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Investigation on novel embedded piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers for

corrosion monitoring of reinforced concrete
To cite this article: Peng Liu et al 2019 Smart Mater. Struct. 28 115041

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 Smart Materials and Structures

Smart Mater. Struct. 28 (2019) 115041 (10pp) https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-665X/ab4c4b

Investigation on novel embedded

piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers for
corrosion monitoring of reinforced concrete
Peng Liu1, Yan Hu1, Bo Geng2 and Dongyu Xu2,3
1
School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410075, People’s Republic of
China
2
Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Construction Materials Preparation and Measurement, University
of Jinan, Jinan, Shandong 250022, People’s Republic of China

E-mail: xuy_sha@163.com and mse_xudy@ujn.edu.cn

Received 24 May 2019, revised 26 August 2019

Accepted for publication 9 October 2019
Published 24 October 2019

Abstract
The corrosion monitoring of reinforced concrete is important for the structural safety. A kind of
embedded annular piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers suitable for corrosion monitoring of the
reinforced concrete were proposed and fabricated, and the electrical impedance spectra and ultrasonic
pitch-catch characteristic of the transducers in the steel rebar were discussed. The results show that
after the annular piezoceramic disk was encapsulated, the resonance of the piezoelectric ceramic
under effects of electric excitation was restricted due to the damping effect of the packaging layer.
Comparing with the annular piezoelectric ceramic disk, the wall thickness extensional resonance
frequency of the annular ultrasonic transduces decreases, however, the corresponding frequency
bandwidth increases. The ultrasonic pitch-catch experimental results indicate that the annular full-
electrode transducer has the largest wave duration time and the minimum head wave amplitude than
others, but the annular serial transducer has the largest head wave amplitude and peak to peak value.
When the excitation frequency of the signal is in the range of 100–160 kHz, the annular serial
transducer has the best ability to receive the ultrasonic wave. A good distinguishability of the
longitudinal and flexural wave can be obtained in the reception waveform when the distance between
the emission and reception transducers is larger than 600 mm in a long round steel rebar.

Keywords: reinforced concrete, piezoelectric, ultrasonic transducer, corrosion, monitoring

(Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction regarded as one of the most important factors causing the

Presently, reinforced concrete is one of the most important
building materials, and plays an essential role in the civil engi-
neering fields. Usually, the reinforced concrete structures should
have satisfied durability and safety in the complex service sur-
roundings. However, the concrete materials and structures will
inevitably be destroyed due to various coupling effects, such as
fatigue loadings, corrosion destroy and thermal and humidity
loadings. Deterioration and degradation of concrete have a
variety of forms, and the corrosion of the reinforcement bar is
3
Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed.
invalidation of concrete structures [1–4], especially in some
coastal construction projects, such as port, long-span bridges and
offshore drilling platform. Reinforced concrete has nowadays
been widely used in many severe engineering structures
including costal, saline-alkali and high temperature and humidity
environments, which accordingly proposes a great challenge to
timely detect and prohibit the rebar corrosion in concrete.
The corrosion process of the steel rebar can be seen as the
electrochemical reaction process at surroundings of enough
oxygen and water, which leads to the degradation of mechanical
properties and bonding ability between the steel rebar and
concrete [5–7]. Scholars worldwide have paid widely attention

0964-1726/19/115041+10$33.00 1 © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK

