MEMS FOR CIVIL INFRASTRUCTURE: SMART AGGREGATE FOR CONCRETE

MEMS FOR CIVIL INFRASTRUCTURE: SMART AGGREGATE FOR CONCRETE

ABSTARCT 

The past few years have seen advancements in electrical engineering fields, such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and microsensors. Together with more mature technologies like wireless data communication, these advancements have begun to make embedded microdevices for use in civil infrastructure a serious and cost-effective reality. Infrastructure plays an extremely important role in the functioning of society and yet important decisions regarding the repair and replacement of this infrastructure are often based on limited information. Over time, this infrastructure deteriorates as a result of use and environmental factors. The construction environment may also introduce variations in the initial properties of infrastructure elements, different from those specified by the design. Routine inspections of critical infrastructure are typically cursory, involving little more than documentation of visual examinations. In-depth inspections involving more sophisticated methods are done less frequently due to expense, time required to perform testing and data interpretation, and material damage during inspection. To address these problems, this research proposes a system for distributed concrete infrastructure monitoring using embedded microdevices. MEMS technology permits the creation of micromechanical transducers to convert physical and chemical stimuli into electrical signals. Advances in MEMS also allow these devices to be small and cheap enough to be distributed throughout a structure in numbers from hundreds to millions. This paper begins with a brief discussion of deterioration, damage, and current detection methods for concrete infrastructure. Following this background discussion is a presentation of the microsensor and electronic system technologies available for addressing deterioration and detection with distributed, embedded microdevices. Where possible, existing microsensors are proposed to augment or replace current nondestructive evaluation techniques. System technologies for power and communication are similarly proposed. In the area of local strength testing, where neither current NDE methods nor existing microsensors have proven effective, novel MEMS testing devices are proposed. Based on these needs and available technologies, the discussion concludes with a description of a concept being developed for a “Smart Aggregate” microdevice for distributed, embedded concrete infrastructure monitoring.

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