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Title: Crack Growth Monitoring in Fiber-Reinforced Self- Consolidating Concrete via Acoustic Emission

Author(s): Ahmed A. Abouhussien and Assem A. A. Hassan

Publication: Materials Journal

Volume: 116

Issue: 5

Appears on pages(s): 181-191

Keywords: acoustic emission monitoring; b-value analysis; crack growth; damage detection; fiber-reinforced self-consolidating concrete; four-point flexural tests; intensity analysis

DOI: 10.14359/51714505

Date: 9/1/2019

Abstract:
This research examined the application of acoustic emission analysis to monitor the crack growth in various concrete mixtures reinforced with synthetic fibers of variable types and lengths under monotonic loading four-point flexural tests. The signals attained from these tests were correlated to the crack development until failure. The study also investigated the impact of varying the synthetic fiber types (flexible and semi-rigid) and lengths on the flexural performance and their corresponding acoustic emission signal parameters. Furthermore, this investigation involved performing b-value and intensity analyses on the signals’ amplitude and strength to develop additional acoustic emission parameters. The results of these different acoustic emission analyses enabled an early identification of two stages of damage (microcracking and macrocracking) prior to failure in all mixtures. Both the experimental results and studied acoustic emission parameters indicated that the semi-rigid synthetic fibers exhibited slightly higher average flexural strength than that of the flexible type. Also, the increase in length of synthetic fibers showed an evident improvement in the average flexural strength according to both experimental and acoustic emission signal results. The results also presented a developed damage classification chart that can be used to identify the stages of microcracking and macrocracking in synthetic fiber-reinforced mixtures based on the intensity analysis parameters.