Structural health monitoring by piezo-impedance transducers. II: Applications

This paper, the second in a two-part series, presents a new methodology for structural identification and nondestructive evaluation by piezo-impedance transducers. The theoretical development and experimental validation of the underlying lead-zirconium-titanate (PZT)-structure interaction model was presented in the first part. In our newly proposed method, the damage in evaluated on the basis of the equivalent system parameters "identified" by the surface-bonded piezo-impedance transducer. As proof of concept, the proposed method is applied to perform structural identification and damage diagnosis on a representative lab-sized aerospace structural component. It is then extended to identify and monitor a prototype reinforced concrete bridge during a destructive load test. The proposed method was found to be able to successfully identify as well as evaluate damages in both the structures.