Experimental investigation on damage of concrete beam embedded with sensor using acoustic emission and digital image correlation

Abstract

With the construction and development of intelligent roads, an increasing number of sensors are being embedded into the road structures. Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavement is one of the main forms of road pavement, but the mechanical behaviors of the PCC pavement with sensor embedding are less studied. In this study, the damage mechanism of PCC pavement is investigated by using the three-point beam bending test, considering the sensor embedding and the coating of the sensor surface. The effect of sensor embedding on the flexural mechanical properties and the damage failure modes of concrete beams are evaluated by using the acoustic emission (AE) technique and the digital image correlation (DIC) technique. Moreover, the concept of degree of coupling (DC) is introduced to reveal the collaborative bearing mechanism between sensor and concrete, and is characterized by an evaluation model considering ultimate bearing capacity, critical instability point, collaborative bearing capacity, AE ring counts, and AE energy. The findings can provide valuable insights in the packaging design of sensor to guarantee the coupling between the sensor and the surrounding concrete for accurately monitoring the long-term performance of road infrastructure.