AE Evaluation of Steel-Concrete Bond Strength Induced with Corrosion Damage

Corrosion of steel rebar in concrete structures is a common durability problem that leads towards peeling of concrete cover and loss of bond strength between steel and concrete, thus, impairing the stiffness and the integrity of the whole structure. To evaluate the effects of rebar corrosion on steel-concrete bond strength, an experimental campaign was implemented to monitor the acoustic emission (AE) events during static and cyclic pull-out tests. The failure mode and AE signal features during test were analysed to reveal the concrete fracture characteristic and failure behaviour under the pull-out loading. Two AE-based damage parameters, AFSC and DA are proposed in this study to describe the damage procedure during pull-out test.