• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.217-229
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• 2017

The high-frequency electro-mechanical signatures, which are excited and received by piezoelectric wafers mounted on a beam, are sensitive to incipient defect in a beam. Predicting the sensing range of the piezoelectric wafers is needed to effectively conduct damage assessment of a beam through utilizing their advantage. Damping of a beam plays the most important role in determining the sensing range among other features. This paper has proposed a scheme for estimating high-frequency damping of a beam through electro-mechanical signatures of piezoelectric wafers mounted on the beam. Considering damping effect while resonance of a beam evolves, wave perspective is adopted to formulate the electro-mechanical signatures of piezoelectric wafers. The damping of a beam is estimated through the least squares method minimizing the difference between the calculated and the measured damping ratio function values which are obtained from formulated and measured electro-mechanical signatures, respectively. The validity of the proposed scheme has been demonstrated through numerical and experimental examples using an aluminum beam with collocated piezoelectric wafers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.246-259
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• 2011

This study presents a structural health monitoring (SHM) method for bolted connections by using multi-channel wireless impedance sensor nodes and multiple PZT-interfaces. To achieve the objective, the following approaches are implemented. Firstly, a PZT-interface is designed to monitor bolt loosening in bolted connection based on variation of electro-mechanical(EM) impedance signatures. Secondly, a wireless impedance sensor node is designed for autonomous, cost-efficient and multi-channel monitoring. For the sensor platform, Imote2 is selected on the basis of its high operating speed, low power requirement and large storage memory. Finally, the performance of the wireless sensor node and the PZT-interfaces is experimentally evaluated for a bolt-connection model Damage monitoring method using root mean square deviation(RMSD) index of EM impedance signatures is utilized to estimate the strength of the bolted joint.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2010.04a
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• pp.347-351
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• 2010

판과 같은 구조물의 손상 감지를 위해, 손상 전 구조물의 임피던스 신호를 기저신호(Baseline impedance signal)로 이용하여 직접적으로 비교하지 않는 새로운 개념의 무기저 손상진단 기법(Reference-free impedance method)을 제시한다. 박막 압전소자(이하 PZT)를 판의 상하 표면에 부착시킨 한 쌍의 병치 PZT를 이용하여 손상으로 인해 모드변환을 일으키는 전기역학적 신호(Electro Mechanical Signatures ; 이하 EMS)를 추출한다. 이 연구에서는 스펙트럼 요소법(Spectral Element Method ; 이하 SEM)을 이용하여 주파수 영역에서 병치된 PZT의 EMS를 파악하기 위한 수치해석을 수행한다. 특히, 손상에 의해 발생된 모드변환 EMSMC를 병치된 PZT의 극성에 기인한 신호분해 기법을 적용하여 추출하고, 분해된 모드변환 EMSMC가 손상의 위치와 크기에 따라 받는 영향을 추가로 분석한다.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.59-65
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• 2011

In structural health monitoring (SHM) using electro-mechanical impedance signatures, it is a critical issue for extremely large structures to extract the best damage diagnosis results, while minimizing unknown environmental effects, including temperature, humidity, and acoustic vibration. If the impedance signatures fluctuate because of these factors, these fluctuations should be eliminated because they might hide the characteristics of the host structural damages. This paper presents a long-term SHM technique under an unknown noisy environment for tidal current power plant structures. The obtained impedance signatures contained significant variations during the measurements, especially in the audio frequency range. To eliminate these variations, a continuous principal component analysis was applied, and the results were compared with the conventional approach using the RMSD (Root Mean Square Deviation) and CC (Cross-correlation Coefficient) damage indices. Finally, it was found that this approach could be effectively used for long-term SHM in noisy environments.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.184-187
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• 2005

Physical changes in a structural system may cause changes in mechanical impedance of the system. Due to the electro-mechanical coupling effect in piezoelectric materials, this change can be monitoring by the electrical impedance of the piezoelectric sensor. In this paper, the variability of electro-mechanical impedance caused by temperature effect is assessed to adjust impedance data used for EMI based damage detection in beams. First experiments on beams are described. Next, experiments were performed under the temperature varying condition, in the range of $3^{\circ}C\;to\;23^{\circ}C$. Finally, the relationship between temperatures and impedance signatures is analyzed empirically temperature-frequency patten for the test structure.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.123-134
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• 2016

The evolution of the electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) of a piezoelectricity (PZT) sensor was investigated to determine the setting times of cement paste in this study. The PZT sensor coated with non-conductive acrylic resin was embedded in fresh cement paste and the EMI signatures were continuously monitored. Vicat needle test and semi-adiabatic calorimetry test were also conducted to validate the EMI sensing technique. Significant changes in the EMI resonance peak magnitude and frequency during the setting period were observed and the setting times determined by EMI sensing technique were relevant to those measured by Vicat needle test and semi-adiabatic calorimetry test.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.225-231
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to develop a promising hybrid structural health monitoring system for structural joints. For this propose, the combined use of vibration-based techniques and electro-mechanical impedance technique is employed. For the verification of the proposed health monitoring scheme, a series of damage scenarios are designed to simulate various situations at which the connection joints can experience during their service life. The obtained experimental results, modal parameters and electro-magnetic impedance signatures, are carefully analyzed to recognize the connecting states and the target damage locations. From the analysis. it is shown that the proposed hybrid health monitoring system is successful for acquiring global and local damage information on the structural joints.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.669-674
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• 2007

To develop a promising hybrid structural health monitoring (SHM) system, a combined use of structural vibration and electro-mechanical (EM) impedance is proposed. The hybrid SHM system is designed to use vibration characteristics as global index and EM impedance as local index. The proposed health monitoring scheme is implemented into prestressed concrete (PSC) girder bridges for which a series of damage scenarios are designed to simulate various prestress-loss situations at which the target bridges car experience during their service life. The measured experimental results, modal parameters and electro-magnetic impedance signatures, are carefully analyzed to recognize the occurrence of damage and furthermore to indicate its location.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.101-113
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• 2006

Structural health monitoring results obtained with the electro-mechanical (E/M) impedance techniqueand Lamb wave transmission methods during fatigue crack propagation of an Arcan specimen instrumented with piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) are presented. The specimen was subjected in mixed-mode fatigue loading and a crack was propagated in stages. At each stage, an image of the crack and the location of the crack tip were recorded and the PWAS readings were taken. Hence, the crack-growth in the specimen could be correlated with the PWAS readings. The E/M impedance signature was recorded in the 100 - 500 kHz frequency range. The Lamb-wave transmission method used the pitch-catch approach with a 3-count sine tone burst of 474 kHz transmitted and received between various PWAS pairs. Fatigue loading was applied to initiate and propagate the crack damage of controlled magnitude. As damage progressed, the E/M impedance signatures and the waveforms received by receivers were recorded at predetermined intervals and compared. Data analysis indicated that both the E/M impedance signatures and the Lamb-wave transmission signatures are modified by the crack progression. Damage index values were observed to increase as the crack damage increases. These experiments demonstrated that the use of PWAS in conjunction with the E/M impedance and the Lamb-wave transmission is a potentially powerful tool for crack damage detection and monitoring in structural elements.