Abstract
Recently, the problems concerning deterioration in the laminated rubber bearings has become obvious. In order to protect laminated rubber bearings from fracture during earthquakes, establishing adequate damage assessment technique is an urgent issue. In this research, the acoustic emission (AE) method which is one of the non-destructive testing methods was used for damage assessment of the laminated rubber bearings.
This study observed AE activities by laboratory tests. The AE activities and their parameters of the damaged bearings were compared with those of new bearings. The results of the cyclic compression loading tests showed that the internal damage of the rubber bearings could be estimated through the activities of the AE parameters. Many AE hits and large AE energy were observed from the damaged rubber bearings through the cyclic compression loading tests, however, few AE activities were observed from new bearings. AE measurement technique was effective to assess the damage of the laminated rubber bearing.
