In this paper, preliminary investigation of a new cement-sand based piezoelectric composite was conducted for potential structural engineering applications. PZT ceramic powder has been incorporated into cement material to form composite smart materials in earlier studies and showed promising outcome. However, the previous studies were limited to using only PZT and cement. In this study, PZT powder mixed with cement and sand, which is more realistic in civil engineering applications. The compressive strength of the composites with different PZT volume ratios was investigated. The results showed that embed PZTs increased the strength of the composites. Modified Sawyer-Tower circuit was applied to pole the composites in order to obtain the desired electrical properties of the composites. The mechanical and electrical properties of this type of new smart material had been investigated experimentally. Through a series of MTS compression tests, feasibility of using cement-sand based PZT composite materials in civil engineering is evaluated.
Origami with structural engineering applications