• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.616-625
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• 2011

Ensuring the designed prestress force is very important for the safety of prestressed concrete bridge. The loss of prestress force in tendon could significantly reduce load carrying capacity of the structure. In this study, an automated prestress-loss monitoring system for prestressed concrete girder using PZT-interface and wireless impedance sensor node is presented. The following approaches are carried out to achieve the objective. Firstly, wireless impedance sensor nodes are designed for automated impedance-based monitoring technique. The sensor node is mounted on the high-performance Imote2 sensor platform to fulfill high operating speed, low power requirement and large storage memory. Secondly, a smart PZT-interface designed for monitoring prestress force is described. A linear regression model is established to predict prestress-loss. Finally, a system of the PZT-interface interacted with the wireless sensor node is evaluated from a lab-scale tendon-anchorage connection of a prestressed concrete girder.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.415-433
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• 2015

Tendon failures in bonded post-tensioned bridges over the last two decades have motivated ongoing investigations on various aspects of unbonded tendons and their monitoring methods. Recent research shows that change of strain distribution in anchor heads can be useful in detecting wire breakage in unbonded construction. Based on this strain variation, this paper develops a damage detection model that enables an automated tendon monitoring system to identify and locate wire breaks. The first part of this paper presents an experimental program conducted to study the strain variation in anchor heads by generating wire breaks using a mechanical device. The program comprised three sets of tests with fully populated 19-strand anchor head and evaluated the levels of strain variation with number of wire breaks in different strands. The sensitivity of strain variation with wire breaks in circumferential and radial directions of anchor head in addition to the axial direction (parallel to the strand) were investigated and the measured axial strains were found to be the most sensitive. The second part of the paper focuses on formulating the wire breakage detection framework. A finite element model of the anchorage assembly was created to demonstrate the algorithm as well as to investigate the asymmetric strain distribution observed in experimental results. In addition, as almost inevitably encountered during tendon stressing, the effects of differential wedge seating on the proposed model have been analyzed. A sensitivity analysis has been performed at the end to assess the robustness of the model with random measurement errors.