Monitoring material nonlinearity and attenuation variations in mortar subjected to freezing-thawing cycles

Standard vibration resonance frequency tests have been widely used for prediction of material modulus of elasticity and for monitoring damage in cement-based materials. More recently, dynamic non-classical nonlinear analyses show promise for damage diagnosis through a variety of test methods that are generally called nonlinear elastic wave spectroscopy (NEWS) techniques. In this study, we monitor the nonlinear dynamic behavior and mechanical wave attenuation of mortar subjected to varying numbers of freezing-thawing cycles. The nonlinear analysis is deployed using a new signal processing technique applied to standard resonance frequency test generated data. The proposed technique is demonstrated on damaged and un-damaged mortar bar samples.