Nowadays sustainability for both old and new structures has become more and more important. Therefore structural health monitoring (SHM) of mass concrete structures holds the interests of engineers and researchers. Based on the high compression sensibility of carbon fiber-reinforced cement (CFRC), a new skin-like sensor -cement-based smart layer is put forward in the paper, which can serve as whole field strain sensor. Cement-based smart layer is satisfactorily consistent with concrete structure. The smart layer is a thin carbon fiber mat cement-based composite material layer with finite electrodes. It can cover with the surface of a concrete structure. The smart layer can rapidly and on-line provide reliable information of the structure. Sensitivity field is constructed by inspecting finite electrodes around smart layer. The structural surface strain field is reconstructed through using the compression sensibility of the smart layer and electrical resistance tomography (ERT) monitoring techniques. The evaluation of the structural health status is obtained by conducting strain modal analysis for concrete structures. The sensor characteristics of the new-type sensor have been researched. The fractional change in electrical resistance of the cement-based smart layer has good agreement with structural average strain, and the gage factor can be much more than the resistive strain gauge. Furthermore, the cement-based smart layer has satisfactory linearity and repeatability. At last, the surface strain field of a sample beam is reconstructed through using electrical resistance tomography (ERT) monitoring techniques.
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