In situ consideration of resistance of bridge girder according to EC2 with AEM

Abstract

The paper presents a case study of a considerably cracked and degraded bridge in Slovenia: with the implementation of in-situ measurements under bending and shear and the use of a nondestructive acoustic emission technique. Despite the existing crack system, the latter was able to detect microstructural changes. These were characterised by low values of average frequency (AF), as well as lower values of the rise time-amplitude ratio (RA), and energy. A correlation between shear capacity and acoustic activity was observed. This promises to expand the use of AE in the process of assessing of the load-bearing capacity of existing concrete structures.