This paper presents the development and application of a miniaturized impedance sensor node for structural health monitoring (SHM). A large amount of research has been focused on utilizing the impedance method for structural health monitoring. The vast majority of this research, however, has required the use of expensive and bulky impedance analyzers that are not suitable for field deployment. ...

A short review of current methods for damage detection and failure prevention in complex machinery is first presented. Two main classes are identified: (a) detailed inspection through machinery strip-down and minute examination with a variety of scanning methods, and (b) in-situ health monitoring using passive and active sensors. The emergence of new in-situ sensor techniques based on the activ...

In this study, new impedance measurement techniques are developed specially for structural health monitoring of large-scale structures. Electromechanical (EM) impedance based damage detection techniques, which utilize the electromechanical coupling effect between a piezoelectric transducer such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and a host structure, have been shown to be very sensitive to local ...

Electro-mechanical impedance method is emerging as an important and powerful technique for structural health monitoring. The E/M impedance method utilizes as its main apparatus an impedance analyzer that reads the in-situ E/M impedance of the PWAS attached to the monitored structure. Present day impedance analyzer equipments (e.g. HP4194) are bulky, heavy and expensive laboratory equipment that...

This study developed an integrated global-local approach for locating damage on building structures. A damage detection approach with a novel embedded frequency response function damage index (NEFDI) was proposed and embedded in the Imote2.NET-based wireless structural health monitoring (SHM) system to locate global damage. Local damage is then identified using an electromechanical impedance- (...

This paper presented an improved algorithm using digitally synthesized excitation signal sources for efficient and accurate measurement of the E/M impedance for structural health monitoring with PWAS (piezoelectric wafer active sensor) transducers. Instead of using a sinusoidal excitation to measure the structural E/M impedance at a single frequency at a time, the digitally synthesized signal s...