Health Monitoring of Structures

using Piezo-electric Sensors.

Dr.D.Ravi Prasad
Asst.professor
Structures Division
Dept. of Civil Engineering

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Why Structures Fail..?
Primary Causes of Engineering Failures

Deferred maintenance

Design flaws

Material failures

Overloading

Combination of all the above

How Can We Reduce Engineering Failures?

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) can be

very helpful in serving as an alarm system for
preventing both types of failures .

But what is Structural Health Monitoring?

 What is Structural Health Monitoring
(SHM)?
Definition: The process of implementing a distress or
damage detection strategy for aerospace, mechanical
and civil engineering structures is referred to as
Structural Health Monitoring or SHM.
Not a new concept
Has been around for several decades
Advances in electronics made it easier to implement.
Several non-destructive evaluation (NDE) tools
available for monitoring.
 Aim, Needs and Benefits

The objective of SHM is to monitor the in-situ behavior of a

structure accurately and efficiently, to assess its
performance under various service loads, to detect damage
or deterioration, and to determine the health or condition
of the structure.

The SHM system should be able to provide, on demand,

reliable information pertaining to the safety and integrity
of a structure.

The information can then be incorporated into structure

maintenance and management strategies, and improved
design guidelines.
Objective of structural health monitoring

Determination of damage existence

Determination of damages geometric location

Quantification of damage severity

Prediction of remaining life of the structure

Major Civil Structures in which monitoring is required
 Motivation for SHM

Silver Bridge, Pt Pleasant, WV Song Su Bridge, Seoul, South

(1967, 46 dead) Korea (1994, 31 Dead)
US congress enacts mandatory
bridge inspection
 Motivation for SHM

I-35 Bridge on
mississippi,
Collapse in
Minnesota
(2007, 13
dead)

Mianus Bridge, Greenwich,

CT.(June, 1983, 3 dead)

Hwy 19 Overpass,
canada Collapse
(2006, 5 dead)
Motivation for SHM
 parameters selected for Health Monitoring
(SHM)

The parameters selected for health monitoring

of a structure in general can be of mechanical,
physical and chemical in nature.
 important aspects in SHM

1. Mechanical: Strain, Deformation, displacement, cracks opening, stress,

load

2. Physical: Temperature, humidity, pore pressure

3. Chemical: Chloride Penetration, sulphate penetration, pH,

carbonatation penetration, rebar oxidation etc.
 Tool of SHM

The physical diagnostic tool of SHM is the

comprehensive integration of various sensing devices
and auxiliary systems, including:

i. Sensory system
ii. Data acquisition system
iii. Data processing system
iv. Communication system
v. Damage detection and modelling system
 Basics of Structural Health Monitoring

The Process of Structural Health monitoring is

process similar to the pain and illness experienced by
human body and how it is cured.

Synonymously the sensors act as the nervous system

and the acquisition system act as a brain. The
Structural expert is like an doctor for the structure
and listens to the responses and proposes a
solution/repair strategy.
 sensor
A device for sensing a physical variable of a physical
system or an environment
A sensor is a device that receives an input and
responds with an electrical signal
 Classification of Sensors
Mechanical quantities: displacement, Strain, rotation,
velocity, acceleration, pressure, force/torque, weight,
flow.

Thermal quantities: temperature, heat.

Electromagnetic/optical quantities: voltage, current,

frequency phase; visual/images, light; magnetism.

Chemical quantities: moisture, pH value

 Piezo Electric Sensors
Piezo Electric means
 For many years, natural crystals (such as quartz and
tourmaline) were used exclusively for piezoelectric sensors.

Recently, man-made Piezoelectric ceramics have replaced

natural materials.

Ceramics typically have crystal structure, in the center of

which is a small tetravalent ion (e.g. Barium)

Most recently, it was discovered that leadzirconate titrate

(PZT)materials exhibited the better operating
temperatures, Ceramics can be hundreds of times more
sensitive than natural crystals
Piezo Electric Sensors

Accelerometer

PZT Ceramics
 Health monitoring of structures using
Piezo-electric sensors- through vibration
monitoring
 Vibration-Based Testing
The purpose of a vibration test is to identify the dynamic
characteristics of a structure by measuring its response to
dynamic forces caused by operational conditions or, man-
made vibrations.

In the context of SHM, changes in the vibration

characteristics of a structure can provide an indication of
structural damage or deterioration.

