Acoustic emissions from reinforced concrete

Acoustic emissions from reinforced-concrete beams, reinforcing bars and plain concrete cylinders were monitored. Acoustic-emission events were used in a study of source locations, frequency characteristics, and other analytical methods that have found use in the past for evaluating acoustic-emission data in other fields of engineering. Tests were done on reinforced-concrete beams under flexural loading, individual reinforcing bars under pure tension, concrete cylinders under compression, and reinforcing bars subject to pullout tests.The experimental data were first analyzed with conventional acoustic-emission methodology. A critical look at many acoustic-emission techniques currently used in other materials (metals, composites, etc.) demonstrated some of the difficulties of applying the same techniques to reinforced concrete. More importantly, it illustrated the limitations of signal processing and parameter estimation of acoustic-emission events as viable nondestructive-evaluation (NDE) techniques for reinforced-concrete structures. Subsequently, on the basis of the experimental results, some of the more promising aspects of developing acoustic emission into a structural monitoring tool are discussed.