• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.159-171
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• 2014

Real-time near and far-field monitoring of concrete structural components gives enough information on the time and condition at which damage occurs, thereby facilitating damage detection while in the same time evaluate the cause of the damage. This paper experimentally investigates an integrated monitoring technique for near and far-field damage detection in concrete structures based on simultaneous use of electromechanical admittance technique in combination with guided wave propagation. The proposed sensing system does not measure the electromechanical admittance itself but detect time variations in output voltages of the response signal obtained across the electrodes of piezoelectric transducers bonded on surfaces of concrete structures. The damage identification is based on the spectral estimation MUSIC algorithm. Experimental results show the efficiency and performance of the proposed measuring technique.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.811-830
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• 2014

A numerical study has been carried out to simulate an innovative monitoring procedure to detect and localize damage in reinforced concrete beams retrofitted with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) unidirectional laminates. The main novelty of the present simulation is its ability to conduct the electromechanical admittance monitoring technique by considerably compressing the amount of data required for damage detection and localization. A FEM simulation of electromechanical admittance-based sensing technique was employed by applying lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducers to acquire impedance spectrum signatures. Response surface methodology (RSM) is finally adopted as a tool for solving inverse problems to estimate the location and size of damaged areas from the relationship between damage and electromechanical admittance changes computed at PZT transducer surfaces. This statistical metamodel technique allows polynomial models to be produced without requiring complicated modeling or numerous data sets after the generation of damage, leading to considerably lower cost of creating diagnostic database. Finally, a numerical example is carried out regarding a steel-reinforced concrete (RC) beam model monotonically loaded up to its failure which is also retrofitted by a CFRP laminate to verify the validity of the present metamodeling monitoring technique. The load-carrying capacity of concrete is predicted in the present paper by utilizing an Ottosen-type failure surface in order to better take into account the passive confinement behavior of retrofitted concrete material under the application of FRP laminate.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.165-180
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• 2015

In this paper lead zirconate titanate transducers (PZT) are employed for damage detection of four reinforced concrete (RC) column specimens retrofitted with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) jackets. A major disadvantage of FRP jacketing in RC members is the inability to inspect visually if the concrete substrate is damaged and in such case to estimate the extent of damage. The parameter measured during uniaxial compression tests at random times for known strain values is the real part of the complex number of the Electromechanical Admittance (Conductance) of the sensors, obtained by a PXI platform. The transducers are placed in specific positions along the height of the columns for detecting the damage in different positions and carrying out conclusions for the variation of the Conductance in relation to the position the failure occurred. The quantification of the damage at the concrete substrate is achieved with the use of the root-mean-square-deviation (RMSD) index, which is evaluated for the corresponding strain values. The experimental results provide evidence that PZT transducers are sensitive to damage detection from an early stage of the experiment and that the use of PZT sensors for monitoring and detecting the damage of FRP-retrofitted reinforced concrete members, by using the Electromechanical Admittance (EMA) approach, can be a highly promising method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2014.04a
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• pp.374-378
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• 2014

The piezoelectric materials convert from mechanical energy to electrical energy. The piezoelectric materials are used in various engineering applications such as piezoelectric ultrasonic actuators. Since the piezoelectric coupling characteristics of the actuator systems should be considered at the initial design stage, it is essential to analyze the piezoelectric coupling characteristics of the ultrasonic actuators. In this study, we analyzed the electromechanical characteristics of piezoelectric stacked actuator using the equivalent circuit model with modal mass stiffness parameters. It was compared the admittance of piezoelectric stack actuators with the analytical circuit model and the finite element model. Also, the coupling coefficient of piezoelectric stack actuator was discussed according to the number of stacks of actuators.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.187-194
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• 2002

A seven-port impedance and admittance matrices of multilayered piezoelectric beam are derived for the analysis of piezoelectric AFM ( atomic force microscope) cantilever that is partially covered by the piezoelectric layer. The variational principle is used for deriving the extensional and flexural motional equations and the conjugate parameters. Overall impedance matrix of AFM cantilever can be obtained by combining two impedance matrices of the covered and the non-covered. she resonance and antiresonance frequencies and the effective electromechanical coupling factors are calculated using the derived matrices. The results and the three dimensional finite element solutions are compared with the experimental results in other publication.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.501-508
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• 2007

