Structural Health Monitoring Paradigm for Concrete Structures

Structural health monitoring has been one of particular concerns of the engineering community. Effective monitoring, reliable data analysis, rational data interpretation and correct decision making are challenging problems for engineers who specialized in structural health assessment field. Concrete structures were constructed for various purposes in a certain design life in the context of 'maintenance-free' construction material. However, in recent years, many concrete structures have been deteriorating even before their design life due to corrosive circumstances, alkali-silica responses, and other environmental effects. In order to maintain sustainability of those infrastructures in which have significant influences to social lifelines, an economical and rational maintenance management is necessary to carry out to evaluate their Life Cycle Cost (LCC). This paper describes the necessity of a structural monitoring paradigm includes assessment techniques and suitable maintenance management for assessing concrete structures' health. This structural monitoring paradigm enables to provide necessary data for structural maintenance and safety. In considering a maintenance plan which aims to reduce its LCC, it is requested that the monitoring system should fulfill "AtoE" characteristics, i.e., (A)ccuracy, (8)enefit , (C)ompact, (O)urable and (E)asy to operate. Furthermore, newly developed intelligent measurement technology such as elasto-magnetic-based steel tendon actual-stress sensory technology, mechanical-deformation-based concrete actual-stress measurement technology and acoustic-emission-based structural health monitoring technology are also discussed.