Multi-Physics Mesoscale Substructure Analysis on Stress Wave Measurement within CFST-PZT Coupling Models for Interface Debonding Detection

Jiang Wang; Bin Xu; Hongbing Chen; Hanbin Ge; Tianmin Zhou

doi:10.3390/s22031039

Multi-Physics Mesoscale Substructure Analysis on Stress Wave Measurement within CFST-PZT Coupling Models for Interface Debonding Detection

Sensors (Basel). 2022 Jan 28;22(3):1039. doi: 10.3390/s22031039.

Authors

Jiang Wang¹, Bin Xu^{1

2}, Hongbing Chen³, Hanbin Ge^{1

4}, Tianmin Zhou⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Civil Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China.
² Key Laboratory for Intelligent Infrastructures and Monitoring of Fujian Province, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China.
³ College of Civil and Resource Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
⁴ Department of Civil Engineering, Meijo University, Nagoya 468-8502, Japan.
⁵ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-4006, USA.

Abstract

In recent years, the development of interface debonding defect detection methods for concrete-filled steel tubes (CFSTs) using stress wave measurement with piezoelectric-lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) actuator and sensor has received significant attention. Because the concrete core in CFSTs is a heterogeneous material with randomness at the mesoscale, the size, position and distribution of aggregates unavoidably affect the stress wave propagation and the PZT sensor response. In this study, to efficiently investigate the influence of the mesoscale structure of the concrete core of CFSTs on the response of embedded PZT sensors, a multi-physics substructure model of CFST members coupled with a PZT actuator and a PZT sensor, where a single circular aggregate with different size and position and randomly distributed circular aggregates are considered, are established first. Then, multi-physics simulations on the effect of the local mesoscale structure of the concrete core on the response of the embedded PZT sensor excited by both a sinusoidal signal and sweep frequency signal are carried out. Moreover, corresponding multi-physics and mesoscale simulations on the embedded PZT sensor response of substructures with different interface debonding defects are also carried out for comparison. The amplitude and the wavelet packet energy of the embedded PZT sensor response of each mesoscale substructure are employed to distinguish the influence of the concrete core mesoscale structure and interface debonding defect on sensor measurement. The findings from the results with the multi-physics coupling substructure models are compared with those of the full CFST-PZT coupling models and the tested members of the previous studies to verify the rationality of the embedded PZT sensors measurement of the established substructure models. Results from this study show that the effect of interface debonding defect on the amplitude and the wavelet packet energy of the embedded PZT sensor measurement of the CFST members is dominant compared with the mesoscale heterogeneity and randomness of the concrete core.

Keywords: concrete-filled steel tube (CFST); embedded piezoelectric-lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) sensor; interface debonding detection; mesoscale concrete; multi-physics coupling models; substructure.

Abstract

Grants and funding