Study of the Influence of the Protection Arrangement on Piezo-Electric Transducers Applied in the Electromechanical Impedance Technique in Concrete Structures

This paper presents an analysis of structural integrity monitoring using the electromechanical impedance method together with a finite element model. The objective is to implement and evaluate a protection arrangement for piezoelectric transducers, verifying their influence on damage detection. The methodology uses piezoelectric transducers embedded in the structure to acquire impedance signatures, where changes in the curve indicate potential damage. To identify the presence of damage, specific metrics are evaluated that allow detecting the presence of damage characterized by displacements in the signatures. The experiment compares a simulated model with a concrete sample tested in a controlled environment. The results show the correlation between the model values and those observed in the tests, evidencing the efficiency of the applied metrics.