Smart Mater. Struct. 28 (2019) 115041 P Liu et al

to the inspection and protection of reinforced concrete. Pre- piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer based on the structural
sently, the popular corrosion monitoring methods of the steel design of the annular piezoelectric ceramic. The electrical
rebar include electrochemical detection technique [8–10], ultra- impedance spectra of the transducers before and after
sonic inspection technique [11–13], acoustic emission detection encapsulation were investigated, and meanwhile the ultra-
technique [14, 15], and resistance and electromagnetic techni- sonic pitch-catch characteristics of the transducers in the steel
ques [16–18] etc. Zhao et al [19, 20] investigated the steel rebar rebar were also discussed.
corrosion monitoring technique for steel reinforced concrete
structures by using the fiber optical Brillouin sensing technique
and fiber optical white light interferometer sensing technique. 2. Experiments
Talakokula et al [21] investigated the carbonation induced cor-
rosion initiation and progression in reinforced concrete structures 2.1. Theoretical background
by using piezo-impedance transducers. Li et al carried out many
researches on corrosion monitoring or reinforced concrete by Piezoelectric ceramic materials have been widely used in
using different advanced techniques [22–26]. For example, they many different fields due to their excellent piezoelectric
proposed a novel type of ferromagnetic distance-based metal effects which can be expressed as following equations [40].
loss sensor for quantitative measurement of the accumulated ⎧ D1 = d15 T5 + e1E1
amount of corrosion, and validated its metal loss measurement ⎪
⎨ D2 = d15 T4 + e2 E2 , (1 )
through scanning the fabricated corrosion samples [22]. In ⎪
⎩ D 3 = d33 T3 + d31(T1 + T2) + e3 E3
addition, they also conducted the experimental investigation on
corrosion monitoring of a steel reinforced mortar block through ⎧S = s E T + s E T + s E T + d E
combined acoustic emission, fiber Bragg grating strain mea- ⎪ 1 11 1 12 2 13 3 31 3

surement, carbon fiber, and fiber Bragg grating active thermal
probe technique etc, and found a good correlation between
acoustic emission activity and expansive strain measured on the
specimen surface, and corrosion severity and magnitude of the
temperature response [23, 24].
Towards the development of a noninvasive, in situ, and
nondestructive corrosion monitoring methodology, ultrasonic
wave approach was especially studied due to the capability of
testing over long distances with a sensitivity often greater
than the conventional nondestructive testing techniques [27].
The piezoelectric transducer is the core part of ultrasonic
monitoring technique, which plays a great role to ensure the
monitoring reliability of structures [28, 29]. Presently, the
commercial ultrasonic transducers encapsulated with metallic
shells are not suitable for the long-term corrosion monitoring
of the steel rebar, and are also easily corroded when
embedded into concrete. Hence, there is a need for non-
intrusive, in situ, and real time corrosion monitoring trans-
ducers for reinforced concrete structures. Recently, the
research of embedded piezoelectric transducers for non-
destructive evaluation of the concrete has become increas-
ingly popular [30–35]. Luo et al [36] conducted the concrete
infill monitoring in concrete-filled FRP tubes by using a PZT-
based ultrasonic time-of-flight method and experimentally
validated numerical findings. Liu et al [37] investigated the
ultrasonic characteristic of the piezoelectric smart aggregates
under effects of axial compressive loading, and provides a
potential method to assess stress state in concrete structures
using smart aggregates. Li et al [38] used the smart aggre-
gates as embedded AE sensors to detect and evaluate the
damage of the concrete structure. Huo et al [39] carried out
the steel bar corrosion monitoring by using a piezoceramic
transducer with time reversal method. However, as for the
long-term corrosion monitoring requirement of reinforced
concrete, it is very important to develop an efficient embed-
ded piezoelectric transducer satisfying the shape feature
of the rebar. Therefore, we proposed a novel embedded
⎪ S2 = s11E T2 + s12E T1 + s13E T3 + d31E3
⎪
⎪ S3 = s E T3 + s E (T1 + T2) + d33 E3
⎨ 33 13 , (2 )
⎪ S4 = s44
E
T4 + d15 E2
⎪
⎪ S5 = s44 T5 + d15 E1
E
⎪
⎩ S6 = s66 T6
where symbols d and ε mean the piezoelectric strain constant
and dielectric constant. Symbols D, E, S, T, and sE mean the
electrical displacement, electrical field, strain, stress and
elastic compliance coefficient at a constant electrical field.
The subscript 3 denotes the polarization axis, and subscripts 1
and 2 are the arbitrary orthogonal axes perpendicular to the
polarization axis. The subscripts 4, 5 and 6 denote the in-
plane shearing stress and strain perpendicular to the axes of 1,
2 and 3, respectively.
It is known that the piezoelectric materials can produce
induction charge under effect of stress wave due to direct
piezoelectric effect (equation (1)), and the ultrasonic reception
transducer can therefore be tailored by using this advantage.
On the other hand, when the alternating current is applied to
the piezoelectric materials, the piezoelectric materials will
have tiny deformation due to the converse piezoelectric effect
(equation (2)) caused by electrical polarization. Therefore, the
emission type piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers can also be
fabricated by using the converse piezoelectric effect.
The ultrasonic wave is a mechanical wave, which is also
called as the ultrasonic guided wave due to effects of the
boundary condition when it transmits in the medium with a
finite boundary, such as thin plate, rod and shell. Here, the
long steel rebar can be assumed to be an infinite long elastic
rod, and the ultrasonic transmission modes in the rebar can be
deduced by using the Navier motion equations in a cylindrical
coordinate by setting Z axis along the axis direction of the
rebar [41].
¶f 2m ¶wz ¶w ¶ 2u
(l + 2 m ) - + 2m q = r 2r , (3 )
¶r r ¶q ¶z ¶t

