A New Cost-Effective Active Structural Health Monitoring Technology for Detecting Shear Bands in Poorly Cemented Sands Leading to Exploration Borehole Collapse

The paper presents laboratory studies on the suitability of a new active structural health monitoring (SHM) technology and associated piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) for detecting the formation of shear bands in poorly cemented sand specimens around a rectangular opening simulating an exploration borehole and for indirectly evaluating the movement of sand volumes in the vicinity of the exploration borehole wall during laboratory tests. Presented preliminary laboratory results show that the PZTs used with the proposed active SHM technology can be embedded within a poorly cemented sand specimen and can detect changes in sand porosity. However, further laboratory studies need to be conducted to fully evaluate the effectiveness of the technology and associated PZTs for detecting the aforementioned.