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Development and evaluation of reusable piezo sensors for health monitoring of thin-walled steel structures

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A Correction to this article was published on 09 July 2022

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Abstract

This article presents the fabrication and testing of a new reusable piezo sensor configuration along with a practical damage detection cum localization algorithm. The proposed sensor configuration is suitable for widespread application of the electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique on large-sized thin-walled steel structures. Traditionally, the EMI technique uses piezo sensors permanently surface bonded on the structure. However, this not only increases the risk of deterioration over a period, but also demands a large number of piezo sensors to accurately locate damage and assess its severity. The proposed sensor configuration, on the other hand, deploys a miniaturized hassle-free configuration consisting of a piezo sensor bonded on a detachable nut–bolt–washer combination, imparting it flexibility of multiple usage at various locations of the same structure on a one-by-one basis, thus significantly reducing the number of sensors. Its repeatability is ensured by using a specified torque of 25 Nm for tightening the nut–bolt system and the same has been verified experimentally using the correlation coefficient. The proposed reusable configuration is successfully demonstrated for damage diagnosis consisting of damage detection and localization on a large steel plate-type structure. The outcome of this study is a reusable sensor and the associated simple damage localization algorithm suitable for monitoring large 2D structures in a cost-effective manner as compared to the conventional surface-bonded configuration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, 110 016, India

    Sushmita Baral, Sailesh Adhikari, Prateek Negi & Suresh Bhalla

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Pashchimanchal Campus, IOE, Tribhuvan University, Pokhara, 33700, Nepal

    Sailesh Adhikari

  3. The Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Prateek Negi

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  1. Sushmita Baral
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  2. Sailesh Adhikari
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  3. Prateek Negi
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  4. Suresh Bhalla
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Correspondence to Suresh Bhalla.

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Baral, S., Adhikari, S., Negi, P. et al. Development and evaluation of reusable piezo sensors for health monitoring of thin-walled steel structures. J Civil Struct Health Monit 12, 647–657 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13349-022-00567-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13349-022-00567-3

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