Bond-slip detection of concrete-encased composite structure using electro-mechanical impedance technique

Concrete-encased composite structure is a type of structure that takes the advantages of both steel and concrete materials, showing improved strength, ductility, and fire resistance compared to traditional reinforced concrete structures. The interface between concrete and steel profiles governs the interaction between these two materials under loading, however, debonding damage between these two materials may lead to severe degradation of the load transferring capacity which will affect the structural performance significantly. In this paper, the electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique using piezoceramic transducers was experimentally investigated to detect the bond-slip occurrence of the concrete-encased composite structure. The root-mean-square deviation is used to quantify the variations of the impedance signatures due to the presence of the bond-slip damage. In order to verify the validity of the proposed method, finite element model analysis was performed to simulate the behavior of concrete-steel debonding based on a 3D finite element concrete-steel bond model. The computed impedance signatures from the numerical results are compared with the results obtained from the experimental study, and both the numerical and experimental studies verify the proposed EMI method to detect bond slip of a concrete-encased composite structure.