ConcreteCom: a new communication paradigm for building structural health monitoring

Piezo-electric transducers (PZTs) as multi-functional devices can be effectively used both for sensing and actuation as well as for energy harvesting. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of utilizing PZTs as transceivers to communicate structural or control information via concrete conduits for building structural health monitoring. Extensive measurement study provides a detailed characterization of concrete channel properties. Using software defined radio technologies, we develop basic communication modules and successfully demonstrate the practicability of ConcreteCom, a new communication paradigm in support of data rate up to 10Kbps in our concrete beam testbed.