Corrosion Process in Reinforced Concrete Identified by Acoustic Emission

Continuous acoustic emission (AE) monitoring in reinforced concrete (RC) was conducted to investigate the corrosion process. In experiments of an accelerated corrosion test and a cyclic wet-dry test, two periods of high AE activities were observed. These AE sources are classified by AE indices of the RA value and the average frequency and the b-value of AE amplitude distribution. At the 1st period, generation of small shear-type cracks is identified. From ingress of chloride ions analyzed, chloride concentration at the cover thickness of the reinforcing steel (rebar) was just over the lower-bound threshold for the initiation of corrosion. Although rebars were removed from the specimen, no corrosion products were observed. The surface of rebar was then examined by the scanning electron micrograph (SEM). The results showed that ferrous ions on the rebar surface disappeared, suggesting that the initiation of corrosion is associated with small AE events of the shear type. Approaching the 2nd period, large-scale tensile cracks were identified by AE. Chloride concentration at the cover-thickness was higher than the threshold level prescribed in the codes. Once rebars were removed, corrosion products were visually observed. This implies that the 2nd AE activities correspond to tensile cracks, which obviously result from concrete cracking due to expansion of corrosive products. These results show that the corrosion process of rebars is identified at the onset of rebar corrosion and at the nucleation of concrete cracking by continuous AE monitoring.