Fracture in concrete takes place at pre-existing crack tip when a fracture process zone (FPZ) with a number of toughening mechanisms is formed. In order to continually monitor and gain insight into the progression of cracks and its behaviour in…
Fracture in concrete takes place at pre-existing crack tip when a fracture process zone (FPZ) with a number of toughening mechanisms is formed. In order to continually monitor and gain insight into the progression of cracks and its behaviour in concrete, notched wedge-splitting specimens are experimentally investigated under crack opening to examine the fracture and fatigue behaviour of plain concrete when subjected to constant amplitude fatigue loading with a frequency of 1 Hz. The specimens are monitored using acoustic emission (AE) piezo electric sensors to study the rate of crack initiation and growth. Different AE parameters that include events, energy and rise angle are analysed to study the mechanism of microcrack growth under fatigue loading.