Acoustic emission wireless monitoring of structures

Acoustic emission (AE) monitoring is a powerful procedure used to detect and locate damage in mechanically loaded structures, materials, and components. This chapter presents the capability of a new data processing system based on wireless AE equipment that is very useful for long-term monitoring of concrete and masonry structures. Systems based on wireless transmission should be cost-efficient, easy to install, and adaptive to different types of structures and infrastructures. To this purpose, computer-based procedures are implemented. These procedures are performed by automatic AE data processing and used to evaluate the AE data in laboratory tests and in situ monitoring. The final output of the code returns a description, as complete as possible, of damage patterns and their evolution of the monitored structure. In the most critical cases, or in some cases requiring in situ, long observation periods, the AE monitoring method is fine-tuned for a telematics processing procedure of AE data clouds. Finally, to increase the safety of structures and infrastructural networks, the proposed AE monitoring system could also be used to determine the seismic risk of civil constructions and monuments subjected to earthquakes.