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Smart Mater. Struct. 28 (2019) 115041 P Liu et al

1 ¶f ¶w ¶w ¶ 2u
(l + 2 m ) - 2m r + 2m z = r 2q , (4 )
r ¶q ¶z ¶r ¶t
¶f 2 m ¶ ( r wq ) 2m ¶wr ¶ 2u
(l + 2 m ) - + = r 2z , (5 )
¶z r ¶r r ¶q ¶t
where symbol Φ is the volume constant of cylindrical coor-
dinate. Symbols ur, uθ and uz denote radial displacement, Figure 1. Layout schematic of the piezoelectric ultrasonic transdu-
circular displacement and axial displacement. Symbols ωr, ωθ cers on the steel rebar.
and ωz denote the different components of the rotation vector.
Symbols λ and μ are lame constant and Poisson’s ratio, and produce the ultrasonic wave, thus the PZT-4 type piezo-
symbols r and θ are radius and cross section angle of the electric ceramic block of 14×14×8 mm with a large
elastic rod. mechanical quality factor was used as the core element of the
1 ¶(rur ) 1 ¶uq ¶uz emission transducers, The annular PZT-5 type piezoelectric
f= + + , (6 )
r ¶r r ¶q ¶z ceramic disk of Φ16×Φ13×1.5 mm with a large piezo-
1 ¶uz ¶uq electric constant was used to fabricate the reception type
2w r = - , (7 ) ultrasonic transducer. In addition, the mixture of Portland
r ¶q ¶z
cement (42.5), epoxy resin, and hardening agent with a mass
¶ur ¶uz
2 wq = - , (8 ) ratio of 4:4:1 was used as the packaging material of the
¶z ¶r transducers. The detailed parameters of the PZT piezoelectric
1 ⎡ ¶(ruq ) ¶ur ⎤ ceramic are shown in table 1.
2 wz = ⎢ - ⎥. (9 )
r ⎣ ¶r ¶q ⎦ Note: fs and fp are the series and parallel resonant fre-
quencies of the PZT ceramics. kt is the thickness electro-
The stress components on the rod surface equal to zero, mechanical coupling coefficient, and d33 is the piezoelectric
that is,
strain constant, and Qm is the mechanical quality factor.
srr = srq = srz = 0. (10) Based on shape feature of the steel rebar, three kinds of
Therefore, the following equations can be obtained based reception type annular piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers
on the relationship of stress and strain. with different circuit connection modes were designed and
fabricated, which were termed as annular full-electrode
¶ur
srr = lf + 2m , (11) transducer, annular serial transducer, and annular parallel
¶r transducer, respectively. The advantage of the annular ultra-
⎡1 ¶ur ¶ ⎛ u ⎞⎤ sonic transducers is that they can easily be fixed on the steel
srq = m ⎢ + r ⎜ q ⎟ ⎥, (12)
⎣r ¶q ¶r ⎝ r ⎠ ⎦ rebar, in addition, because the contacting area between the
transducers and the steel rebar is large, the acoustic wave
¶ur ¶uz
srz = m ( + ). (13) transmitted through the steel rebar can also be effectively
¶z ¶r received by the transducers. The layout schematic of the
Then, the vibration equations of different directions can piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers on the steel rebar is shown
be deduced based on the boundary conditions of the rod, as in figure 1.
follows. The detailed fabrication process of the annular full-
ur = U (r ) cos (nq ) ei (kz - wt ) , (14) electrode transducers is as follows. The shielding wire was
welded on the inner and outer electrodes of the annular
uq = V (r ) sin (nq ) ei (kz - wt ) , (15) piezoelectric ceramic disk, respectively, and then a round
uz = W (r ) cos (nq ) ei (kz - wt ) , (16) stainless-steel bar coated with mold discharging agent was
inserted into the ceramic disk. The Portland 42.5 cement,
where symbols k, z, ω denote the wave number, propagation
epoxy resin, and hardening agent was mixed with a mass ratio
distance and angular frequency of the ultrasonic wave. n
of 4:4:1, which was vacuumized for 5 min to eliminate the
equals to zero or positive integer.
pores and then filled into the gap between the inner electrode
There exist obvious dispersion phenomena and multi-
surface of the ceramic disk and the steel bar. The outer
modal characteristic for the ultrasonic guided wave, such as
electrode surface of the ceramic disk was electrically insu-
longitudinal and torsional modes when n=0, and flexural
lated by using the silica gel. After solidifying, the stainless-
mode (n=1, 2, 3K). Therefore, the corrosion of the steel
rebar can be monitored based on the variation of ultrasonic steel bar was taken out from the ceramic disk, and the copper
guided wave by using the ultrasonic transducer. shielding net was coated on the silica gel layer. Finally, the
mixture of cement, epoxy resin, and hardening agent was
again used to package the copper shielding layer. The struc-
2.2. Fabrication of the piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers
tural schematic of the annular full-electrode ultrasonic trans-
Piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics were used ducers is shown in figure 2(a).
as the core element of the piezoelectric ultrasonic transduces. As for the annular series and parallel transducers, the
Usually, the emission type ultrasonic transducers are used to annular piezoelectric ceramic disk was first cut to six parts

