Simulation of reinforcement-corrosion-induced crack propagation in concrete by acoustic emission technique and boundary element method analysis

摘要

Corrosion of reinforcement is one of the major causes of deterioration in reinforced concrete structures. Various crack patterns are nucleated around reinforcement in concrete due to expansion of corrosion products. Crack kinematics of locations, types, and orientations are quantitatively determined by the acoustic emission (AE) - simplified Green's functions for moment tensor analysis (SiGMA) procedure in association with laboratory tests conducted on concrete specimens simulating corrosion-induced damage. These kinematic outcomes are obtained as three-dimensional (3-D) locations and vectors, and are thus visualized in 3-D by using virtual reality modeling language (VRML). Numerical analysis is conducted by the boundary element method (BEM) based on the concept of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) to clarify the mechanisms of corrosion-induced crack extension. Relationships between dimensionless stress intensity factors and cracking types are studied by BEM. Contributions of mode I and mode II failures are dependent on the cracking types. It is found that the process of crack propagation due to corrosion of reinforcement in concrete is mostly a mode I fracture with mixed-mode and, in a few cases, mode II fracture.