Damage mechanisms assessment of hybrid carbon/flax fibre composites using acoustic emission

Abstract

The purpose of the present experimental study is to describe the damage mechanisms occurring in epoxy matrix composites reinforced with hybrid carbon-flax fibres. The samples tested were consist of unidirectional carbon and flax fibre plies with different stacking sequences. Composite laminates were manufactured by hand lay-up process. The specimens were tested under uniaxial tensile loading. The tests carried out were monitored by the acoustic emission (AE) technique. The results obtained during the monotonic tensile tests were analyzed in order to identify the damage mechanisms evolutions. The recorded events were classified with the k-means algorithm which is a statistical multivariable analysis. In addition, it was an unsupervised classification according to temporal descriptors. The percentage of each damage mechanism to the global failure was evaluated by the hits number and the acoustic energy activity. The AE technique was correlated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations to identify the typical damage mechanisms.