3
Smart Mater. Struct. 28 (2019) 115041 P Liu et al

Figure 2. The structural schematic of the annular ultrasonic transducers (a) annular full-electrode transducer; (b) annular serial transducer; (c)
annular parallel transducer.

Table 1. Properties of the PZT ceramics.

−1
PZT ceramics Dimension(mm) fs(kHz) fp(kHz) kt(%) d33(pC·N ) Qm
PZT-4 14×14×8 110 135 50 400 800
PZT-5 Φ16×Φ13×1.5 130 152 31 500 80

Figure 3. Photos of piezoelectric ceramics and different piezoelectric

ultrasonic transducers.

with the same dimensions by using the diamond cutter, and

then four parts were electrically connected in series and
parallel. Also, a round stainless-steel bar coated with mold
discharging agent was used to fixed these four ceramic ele-
ments, and the mixture of Portland cement, epoxy resin, and Figure 4. Photo of the ultrasonic monitoring setup.
hardening agent was filled into the gaps between the ceramic
elements, and the inner electrode surface of the piezoelectric respectively. The oscilloscope (Tektronix MDO3024) was
ceramic elements and the steel bar. The structural diagram of used to receive the ultrasonic wave transmitted through the
the annular ultrasonic transducers is shown in figures 2(b) and steel rebar.
(c), and photos of the fabricated piezoelectric ultrasonic
transducers are shown in figure 3.

