Probabilistic damage imaging approach of concrete structures based on embedded sensing technology

Early warning and accurate quantification of the concrete structure damage is a hotspot in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM) in civil engineering. In this paper, a probabilistic damage imaging method for concrete structures based on embedded sensing technology was proposed. Through two-dimensional meso-level finite element modeling of the aggregate, mortar matrix and interface transition zone in concrete material, the propagation mechanism of probing stress waves in inhomogeneous concrete material and damage interfaces was revealed. Combined with damage visualization mechanism of transducer array, an embeddable piezoelectric transducer array module was designed. In order to accurately quantify concrete damage, combined with probabilistic damage imaging method, the damage information of propagation time was extracted from the probing signal by baseline subtraction method and Hilbert transform, and the cumulative distribution function was introduced to realize visual reconstruction of concrete damage area. The experimental results show that the embeddable transducer array module could achieve three-dimensional damage imaging of concrete structures, and the error between the identified damage center location and the real damage center location on the two-dimensional projection plane is 1. 0 cm, which verifies the effectiveness and accuracy of the method for concrete damage perception. Compared with the existing embeddable sparse distribution transducers, the array-based module with integrated multiple sensing units can significantly improve the detection capability of concrete local damage, and reduce the operation and maintenance cost of the transducer system during the service life. © 2024 Science Press. All rights reserved.