Durability evaluation of reinforced masonry by fatigue tests and acoustic emission technique

Abstract

An experimental analysis has been carried out on the long-term behaviour of composite specimens and walls made with historical brickwork. The test pieces were subjected both to static and to cyclic loading tests (accelerate static creep) and to freezing-thawing thermo-hygrometric tests in order to study the durability of different strengthening mortars. The acoustic emission (AE) monitoring technique was also used to assess the damage localization and to predict the time to failure of the strengthened walls during fatigue tests. The AE is a very effective non-destructive technique that permits to estimate the amount of energy released during fracture propagation. Damage evolution during fatigue compressive loading, in terms of measured strains and the AE counting number, can be divided into three stages; fatigue life can be predicted from the slope of the AE counting number rate diagram. Starting from an AE monitoring, a special methodology has been developed to predict the service life of creep damaged masonry structures. The novelty of this work consists in the experimental confirmation that the AE technique is able to analyse the creep curves of masonry strengthening mortars. Therefore, it demonstrated that by the AE technique, it is also possible to evaluate the durability of strengthening materials subjected to load histories in the time. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.