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This study aims to quantify impact damage in laminated composites using acoustic emission (AE) and to verify the AE results with finite element (FE) method. Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite specimens were subjected to quasi‐static out‐of‐plane indentation loading. A procedure, including feature extraction, feature selection, data dimensionality reduction, and data clustering using an evolutionary algorithm, that is, differential evolution (DE) optimization algorithm, was proposed to identify and quantify different damage mechanisms using AE. The AE results showed that the dominant damages were matrix cracking and delamination. For the quantitative evaluation of the AE results, the indentation test was simulated using the FE method. A FE model based on cohesive zone modeling and continuum damage mechanics was implemented to predict interlaminar and intralaminar damages. The quantity of the damaged elements associated with the matrix cracking and delamination was consistent with the AE results. This study showed the applicability of the AE for impact damage identification and quantification in composite structures. Highlights: Indentation damage in CFRP is experimentally quantified using the AE method.The DE algorithm is used to cluster the AE data.CZM and CDM are used to numerically model the damage.The AE clustering results are compared with the numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is devoted to the use of acoustic emission technique for a comprehensive damage assessment, that is, damage detection, localization, and classification, of an aeronautical metal-to-composite bonded panel. The structure comprised a titanium panel adhesively bonded to carbon fiber–reinforced plastic omega stringers. The panel contained a small initial artificial debonding between the titanium panel and one of the carbon fiber–reinforced plastic stringers. The panel was subjected to a cyclic increasing in-plane compression load, including loading, unloading, and then reloading to a higher load level, until the final fracture. The generated acoustic emission signals were captured by the acoustic emission sensors, and digital image correlation was also used to obtain the strain field on the surface of the panel during the test. The results showed that acoustic emission can accurately detect the damage onset, localize it, and also trace its evolution. The acoustic emission results not only were consistent with the digital image correlation results, but also managed to detect the damage initiation earlier than digital image correlation. Finally, the acoustic emission signals were clustered using particle swarm optimization method to identify the different damage mechanisms. The results of this study demonstrate the capability of acoustic emission for the comprehensive damage characterization of aeronautical bi-material adhesively bonded structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the applicability of acoustic emission (AE) technique to evaluate delamination crack in glass/epoxy composite laminates under quasi-static and fatigue loading. To this aim, double cantilever beam specimens were subjected to mode I quasi-static and fatigue loading conditions and the generated AE signals were recorded during the tests. By analyzing the mechanical and AE results, an analytical correlation between the AE energy with the released strain energy and the crack growth was established. It was found that there is a 3rd degree polynomial correlation between the crack growth and the cumulative AE energy. Using this correlation the delamination crack growth was predicted under both the static and fatigue loading conditions. The predicted crack growth values was were in a good agreement with the visually recorded data during the tests. The results indicated that the proposed AE-based method has good applicability to evaluate the delamination crack growth under quasi-static and fatigue loading conditions, especially when the crack is embedded within the structure and could not be seen visually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The AISI D2 steel is a high-chromium and high-carbon tool steel which mechanical properties are high compressive strength and good through-hardening. Despite these advantages, fracture toughness of this steel is moderate. In this study, fracture toughness of AISI D2 steel was determined using Finite Element and Acoustic Emission methods. Selected steel (AISI D2 cold-work tool steel) was heat treated and tempered at different conditions. After that Compact testing specimens were prepared according to ASTM E399 standard and fracture toughness of the specimens was specified according to the standard method. The specimens were modeled in the commercial FE software (ABAQUS) and fracture toughness of the specimens was determined using FEM. Determination of fracture toughness using AE technique was carried out according to three methods: Acoustic Emission Energy Rate (AEER), Acoustic Emission Count Rate (AECR) and integral of sentry function. The results obtained from ASTM E399, Finite Element and Acoustic Emission methods were compared with each other. It was found that fracture toughness values which were obtained using AECR and integral of sentry function techniques are lower bound and the results obtained from FEM are upper bound values of the fracture toughness. Furthermore, fracture toughness values obtained using AEER were the most consistent with the results obtained from ASTME399 standard method. Finally, it could be concluded that Acoustic Emission method can be used as a useful method for determination of fracture toughness of engineering materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delamination is one of the most common modes of failure in laminated composites and it leads to the loss of structural strength and stiffness. In this paper, mode I, mode II, and mixed of these pure modes were investigated using mechanical data, Finite Element Method (FEM) and Acoustic Emission (AE) signals. Experimental data were obtained from in situ monitoring of glass/epoxy laminated composites with different lay-ups when subjected to different modes of failure. The main objective was to investigate the behavior of delamination propagation and to evaluate the critical value of the strain energy which is required for onset of the delamination ( G). For the identification of interlaminar fracture toughness of the specimens, four methods were used: (a) ASTM standard methods, (b) FEM analysis, (c) AE method, and (d) sentry function method which is a function of mechanical and AE behaviors of the specimens. The results showed that the G values obtained by the sentry function method and FEM analysis were in a close agreement with the results of nonlinearity methods which is recommended in the ASTM standards. It was also found that the specimens under different loading conditions and various lay-up have different G values. These differences are related to different stress components distribution in the specimens which induce various damage mechanisms. Accordingly, stress components distribution obtained from FEM analyses were in agreement with SEM observations of the damaged surfaces of the specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]