Combined Passive and Active Ultrasonic Stress Wave Monitoring of Concrete Structures: An Overview of Data Analysis Techniques and Their Applications and Limitations

Combined passive ultrasonic (US) stress wave [better known as acoustic emission (AE)] and active US stress wave monitoring has been shown to provide a more holistic picture of ongoing fracture processes, damage progression, as well as slowly occurring aging and degradation mechanisms in concrete structures. Traditionally, different data analysis techniques have been used to analyze the data generated from these two monitoring techniques. For passive US stress wave monitoring, waveform amplitudes, hit rates, source localization, and b-value analysis, among others, have been used to detect and locate cracking. On the other hand, amplitude tracking, magnitude squared coherence (MSC), and coda wave interferometry (CWI) are examples of analyses that have been employed for active US stress wave monitoring. In this paper, we explore some of these data analysis techniques and show where their respective applications and limitations might be. After providing an overview of the monitoring approach and the different data analysis techniques, results and observations from selected laboratory experiments are discussed. Finally, suggestions for further work are proposed.