Numerical and experimental investigation of electro-mechanical impedance based concrete quantitative damage assessment

Abstract This paper presents a numerical and experimental investigation of the concrete quantitative damage assessment using the smart aggregate (SA) sensor based on the electro-mechanical impedance method. In the numerical simulation, a concrete cube finite element model with an embedded SA sensor is established using concrete damaged plasticity constitutive model to simulate the damage process under uniaxial compression. The concrete damage degree is evaluated using the conductance signatures of the embedded SA sensor and damage volume ratio (DVR). In the experimental study, three concrete cubes are casted and subjected to compressive loading. The experimental study verifies the numerical simulation model by comparing the root mean square deviation (RMSD) indices of conductance signals. Furthermore, the DVR is proposed as an effective damage evaluation index. The relationship curve between the DVR and the RMSD is fitted. The results illustrate that the RMSD index of the SA sensor and the DVR of the concrete have a linear relationship. The level of concrete damage can be quantitatively evaluated by RMSD index according the relationship between the RMSD and DVR.