• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.165-180
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• 2015

In this paper lead zirconate titanate transducers (PZT) are employed for damage detection of four reinforced concrete (RC) column specimens retrofitted with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) jackets. A major disadvantage of FRP jacketing in RC members is the inability to inspect visually if the concrete substrate is damaged and in such case to estimate the extent of damage. The parameter measured during uniaxial compression tests at random times for known strain values is the real part of the complex number of the Electromechanical Admittance (Conductance) of the sensors, obtained by a PXI platform. The transducers are placed in specific positions along the height of the columns for detecting the damage in different positions and carrying out conclusions for the variation of the Conductance in relation to the position the failure occurred. The quantification of the damage at the concrete substrate is achieved with the use of the root-mean-square-deviation (RMSD) index, which is evaluated for the corresponding strain values. The experimental results provide evidence that PZT transducers are sensitive to damage detection from an early stage of the experiment and that the use of PZT sensors for monitoring and detecting the damage of FRP-retrofitted reinforced concrete members, by using the Electromechanical Admittance (EMA) approach, can be a highly promising method.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.159-171
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• 2014

Real-time near and far-field monitoring of concrete structural components gives enough information on the time and condition at which damage occurs, thereby facilitating damage detection while in the same time evaluate the cause of the damage. This paper experimentally investigates an integrated monitoring technique for near and far-field damage detection in concrete structures based on simultaneous use of electromechanical admittance technique in combination with guided wave propagation. The proposed sensing system does not measure the electromechanical admittance itself but detect time variations in output voltages of the response signal obtained across the electrodes of piezoelectric transducers bonded on surfaces of concrete structures. The damage identification is based on the spectral estimation MUSIC algorithm. Experimental results show the efficiency and performance of the proposed measuring technique.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 2021

This study aimed to develop a method for the determination of the damaged story in reinforced concrete (RC) structure with ambient vibrations, based on modified jerk energy methodology. The damage was taken as a localized reduction in the stiffness of the structural member. For loading, random white noise excitation was used, and dynamic responses from the finite element model (FEM) of 4 story RC shear frame were extracted at nodal points. The data thus obtained from the structure was used in the damage detection and localization algorithm. In the structure, two damage configurations have been introduced. In the first configuration, damage to the structure was artificially caused by a local reduction in the modulus of elasticity. In the second configuration, the damage was caused, using the Elcentro1940 and Kashmir2005 earthquakes in real-time history. The damage was successfully detected if the frequency drop was greater than 5% and the mode shape correlation remained less than 0.8. The results of the damage were also compared to the performance criteria developed in the Seismostruct software. It is demonstrated that the proposed algorithm has effectively detected the existence of the damage and can locate the damaged story for multiple damage scenarios in the RC structure.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.209-220
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• 2014

Vibration based damage detection is very popular in the civil engineering area. Especially, special structures like dams, long-span bridges and high-rise buildings, need continues monitoring in terms of mechanical properties of material, static and dynamic behavior. It has been stated in the International Commission on Large Dams that more than half of the large concrete dams were constructed more than 50 years ago and the old dams have subjected to repeating loads such as earthquake, overflow, blast, etc.,. So, some unexpected failures may occur and catastrophic damages may be taken place because of theloss of strength, stiffness and other physical properties of concrete. Therefore, these dams need repairs provided with global damage evaluation in order to preserve structural integrity. The paper aims to show the effectiveness of the model updating method for global damage detection on a laboratory arch dam model. Ambient vibration test is used in order to determine the experimental dynamic characteristics. The initial finite element model is updated according to the experimentally determined natural frequencies and mode shapes. The web thickness is selected as updating parameter in the damage evaluation. It is observed from the study that the damage case is revealed with high accuracy and a good match is attained between the estimated and the real damage cases by model updating method.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.5
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• pp.599-610
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• 2021

Early detection of small concrete crack or reinforcement corrosion is necessary for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). Global vibration based methods are advantageous over local methods because of simple equipment installation and cost efficiency. Among vibration based techniques, FRF based methods are preferred over modal based methods. In this study, a new coupled method using frequency response function (FRF) and proper orthogonal modes (POM) is proposed by using the dynamic characteristic of a damaged beam. For the numerical simulation, wave finite element (WFE), coupled with traditional finite element (FE) method is used for effectively incorporating the damage related information and faster computation. As reported in literature, hybrid combination of wave function based wave finite element method and shape function based finite element method can addresses the mid frequency modelling difficulty as it utilises the advantages of both the methods. It also reduces the dynamic matrix dimension. The algorithms are implemented on a three-dimensional reinforced concrete beam. Damage is modelled and studied for two scenarios, i.e., crack in concrete and rebar corrosion. Single and multiple damage locations with different damage length are also considered. The proposed methodology is found to be very sensitive to both single- and multiple- damage while being computationally efficient at the same time. It is observed that the detection of damage due to corrosion is more challenging than that of concrete crack. The similarity index obtained from the damage parameters shows that it can be a very effective indicator for appropriately indicating initiation of damage in concrete structure in the form of spread corrosion or invisible crack.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.73-90
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• 2014

