Comparative analysis of acoustic emissions produced in abrupt and non-abrupt fracture processes in reinforced concrete walls

Abstract

The determination of the eventual abrupt fracture of a reinforced concrete structure is of fundamental importance to estimate and mitigate the possible damages caused by its failure; of particular importance are shear-type fractures since these usually lead to sudden failure of the structure. One way to determine the presence of shear-type micro-cracks is by parametric analysis of the acoustic emissions produced by the micro-cracks during their growth. In this analysis, a direct comparisson of the waveform allows a distinction to be made between tensile-type and shear-type events. In the present study, we performed a comparative analysis of fracture processes in two reinforced concrete walls. In one of the walls an out-of-plane force was applied leading to bending and a non-abrupt failure; in the other one diagonal forces were applied leading to an abrupt shear-type fracture. Acoustic emissions were detected throughout and we found that at least one of the parameters associated with the parametric analysis allows distinguishing between abrupt and non-abrupt failures. Our results suggest that parametric analysis of acoustic emissions could be a useful tool in the prediction of abrupt failures in reinforced concrete structures.