Damage estimation of concrete canal due to earthquake effects by acoustic emission method

•To assess the damage of concrete structure subjected to earthquake effects.•A method to monitor AE activity of core samples under uniaxial compressive loading was investigated.•The degree of damage was evaluated using relative moduli ‘E/E*’.•No difference was physically found between the relative damage E0/E* and dynamic moduli Ed/E*. The Great East-Japan Earthquake hit Tohoku area in Japan on March 11, 2011. A large number of concrete structures were damaged due to the 9.0 magnitude earthquake of the Richter-scale. Prior to reconstruction and retrofit of these structures, damage evaluation of in situ concrete structures is now in urgent demand. In this concern, quantitative damage estimation of concrete is proposed to be performed, applying acoustic emission (AE) measurement in a uniaxial compression test of core samples. Generating behavior of AE events in the core test is quantitatively analyzed, based on the rate process theory, because notable discrepancy of AE activity is observed between damaged concrete and undamaged concrete. The damage is quantitatively defined by a scalar damage parameter in damage mechanics. Correlating AE rate with the damage parameter, quantitative estimation of damage is proposed in terms of the relative modulus of elasticity (E0/E*). Concrete core samples were taken from reinforced concrete columns of an existing canal in the both periods of pre and post the earthquake. Prior to the compression test, distribution of micro-cracks in a concrete-core sample was inspected by helical X-ray computed tomography (CT), which scans at 1-mm intervals. The results suggest that the damage of concrete could be quantitatively estimated from damage parameter E0/E* without knowing the original state of the concrete at construction. The static moduli E0/E* and dynamic moduli Ed/E* is closely correlated. A relation between AE rate and the damage parameters is correlated, and thus the earthquake damage of concrete is quantitatively estimated using AE.