• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.303-317
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• 2011

A specially designed tendon, which is proposed by embedding an FBG sensor into the center king cable of a 7-wire strand tendon, was applied to monitor the prestress force and load transfer of ground anchor. A series of tensile tests and a model pullout test were performed to verify the feasibility of the proposed smart tendon as a measuring sensor of tension force and load transfer along the tendon. The smart tendon has proven to be very effective for monitoring prestress force and load transfer by measuring the strain change of the tendon at the free part and the fixed part of ground anchor, respectively. Two 11.5 m long proto-type ground anchors were made simply by replacing a tendon with the proposed smart tendon and prestress forces of each anchor were monitored during the loading-unloading step using both FBG sensor embedded in the smart tendon and the conventional load cell. By comparing the prestress forces measured by the smart tendon and load cell, it was found that the prestress force monitored from the FBG sensor located at the free part is comparable to that measured from the conventional load cell. Furthermore, the load transfer of prestressing force at the tendon-grout interface was clearly measured from the FBGs distributed along the fixed part. From these pullout tests, the proposed smart tendon is not only expected to be an alternative monitoring tool for measuring prestress force from the introducing stage to the long-term period for health monitoring of the ground anchor but also can be used to improve design practice through determining the economic fixed length by practically measuring the load transfer depth.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.33-38
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• 2007

This paper reports an attempt to develop 7-wire steel tendon which is instrumented with optical FBG sensors. The tendon is devised to replace the king cable, which is located in the center of the tendon, by a steel tube in which the FBG sensor are attached along the hole using a high-mobility polyester resin. The circular steel tube has typical of 5 mm outer diameter and 1 mm inner diameter, and can easily be manufactured by means of an pultrusion process. Using the tube, in this study, three different types of one meter-long smart tendons are fabricated depending on mixture ratio of polyester resin and initiator. The performance of the FBG sensors as well as mechanical characteristics of the prototype are tested through the tensile test. Test results shows that the proposed smart tendon is in principle very effective for measuring the working strain of the tendon.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.489-504
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• 2012

For the safety of prestressed structures such as cable-stayed bridges and prestressed concrete bridges, it is very important to ensure the prestress force of cable or tendon. The loss of prestress force could significantly reduce load carrying capacity of the structure and even result in structural collapse. The objective of this study is to present a smart PZT-interface for wireless impedance-based prestress-loss monitoring in tendon-anchorage connection. Firstly, a smart PZT-interface is newly designed for sensitively monitoring of electro-mechanical impedance changes in tendon-anchorage subsystem. To analyze the effect of prestress force, an analytical model of tendon-anchorage is described regarding to the relationship between prestress force and structural parameters of the anchorage contact region. Based on the analytical model, an impedance-based method for monitoring of prestress-loss is conducted using the impedance-sensitive PZT-interface. Secondly, wireless impedance sensor node working on Imote2 platforms, which is interacted with the smart PZT-interface, is outlined. Finally, experiment on a lab-scale tendon-anchorage of a prestressed concrete girder is conducted to evaluate the performance of the smart PZT-interface along with the wireless impedance sensor node on prestress-loss detection. Frequency shift and cross correlation deviation of impedance signature are utilized to estimate impedance variation due to prestress-loss.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.181-195
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• 2017

In this study, the severity of damage in tendon anchorage caused by the loss of tendon forces is quantitatively identified by using the PZT interface-based impedance monitoring technique. Firstly, a 2-DOF impedance model is newly designed to represent coupled dynamic responses of PZT interface-host structure. Secondly, the 2-DOF impedance model is adopted for the tendon anchorage system. A prototype of PZT interface is designed for the impedance monitoring. Then impedance signatures are experimentally measured from a laboratory-scale tendon anchorage structure with various tendon forces. Finally, damage severities of the tendon anchorage induced by the variation of tendon forces are quantitatively identified from the phase-by-phase model updating process, from which the change in impedance signatures is correlated to the change in structural properties.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.375-393
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• 2015

In this study, local dynamic characteristics of mountable PZT interfaces are numerically analyzed to verify their feasibility on impedance monitoring of the prestress-loss in tendon anchorage subsystems. Firstly, a prestressed tendon-anchorage system with mountable PZT interfaces is described. Two types of mountable interfaces which are different in geometric and boundary conditions are designed for impedance monitoring in the tendon-anchorage subsystems. Secondly, laboratory experiments are performed to evaluate the impedance monitoring via the two mountable PZT interfaces placed on the tendon-anchorage under the variation of prestress forces. Impedance features such as frequency-shifts and root-mean-square-deviations are quantified for the two PZT interfaces. Finally, local dynamic characteristics of the two PZT interfaces are numerically analyzed to verify their performances on impedance monitoring at the tendon-anchorage system. For the two PZT interfaces, the relationships between structural parameters and local vibration responses are examined by modal sensitivity analyses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.79-86
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• 2009

