engleski

Simple off-the-shelf crack detector for small-scale centrifuge models

Reinforced concrete buildings represent the largest share of the world’s building’s stock. Although such buildings are usually designed to endure extreme loadings, their structural elements can deform and manifest cracks. Large cracks can point out problems related to structural health. For instance, hairline cracks can cause reinforcement corrosion. In addition, many existing cracks can be hidden by façade or can be difficult to determine due to inaccessibility to the structural element. Thus, many cracks cannot be easily detected by simple visual inspection of the building. Following the idea on how simple burglar alarm circuits and home security systems work we have proposed a sensor for monitoring occurrence of cracks in reinforced concrete buildings. The detector was experimentally tested in a centrifuge using a small-scale mock-up representing a real reinforced concrete system. This paper, inter alia, demonstrates scaling rules for centrifuges and how those rules are applied to a model used to mimic behaviour of real large scale reinforced concrete structures. Different small scale models comprising beams and slabs are made of gypsum mixtures. All the models were tested in the laboratories of the Faculty of Civil Engineering Osijek using a 0, 40 m in radius centrifuge. The off-the shelf detector showed good potential in discovering crack occurrence on structural parts in buildings.

crack detector ; small-scale models ; centrifuge ; experiment

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