Evaluation of Damage in Concrete Under Uniaxial Compression by Measuring Electric Response to Mechanical Impact

Abstract

The paper proposes a method of evaluating damage in concrete under uniaxial compression. The evaluation procedure is based on measuring the electric response to mechanical impact. Measurements are made periodically while the external load is gradually increased. The experiment is carried out using samples of normal weight concrete. The algorithm for evaluating concrete degradation under uniaxial compression is based on analyzing signals in terms of time and frequency. The paper analyzes a number of measured and computed parameters of the electric response: the energy attenuation coefficient of the electric responses; the correlation coefficient of the signal spectra prior to and during the loading; the spectral centroid of the signal spectrum and the frequency of the dominant spectral peak. Experimental results show that the array of the collected data allows for evaluation of cracking processes in concrete under an external compressive load. The proposed method can be used to monitor the development of damage in concrete under uniaxial compression.