Identification of damage initiation and progression in open hole composites using acoustic emission and digital image correlation

Abstract

The progression of damage in multidirectional open hole composite specimens subjected to tensile loading is dependent on the properties of the constituent materials as well as the laminate lay-up (fibre orientations, ply thickness). The use of permanently integrated sensors to obtain structural health information from composites is promising, but it is necessary to validate the ability of such systems to distinguish between different damage mechanisms that occur in composites. Acoustic emissions (AE) are produced by changes in the microstructure during loading, such as the onset and growth of matrix cracks, separation of fibre plies (delamination), or fibre fracture. AE signal and feature analysis can enable damage mechanism identification as well as estimation of the damage locations