SEDL / STP / STP1077-EB / STP19109S

Fracture Mechanism Studies of a Carbon Fiber-Peek Composite by Acoustic Emission

Ono, K
University of CaliforniaJohnson Matthey Electronics, Los AngelesSan Diego, CaliforniaCA

Jeng, JS
University of CaliforniaJohnson Matthey Electronics, Los AngelesSan Diego, CaliforniaCA

Yang, JM
University of CaliforniaJohnson Matthey Electronics, Los AngelesSan Diego, CaliforniaCA

Pages: 9    Published: Jan 1991

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Abstract

Failure mechanisms of a thermoplastic matrix composite, a carbon fiber reinforced PEEK (Polyetheretherketone) matrix laminate, were studied. Three-point bending, ENF (end-notched flexure), and tensile tests were used. During each test, load and acoustic emission (AE) parameters were recorded. Several AE para-meters of processed AE events were analyzed to distinguish different fracture modes, such as fiber breakage, delamination, matrix cracking, and splitting (longi-tudinal matrix cracking). The features such as peak amplitude, signal duration and energy distributions of AE events as well as a plot of peak amplitude vs. signal dura-tion were used, but clear discrimination of different mechanisms by AE alone was difficult as the distributions overlapped. In conjunction with other findings, the first two mechanisms show certain features that may be useful in isolating the failure processes.