'Sensing skin' could monitor the health of concrete infrastructure continually and inexpensively
Thursday, June 30, 2011 - 01:20
in Physics & Chemistry
Civil engineers and physicists have designed a new method for the electronic, continual monitoring of concrete infrastructure. The researchers say a flexible skin-like fabric with electrical properties could be adhered to areas of structures where cracks are likely to appear, such as the underside of a bridge, and detect cracks when they occur. Installing this "sensing skin" would be as simple as gluing it to a structure's surface.