Abstract
The growing concern in monitoring civil infrastructures, combined with recent technological advances in sensing and information technology led to a concept known as 'smart infrastructures'. Recently, nanotechnology has been contributing with the development of innovative and multifunctional building materials. For example, cementitious composites with specific conductive composition allow the detection of mechanical stresses and may be used not only to build infrastructures but to monitor them as well. In this paper, a stress-sensitive cement composite integrating a conductive carbon black filler (CB) is investigated for traffic monitoring purposes, relying on piezoresistivity. The sensitivity of the composite was evaluated in specific specimens by performing traffic-like loading experiments, at temperatures between 15 C and 45 C. Experiments showed linear and reversible piezoresistive responses with average gauge factors registered between 40 and 50 and demonstrated that such composites may act as stress-sensitive materials for traffic monitoring, such as traffic flow, vehicular speed and weigh-in-motion measurements.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 025023 |
| Journal | Smart Materials and Structures |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 17 2019 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): (BAS/1/1346-01-01
Acknowledgements: Thanks are due to University of Aveiro, FCT/MEC for the financial support to the research Unit (FCT/UID/ECI/04450/2013). AOM acknowledges support from the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology FCT with a PhD scholarship (SFRH/BD/84644/2012), the institute for highway engineering (ISAC) of the University of Aachen (RWTH) for scientific collaboration. PMFJC is grateful to KAUST for financial support (BAS/1/1346-01-01). The authors acknowledge Orion Engineered Carbons for the carbon black supply.