Size Effect on the Acoustic Emission Behavior of Textile-Reinforced Cement Composites

Acoustic emission (AE) is applied for the structural health evaluation of materials. It commonly uses piezoelectric sensors to detect elastic waves coming from energy releases within the material. Concerning cementitious composites as well as polymers, AE parameters have proven their potential to not only detect the existence of a defect, its location and the fracture mode, but also the developing strain field even before visible damage evolves. However, the wave propagation distance, wave dispersion due to plate geometry, heterogeneity and reflections result in attenuation and distortion of the AE waveforms. These factors render the interpretation more complex, especially for large samples. In this study, the effect of wave propagation on plain glass textile-reinforced cement (TRC) plates is investigated. Then, curved plates with different widths are mechanically loaded for bending with concurrent AE monitoring. The aim is to evaluate to what extent the plate dimensions and propagation distance influence the original AE characteristics corresponding to a certain fracture mechanism.

Acoustic Emission Behavior of Tropical Residual Soil

emission technique has extensively been used for a wide variety of engineering materials, but less attention has yet been paid on the application of this non-destructive technique to investigate the fundamental behaviors of geomaterial. In the present study, acoustic emission method was adopted in conjunction with the conventional stress-strain-time measurement to investigate the mechanical behaviors of a selected tropical residual soil. A systematic acoustic emission instrumentation setup, which was devised in a monotonic triaxial shear apparatus, was evidenced to provide reasonable experimental results. From the isotropic consolidation results, it was realized that the Kaiser’s effect was observable and the pre-stressed level as induced by compaction could be determined through acoustic emission. In undrained shearing, the acoustic emission response was found to be corresponding with the axial strain measurement. Initial soil yielding, which was mobilized at small strain range, was also able to be determined. The acoustic emission response of the studied tropical residual soil also showed good similarity with the reported soils constituting considerable fines content.