Damage Modes Recognition and Hilbert-Huang Transform Analyses of CFRP Laminates Utilizing Acoustic Emission Technique

Discrimination of acoustic emission (AE) signals related to different damage modes is of great importance in carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite materials. To gain a deeper understanding of the initiation, growth and evolution of the different types of damage, four types of specimens for different lay-ups and orientations and three types of specimens for interlaminar toughness tests are subjected to tensile test along with acoustic emission monitoring. AE signals have been collected and post-processed, the statistical results show that the peak frequency of AE signal can distinguish various damage modes effectively. After a AE signal were decomposed by Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method, it may separate and extract all damage modes included in this AE signal apart from damage mode corresponding to the peak frequency. Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) of AE signals can clearly illustrate the frequency distribution of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF) components in time-scale in different damage stages, and can calculate accurate instantaneous frequency for damage modes recognition to help understanding the damage process.