2.3. Property testing method 3. Results and discussion

The resonant characteristic is important for the piezoelectric
ultrasonic transducers, hence, the impedance spectra of the
annular ultrasonic transducers before and after packaging
were tested by using the precision impedance analyzer
(Agilent 4294 A) in a frequency range of 1–500 kHz. The
transmission characteristic of the ultrasonic wave in the steel
rebar was tested by setting up a pitch-catch ultrasonic testing
platform, as shown in figure 4. The sine signal with a peak to
peak amplitude of 10 V was applied to the emission type
ultrasonic transducers by using the function generator
(Tektronix AFG3022C). The excitation frequency was
60 kHz, 80 kHz, 100 kHz, 120 kHz, 140 kHz and 160 kHz,
3.1. Impedance spectra analysis
The electric impedance spectra of the piezoelectric ceramic
disk and different annular ultrasonic transducers are shown in
figure 5. It can be observed that there are two obvious reso-
nant peaks in the spectrum of the piezoelectric ceramic disk,
they are possible the radial extensional and wall thickness
extensional vibration modes of the ceramic disk, respectively
[42]. The vibration of the piezoelectric ceramic under alter-
native electric fields was restricted due to the damping effect
of the packaging layer when encapsulated by the packaging
materials, therefore, it can be seen that the corresponding

