Nondestructive Testing Electrical Methods for Sensing Damages in Cement Mortar Beams

Charalampos Stergiopoulos, Ilias Stavrakas, George Hloupis, Antonios Kyriazopoulos, Dimos Triantis, Cimon Anastasiadis, John Stonham

Department of Electronics, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Athens, Greece.
School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, Brunel, United Kingdom.

DOI: 10.4236/ojapps.2013.31008                

Abstract

This paper discusses the experimental results of concurrently measured Electrical and Acoustic Emissions in order to evaluate the mechanical health status of cement mortar beams subjected to three-point bending mechanical tests. In particular, the Electrical Resistance and the Electrical Current emissions are recorded concurrent with Acoustic Emissions and the experimental results are discussed under the concept of crack initiation and propagation processes. For the first time, the electrodes that are used for conducting the measurements are placed in the bulk of the specimen, near the tensile zone, during its preparation. The damage evolution is examined by monitoring the fractional change of the Electrical Resistance and the variation of the Electrical Current in combination with the Acoustic Emission recordings.

Keywords

Non-Destructive Testing; Electrical Resistance; Acoustic and Electrical Current Emissions; Cement

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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