With the substantial increase of the size of structure, the management of excavation becomes more difficult. Therefore, massive collapses which are related to retaining wall recently increase. However, since the study on measuring and monitoring the pre-stressing force of anchor is insufficient, behavior of anchor may not be predicted and monitored appropriately by the existing strain gauge and load cell type monitoring system. FBG Sensor, which is smaller than strain gauge and has better durability and does not have a noise from electromagnetic waves, is adapted to measure the strain and pre-stressing force of 7-wire strand, so called smart tendon. A series of pullout tests were performed to verify the feasibility of smart tendon and find out the load transfer mechanism around the steel wire tendon fixed to rock with grout. Distribution of measured strains and estimated shear stresses are compared with those predicted by theoretical solutions. It was found that developed smart tendon can be used effectively for measuring strain of 7-wire strand anchor and theoretical solutions underestimate the magnitude of shear stress and load transfer depth.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 2018

For the long-term structural health monitoring of civil structures, the effect of ambient temperature variation has been regarded as one of the critical issues. In this study, a principal component analysis (PCA)-based algorithm is proposed to filter out temperature effects on electromechanical impedance (EMI) monitoring of prestressed tendon anchorages. Firstly, the EMI monitoring via a piezoelectric interface device is described for prestress-loss detection in the tendon anchorage system. Secondly, the PCA-based temperature filtering algorithm tailored to the EMI monitoring of the prestressed tendon anchorage is outlined. The proposed algorithm utilizes the damage-sensitive features obtained from sub-ranges of the EMI data to establish the PCA-based filter model. Finally, the feasibility of the PCA-based algorithm is experimentally evaluated by distinguishing temperature changes from prestress-loss events in a prestressed concrete girder. The accuracy of the prestress-loss detection results is discussed with respect to the EMI features before and after the temperature filtering.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1159-1175
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• 2015

In this study, the effect of temperature variation on the wireless impedance monitoring is analyzed for the tendon-anchorage connection of the prestressed concrete girder. Firstly, three impedance features, which are peak frequency, root mean square deviation (RMSD) index, and correlation coefficient (CC) index, are selected to estimate the effects of temperature variation and prestress-loss on impedance signatures. Secondly, wireless impedance tests are performed on the tendon-anchorage connection for which a series of temperature variation and prestress-loss events are simulated. Thirdly, the effect of temperature variation on impedance signatures measured from the tendon-anchorage connection is estimated by the three impedance features. Finally, the effect of prestress-loss on impedance signatures is also estimated by the three impedance features. The relative effects of temperature variation and prestress-loss are comparatively examined.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.269-277
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• 2017

Recently, there has been significant interest in structural health monitoring for civil engineering applications. In this research, a specially designed tendon, proposed by embedding FBG sensors into the center king cable of a 7-wire strand tendon, was applied for long-term health monitoring of tensile forces on a ground anchor. To make temperature independent sensors, the effective temperature compensation of FBG sensors must be considered. The temperature sensitivity coefficient ${\beta}^{\prime}$ of the FBG sensors embedded tendon was successfully determined to be $2.0{\times}10^{-5}^{\circ}C^{-1}$ through calibrated tests in both a model rock body and a laboratory heat chamber. Furthermore, the obtained result for ${\beta}^{\prime}$ was formally verified through the ground temperature measurement test, expectedly. As a result, the ground temperature measured by a thermometer showed good agreement compared to that measured by the proposed FBG sensor, which was calibrated considering to the temperature sensitivity coefficient ${\beta}^{\prime}$. Finally, four prototype ground anchors including two tension ground anchors and two compression ground anchors made by replacing a tendon with the proposed smart tendon were installed into an actual slope at the Yeosu site. Tensile forces, after temperature compensation was taken into account using the verified temperature sensitivity coefficient ${\beta}^{\prime}$ and ground temperature obtained from the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA) have been monitored for over one year, and the results were very consistent to those measured from the load cell, interestingly.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.287-294
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• 2008

This study proposes a novel method for in service evaluation of tension force of a prestressed 7-wire strand which is frequently employed for retrofitting bridge superstructure. The smart strand is made by replacing the straight king wire of the strand with an instrumented steel tube in which the FBG sensor is embedded. Since the strain of the smart strand can easily be measured using the sensor, it is possible to monitor tension force of the strand during the service. For the sake of demonstrating effectiveness of the proposed strand, we came up with a 7.0m long prototype with 2 FBG sensors, and it is applied as an external tendon to a 6.4m long and 0.6 high RC T-shaped beam. A loading-unloading test has been carried out, and estimated tension forces using the smart strand are compared with measured forces by load cell. The comparison showed that the proposed smart tendon is useful and accurate for monitering tension force of the prestressed tendon.