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Smart Mater. Struct. 28 (2019) 115041
Figure 5. Impedance spectra of the piezoelectric ceramic and different ultrasonic transducers.
resonant peaks in figure 5(b) are weaker than those in
figure 5(a). As for the annular serial and parallel ultrasonic
transducers, the radial extensional resonant peak gets weaker
and even disappears in figure 5(c) because of the variation of
the electric impedance parameters, nevertheless, the band-
width of the wall thickness extensional resonant peak
increases. Comparing with the annular piezoelectric ceramic
disk, the wall thickness extensional resonance frequency of all
the annular ultrasonic transducers decreases, especially for the
annular serial and parallel transducers. It should also be noted
that the impedance value of the annular serial ultrasonic
transducers is obviously larger than others due to the serial
electrically connection mode.
3.2. Ultrasonic characteristics of the transducers in corroded
steel rebar
The round steel rebar of Φ12×150 mm was used as the
testing objective. The emission transducers were affixed to
one end of the steel rebar, and the annular ultrasonic trans-
ducers were affixed to the other end of the steel rebar,
respectively. The electrochemistry corrosion method was
employed to accelerate the corrosion of the steel rebar as
follows. The round steel rebar and a stainless-steel rebar were
placed in a container with 5% NaCl solution as the working
and auxiliary electrodes of the electrochemical work station,
respectively, and a current density of 1 (mA)cm−2 was
5
P Liu et al
applied to the round steel rebar by the electrochemical
workstation. Then, the corrosion rate of the steel rebar can be
calculated based on the current intensity and time, and mass
loss rate of steel rebar before and after corrosion etc. The
detailed corrosion method can also refer to our previous
report [10]. Figure 6 shows the photo of the annular ultrasonic
transducers in the corroded steel rebar.
A full sine signal excited by the arbitrary function gen-
erators with an amplitude of 10 V and 1 ms time interval was
used to excite the emission transducers, and the time domain
spectra of the ultrasonic wave received by different ultrasonic
transducers at the steel rebar corrosion rates of 0%, 2%, 5%
are shown in figure 7. It can be seen that all the annular ultra-
sonic transducers can well receive the ultrasonic wave trans-
mitted through the corroded steel rebar. Based on the basic
acoustic theory, it is known that the ultrasonic wave transmitted
through the medium is usually composed of various complex
waves, and the first arrival wave is longitudinal wave, which can
be used intuitively to judge the structural heath condition. In
comparison, the annular full-electrode transducer has the largest
wave duration time and the minimum head wave amplitude than
others. And the annular serial transducer has the largest head
wave amplitude and peak to peak value, while the annular
parallel transducer has the minimum peak to peak value.
In addition, it also can be seen that with increasing the
corrosion rate of the steel rebar, the head wave amplitude
shows an obvious decreasing trend, especially for the annular
Smart Mater. Struct. 28 (2019) 115041
Figure 6. Photo of the annular ultrasonic transducers in the corroded
steel rebar.
serial ultrasonic transducers, which also means that the
annular serial ultrasonic transducer is more sensitive to the
steel rebar corrosion than other transducers.
3.3. Characteristic parameters analysis of ultrasonic wave
The group velocity disperse curve of the steel rebar with a
diameter of 12 mm is calculated by using the software pro-
vided by Physical Acoustics Corporation, as shown in
figure 8.
It can be seen that there exist several different modes in
the disperse curve, i.e. longitudinal mode, flexural mode and
torsional mode. The group velocity of different modes has
remarkable difference at the same frequency, and the modal
number increases obviously with increasing the frequency,
and different modes have their own cutoff frequency. Con-
sidering the multimodal complexity at high frequency, the
frequency range of 80–150 kHz was used as the optimal
reception frequency zone of the ultrasonic transducers. In
order to verify the reception ability of the annular ultrasonic
transducers in a long steel rebar, the emission transducer was
attached to one end of the round steel rebar of
Φ12×1000 mm, and the annular full-electrode and serial
transducers were fixed on the other end of the steel rebar,
respectively. A sine signal was excited by using the signal
generator with an amplitude of 10 V, and the reception wave
is plotted in figure 9. It can be observed that both the annular
ultrasonic transducers can well receive the acoustic wave
transmitted through the steel rebar. The first arrived wave
packet is related to the longitudinal mode, and the following
wave packet is the flexural mode with a low velocity. In
addition, the superimposed waves from different incident and
reflection waves can also be found in the spectra. In com-
parison, the annular full-electrode transducer has a good
reception ability to the longitudinal mode wave than the
annular serial transducer, while the annular serial transducer
has a better reception ability to both the longitudinal and the
flexural modes.
It is known based on above analysis that the suitable
frequency range of corrosion monitoring of the steel rebar is
80–150 kHz. In order to investigate the transmission char-
acteristic of ultrasonic wave under different excitation fre-
quencies, the emission and annular serial transducers were
fixed on both end of the steel rebar, respectively, and the sine
signal of 60 kHz, 80 kHz, 100 kHz, 120 kHz, 140 kHz and
160 kHz were used to excite the emission transducer,
6
P Liu et al
respectively. The ultrasonic wave received by the annular
serial transducer is shown in figure 10. It can be seen that
there exist two obvious wave packets in each spectrum. The
group velocity of each wave packet can be calculated based
on the transmission distance and the arrival time of the head
wave. The arrival time of the head wave in both wave packets
is 190.1 μs and 308.2 μs, respectively, thus the corresponding
group velocity of each wave packet is 5263 ms−1 and
3244 ms−1. Based on the disperse curve of the group velocity
in figure 8, the theoretical group velocities of the waves for
longitudinal and flexural modes are 5200 ms−1 and
3200 ms−1. Therefore, it is proved that these two wave
packets in the time domain spectra correspond to the long-
itudinal and flexural modes, respectively.
In addition, it also can be observed that the reception
wave is relatively weak when the excited frequency is
60 kHz, and the wave packet of the flexural mode is hardly to
be distinguished from the superimposed waves. With
increasing the excitation frequency, the peak to peak ampli-
tudes of both wave packets increase, and the longitudinal
mode can also be easily distinguished from the flexural mode.
There is a largest peak to peak amplitude of both wave
packets at the excitation frequency of 120 kHz.
The distinguishability of the wave packets of longitudinal
and flexural modes is important for effective corrosion
monitoring of the steel rebar in concrete. Therefore, the
relationship between the distance of emission and reception
transducers and the length of the steel rebar to be monitored
should be made clear. Here the emission transducer was fixed
on one end of a steel rebar of Φ12×1000 mm, and the
annular serial transducer could move freely on the steel rebar.
The contacting part between the annular serial transducer and
the steel rebar was filled with the vaseline. The steel rebar was
marked every 100 mm distant from the emission transducer
before the ultrasonic testing, and then the reception wave was
recorded when the annular serial transducer was at each
marker. The time domain spectra of the ultrasonic wave
received by the annular serial transducer at different marker
are shown in figure 11.
It can be seen from figure 11 that there exist three
obvious wave packets in the spectra, that is, the first arrived
wave of the longitudinal mode, the following wave of the
flexural mode, and the reflection wave from the other end of
the steel rebar. When the distance between the emission and
reception transducers is 400 mm, the wave packet of the
longitudinal mode overlaps with that of the flexural mode.
This is difficult to well distinguish the wave packets of dif-
ferent modes. With increasing the distance between the
emission and reception transducers, the wave packet of the
flexural mode can be separated from that of the longitudinal
mode, and meanwhile the reflection wave also gets close to
the flexural wave due to the distance decrease between the
reception transducer and the end of steel rebar. With further
moving the reception transducer towards the other end of the
steel rebar, the reflection wave overlaps with the flexural
wave when the distance is 700 mm, and even could not be
well distinguished when the distance is larger than 800 mm.
The flexural wave can be easily distinguished from the
Smart Mater. Struct. 28 (2019) 115041 P Liu et al

