Concrete fatigue experiment for sensor prototyping and validation of industrial SHM trials

McAlorum, Jack and Fusiek, Grzegorz and Rubert, Tim and Niewczas, Paweł; (2019) Concrete fatigue experiment for sensor prototyping and validation of industrial SHM trials. In: 2019 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC). IEEE, NZL. ISBN 9781538634608 (https://doi.org/10.1109/I2MTC.2019.8827036)

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Abstract

In this paper, preliminary results from a concrete fatigue experiment using a custom built machine are demonstrated. A pre-cracked concrete member is instrumented with bespoke metallic-bonded and epoxy-bonded fiber Bragg grating (FBG) displacement sensors, retrofitted over the crack. Fatigue loading is applied to the beam, with cycle magnitudes replicating results from a previous industrial trial concerning structural health monitoring (SHM) of a wind turbine foundation. Results are compared to an FEM model for verification. The new metallic-bonded crack displacement sensor design is compared in performance with the traditional epoxy-bonded design. Both sensors were sufficiently resilient under dynamic loading to successfully undergo 105 cycle fatigue test. The sensors display a linear relationship with respect to one another; however, from the initial thermal characterization of the devices between 20 and 65 °C, the epoxy-bonded sensor exhibited considerable drift with every subsequent temperature cycle while the metallic-bonded construction was stable within the experimental error. The set up can be used over a long term to validate in situ results from distributed SHM sensors and for initial testing of sensors and data analytics strategies prior to any future field installations.

ORCID iDs

McAlorum, Jack ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8348-9945, Fusiek, Grzegorz ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3361-7803, Rubert, Tim and Niewczas, Paweł ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3291-1725;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)