Innovative Mechanical characterization of CFRP by using acoustic emission technique

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic materials (CFRP) offer high specific mechanical properties that make them extremely attractive for aeronautical and aerospace applications. However, mechanical response of CFRP might become very unsatisfactory when damage is hidden under the object surface and is not directly visible. Using CFRP without detecting damages and monitoring their propagation may lead to catastrophic in-service failures. It is therefore essential to detect, evaluate and analyze the different types of damage propagation caused by static, cyclic and environmental effects. Acoustic Emission technique (AE) is an innovative methodology that is finding good evidence in detecting and identifying CFRP damage mechanisms. In this paper, the AE technique was applied to CFRP specimens subjected to open hole testing and mode I delamination.