Experimental study of a pull-out test of corroded steel and concrete using the acoustic emission monitoring method

Based on an acoustic emission (AE) test system, pull-out tests were conducted to study the bond behavior between corroded steel bars and concrete with different corrosion degrees. The characteristics of the AE signal for the pull-out specimens were analyzed. The results showed that the AE location was consistent with the actual crack development. The characteristics of the AE signal reflected the bond behavior, the failure process and the characteristics of the specimens under different degrees of corrosion. Two critical states of crack development and the process of splitting failure slip were obtained. As a result, the stress distribution tends to be uniform along the steel bar with increasing degree of corrosion, and the peak value gradually shifted toward the free end.