The use of this information to identify damage is

sometimes referred to as vibration-based damage
detection (VBDD).
 In these types of tests, strategically placed sensors
(generally accelerometers) are used to measure the
vibration response of the structure .

these data are used to determine its natural

frequencies and characteristic shapes of vibration
(i.e. the mode shapes).

Once these vibration characteristics have been

determined, sophisticated analysis techniques are
required for damage identification.
 What is Modal Analysis ?

Modal is a process of describing the structure in terms

of its dynamic characteristics (modal parameters) such
as
Frequency
Mode Shapes
Damping

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 Why Modal Analysis ?
Design engineers should identify the natural frequencies and know how
they might affect the response of the structure when a force excites the
structure.

Understanding the mode shapes and how the structure will vibrate
when excited helps the design engineer to design better structures.

The modal parameters are required to avoid resonance in structures

affected by external periodic dynamic loads

The change of modal characteristics directly provides an identification

of structural damages based on changes in frequencies and mode
shapes of vibrations

Diagnostics and health monitoring

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 Modal Analysis Application
Civil Engineering
Structures
Automotive Structures
Aircraft Structures
Spacecraft Structures

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Modal Analysis- Impact Hammer Test

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 Modal Analysis- Impact Hammer Test
Widely used popular and convenient technique for
mechanical structures.
Impact hammer test is very fast, only few averages are
required.
Energy is transmitted to the structure in a very short period of
time.
Shape of the force signal depends on the hammer tip and
mass of the hammer.
Stiffer the hammer tip, shorter will be the force signal. Shorter
the force signal, wider will be the frequency span.
Extra mass on the hammer will widen the force signal and
lower the cut off frequency.
Easy to use in the field.
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 Impact Hammer- Instrumentation
Impact hammer
Impact hammer with a force transducer for
measuring input force.
make: PCB-piezotronics, USA,
Model 086D05, Sensitivity 0.23mv/N, weight
of hammer 320g.

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 Impact Hammer- Instrumentation
Consists of a Force transducer attached to the hammer with
different types of tips.
Different tips are used based on the frequency range of
excitation requires.

Hard - Steel Higher

frequency Hard

Medium Hard - Medium

Plastic /Teflon Soft

Soft - Rubber Low
frequency
 Instrumentation - Force Transducer

The force transducer is the

simplest type of piezo
electric transducer.
The force F or a known
fraction of it is applied
directly across the crystal
which thus generates
corresponding charge q
proportional to F.
 Accelerometer
Accelerometers are widely used
vibration measurements.
Piezoelectric accelerometer is
shown in Fig.

When the accelerometer vibrates,

an internal mass in the assembly
applies a force to the crystal
element which is proportional to
the acceleration.

The main advantages of the

piezoelectric accelerometer
include compactness, high
sensitivity and high frequency
range.

Acceleration signal can be easily

integrated to get velocity and/or
displacement
 Instrumentation Vibration
Transducer(Accelerometer)

Accelerometer
Accelerometer for
measuring response
acceleration for the
given excitation.

make:Dytron
instruments, USA
Model:3055B2,
Sensitivity 100mv/g,
weight 10g.
 Impact Hammer- Instrumentation
Dynamic analyzer:
8 channel dynamic analyzer
OROS make , France is used to
perform following operations.
Filtering: Filtering of signals for
over load protection
Digitization of signals: conversion
of analog signals into Digital
signals
Windowing: Force window for
removing noise in the input signal
and exponential window for
preventing leakage in the output
signal
Conversion of Signals: the signals
are transformed from time
domain to frequency domain
using fast Fourier transformation
for obtaining Frequency response
Function (FRF).
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 PC or work station
For Controlling the measurement
through FFT Analyser

For analyzing the measured data

(geometry creation, curve fitting PC or work station
and parameter extraction and mode
shape animation
 OROS software
for obtaining frequency response function and data
logging.
Modal analysis smart office software
For geometry creation
Parameter estimation
Mode shape animation
 Impact Hammer Test- Determination of Dynamic
Characteristics
Dynamic characteristics can be obtained from the set of measured
frequency response functions (FRFs).

The Frequency Response Function (FRF) is a fundamental

measurement that isolates the inherent dynamic properties of a
structure.

FRF is a measure of how much displacement, velocity, or acceleration

response a structure has at an output per unit of excitation force at an
input.

The FRF describes the input-output relationship between two points

on a structure as a function of frequency.

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 FRF model

From the above figure. FRF is defined mathematically as

the ratio of the Fourier transform of an output response
divided by the flourier transform of the input force that
caused the output response.
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 Forms of frequency response function
Depending on whether the response motion is measured as
displacement, velocity, or acceleration, the FRF and its inverse
can have variety of names.

