Tensile-to-Shear Crack Transition in the Compression Failure of Steel-Fibre-Reinforced Concrete: Insights from Acoustic Emission Monitoring

Abstract

Steel-fibre-reinforced concrete (SFRC) has been increasingly used in the field of engineering structures in recent years. Hence, the accurate monitoring of the fracturing process of in-service SFRC has considerable significance in terms of structural safety. This paper investigates the acoustic emission (AE) and digital image correlation (DIC) features characterising the damage behaviour of SFRC samples in compression. For all the tests, cumulated AE, b-value, βt coefficient, average frequency, and rise angle are considered to describe the actual SFRC failure mechanisms. The results show that SFRC exhibits enhanced toughness compared to normal concrete (NC), with an indicated transition from a brittle to a ductile structural behaviour. This improved behaviour can be attributed to the bridging effect of steel fibres, which also drives the progressive tensile-to-shear crack transition, thus being the main cause of the final SFRC failure. As the loading rate increases, there is a corresponding increase in the number of shear cracks, leading to a decrease in the overall ductility and toughness of SFRC. Moreover, since the number of shear cracks notably increases right before SFRC fracture, this can serve as a safety warning of the impending failure. Furthermore, the cumulated AE curve displays a strong discontinuity in the occurrence of an unstable fracturing process in SFRC, which can also be forecasted by the AE time-scaling coefficient βt. The AE and DIC features can be used as failure precursors in the field of structural surveying, offering an accurate technical support for engineering failure warnings.