Numerical Study of a PVDF-Based Strain Sensor for Damage Detection of an Asphalt Concrete Pavement Subject to Dynamic Loads

Abstract

This paper studies the performance of Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)–based strain sensor subject to dynamic loads with different load-moving velocities and the strain sensor’s performance for bottom-up crack detection of an asphalt pavement subject to dynamic loads. The core of the strain sensor is a metalized PVDF sensing film packaged with three protection layers. The encapsulated strain sensor adopts an H-shape to optimize the overall performance. Two numerical models are built in this paper and validate that the voltage output of the PVDF-based strain sensor can well capture the peak lateral strain with the propagation of the bottom-up cracks or the variation of a load moving velocity. Additionally, the sensor has better performance when it is in its lateral alignment position.

Keywords

• strain sensor
• PVDF
• asphalt pavement
• structural health monitoring
• damage detection