An acoustic emission energy analysis and its use to study damage in laminated composites

It is proposed to use the output of a true rms voltmeter to measure the acoustic emission energy output of a transducer. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this method, it was used during the tensile testing of laminated fiber-reinforced plastic composites. The method is found to provide qualitative results indicating the onset and sequence of ply and interlaminar failure. In addition, by using signal characteristics such as energy per event, spectral content, and amplitude distributions, it should be possible to identify failure modes and level of damag