LAUSR

Abstract Damage assessment of masonry buildings in service is the key to structural health monitoring. A uniaxial compression test of brick masonry specimens based on acoustic emission (AE) technology was conducted to monitor and assess the dynamic damage and failure mechanisms of masonry structures under load in real time. The variation characteristics of the ringing counts, energy, and peak frequency of the AE characteristic parameters of the masonry specimens during the entire uniaxial compression process were collected and recorded, and the reference values of the time parameters of AE monitoring were determined. Results showed that the number of AE ringing counts increased sharply and the slope of the cumulative energy curve increased remarkably at the final failure stage of the brick masonry specimens under compression. In addition, the component ratio of the peak frequency in the low-frequency band increased and that of the peak frequency in the high-frequency band decreased. The damage status of the masonry structures could be predicted qualitatively by the AE signals with high energy in the low-frequency band. The ringing counts of the AE sensors at different locations on the masonry specimens were compared, and the rationalities of the position and number of AE sensors fixed on the brick masonry specimens in the uniaxial compression test were discussed.