Application of AE Techniques for Detecting Wire Fracture in the PSC Railway Bridges

철도 PSC교량의 텐던 파단 감지를 위한 AE방법의 적용

A lot of PSC railway bridges have been constructed in countries and, they are considered as cost-effective and less maintenance-demanded structures. However, recently several collapse of PSC bridges happened in Europe show that PSC bridges have some serious maintenance problems related to tendon corrosion and wire fractures. Furthermore, any reliable NDT method is not presented until recently. In this paper, AE techniques are investigated for detection of wire fractures in PSC beam. Using long-term monitoring AE techniques, two acoustic signals of wire fractures in a PSC beam are obtained. These data are compared to other noise signals. Based on the test results, the characteristics of the AE signals are classified and wire fracture signals are figured out among the other AE signals. As a result, AE techniques are certainly exposed to tendon fracture sound, and application of AE techniques are better than any other non-destructive method.