The traditional destructive tests in damage detection require high cost, long consuming time, repairing of damaged members, etc. In addition to these, powerful equipments with advanced technology have motivated development of global vibration based damage detection methods. These methods base on observation of the changes in the structural dynamic properties and updating finite element models. The existence, location, severity and effect on the structural behavior of the damages can be identified by using these methods. The main idea in these methods is to minimize the differences between analytical and experimental natural frequencies. In this study, an application of damage detection using model updating method was presented on a one storey reinforced concrete (RC) building model. The model was designed to be 1/2 scale of a real building. The measurements on the model were performed by using ten uni-axial seismic accelerometers which were placed to the floor level. The presented damage identification procedure mainly consists of five steps: initial finite element modeling, testing of the undamaged model, finite element model calibration, testing of the damaged model, and damage detection with model updating. The elasticity modulus was selected as variable parameter for model calibration, while the inertia moment of section was selected for model updating. The first three modes were taken into consideration. The possible damaged members were estimated by considering the change ratio in the inertia moment. It was concluded that the finite element model calibration was required for structures to later evaluations such as damage, fatigue, etc. The presented model updating based procedure was very effective and useful for RC structures in the damage identification.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.997-1018
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• 2015

Structural health monitoring along with damage detection and assessment of its severity level in non-accessible reinforced concrete members using piezoelectric materials becomes essential since engineers often face the problem of detecting hidden damage. In this study, the potential of the detection of flexural damage state in the lower part of the mid-span area of a simply supported reinforced concrete beam using piezoelectric sensors is analytically investigated. Two common severity levels of flexural damage are examined: (i) cracking of concrete that extends from the external lower fiber of concrete up to the steel reinforcement and (ii) yielding of reinforcing bars that occurs for higher levels of bending moment and after the flexural cracking. The purpose of this investigation is to apply finite element modeling using admittance based signature data to analyze its accuracy and to check the potential use of this technique to monitor structural damage in real-time. It has been indicated that damage detection capability greatly depends on the frequency selection rather than on the level of the harmonic excitation loading. This way, the excitation loading sequence can have a level low enough that the technique may be considered as applicable and effective for real structures. Further, it is concluded that the closest applied piezoelectric sensor to the flexural damage demonstrates higher overall sensitivity to structural damage in the entire frequency band for both damage states with respect to the other used sensors. However, the observed sensitivity of the other sensors becomes comparatively high in the peak values of the root mean square deviation index.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.527-533
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• 2013

This paper presents damage detection and estimation of stiffness parameter on a concrete scale model and a real structure of concrete pontoon using dynamic properties such as mode shapes and natural frequencies. In case of damage detection, dynamic impact test on a concrete scale model is accomplished to extract mode shapes and the practicality is verified by utilizing a damage detection technique. And the stiffness parameter of a real structure of concrete pontoon was estimated via system identification technique using the natural frequencies of the structure. The results indicate that the damaged elements of the scale model are found exactly using damage detection technique and the effective stiffness property of the real structure of concrete pontoon can be estimated by system identification technique.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.180-189
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• 1994

A practical methodology to detect and localm da~nagc in rcinforced concrete structures by utilizing modal response parameters of as built and tiamaged states is presented. First, a damage detection algorithm which yields information on the, location of damage directly from changes in mode shapes of structures is outlined. Next, the algorithm is implemented to detec and localize damage in a real, 1 1/3 scale, reinforced concrete structure. A set of pre-damage and post damage modal parameters are used for I he damage detection exercise. The results of the damage prediction show that the proposed algorithm can correctly locate the damage inflicted in the test structure.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.447-455
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• 2021

Research on damage detection methods in structures began a few decades ago with the introduction of methods based on structural vibration frequencies, which, of course, continues to this day. The value of important structures, on the one hand, and the countless maintenance costs on the other hand, have led researchers to always try to identify more accurate methods to diagnose damage to structures in the early stages. Among these, one of the most important and widely used methods in damage detection is the use of time-frequency representations. By using time-frequency representations, it is possible to process signals simultaneously in the time and frequency domains. In this research, the Short-Time Fourier transform, a known time-frequency function, has been used to process signals and identify the system. Besides, a new damage index has been introduced to identify damages in concrete piers of bridges. The proposed method has relatively simple calculations. To evaluate the method, the finite element model of an existing concrete bridge was created using as-built details. Based on the results, the method identifies the damages with high accuracy.