Application of acoustic emission for masonry arch bridges

There are over 40 000 masonry arch bridges in the UK, 60% of which are over 100 years old. The ever increasing levels of loading and volumes of traffic make it imperative that the condition, life expectancy and load capacity of such bridges are accurately assessed. Assessment procedures, however, generally rely on visual methods without giving any information on the internal condition of the structure. The acoustic emission (AE) technique has the ability to record certain types of damages anywhere within the structure before their effect becomes visible on the surface. Although AE is increasingly widely used for monitoring concrete and metallic bridges, its application for masonry bridges is currently very limited. A series of multi-ring brickwork arches have been tested as part of an extended study on fatigue performance of masonry arch bridges at the University of Salford. The present study attempts to assess the applicability of the AE technique for masonry arch bridges under static and long-term cyclic loading, to study crack propagation and failure mechanisms. © 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.