Damage evaluation of reinforced concrete beams with varying thickness using the acoustic emission technique

The aim of this study is to investigate the ability of the acoustic emission (AE) in order to test the effect of beam thickness on the damage mechanism of the RC beams under four-point bending. The results showed that as the level of damage increased, the values of all AE parameters increased except for average frequency; moreover, all AE parameters increased with increasing beam thickness, including the average frequency. Thus, it has been established in this work that AE can be effectively used in monitoring the behavior of RC beams with variable thickness.