Abstract
Acoustic Emission (AE) nondestructive tests have attracted great interest for their use in the determination of structural properties and behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) elements. One of the applications this method can contribute to is in high-strength concrete (HSC) columns. These elements have a great advantage in the lower stories of high-rise buildings. However, the premature failure of the concrete cover and the brittleness nature of the failure is of a concern for engineers. This paper presents a study on the AE monitoring of HSC columns subjected to compressive axial loading. The study consists of four large-scale reinforced HSC columns with different confinement reinforcement and height. It is shown that the AE distributions in the columns are categorized by three stages. Moreover, the levels of loads reached at the first AE macro event are similar to the lower range levels of the nominal axial compressive strengths of the tested specimens, while the majority of macro AE events are located at the concrete cover. Based on the results of this study, AE monitoring can provide indications for the damage and load levels attained by reinforced high-strength concrete columns subjected to compressive axial loading.
Highlights
The use of high-strength concrete (HSC) for the lower story columns in high-rise buildings is very attractive for architects and engineers [1]
Studies have investigated the use of Acoustic Emission (AE) technique on normal strength concrete (NSC) columns cast in stay-in-place fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) tubes [15] or wrapped with FRP [16]
This paper presents a study on the acoustic emission (AE) monitoring of high-strength concrete columns subjected to compressive axial loading
Summary
The use of high-strength concrete (HSC) for the lower story columns in high-rise buildings is very attractive for architects and engineers [1]. Studies have investigated the use of AE technique on normal strength concrete (NSC) columns cast in stay-in-place fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) tubes [15] or wrapped with FRP [16]. These studies showed that the cumulative AE counts can indicate the stage of damage [15] and provides a better understanding of the crack process of FRP-confined NSC columns [16]. Other studies [18,19] found a high correlation between the AE-strain hysteretic energies of RC beam-column connections and slabs under simulated earthquake loadings These studies proposed formulas based on the recorded AE to predict the damage level for the examined RC elements. This premature failure is the main reason of the higher safety factors used in the design of reinforced HSC compared to NSC columns [1,23,24,25]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
