Experimental study on acoustic emission characteristics of reinforced concrete components

Acoustic emission analysis is an effective technique for monitoring the evolution of damage in a structure. An experimental analysis on a set of reinforced concrete beams under flexural loading was carried out. A mixed AE analysis method which used both parameter-based and signal-based techniques was presented to characterize and identify different failure mechanisms of damage, where the signal-based analysis was performed by using the Hilbert-Huang transform. The maximum instantaneous energy of typical damage events and the corresponding frequency characteristics were established, which provided a quantitative assessment of reinforced concrete beam using AE technique. In the bending tests, a \"pitch-catch\" system was mounted on a steel bar to assess bonding state of the steel bar in concrete. To better understand the AE behavior of bond-slip damage between steel bar and concrete, a special bond-slip test called pullout test was also performed. The results provided the basis of quantitative AE to identify both failure mechanisms and level of damages of civil engineering structures.