Remote monitoring and prognosis of fatigue cracking in steel bridges with acoustic emission

Jianguo Peter Yu; Paul Ziehl; Adrian Pollock

doi:10.1117/12.880197

19 April 2011 Remote monitoring and prognosis of fatigue cracking in steel bridges with acoustic emission

Jianguo Peter Yu, Paul Ziehl, Adrian Pollock

Proceedings Volume 7983, Nondestructive Characterization for Composite Materials, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Infrastructure, and Homeland Security 2011; 79832H (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.880197
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Acoustic emission (AE) monitoring is desirable to nondestructively detect fatigue damage in steel bridges. Investigations of the relationship between AE signals and crack growth behavior are of paramount importance prior to the widespread application of passive piezoelectric sensing for monitoring of fatigue crack propagation in steel bridges. Tests have been performed to detect AE from fatigue cracks in A572G50 steel. Noise induced AE signals were filtered based on friction emission tests, loading pattern, and a combined approach involving Swansong II filters and investigation of waveforms. The filtering methods based on friction emission tests and load pattern are of interest to the field evaluation using sparse datasets. The combined approach is suitable for data filtering and interpretation of actual field tests. The pattern recognition program NOESIS (Envirocoustics) was utilized for the evaluation of AE data quality. AE parameters are associated with crack length, crack growth rate, maximum stress intensity and stress intensity range. It is shown that AE hits, counts, absolute energy, and signal strength are able to provide warnings at the critical cracking level where cracking progresses from stage II (stable propagation) to stage III (unstable propagation which may result in failure). Absolute energy rate and signal strength rate may be better than count rate to assess the remaining fatigue life of inservice steel bridges.

Citation Download Citation

Jianguo Peter Yu, Paul Ziehl, and Adrian Pollock "Remote monitoring and prognosis of fatigue cracking in steel bridges with acoustic emission", Proc. SPIE 7983, Nondestructive Characterization for Composite Materials, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Infrastructure, and Homeland Security 2011, 79832H (19 April 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.880197

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available