Carbon nanotube cement-based sensors for dynamic monitoring of concrete structures

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is one of the most significant topics of civil engineering. It allows to examine the actual conditions of a structure during its service life. The main purpose of SHM is finding any deficiency before it can reach a worrying damage level able to compromise structural safety. The recent development of nanotechnology allows the creation and the development of new types of sensors made by adding carbon nanotubes to the cement paste. In this paper, tests on cement-based sensors for monitoring the dynamic behavior of concrete elements subjected to time-varying loads, are presented.