The constant monitoring of structures is becoming one of the main management means to guarantee safety and allow a low-cost and effective maintenance intervention programme. The safety and management of bridges, tunnels, damns and other important structures require regular long and short-term monitoring, in order to increase knowledge of the actual behaviour of the structure and plan maintenance and restructuring interventions as effectively as possible.

Concrete structures are often likely to show problems of reduction of local resistance and affect the structural safety of the complex. Furthermore, a deep understanding of the behaviour of the structure is becoming more and more important, since new building techniques and lighter materials are often used. The objective of the Project Research is the development of a sensor measurement system of the tension status in concrete structures. The innovative idea of the ‘Smart Concrete” project is to combine microelettronics with the mechanical macrostructure. Among the different measurable parametres, the internal tension status in several sections of a structure is definitely the most appropriate to understand the “state of health” of a concrete structure. In fact by concentrating these measurements it will be possible to trace with accuracy the state of effort in progress in the monitored element.