A combined compression and acoustic emission (AE) test is proposed to study the scaling of fracture and AE in concrete-like specimens with different size and slenderness. The cylindrical concrete specimens were drilled from two pilasters sustaining an Italian viaduct built in the 1950s. A finite-element method model of the pure compression tests is presented, which is able to describe both the discrete cracking at the matrix–aggregate interface and the smeared cracking of the matrix. The adopted mesoscale modelling directly accounts for the aggregate dimensional distribution, each aggregate being explicitly represented. In this way, the crack patterns can be simulated correctly, as well as the load–displacement curve. During microcrack propagation, AE events can be clearly detected experimentally. Therefore, the number of AE can be put into relation with the number of Gauss points in the finiteelement model where cracking takes place. A good correlation is found between the amount of cracking simulated numerically and the experimental AE counting number for different specimen sizes, and the two quantities show the same scaling exponent. This evidence reconfirms the assumption, provided by fragmentation theories, that the energy dissipation during microcrack propagation occurs in a fractal domain.

Scaling of fracture and acoustic emission in concrete / Invernizzi, Stefano; Lacidogna, Giuseppe; Carpinteri, Alberto. - In: MAGAZINE OF CONCRETE RESEARCH. - ISSN 0024-9831. - STAMPA. - 65:9(2013), pp. 529-534. [10.1680/macr.12.00112]

Scaling of fracture and acoustic emission in concrete

INVERNIZZI, Stefano;LACIDOGNA, GIUSEPPE;CARPINTERI, Alberto
2013

Abstract

A combined compression and acoustic emission (AE) test is proposed to study the scaling of fracture and AE in concrete-like specimens with different size and slenderness. The cylindrical concrete specimens were drilled from two pilasters sustaining an Italian viaduct built in the 1950s. A finite-element method model of the pure compression tests is presented, which is able to describe both the discrete cracking at the matrix–aggregate interface and the smeared cracking of the matrix. The adopted mesoscale modelling directly accounts for the aggregate dimensional distribution, each aggregate being explicitly represented. In this way, the crack patterns can be simulated correctly, as well as the load–displacement curve. During microcrack propagation, AE events can be clearly detected experimentally. Therefore, the number of AE can be put into relation with the number of Gauss points in the finiteelement model where cracking takes place. A good correlation is found between the amount of cracking simulated numerically and the experimental AE counting number for different specimen sizes, and the two quantities show the same scaling exponent. This evidence reconfirms the assumption, provided by fragmentation theories, that the energy dissipation during microcrack propagation occurs in a fractal domain.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2519084
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