Speaker
Description
Detecting and quantifying local anomalies over large areas poses a significant challenge in structural health monitoring of civil infrastructure. Conventional practice relying on strategic placement of discrete sensors demands comprehensive prior knowledge of susceptible regions. Correlating localized flaws to changes in global measurements such as vibration characteristics remains difficult and implementing dense sensor networks proves impractical for extensive coverage. Therefore, breaking free from discrete sensing and embracing spatially distributed measurements marks an essential leap forward. Traditional methods for distributed sensing involve fiber optic sensing technologies and vision-based techniques. In recent years, mimicking biological skin, a concept that is well-advanced in the field of robotics, has found application in civil infrastructure monitoring. Following an in-depth review of artificial sensing skins for mapping defects and strain fields over large surfaces, the focus shifts to our recent work on developing multifunctional cementitious sensing skins. Self-sensing cementitious composites have the potential to revolutionize monitoring of civil infrastructure due to their compatibility with concrete. Their implementation requires a considerable journey ahead and faces several hurdles, the most critical of which will be outlined.
