Acoustic Emission Signal Analysis for Damage Assessment of the Reinforced Concrete Slab Structures

The acoustic emission(AE) behavior of reinforced concrete slab under flexural loading was investigated to assess the integrity. This study was aimed at identifying the characteristics of AE response associated with damage development. By applying cyclic loading in various load steps, it was able to differentiate each AE source such as distributed micro crack initiation, friction, flexural crack and localized diagonal tension crack. The secondary peak and the change of AE hit rate gave valuable criteria fur assessment. From the analysis of the felicity ratio, furthermore, it was shown that this values can be used for evaluating the degree of concrete damage. Based on the experimental results, this approach for practical AE application may provide a promising method for estimating the level of damage and distress in concrete structures.