This work deals with the AE behavior of concrete under four-point bending. Different contents of steel fibers were included to investigate their influence on the load-bearing capacity and on the fracture mechanisms. The AE waveform characteristics revealed that, although tension was the dominant mechanism of fracture for the plain material, the increase in the fiber content resulted in extension of the shear failure due to improvement of the weak tensile properties of concrete. Appropriate AE indices employed for early warning prior to macroscopic failure can lead to more suitable design of the reinforcement, in order to withstand the specific stresses.

Date Published: 7 April 2009
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 7294, Nondestructive Characterization for Composite Materials, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Infrastructure, and Homeland Security 2009, 729407 (7 April 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.815202

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7294:
Nondestructive Characterization for Composite Materials, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Infrastructure, and Homeland Security 2009
H. Felix Wu; Aaron A. Diaz; Peter J. Shull; Dietmar W. Vogel, Editor(s)