actuator were embedded into large eccentric compression column to generate sin-sweep signals on-line and detect real-time signals before and after damage. The PZT active health monitoring and wavelet packets energy method were focused experimentally on the effectiveness validation of damage detection. The index of root mean square deviation is used to evaluate the damage information by compare of the energy change of damage signals. A statistical pattern identification algorithm is proposed by wavelet packets decomposition and statistical characteristics analysis of damage signal amplitude. The results show that the amplitude of active monitoring signals produces a larger attenuation. The sweep wave signal as active health monitoring is an effective method to identify damage degree and general location of concrete structure. The developed method can primarily be used in the damage evaluation.