Paper number 655

ACOUSTIC EMISSION NDT OF COMPOSITES DAMAGED BY STATIC AND DYNAMIC LOADING IN AQUEOUS ENVIRONMENTS

J M Hale1, J T Evans1, G Kotsikos2 & A G Gibson1

1Centre for Composite Materials Engineering
University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2Structural Materials Centre, DERA, Rosyth, U.K.

Summary A series of tests has been conducted to investigate the effect of sea water absorption on fatigue damage accumulation in a glass fibre reinforced polyester laminate of the type widely used in the marine and offshore industries, using four-point bend flexural loading to ensure peak strain in the outer layers of the material most subject to sea water absorption. Pre-exposure was found to reduce the flexural strength and enhance damage accumulation in fatigue by stimulating matrix cracking, fibre debonding and delamination. Acoustic emission (AE) was used to characterise damage accumulation. These results were found to correlate well with independent measurements of changing bending stiffness and with observations of the damaged sections.
Keywords acoustic emission, AE, NDT, composite, offshore, marine, fatigue.

Theme : NDE and Reliability ; Acoustic Emission

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