Failure of prestressed concrete structures due to corrosion is significant issue that has high economic impact and in some cases results in loss of life. Predicting and detecting corrosion at its early stages has been an engineering challenge that provides the opportunity to protect the structure from further deterioration. The Man-Made River Project, which transports water from the Libyan dessert to the coastal areas, is an example on the high expenses of ignoring structural health monitoring (SHM). The project suffered from unpredicted catastrophic failures in pipes due to corrosion. This paper presents an experimental investigation into the effectiveness of Acoustic Emission (AE) technique as SHM tool to detect corrosion of steel wires in prestressed concrete. Experimental results show that AE is efficient in detecting the early stages of corrosion of steel in prestressed concrete structures.
Keywords: Structural health monitoring, Acoustic emission, Corrosion, Steel reinforcement.