Expert: Electrical monitoring can help ensure structural integrity of concrete buildings

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The partial collapse of Champlain Towers South, the 12-story condominium building near Miami, has aroused public concern for the structural integrity of high-rise buildings

It also has heightened the need for monitoring the structural health of buildings.

University at Buffalo engineer Deborah D.L. Chung is an expert in materials science and engineering, particularly smart materials, including concrete designed to respond to changes in its environment.

“It is important to assess structural health even prior to the start of visible damage, so that the remedy can be implemented in a timely fashion for the sake of hazard reduction,” says Chung, PhD, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Once cracks form, they tend to propagate and they can lead to catastrophic failure of the structure, she says.

“Current monitoring methods typically involve visual inspection, such as measuring the width of cracks and using sound emissions to measure other damage,” she says. “These methods are effective for observing cracks, but they are not effective for assessing the damage before the cracks start to form.”

The inventor of smart concrete, Chung patented technology in 2020 that uses electrical measurements performed on the building’s concrete structure to assess the structural health before cracks start to form. The technology does not require the concrete to have any special formulation, so it is applicable to new and existing structures, she says.

Chung is ranked No. 14 among 177,931 materials researchers (living or deceased) worldwide in the 2020 Stanford University ranking.