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Mitigating the structural damage brought about by thermal expansion is a primary objective in the design of vital concrete infrastructures, such as bridges or buildings. Shape memory alloys (SMAs), through their ability to recover strains through thermal loading-induced phase transformations, offer a distinct advantage in achieving this design goal as such strain recovery in embedded components could be used to oppose thermal expansion in a surrounding matrix (e.g. concrete). This study seeks to characterize the thermal expansion of system, comprised of an SMA rod embedded in a concrete block undergoing a thermal loading cycle. Characterization is produced through a full factorial analysis, wherein evaluation is performed through the Abaqus unified finite element analysis suite. This preliminary analysis indicates that, while iron-based SMAs show promise in this field due to their low manufacturing costs, their large thermal hysteresis may lead to limited phase transformation in this application.

In the field of structural health monitoring (SHM), innovative methods of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) are currently being investigated with the purpose of providing prognostic information toward safer, longer lasting structures. Therefore, it is desirable to integrate NDE techniques with existing structural reinforcement techniques for in situ measurement capability, increasing service life. Magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) offer the potential for NDE via magnetic sensing, while further offering the multi-functionality of crack closing and structural reinforcement. The current research proposes a novel SHM approach for concrete structures using embedded MSMAs for magnetic sensing, and investigates the properties of such a system.