Modelling of radio frequency waves in concrete

Giatec的混凝土传感器被设计为在浇筑过程中嵌入混凝土中，以收集有关混凝土温度和/或湿度的数据。传感器周期性地收集和存储数据。为了访问和下载传感器数据，用户使用智能手机或平板电脑通过蓝牙连接到传感器。这种方法允许用户非常方便地收集数据，而无需专门的设备，这对Giatec来说是一个显著的商业优势。由于传感器使用射频（RF）波与智能手机通信，因此传感器可以安装的深度有限（约2英寸）。如果了解混凝土特性和传感器硬件配置对RF波传播的影响，则可以弥补这种限制。这将使Giatec能够增强其当前的方法，并生产可以更深地嵌入混凝土中的传感器。为了使传感器能够更深地嵌入混凝土内部并克服电流限制，需要改变传感器硬件配置。此外，了解具体特征的影响是必要的，以确保传感器的通信协议将是有效的，在现场可用的广泛的具体特征。实现这一点需要大量非常耗时且相当昂贵的实验。另一方面，数值建模将使Giatec能够了解电流传感器系统，并针对实验测试非常具有挑战性的各种情况进行优化。

Giatec's concrete sensors are designed to be embedded within the concrete, during casting, in order to collect data regarding the concrete temperature and/or humidity. The sensors periodically collect and store the data internally. In order to access and download the sensor data, the user connects to the sensor, through Bluetooth, using a smart phone or a tablet. This method allows users to collect data very conveniently with no specialized equipment which is a significant commercial advantage for Giatec.**Since the sensors use radio frequency (RF) waves to communicate with the smart phones, there is a limited depth (approximately 2 inches) at which the sensor can be installed. This limitation can be remedied if the effect of concrete properties and sensor hardware configuration on the propagation of RF waves is understood. This will allow Giatec to enhance its current method and produce sensors that can be embedded deeper within the concrete. In order to allow the sensors to be embedded deeper inside the concrete and overcome the current limitations, changes in the sensor hardware configurations are required. Furthermore, understanding the effect of concrete characteristics is necessary to ensure that the sensors' communication protocol will be valid for the wide range of concrete characteristics available in the field. Achieving this requires numerous very time consuming and rather expensive experiments. Numerical modelling, on the other hand, will allow Giatec to understand the current sensor system and optimize it for a wide range of cases that are very challenging to test experimentally.