Acoustic emission monitoring of hybrid FRP-concrete columns

Fiber-reinforced plastic tubes can be used as permanent formwork and external reinforcement for concrete columns. Failure of such columns is often accompanied by audible noise from cracking of concrete and shifting and settling of aggregates, snapping of the inner layers of the jacket, and ultimately fiber fracture. Since the state of the concrete core is not readily visible from the outside, nondestructive evaluation tools such as acoustic emission (AE) can help assess its structural integrity. The objective of this research was to investigate the applicability of AE technique to hybrid columns, and to correlate the AE parameters to the state of stress in concrete. The AE signature of hybrid columns was studied on over 40 specimens with different lengths, cross sections, jacket types, and jacket thicknesses. The study showed that (1) rate of change of cumulative AE counts with respect to the applied load correlates well with the degree of damage sustained by the concrete core; (2) longer specimens, thicker jackets, and unbonded tubes display higher AE activities; and (3) the Kaiser effect is not present in hybrid columns.