Cement-Based Composites in Structural Health Monitoring

Concrete infrastructures, essential for the economic development of populations, require inspection and maintenance interventions to guarantee their functionality over time. These inspections are typically scheduled on a periodic basis but may not be sufficient to prevent the onset of deteriorations. When these problems occur, extraordinary maintenance operations shall be carried out, causing inconvenience to users and additional costs to normal management ones. The continuous monitoring of the infrastructures durability allows a paradigm shift in their management, allowing the transition from programmatic maintenance to the implementation of predictive maintenance strategies, with a consequent increase in the safety of the structures as well as a reduction in management costs. This work aims to provide a brief overview of continuous monitoring systems for concrete structures developed by Università Politecnica delle Marche, with particular focus on methods based on free corrosion potential measurement and electrical impedance spectroscopy