Nondestructive Testing and Health Monitoring Techniques for Structural Effective Prestress

Prestressed structures are widely employed in bridges and large-span spatial structures, and the accurate evaluation of prestress state is of great importance for structural maintenance. This paper reviews the nondestructive testing (NDT) and health monitoring techniques for structural effective prestress. Specifically, the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor-based, magnetic-elastic (ME) sensor-based, dynamic response-based, ultrasonic guided wave (UGW)-based, electromechanical impedance (EMI)-based, and electrical resistance-based methods are reviewed in this paper. Firstly, the principle, application range, and measuring accuracy of each technique are introduced and analyzed, and the benefits and limitations of each technique are summarized: The FBG sensor and ME sensor take on high measuring accuracy and have been applied in practical engineering, but they are required to be preinstalled during structural construction; the dynamic response-based method is greatly effective in cable force assessment but not suitable for prestress evaluation of prestressed concrete (PSC) structures; the UGW-based, EMI-based, and electrical resistance-based methods have shown favorable potential for prestress assessment in laboratory experiments, but their feasibility and accuracy in practical engineering need to be verified. Secondly, the challenges and discussion of each method are discussed in the following four aspects: measuring range, reliability of measuring results, stability and durability considering long-term monitoring, and cost-efficiency. Finally, a decision tree is proposed to choose the most appropriate prestress evaluation method in a specific application scenario.