Health Monitoring of RC Beam Column Joints Using Acoustic Emission Technique

Abstract

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is an important field to investigate the current state of structures and check the damages caused by devastating forces such as an earthquake. Various non-destructive techniques (NDT) have been employed to monitor the health of the structural system. The existing SHM techniques are capable of detecting the damage with limited precision. Apart from damage detection, quantification of damage is also very important. Load and deformation responses are essential parameters used in damage detection but these parameters are extremely difficult to measure especially in structures damaged due to seismic forces. The various techniques do suffer from certain deficiencies in estimating these parameters after the occurrence of an earthquake. To fill these gaps in research, the current study aims to identify and quantify damage in the reinforced concrete (RC) structural elements by exploring Acoustic Emission (AE) technique. The use of the AE technique is gaining popularity in monitoring various structural applications. It is a passive monitoring technique that is often used to obtain a qualitative and qualitative estimation of damage by studying the variation of AE parameters. The acoustic Emission Technique (AET) is susceptible to crack growth and can locate the source of the AE waveform initiated from the point of damage. This technique can perform real-time monitoring by detecting cracks as it occurs or grows. Despite these advantages, challenges still exist in using the AET, especially in analysing large volumes of AE data recorded during AE monitoring. Primarily this technique has three objectives. Firstly, it helps to locate the source of damage accurately. Secondly, it helps identify and differentiate signals from different sources of AE; lastly, it is capable of quantifying the extent of damage to structures. The study has given inspiring results for analysing test data, thereby opening an opportunity for its use in real-life structures. This research effort has focused