Cracking Mechanism of Corroded Reinforced Concrete Column Based on Acoustic Emission Technique
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 4
Abstract
The Acoustic Emission (AE) technique is applied to study the failure mode, damage evolution process, and cracking mechanism of reinforced concrete (RC) columns under the coupling effect of exterior compression load and interior reinforcement corrosion. AE signals are collected from different loading stages for corroded and uncorroded RC column specimens. Parameter analyses are conducted to analyze the peak frequency, energy distribution, and phase parameters used to achieve the general changing conditions of AE signals. Fast Fourier Transform is applied to reveal the time-variant rules of signal frequency and energy in different damage stages. Discrete Wavelet Transform is used for a better understanding of the local time-frequency properties of the non-stationary AE signals and optimally interprets the damage evolution process of the RC structure. Results show that the peak frequency has a 3-layered distribution; an obvious “double-peak” trend of the energy distribution indicates two cracking mechanisms: steel/concrete interface damage and aggregate/cement damage. The damage process consists of four stages: micro-crack formation, micro-crack development, crack expansion, and cracking failure. The corrosion behavior remarkably influences the energy distributions of the two cracking mechanisms, the characteristics of the spectra in different stages, and the damage evolution process inside the RC columns.
Practical Applications
This paper studies the failure mode, damage evolution process, and cracking mechanism of reinforced concrete (RC) columns under the coupling effect of exterior compression load and interior reinforcement corrosion via AE signal analysis. The energy distribution and spectral characteristics show significant differences among different cracking stages. Moreover, those important properties and the damage evolution process are also remarkably affected by the corrosion behavior of the steel reinforcement. The practical meaning of those research outcomes are to provide theoretical supports for the application of AE techniques in the health monitoring of RC structures. The changes in the key properties of AE signals measured and analyzed can be used to capture the state changes and locate the cracking stage, which provides important evidence for the safety evaluation of RC structures.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The research work was supported in part by Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant Nos. LR21E080002 and LZ20E080003) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51978620 and 51908503). Opinions and findings presented are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 4 • April 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 16, 2022
Accepted: Aug 4, 2022
Published online: Jan 28, 2023
Published in print: Apr 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jun 28, 2023
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