Sensors are key components in structural health monitoring. Although significant improvements have been made on monitoring technologies by using many advanced smart sensors, the need of cables and power supplies still causes much inconvenience in the practical implementation of these technologies. In this paper, we propose a novel rectangular patch antenna to monitor the structural health in a wireless and passive manner so that the drawback of traditional monitoring methods can be fully overcome. The antenna is used as a sensor and its resonant frequency will change linearly in terms of its size changes in both horizontal and vertical directions. The antenna will transmit an electromagnetic wave with the resonant frequency information to a reader by a long distance and activate the chip in the reader. According to the received information about the resonant frequency, the change of the targeted structure’s strain can be measured in real time and its health state can then be evaluated. Simulations and experiments show that the designed antenna is an excellent strain sensor and can be applied to the health detection for many types of structure.

中文翻译：

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基于RFID天线的无源无线传感器，用于检测机械变形

传感器是结构健康监测的关键组件。尽管通过使用许多先进的智能传感器已对监视技术进行了重大改进，但是电缆和电源的需求仍然给这些技术的实际实施带来很多不便。在本文中，我们提出了一种新颖的矩形贴片天线，以无线和被动方式监测结构的健康状况，从而可以完全克服传统监测方法的缺点。天线用作传感器，其谐振频率将根据其在水平和垂直方向的尺寸变化而线性变化。天线将通过共振频率信息将电磁波长距离传输到阅读器，并激活阅读器中的芯片。根据收到的有关共振频率的信息，可以实时测量目标结构的应变变化，然后可以评估其健康状态。仿真和实验表明，所设计的天线是一种出色的应变传感器，可以应用于多种结构的健康检测。