Acoustic sources from damage propagation in Ti grade 5

In this paper fatigue test results are presented for titanium grade 5 specimens subjected to uniaxial cyclic loads. The material behavior of titanium was studied by comparing the Acoustic Emission (AE) detection technique with the Infrared Thermography (IT). The AE technique consists on attaching a couple of piezoelectric sensors on the surface of the sample in order to allow real-time recording of acoustic activity occurring in the material during the test and to localize the acoustic source, based on the assumption that part of the acoustic activity depends on the crack propagation process. All typical data of AE were collected during the tests and some of them were properly post-processed by using filters or derivative functions in order to better understand the crack propagation phenomenon. At the same time, thermographic analysis was also carried out during the experiments by continuous monitoring of surface temperature of the sample. Results of the fatigue behavior of the analyzed material beside the acoustic emission track and the thermal images of the sample are analyzed and critically discussed, in order to assess the capability of each technique in predicting the imminent failure of material.