Acoustic emission characteristic for different thicknesses of RC slabs

Acoustic emission (AE) has been widely used for monitoring of the structure performance. However, identification of structure's characteristic is still limited assess. Hence, this paper presents the characteristic of AE of different thicknesses of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs. Two different thicknesses of grade C25/30 RC slabs which are 125 mm and 175 mm were prepared and designated as S125 and S175, respectively. The slabs were designed based on Eurocode 2 with the size of 500 mm width x 1000 mm length were tested under three-point loading in conjunction with the AE monitoring. The maximum loads of the slabs were identified. The acoustic signal strength was analyzed and discussed. It is found that the maximum load of the RC slabs is increased as the thickness of the slab increases. Moreover, the signal strength of S175 is greater than the S125. Hence, this study is beneficial to provide factual data on the maximum load and AE characteristic of different thicknesses of slab. (paper)