Mechanical damage evaluation of masonry under tensile loading by acoustic emission technique

•Acoustic Emission technology (AET) is introduced into the research of uniaxial tension on masonry.•A good agreement is found between the evolution of fracture energy and acoustic emission energy.•Duration is identified as the dominant parameter on source discrimination.•The discrimination method based on the correlation of two energy rates is proposed. This paper aims at investigating the performance of acoustic emission (AE) technique on material deterioration of masonry subjected to uniaxial monotonic and cyclic tensile loadings. The tested samples are composed of two limestone blocks bonded by thin lime mortar. The damage evolution was monitored and assessed by acoustic emission technique in 3D configuration. The results of this study present a good agreement observed between the evolution of fracture energy and the recorded AE energy. Statistical analysis using PCA and K-mean clustering showed that the duration of acoustical signal is identified as the dominant parameter which shows the distinctive signature of acoustic emission reflected to failure mode. Finally, a method is proposed to discriminate the micro and macro crack during damage evolution in masonry under tension test.