Simultaneous crack and temperature sensing with passive patch antenna

This article presents a novel passive patch antenna sensor for simultaneous crack and temperature sensing, and the antenna sensor has the ability of temperature self-compensation. The passive patch antenna sensor consists of an underlying patch and an overlapping sub-patch. The off-center feeding activates resonant modes in both transverse and longitudinal directions. The resonant frequency shift in transverse direction is used for environmental temperature sensing, while the structural crack width can be sensed by the longitudinal resonant frequency shift after temperature compensation. Furthermore, the unstressed design of the antenna can also eliminate the issue of incomplete strain transfer ratios. In this article, the relationships between the antenna resonant frequencies, the environmental temperature, and the structural crack width were studied. Simulations were conducted to determine the optimal off-center fed distance of the patch antenna sensor. Furthermore, a series of experimental tests were also conducted, where the passive patch antenna was fabricated and installed on the concrete components as well as an actual building. Continuous monitoring was performed for several days to test the temperature sensing ability of the passive patch antenna, and the sensed crack width after temperature compensation was compared with the actual results. The results of these experiments demonstrate the feasibility of using the passive patch antenna for simultaneous temperature and crack sensing.