%0 Journal Article
%T Health Monitoring of Nuclear Structure Containment Using Strain Gauges to Assess the Integrity
%A A. K. Parande
%A J. Kennedy
%A M. S. Karthikeyan
%A R. Jeyaram
%A A. Sivashanmugam
%A R. H. Suresh Bapu
%A N. Palaniswamy
%J ISRN Construction Engineering
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/149458
%X Assessment of concrete structures and prediction of their health and life could be possible by online monitoring of the stress/strain level and is an intelligent tool to prevent accidents. Measuring strain pattern on structures is vital to evaluate the health of forced members. The present paper describes the methodology, instrumentation line up, and coding for LabVIEW software for continuous online strain data acquisition of structures for nuclear structures. The performance of strain gauges on concrete and steel containment structures of nuclear reactor and to assess the integrity and health of the containment structure is emphases in this research paper. 1. Introduction Forced structures, commonly manifested as steel frame structures, reinforcement rods, concrete containments, reinforced concrete beams, prestressed tendons in cement grout, and so forth are subjected to strain due to several loading patterns [1]. Strain is an important criterion which directly governs the service life of structures, and a careful measurement and monitoring of strain induced in forced structures can be used to predict the failure and service life of them. Structures are subjected to a variety of loading patterns which induces different stress patterns on structures according to the type of service conditions that they are subjected to. Temperature variations occur on structures resulting from exposure to sunlight or operational surroundings and nonuniform dissipation of the absorbed heat [2, 3] induces stress. High level of temperature variations may ultimately lead to failure [4]. Naturally, the effect of temperature on the design of containment structures is of major concern particularly in terms of compressive strength, thermal expansion, and long-term deformation under load (creep) [5]. Measurement of stress/strain levels on structures by continuous or online monitoring helps to predict life span of structures and to prevent accidents due to excess loading [6, 7]. Concrete structures are highly sensitive to dynamic loads and exhibit weak resistance to tensile load [8]. Direct measurement of strain under trivial conditions such as earthquake, impact loading, and vibration is not possible. Strain gauges are commonly used as sensors to assess deformation and deflection of structures [8, 9]. Strain gauges are low noise output devices, which need well-insulated low resistance leads. Installation of strain gauges and strain measurement on structures is an art which requires special expertise. While considering the ease of installation and good sensitivity, foil-type
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.construction.engineering/2013/149458/