Figure 7. Time domain spectra of the ultrasonic wave received by different annular ultrasonic transducers at different steel rebar corrosion
rates. (a)–(c) annular full-electrode transducer; (d)–(f) annular serial transducer; (g)–(i) annular parallel transducer.

Figure 8. Disperse curve of the group velocity.

longitudinal wave when the reception transducer is at the

other end of the steel rebar, and the reflection wave basically
coincides with the first arrived longitudinal wave. Therefore,
it can be concluded from above analysis that when the length
of the steel rebar to be monitored is less than 600 mm, the
wave packets of the longitudinal mode cannot be well dis-
tinguished from that of the flexural mode, however, when the
length of the steel rebar to be monitored is long enough, a
good distinguishability of the longitudinal wave and the
flexural wave can be obtained when the distance between the Figure 9. Time domain spectra of the ultrasonic wave received by
emission and reception transducers is larger than 600 mm. different ultrasonic transducers in a steel rebar of 1000 mm in length.

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Smart Mater. Struct. 28 (2019) 115041 P Liu et al

Figure 10. Time domain spectra of the received ultrasonic wave excited at different frequencies.

Figure 11. Time domain spectra of the ultrasonic wave received by the annular serial transducer at different markers (Note: L and F modes
mean the wave packets of the longitudinal and flexural modes; LR and FR modes mean the reflection wave packets of the longitudinal and
flexural modes from the end of the steel rebar).

4. Conclusion term corrosion monitoring of the reinforced concrete. The

impedance spectra analysis result shows that there exist radial
The annular piezoelectric ceramic disk was used to develop three extensional and wall thickness extensional vibration for the
kinds of different embedded ultrasonic transducers for the long- piezoelectric ceramic disk, and the vibration was restricted due

8
Smart Mater. Struct. 28 (2019) 115041
to the damping effect of the packaging layer when the piezo-
electric ceramic disk was encapsulated by the packaging mate-
rials. The wall thickness extensional resonance frequency of the
annular ultrasonic transduces decreases comparing with the
piezoelectric ceramic disk, and the impedance value of the
annular serial ultrasonic transducers is obviously larger than
others due to the serial electrically connection mode. The pitch-
catch ultrasonic testing result indicates that the annular full-
electrode transducer has the largest wave duration time and the
minimum head wave amplitude than others, and the annular
series ultrasonic transducer has the largest head wave amplitude
and peak to peak value. There exist three obvious wave packets
in a steel rebar of finite length, that is, the first arrival wave of the
longitudinal mode, the following wave of the flexural mode, and
the reflection wave from the other end of the steel rebar. When
the length of the steel rebar to be monitored is less than 600 mm,
the wave packets of the longitudinal mode cannot be well dis-
tinguished from that of the flexural mode, however, when the
length of the steel rebar to be monitored is long enough, a good
distinguishability of the longitudinal wave and the flexural wave
can be obtained when the distance between the emission and
reception transducers is larger than 600 mm.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of
China (Grant no. 2017YFE0120900), Natural Science Out-
standing Youth Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant no.
ZR2017JL023), National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant no. 51778632, U1434204 and 51408614), and
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant numbers
2016M600675 and 2017T100647).
Author has received research grants from the Guangdong
Provincial Key Laboratory of Durability for Marine Civil Engi-
neering (Grant no. GDDCE14-03, 15-08, 17-02, 18-16), Basic
Research on Science and technology program of Shenzhen
(JCYJ20170818143541342 and JCYJ20180305123935198) and
Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province of China
(2017JJ3385).
ORCID iDs
Dongyu Xu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5217-5417
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