Analysis of Quasistatic Deformation of Reinforced Concrete Structure on the Basis of Acoustic Emission on the Results of Vibration Diagnostics and Acoustic Emission

Reinforced concrete is a composite material with a complex heterogeneous structure and one of the primary materials used in the construction of the civil infrastructure. The study of critical deformation processes in concrete using samples of simple configuration cannot reflect the whole variety of phenomena occurring in a real structure. Therefore it is necessary to use the samples that are close in scale and design features to real prototype. This paper presents the results of an experimental study of deformation processes in the reinforced concrete structure subjected local quasi static loading. The experimental sample is a fragment of a precast-monolithic 4-storey concrete building. The objectives of the work are to study the deformation response of the structure to increasing quasi static local force and to access the possibility of using vibration diagnostics and acoustic emission for early detection of the inelastic behavior of the structure. Analysis of acoustic emission and vibration diagnostics data yielded some parametric dependencies to characterize damage accumulation in the structure elements at high quasi-static loads. It has been found that, under certain loading conditions, the deformation characteristics, vibration properties, and acoustic emission signals change sharply, which can be attributed to generation of inelastic deformation zones and local damages. The signs of appearance of inelastic deformations, detected by different methods, are in good agreement. The obtained results can be used in the development and implementation of automatic deformation monitoring systems. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS) ExCo