Damage Evolution Characteristics of Steel-Fiber-Reinforced Cellular Concrete Based on Acoustic Emission

In order to investigate the steel fiber parameters on the damage characteristics and crack evolution of cellular concrete materials, uniaxial compression–acoustic emission combined tests were carried out on steel-fiber-reinforced cellular concrete (SFRCC) with different steel fiber contents (0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2%) and different porosities (10% and 20%). The material damage evolution characteristics were analyzed by acoustic emission parameters and IB values, and the crack types were identified using Gaussian mixture clustering method (GMM) pairs. The results show the following: the inclusion of steel fibers increased the compressive strength of cellular concrete by 19.8~46.3% at 10% porosity, and by 37.1~102.2% at 20% porosity; the addition of steel fibers significantly increased the density and intensity of the acoustic emission signals; the decreasing tendency of the IB value at the peak stress slowed down with the increase in the amount of steel fibers, and the steel fibers could effectively inhibit the crack development; crack classification results show that the proportion of shear cracks in all stages of cellular concrete increased significantly after the addition of steel fibers.

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