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FRF and Coherence Function

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 Modal Analysis- Modal Parameter
Estimation
Modal parameters are most commonly identified by curve
fitting a set of FRFs.
curve fitting is a process of matching a mathematical
expression to a set of empirical data points.

CURVE FITTING METHODS

Local SDOF

Local MDOF

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 Dynamic tests- Experimental Modal Analysis
General Steps...
Marking of excitation points on the surface of test beam

Defining the geometry of the test structure

Test setup

Measuring FRF by exciting

the structure at different points

Computation of modal
Parameters

Display deflection shapes

of different modes 43
Screen Shot of Dynamic Test
Dynamic Tests-AE2 to UFF
Dynamic Tests- Analysis
Dynamic Tests- Analysis

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Dynamic Tests- Analysis

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Dynamic Tests- Analysis

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 Experimental modal analysis- Shaker Based
Testing
The impacting force is not be sufficient to adequately excite
the modes of interest.
FRF measurements must be made by providing artificial
excitation with one or more shakers, attached to the
structure.
Common types of shakers are electro-dynamic and
Hydraulic shakers.
A shaker is usually attached to the structure using a stinger
(long slender rod), so that the shaker will only impart force
to the structure along the axis of the stinger.
A load cell is then attached between the structure and the
stinger to measure the excitation force.
Experimental modal analysis- Shaker
Based Test setup
 At least a 2-channel FFT analyzer and a single axis
accelerometer are required to make FRF
measurements using a shaker.
If an analyzer with 4 or more channels is used,
then a tri-axial accelerometer can be used and 3D
motion of the structure measured at each test
point.
In a SIMO test, one shaker is used and the shaker
is the (fixed) reference.
In a MIMO test, multiple shakers are used, and
the shakers are the multiple references.
 MODAL PARAMETERS FROM CURVE FITTING

Modal parameters are most commonly

identified by curve fitting a set of FRFs. (They
can also be identified by curve fitting an
equivalent set of Impulse Responses, or IRFs).

In general, curve fitting is a process of

matching a mathematical expression to a set
of empirical data points.
 CURVE FITTING METHODS
All curve fitting methods fall into one of the following
categories,
SDOF
SDOF is short for a Single Degree Of Freedom, or single
mode method. SDOF methods estimate modal
parameters one mode at a time.

MDOF
Similarly, MDOF is short for a Multiple Degree Of
Freedom, or multiple mode method. MDOF can
simultaneously estimate modal parameters for two or
more modes at a time.
Figure . Curve Fitting FRF Measurements.
 Modal Frequency as Peak Frequency

The frequency of a resonance peak in the FRF is

used as the modal frequency.

The resonance peak should appear at the same

frequency in almost every FRF measurement.

It wont appear in those measurements

corresponding to nodal lines (zero magnitude) of the
mode shape.
 Modal Damping

The classical method of determining the

damping at a resonance, using a
frequency analyzer, is to identify the half
power points of the magnitude of the
frequency response function.
 r
a b
2r
Where is the frequency bandwidth
a b

between the two half power points.

is the resonance frequency.
r
 Mode Shape
A vibrating structure by nature deforms into
certain patterns at the natural frequencies of the
structure.

The deformation patterns and their natural

frequencies depend only on the characteristics of
the structure, and not on the input forces.

These deformation patterns are the mode shapes

of the structure.
 Damage evaluation procedure using Electro-Mechanical
Impedance (EMI) or its inverse Electro-Mechanical Admittance
(EMA)
The Electro-Mechanical Impedance technique uses Piezoelectric lead Zirconate
Titanate transducers exhibiting their characteristic feature to generate surface
electric charge in response to an applied mechanical stress and undergo
mechanical deformation in response to an applied electric field.

Thus, when a mounted PZT on a structure is actuated, a potential damage induces

change in the mechanical impedance (or its reverse admittance) of the structure
and this change reflects on the electrical signature of the PZT.

When a structure is regularly monitored by extracting the signal to the exciting

frequency of the installed PZTs, the changes in their signatures become indicative
of the presence of structural damage.

This way, any concrete cracking or steel yielding (structural damages) can be
detected using the changes of the signatures of the mounted piezoelectric
transducers.
Concrete Beam Specimen and Placement of Embedded Smart
Aggregates
Experimental Setup for Damage Detection of a RAC Concrete
Beam
PZT as smart aggregate
THANK YOU