Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Submitted Manuscript
Publication Date
7-14-2014
Journal or Book Title
Journal of Structural Engineering
First Page
1
Last Page
19
DOI
10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0001151
Abstract
Structural health monitoring of civil infrastructures is a difficult task, often impeded by the geometrical size of the monitored systems. Recent advances in conducting polymers enabled the fabrication of flexible sensors capable of covering large areas, a possible solution to the monitoring challenge of mesoscale systems. The authors have previously proposed a novel sensor consisting of a soft elastomeric capacitor (SEC) acting as a strain gauge. Arranged in a network configuration, the SECs have the potential to cover very large surfaces. In this paper, understanding of the proposed sensor is furthered by evaluating its performance at vibration-based monitoring of large-scale structures. The dynamic behavior of the SEC is characterized by subjecting the sensor to a frequency sweep, and detecting vibration modes of a full-scale steel beam. Results show that the sensor can be used to detect fundamental modes and dynamic input. Also, a network of SECs is used for output-only modal identification of a full-scale concrete beam, and results are benchmarked against off-the-shelf accelerometers. The SEC network performs well at estimating both natural frequencies and mode shapes. The resolution of the sensor is currently limited by the available electronics to measure small changes in capacitance, which reduces its accuracy with increasing frequencies in both the time and frequency domain.
Copyright Owner
American Society of Civil Engineers
Copyright Date
2014
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Laflamme, Simon; Ubertini, Filippo; Saleem, Hussam; D'Alessandro, Antonella; Downey, Austin R.J.; Ceylan, Halil; and Materazzi, Annibale L., "Dynamic Characterization of a Soft Elastomeric Capacitor for Structural Health Monitoring" (2014). Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Publications. 78.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ccee_pubs/78
Included in
Civil Engineering Commons, Construction Engineering and Management Commons, Electrical and Electronics Commons, Environmental Engineering Commons, Nanotechnology Fabrication Commons
Comments
This is a manuscript of an article from Journal of Structural Engineering, July 2014. Doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0001151. Posted with permission.