Abstract
Reinforcement corrosion is a critical issue affecting structural integrity and service life of existing reinforced concrete (RC) structures. While acoustic emission (AE) monitoring provides early damage detection and localization, its application during slow natural corrosion processes and in noisy outdoor environments remains challenging. This study investigates the feasibility of periodic AE monitoring during natural chloride-induced corrosion of two pre-damaged RC beams stored outdoors. Two AE sensor types were evaluated under realistic environmental influences. A dedicated filtering approach was developed to distinguish damage-related AE signals from environmental noise. The results demonstrate that periodic AE monitoring can effectively track damage evolution and localize corrosion hotspots in both one dimensional and two dimensional. Furthermore, a previously developed methodology for estimating accelerated corrosion levels based on AE localization was successfully applied to natural corrosion, confirming its broader applicability. These findings highlight the potential of the AE technique for structural health monitoring of RC structures under field conditions.
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