Cement-Based Composites in Structural Health Monitoring

To guarantee concrete infrastructures functionality over time inspection and maintenance interventions are required. These inspections are typically scheduled on a periodic basis but may not be sufficient to prevent the onset of deteriorations. When these problems occur, extraordinary maintenance operations shall be carried out, causing inconvenience to users and additional costs. The continuous monitoring of the infrastructures allows the transition from programmatic maintenance to predictive maintenance strategies, with a consequent increase in the safety of the structures as well as a reduction in management costs. This work aims to provide a brief overview of continuous monitoring systems for concrete structures developed by Università Politecnica delle Marche, focusing in particular on methods based on free corrosion potential measurement and electrical impedance spectroscopy in the so called “self-sensing” concrete. The “self-sensing” characteristic of concretes can be improved through conductive additions as fillers and fibers. The study conducted within the H2020 EU project EnDurCrete has demonstrated how expensive and sometimes toxic commercial conductive carbon based additions, can be replaced by low-cost, non-toxic industrial by-products, enabling to perform relatively cheap and sustainable continuous monitoring of structures.