Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 229, 841–849 (2020)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2020-800232-7

Regular Article

Acoustic emissions in compression of building materials: q-statistics enables the anticipation of the breakdown point

¹ Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
² Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas and National Institute of Science and Technology for Complex Systems, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
³ Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA
⁴ Complexity Science Hub Vienna, Vienna, Austria
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy “Ettore Majorana”, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
⁶ INFN Section of Catania, Catania, Italy

^a e-mail: alessandro.pluchino@ct.infn.it

Received: 17 December 2018
Received in final form: 10 March 2019
Published online: 12 March 2020

Abstract

In this paper we present experimental results concerning Acoustic Emission (AE) recorded during cyclic compression tests on two different kinds of brittle building materials, namely concrete and basalt. The AE inter-event times were investigated through a non-extensive statistical mechanics analysis which shows that their complementary cumulative probability distributions follow q-exponential laws. The entropic index q and the relaxation parameter β_q ≡ 1∕T_q, obtained by fitting the experimental data, exhibit systematic changes during the various stages of the failure process, namely (q, T_q) linearly align. The T_q = 0 point corresponds to the macroscopic breakdown of the material. The slope, including its sign, of the linear alignment appears to depend on the chemical and mechanical properties of the sample. These results provide an insight on the warning signs of the incipient failure of building materials and could therefore be used in monitoring the health of existing structures such as buildings and bridges.