A Review on the Impact of Thermal Effects on Electro-Mechanical Impedance Technique-Based Structural Health Monitoring

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has been one of the most crucial domains of engineering structures, which entails assessing the current robustness of the structures. Due to several instances of failures and destruction that resulted in significant loss of life and property over the past two decades, SHM has emerged as the key concern for distinct types of structures. Nowadays, the use of piezoelectric materials as a viable tool for SHM has been earning prominence and recognition because of their advantageous remarks. The piezoelectric Lead-Zirconate-Titanate (PZT) patches, when surface bonded to the structural substrate, are exposed to the environmental impacts. For an effective monitoring system to be established, the sensors attached on or embedded inside structural surface should be able to withstand the temperature loads and provide the refined responses extracted out of those due to temperature disturbance. So, the investigation of temperature dependency of the PZT patches is imperative for employing those in non-destructive evaluation (NDE) applications in high-temperature environments. Despite the fact that there have been several studies on the SHM through PZT based electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique, the following article delivers some insight into a review of the past researches on the influence of the thermal loads on EMI-based monitoring system involving PZT patches.