Corrosion induced damage detection of in-service RC slabs using acoustic emission technique

For early detection of structural deficiencies due to corrosion, real time damage detection systems are needed to be deployed. With regard to this, present paper explores efficacy of established acoustic emission (AE) based mathematical procedure for corrosion assessment of in-service RC slabs. Two RC slabs (undamaged and damaged due to corrosion) were monitored using AE, half-cell potential and concrete resistivity techniques. The results demonstrate that AE data, captured even for shorter duration, can indicate appropriate probability of corrosion. The corrosion probability predicted by AE technique is well validated with that of electrochemical techniques, establishing AE as a powerful technique for corrosion-induced damage detection of in-service structural elements.