A study of piezoelectric properties of carbon fiber reinforced concrete and plain cement paste during dynamic loading

Carbon fiber reinforced concrete (CFRC) is an intrinsically smart material, which can be used to realize the self-monitoring of concrete structures ba sed on its piezoresistance effect and the Seebeck effect. An experimental s tudy was made to examine the piezoelectric properties of CFRC and plain cem ent paste. The results show that both CFRC and plain cement paste exhibit p iezoelectric behavior, which can be explained in terms of a solid-liquid in terface double-layer model. Furthermore, they can sense a large range of lo ading rates with high sensitivity. The materials are good sensors for monit oring the dynamic loading. Therefore, a new method to make smart concrete s tructures can be developed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.