Finite Element Simulation of Acoustic Emissions from Different Failure Mechanisms in Composite Materials.

Damage in composite laminates evolves through complex interactions of different failure modes, influenced by load type, environment, and initial damage, such as from transverse impact. This paper investigates damage growth in cross-ply polymeric matrix laminates under tensile load, focusing on three primary failure modes: transverse matrix cracks, delaminations, and fiber breaks in the primary loadbearing 0-degree laminae. Acoustic emission (AE) techniques can monitor and quantify damage in real time, provided the signals from these failure modes can be distinguished.

Influence of attenuation on acoustic emission signals in carbon fiber reinforced polymer panels.

Influence of attenuation on acoustic emission (AE) signals in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) crossply and quasi-isotropic panels is examined in this paper. Attenuation coefficients of the fundamental antisymmetric (A0) and symmetric (S0) wave modes were determined experimentally along different directions for the two types of CFRP panels. In the frequency range from 100 kHz to 500 kHz, the A0 mode undergoes significantly greater changes due to material related attenuation compared to the S0 mode.