Fatigue damage self-sensing of bridge deck component with built-in giant piezoresistive Cementitious Carbon Fiber Composites. (15th November 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xu, Chen; Fu, Jing; Sun, Limin; Masuya, Hiroshi; Zhang, Lepeng
• Is Part Of: Composite structures. Volume 276(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-11-15
• Subjects: Piezoresistivity -- Cementitious Carbon Fiber Composite -- Bridge deck -- Fatigue damage -- Impedance; Composite construction -- Periodicals; Composites -- Périodiques; 624.18
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compstruct.2021.114459
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0263-8223

Abstract

Abstract: Piezoresistive cementitious composite materials are promising for developing damage self-sensing structural components. This paper aims to develop a kind of giant piezoresistive Cementitious Carbon Fiber Composite (CCFC) for enabling a fatigue damage self-sensing bridge deck. In particular, 0.4 % and 0.8 %Vol. of short cut Carbon Fibers (CFs) in cementitious composite were respectively adopted. The fiber diameter and length were 7 μm and 3 mm. Based on a series of conducted material piezoresistivity tests, the material effective conductivity variation showed a linear response with a slight time delay to an external load induced compressive strain. The gauge factors of CFCC with 0.4 % and 0.8 %Vol. CFs were respectively above 6000 and 2000. Moreover, the effects of ambient temperature, humidity and polarization were investigated, and a linear relationship between the ambient temperature and the effective conductivity was regressed. Accordingly, CFCC blocks were cast and built into two full-scale segmental bridge deck specimens for a fatigue wheel loading test. The correlation between the CFCC effective conductivity and the fatigue damages, such as concrete cracks, deflections and strain, was discussed. The results confirmed a feasibility of using the giant piezoresistive CCFC to develop a bridge deck with damage self-sensing capability.