Acoustic emission evaluation of concrete culverts

Abstract

An experimental investigation was conducted to address the durability aspect of steel-reinforced concrete (RC) culverts using an accelerated aging environment. Analysis of the experimental data was built on the acoustic emission (AE) activity. AE methodologies were used to compare the behaviors of RC culverts after an aging process using a rate-process analysis. In the rate-process analysis, probability density functions (PDF) of AE activity were obtained from the experimental data to indicate the damage status of experimental specimens. This AE assessment procedure included only the incidence of an AE event ignoring any features of the AE signal itself. Results showed reliable and quantitative assessment based on AE activity for defining the relative strengths of steel-reinforced specimens.