Acoustic Emission Detection of Circumferential UV-Mechanical Failure of Glass Epoxy Composites

Abstract

It is a challenging task to understand the damage and failure of ring glass-epoxy composites after ultraviolet aging in practical application. In this paper, acoustic emission (AE) and X-ray computed tomography techniques are employed to study its damage and failure behavior under circumferential tensile loading. The results show that the additional bending effect can’t be overcome when the specimen is stretched, so the strength test is only an apparent result. With the increase of aging time, the number of AE events gradually decreases, but the accumulated acoustic energy increases, which indicates that the longer the aging time, the more severe the damage during loading. The distribution of failure modes caused by circumferential mechanical properties test of specimens can be characterized by X-ray computed technology. In addition, the two complementary nondestructive testing techniques can effectively monitor the damage process inside and outside the specimen, which can provide the basis for the health monitoring of composite structures.