Monitoring of prestressed constructions with Acoustic Emission technique to detect wire breaks

Monitoring of prestressed constructions with Acoustic Emission technique to detect wire breaks. Acoustic Emission technique (AE) is successfully used for decades in material research, material testing in laboratory and in structural health monitoring, in machine building industry and plant engineering. Although AE has repeatedly proven its suitability for detecting damage, the method is not yet commonly used in civil engineering outside the laborytory. In Germany, several bridges are monitored permanently with AE to detect damage like prestressing wire breaks or breaks in welding seams [1]. AE to detect wire breaks is recommended for prestressed buildings with risk of stress crack corrosion, other crack risks or for buildings which cannot be inspected according the required standards. In this paper, examples for AE monitoring to detect wire breaks on bridges are shown. Furthermore, tests with the rebound hammer and wire breaks induced by cutting were executed and analysed. To confirm the test results and to provide better visualization and understanding of underlying wave phenomena, two numeric simulations of the sound wave propagation have been conducted. © 2019, Ernst und Sohn. All rights reserved.