Influence of diurnal and seasonal temperature variations on the detection of corrosion in reinforced concrete by acoustic emission

Chloride rich reinforced concrete prisms were coupled to chloride-free prisms and exposed to diurnal and seasonal temperature cycles typical of those found in the UK. Acoustic emissions (AE) and galvanic currents were continuously monitored and correlated with ambient temperature. AE and galvanic currents were found to emulate the evolution of temperature in the diurnal cycles, although no specific relationship between AE and galvanic current could be obtained. The influence of seasonal variations in galvanic current had no obvious influence on AE Energy per second over the range of corrosion rates studied. The findings suggest that AE is more sensitive to short term (diurnal) changes in corrosion rates than the longer (seasonal) effects. It was hypothesised that this is due to transitory changes in the internal microclimate of the concrete.