Delamination Analysis of Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Composite Laminates Under Different Loading Rates Using Acoustic Emission

This work studies delamination behaviors of carbon fiber/epoxy composite laminates under different loading rates using acoustic emission (AE) that shows large advantage for dynamic monitoring of instantaneous defects by analyzing characteristic signal parameters. Generally, rate-dependent damage behaviors of composites poses challenges to AE signal analysis and failure mode identification during a short time. In order to study dynamic mixed-mode delamination behaviors, the single-leg three-point bending tests for carbon fiber/epoxy composite laminates with initial intralaminar and interlaminar truncation sizes under different loading rates are performed. Effects of the loading rate and layup pattern on the delamination behaviors of composites are studied by analyzing the AE responses including the amplitude and energy.