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Coda waves are highly sensitive to changes in medium properties and can serve as a tool for structural health monitoring (SHM). However, high sensitivity also makes them susceptible to noise, leading to excessive dispersion of monitoring results. In this paper, a coda wave multi-feature extraction method is proposed, in which three parameters, the time shift, the time stretch, and the amplitude variation of the wave trains within the time window, are totally derived. These three parameters are each mapped to the temperature variations of concrete beams, and then combined together with their optimal weight coefficients to give a best-fitted temperature–multi-parameter relationship that has the smallest errors. Coda wave signals were collected from an ultrasonic experiment on concrete beams within an environmental temperature range of 14 °C~21 °C to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results indicate that the combination of multi-features derived from coda wave signals to quantify the medium temperature is feasible. Compared to the relationship established by a single parameter, the goodness-of-fit is improved. During identification, the method effectively reduces the dispersion of identification errors and mitigates the impact of noise interference on structural state assessment. Both the identification accuracy and stability are improved by more than 50%, and the order of magnitude of the identification accuracy is improved from 1 °C to 0.1 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to its direct link to structural security, crack width is thought to be one of the most important parameters reflecting damage conditions of concrete structures. However, the width problem is difficult to solve with the existing structural health monitoring methods. In this paper, crack width monitoring by means of adhering enameled copper wires with different ultimate strains on the surface of structures is proposed, based on smart film crack monitoring put forward by the present authors. The basic idea of the proposed method is related to a proportional relationship between the crack width and ultimate strain of the broken wire. Namely, when a certain width of crack passes through the wire, some low ultimate strain wires will be broken and higher ultimate strain wires may stay non-broken until the crack extends to a larger scale. Detection of the copper wire condition as broken or non-broken may indicate the width of the structural crack. Thereafter, a multi-layered stress transfer model and specimen experiment are performed to quantify the relationship. A practical smart film is then redesigned with this idea and applied to Chongqing Jiangjin Yangtze River Bridge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prestress detection of structures has been puzzling structural engineers for a long time. The inductance–capacitance (LC) electromagnetic oscillation method has shown a potential solution to this problem. It connects the two ends of a steel strand, which is simulated as an inductor, to the oscillation circuit, and the stress of the steel strand can be calculated by measuring the oscillation frequency of the circuit through a frequency meter. In the previous studies, the authors found that stress-frequency relation of 1.2 m steel strand was negatively correlated, while the stress-frequency of 10 m steel strand was positively correlated. To verify this conflict, two kinds of electrical inductance models of steel strands were established to fit the lengths. With the models, the stress-frequency relations of steel strands with different lengths were analyzed. After that, two kinds of experimental platforms were set up, and a series of stress-frequency relationship tests were carried out with 1.2 m, 5 m, 10 m and 15 m steel strands. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that when the length is less than 2.013 m, the stress and oscillation frequencies are negatively correlated; when length is more than 2.199 m, the stress and oscillation frequencies are positively correlated; while when length is between 2.013 m and 2.199 m, the stress-frequency relationship is in transit from negative correlation to positive correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart film crack monitoring method, which can be used for detecting initiation, length, width, shape, location, and propagation of cracks on real bridges, is proposed. Firstly, the fabrication of the smart film is developed. Then the feasibility of the method is analyzed and verified by the mechanical sensing character of the smart film under the two conditions of normal strain and crack initiation. Meanwhile, the coupling interference between parallel enameled wires of the smart film is discussed, and then low-frequency detecting signal and the custom communication protocol are used to decrease interference. On this basis, crack monitoring system with smart film is designed, where the collected crack data is sent to the remote monitoring center and the cracks are simulated and recurred. Finally, the monitoring system is applied to six bridges, and the effects are discussed.