Proper detection and monitoring of cracks are crucial when evaluating the health of equipment and structures because of the catastrophic failures that can occur if they evolve without control. Among the group of nondestructive tests (NDT), acoustic emissions (AE) emerge as the most used technique for this purpose. This is due to its high sensitivity to low-energy events, which allows the incipient detection of cracks. In this paper, a short review is presented concerning some practical and research activities on crack detection and monitoring in structures using AE. It is shown that AE is a versatile technique for crack detection and monitoring, with applications in a broad range of materials such as concrete, composites, rocks, metals, and wood and in different types of civil and industrial applications.

在评估设备和结构的健康状况时，正确检测和监测裂纹至关重要，因为如果不加以控制就可能发生灾难性故障。在无损检测（NDT）组中，声发射（AE）成为用于此目的的最常用技术。这是因为它对低能事件具有很高的敏感性，因此可以早期发现裂纹。在本文中，将简要介绍有关使用AE进行结构裂缝检测和监控的一些实践和研究活动。结果表明，AE是一种用于裂缝检测和监控的通用技术，它可用于多种材料，例如混凝土，复合材料，岩石，金属和木材，以及各种类型的民用和工业应用。