[CCoE Notice] MS Thesis Presentation

[Lewis, Lindsay R]

Master's Thesis Defense

Characterization of sensing repair materials
By: Srisothinathan (Bahee) Pakeetharan

Thesis defense committee members
Dr. C.Vipulanandan, Chair
Dr. Ashraf S. Ayoub
Dr. Gangbing Song

June 28, 2012, 10:30 a.m.
Civil Engineering Conference Room (N-137)

Abstract
In order to monitor construction, repairs and maintenance of various types of structures, it is critical to develop materials with sensing capabilities with applied stress and environmental conditions. In this study, polymeric and cementitious structural grouting materials were modified to have sensing capabilities. Piezoresistivity was considered as the sensing property and materials were tested under various service conditions in terms of strength and sensitivity. In addition, real-time application of such smart materials for low stress disaster monitoring was investigated. Also a cementitious repair material typically used in steel pipes as protective coating was investigated to evaluate the field performance in terms of shrinkage, water absorption and strength characteristics.

For the piezoresistive cementitious and polymeric materials the resistivity change was over 10 times more than the engineering strain. Specially designed polymeric composite cantilever beam detected the applied pressure as low as 2 kPa (~0.3 psi). The compressive stress-strain relationships of the polymer and cementitious composite were modeled using a non-linear relationship and the constitutive behavior of the piezoresistive material was modeled using incremental nonlinear stress-resistivity relationship.




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