The integrity of the disposal repository structure must be guaranteed for few hundreds to few hundred thousand years until toxicity of radioactive waste is surely degraded. Acoustic emission (AE) method is widely utilized to evaluate the integrity of the structure because it can detect crack wave signals of the structures. It is well known that the cracking AE energy is proportional to the volume of the structure (Fractal theory). However, it is hard to destroy whole structures for obtaining AE energy. Therefore, the scaled specimens are prepared to obtain the relationship between volume of the structure and AE energy. The specimens are prepared with same of Wolsong Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Center (WLDC) silo concrete recipe. Their diameters are from 50 mm to 150 mm in each 10 mm and their heights are twice of the diameter. One set of 50 mm to 150 mm specimens (11 specimens in one set) are made in single mixers to maintain uniformity. Surface of the specimens are flatten with cement milk to prevent from applying load with eccentricity. The uniaxial compression test is performed by controlling displacement as 0.1 mm/min. The fractal constant is obtained using least square function from volume-cumulative AE energy relationship.

The acoustic emission (AE) is proposed as a feasible method for the real-time monitoring of the structural damage evolution in concrete materials that are typically used in the storage of nuclear wastes. However, the characteristics of AE signals emitted from concrete structures subjected to various environmental conditions are poorly identified. Therefore, this study examines the AE characteristics of the concrete structures during uniaxial compression, where the storage temperature and immersion conditions of the concrete specimens varied from 15℃ to 75℃ and from completely dry to water-immersion, respectively. Compared with the dry specimens, the water-immersed specimens exhibited significantly reduced uniaxial compressive strengths by approximately 26%, total AE energy by approximately 90%, and max RA value by approximately 70%. As the treatment temperature increased, the strength and AE parameters, such as AE count, AE energy, and RA value, of the dry specimens increased; however, the temperature effect was only minimal for the immersed specimens. This study suggests that the AE technique can capture the mechanical damage evolution of concrete materials, but their AE characteristics can vary with respect to the storage conditions.

Low and intermediate radioactive wastes in South Korea have been disposed in Wolsong Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Center (WLDC), Gyeongju. This repository structure is planned to be operated few hundred years while toxicity of the waste is sufficiently decayed. The structural integrity of the repository is required to protect the waste in safe. The integrity of the structure is commonly estimated using acoustic emission (AE) method. The integrity of the structure using AE is obtained by following process: 1) Estimation of maximum acoustic crack energy of the structure, 2) Acoustic signal measurement and filtering, and 3) Measurement of simultaneous acoustic cracking energy. The damage of the structure can be obtained from cumulative cracking energy from the structure divided by the predicted maximum cracking energy of the structure. Estimation of maximum cracking energy is gained by the specimens whose components are identical to the repository structure. The cracking energy of the different specimens are obtained during uniaxial compressive test and volume of the specimen is calculated. Then, the fractal coefficient for the structure is obtained and the maximum crack energy of the target structure can be calculated. The specimens whose diameters vary from 50 mm to 150 mm and heights are twice of the diameter are made with same recipe of WLDC silo concrete. The uniaxial compression test is conducted with loading rate of 0.1 mm·min−1. The fractal coefficient is obtained by least square method from the volume-cumulative energy relationship.

본 연구에서는 음향 방출 기법을 사용하여 강연선(7-wire strand)의 손상을 감지하기 위한 기초 실험을 수행하였다. 강연선은 주로 교량에 추가적인 인장력을 제공하기 위해 널리 사용되는 건설 자재이다. 프리스트레스 교량 또는 사장교가 대표적인 경우이다. 그러나 교량 노화가 급격히 진행되면서 강연선 부식 문제가 대두되고 있다. 이러한 이유로 케이블 점검을 위한 다양한 비파괴 방법이 연구되고 있고 현장 적용 이 시도되고 있다. 비파괴 방법 ??중 하나인 음향 방출 기법은 케이블 손상 및 파단을 감지하는 효과적인 기술로 알려져 있다. 본 연구에서는 음향 방출 기법의 교량에 대한 적용 가능성을 평가하기 위해 강연선의 손상에 따른 음향 방출 신호 특성을 인장 실험을 분석 하고, 현장 적용을 위한 최적 센서 주파수 타입을 선정하였다. 결과적으로, 음향 방출 기법을 활용하여 향후 교량 케이블의 부식 파단 및 파단 징후를 감지 할 수 있다 고 여겨진다.

This paper presents the assessment of 7-wire strand monitoring using acoustic emission technique for bridges. 7-wire strand is widely used construction materials to provide additional tensile force to bridges. PSC (PreStressed Concrete) bridge and cable-stayed bridge are representatives for such cases. However, as the bridge aging progresses recently, corrosion problems of strand are emerging. For this reason, various NDT (Non-Destructive Test) methods for cable inspection are being studied and applied to the field. One of the NDT methods, acoustic emission technique, is known as an effective technique to detect cable damage and breakage. In this study, to evaluate the applicability of acoustic emission technique to bridges, acoustic emission signals according to presence or absence of the strand were acquired and analyzed by tensile test. As a result, it is considered that the acoustic emission technique will be able to detect corrosion breakage and signs of rupture.

The monitoring technique using acoustic emission(AE) and microseismicity(MS) are recently used in domestic geotechnical structures. Since AE amd MS rapidly increase before the large-scale failure of geotechnical structures, they can be used as an indicator of failure symptoms. This study shows case studies, especially applied to the rock slope and tunnel.