Monitoring and evaluating the failure behavior of ice structure using the acoustic emission technique

• The ice structure failure mechanism was investigated using AE.
• Different damage stage AE signals were determined.
• Three AE evaluation methods were proposed to assess the damage levels.

In this study, damage properties of ice structures were analyzed using acoustic emission (AE) signals. Furthermore, AE characteristic parameters were obtained under uniaxial compression and three-point bending tests of ice specimens. Characteristic AE parameters including b-value and correlogram with RA-AF analysis were carried out. Parametric correlation analysis was used for illustrate the feasibility of using AE technique to monitor ice structure. The damage process and failure mechanism were discussed based on the AE signal characteristics that were measured during ice deformation process. Fracture modes can be differentiated by the relationship between the ratio of the rise time to the waveform amplitude and average frequency analysis under compression and bending failure. The proposed approach was capable of identifying an initial yielding and critical information of ice failure mechanism.