This paper presents the feasibility of using electromechanical impedance based active sensing technique for nondestructive strength gain monitoring of early-age concrete by employing piezoelectric lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) patches on concrete surface. The strength development of early age concrete is actively monitored by performing a series of experiments on concrete specimens under moist curing condition. The electrical admittance signatures are acquired for five different curing ages and compared with each other. The resonant frequency shifts of PZT patches with increasing days is observed which is on account of additional stiffening due to strength gain of concrete during curing and level of stiffening being related to strength obtained from compression tests on companion cylinder specimens. The proposed approach is found to be suitable for monitoring the development of compressive strength in early-age concrete. It is also observed in this study that root mean square deviation (RMSD) in admittance signatures of the PZT patches can also be used as an indicator of concrete strength development.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.226-229
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• 2005

In this study, a step-down piezoelectric transformer was fabricated to utilize as an adapter for charging batteries of mobile electronic appliances. The ceramic part of the transformer is $Pb[(Mn_{1/3}Sb_{2/3})_{0.05}Zr_{0.475}Ti_{0.475}]O_3$ with mechanical quality factor of 1600, electromechanical coupling coefficient 59 %, and piezoelectric constant d33 1300, which can be utilized as a piezoelectric transformer. A simply fabricated disk-typed test pattern of diameter 28 mm and thickness 2 mm was used to characterize resonant frequency, Qm, kp according to the different input/output electrode area. efficiency and power as a function of load resistance was also investigated. The sample APT showed some spurious mode and BPT showed better frequency property. Taking all properties which are admittance, effective electromechanical coupling coefficient and mechanical quality factor most suitable for piezoelectric transformer is BPT which has 12 mm diameter electrode and the condition of 15 Vrms, 30 $\Omega$ made the maximum efficiency of 93.7 % and maximum power is 6W with 50 Vrms.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.1007-1013
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• 2005

In this study, a step-down piezoelectric transformer was fabricated to utilize as an adapter for charging batteries of mobile electronic appliances. The ceramic part of the transformer is $Pb[(Mn_{1/3}Sb_{2/3})_{_0.05}Zr_{0.475}Ti_{0.475}]O_3$ with mechanical quality factor of 1600, electromechanical coupling coefficient $59\%$, and piezoelectric constant $d_{33}$ 1300, which can be utilized as a piezoelectric transformer. A simply fabricated disk-typed test pattern of diameter 28 mm and thickness 2 mm was used to characterize output voltage, step-down ratio as a function of electrode area with the input remained constant, and power, efficiency as a function of input voltage, and temperature-dependent electric characteristics were evaluated. The sample APT1 showed the best properties. The highest admittance, effective electromechanical coupling coefficient and an appropriate mechanical quality factor were obtained at the sample with the input/output area ratio of 1:1.5 at the common electrode, and the condition of 20 $V_{rms}$, $50\;\Omega$ made the maximum efficiency of $95\%$. The temperature was increased by 14.7'E as the input voltage was increased for $50\;V_{rms},\;50\;\Omega$.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.35-46
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• 2008

In this paper the authors address the problem of comparing two different smart damping techniques using the numerical modelling of the electro-mechanical impedance for plate structures partially treated with active constrained layer damping treatments. The paper summarizes the modelling procedures including a finite element formulation capable of accounting for the observed behaviour. The example used is a smart cantilever plate structure containing a viscoelastic material (VEM) layer sandwiched between a piezoelectric constrained layer and the host vibrating plate. Comparisons are made between active constrained layer and active damping only and based on the resonance frequency amplitudes of the electrical admittance numerically evaluated at the surface of the piezoelectric model of the vibrating structure.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.319-338
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• 2015

The electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique makes use of surface-bonded lead zirconate titanate (PZT) patches as impedance transducers measuring impedance variations monitored on host structural components. The present experimental work further evaluate an alternative to the conventional EMI technique which performs measurements of the variations in the output voltage of PZT transducers rather than computing electromechanical impedance (or admittance) itself. This paper further evaluates a variant of the EMI approach presented in a previous work of the present authors, suitable, for low-cost concrete structures monitoring applications making use of a credit card-sized Raspberry Pi single board computer as core hardware unit. This monitoring approach is also deployed by introducing a new damage identification index based on the ratio between the area of the 2-D error ellipse of specific probability of EMI-based measurements containment over that of the 2-D error circle of equivalent probability. Experimental results of damages occurring in concrete cubic and beam specimens are investigated under increasing loading conditions. Results illustrate that the proposed technique is an efficient approach for identification and early detection of damage in concrete structures.