The research of acoustic emission techniques for non destructive testing and health monitoring on civil engineering structures

Acoustic emission (AE) technology is a powerful tool for researching the intrinsic essence of materials and an effective method for Non Destructive Testing and Health Monitoring. Until this time, AE technique has been applying in many fields, e.g., aircraft structure, offshore platform, pressure equipment, rock, dam, concrete, steel, etc.AE technique was applied into civil engineering later compared with other fields, but developed rapidly. This paper reviews briefly the research on AE technique applications in civil engineering. The main contents included are: 1. Structure health monitoring system, including offshore platform, dam, masonry arch bridge, concrete structure, steel structure, etc. 2. Structural crack detection and identification, including concrete and steel structures.3. Fatigue crack growth monitoring.4. Structure integrality detection and residual life prediction. At last, a prospect is made about the research direction in this field by consulting many literatures that are abreast of the times.