Characterization of damage on precast pre-stressed concrete composite slabs under static loading based on acoustic emission parameters

Precast pre-stressed concrete composite slabs have been widely used in recent years owing to excellent mechanical properties and cost savings. The low accuracy of visual observation and the complexity of actual measurement make the determination of the precise information of structural safety difficult. This article presents an acoustic emission study on the precast pre-stressed concrete composite slab under static loading. First, the correlation between acoustic emission hits (or energy) and crack width (or deflection) was obtained and compared in detail. Second, the stiffness of this composite slab was predicted using the acoustic emission amplitude. Third, a novel analysis method for damage fracture classification is proposed, which is based on the traditional parameter and fuzzy C-means clustering. This method can be used to determine visual crack emerging, rebar yielding, and eventual failure mode by an acoustic emission parametric analysis without involving visual inspection or mechanical measurement. It can be effectively used for fracture characterization and health monitoring of composite slabs.