Damage evaluation of composite materials using acoustic emission features and Hilbert transform

Nazmdar Shahri, M., Yousefi, J., Fotouhi, M. and Ahmadi Najfabadi, M. (2016) Damage evaluation of composite materials using acoustic emission features and Hilbert transform. Journal of Composite Materials, 50(14), pp. 1897-1907. (doi: 10.1177/0021998315597555)

Full text not currently available from Enlighten.

Abstract

Acoustic emission (AE) has good potential to characterize failure mechanisms in laminated composite materials. One of the difficult issues using this method can be to establish a good correlation between occurred failure mechanisms and resultant acoustic emission features. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to use a novel method called Hilbert transform to correlate acoustic emission signals to their corresponding failure mechanisms. The investigated acoustic emission signals were obtained from glass/epoxy laminated composites subjected to end notch flexure test which simulates mode II delamination. The phase angle of Hilbert transform was used as a feature to extract the frequency range of damage mechanisms that occurred in different stages of the loading process. The proposed method was used to analyze the extracted acoustic emission signals in three main stages during the loading, i.e. the initiation, the maximum load nearby and the stage where the crack has propagated to the middle of the specimens. A scanning electron microscope was also used to observe the cracked surfaces. The results showed good applicability of the proposed acoustic emission based method for characterization of the damage mechanisms in the laminates. There was also a good agreement between the scanning electron microscopic images and the achieved results.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Fotouhi, Dr Mohammad
Authors: Nazmdar Shahri, M., Yousefi, J., Fotouhi, M., and Ahmadi Najfabadi, M.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Autonomous Systems and Connectivity
Journal Name:Journal of Composite Materials
Publisher:SAGE Publications
ISSN:0021-9983
ISSN (Online):1530-793X
Published Online:29 July 2015

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record