Damage progress assessment on textile reinforced cement retrofit patches attached to traditional masonry using acoustic emission

Thin in-place cast textile reinforced cementitious (TRC) composites appear a promising solution for the repair of masonry where macro-cracks put in question the structural integrity. Reinforcement is provided in the form of external patches that are attached to the masonry front side. The interaction between the existed structure and the newly placed repair patch is tracked in this study by testing small-scale traditional brick masonry- TRC composite samples on pull-off using an integrated monitoring setup: Digital Image Correlation tracks debonding and cracks formed at the intersections (masonry-composite and textile-cement internally into the composite); Acoustic Emission monitors the elastic wave activity emitted due to internal damage and by analyzing the signal characteristics the damage mode and source are evaluated. Beyond the state-of-the-art, the advanced experimental monitoring aims to provide an insight full-field view of damage progress.