• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2012

The main objective of this study is to examine the feasibility of using lead zirconate titanate (PZT)'s direct piezoelectric response as vibrational feature for damage monitoring in beam structures. For the purpose, modal strain energy (MSE)-based damage monitoring in beam structures using dynamic strain response based on the direct piezoelectric effect of PZT sensor is proposed in this paper. The following approaches are used to achieve the objective. First, the theoretical background of PZT's direct piezoelectric effect for dynamic strain response is presented. Next, the damage monitoring method that utilizes the change in MSE to locate of damage in beam structures is outlined. For validation, forced vibration tests are carried out on lab-scale cantilever beam. For several damage scenarios, dynamic responses are measured by three different sensor types (accelerometer, PZT sensor and electrical strain gage) and damage monitoring tasks are performed thereafter. The performance of PZT's direct piezoelectric response for MSE-based damage monitoring is evaluated by comparing the damage localization results from the three sensor types.