Testing fiber composites with acoustic emission monitoring

The accumulation and the rate of accumulation of acoustic emission (AE) can be used to monitor early damage in fiber composites, changes of composite strength and correlations between different angle-plys and expected changes in failure mechanisms. In addition, AE can provide data for developing micro- and macro-failure models. However, reliable monitoring is required before implementing AE testing. To expedite this, extraneous AE noise, signal attenuation, the Kaiser effect, specimen variability, the identification and interpretation of all potential sources, and the location of the AE source must be investigated. Problems associated with monitoring and accepted mechanisms for handling them are found in the literature. A guide for using acoustic emission during testing of fiber composite materials based on available information is presented here