Self-Sensing CFRP Fabric for Structural Strengthening and Damage Detection of Reinforced Concrete Structures

This paper presents a concept of a Self-sensing Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (SCFRP) system, which integrates the piezoceramic transducers with the common concrete strengthening materials, CFRP fabric. This integration provides the SCFRP fabric with the ability to monitor the structural health condition when the SCFRP fabric is applied on reinforced concrete structures. In order to validate the feasibility of this system, several three-point bending beam (3PBB) specimens were fabricated and tested before and after the specimens were reinforced with the proposed SCFRP fabric. In addition, the specimens with the low (C25) and high (C40) concrete grades were also experimentally investigated to evaluate the reinforced effectiveness of the SCFRP fabric. Finally, the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed SCFRP fabric can significantly improve the bearing capacity of the concrete structures, and provided the reinforced concrete structures with an ability of self-sensing their health condition.