Development of Interdigitated-Type Planar Capacitive Flex-Sensor Array for the Detection of Damages in Civil Engineering Structures

Abstract

A modified Interdigitated Planar Electrode (IDE) design is presented and used in the development of flex-sensor for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). The design of IDE consists of a U-shaped electrode with integrated interdigitated electrodes. The overall size of the unit-cell structure is 25 × 25 mm2. Different civil engineering blocks were tested using the proposed sensor and a comprehensive crack analysis is presented based on the crack parameters. The sensor offers a lowest average sensitivity of 0.863157 pF/mm. The proposed flex-sensor can also be potentially used for the detection and monitoring of other structural parameters like corrosion, moisture content etc.