Reliable onset time determination and source location of acoustic emissions in concrete structures

Acoustic emission (AE) technique, as an effective method to monitor the crack characterization in concrete materials is investigated in this paper. An improved approach, based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), is proposed to provide more reliable onset time determination of AE signals. The introduced parameters, quantification of the certainty degree and the apparent velocity in the improved method can help to eliminate the false or doubtful picked onset results automatically. The improved AIC method is successfully applied to the AE detection during a three-point bending test of a fiber reinforced concrete beam to analyze the crack pattern. It is shown that the proposed method is a reliable tool for automatic onset time determination and useful for the crack source location in concrete structures.