Paper number 517

ACOUSTIC EMISSION MONITORING UNDER FATIGUE CONDITIONS OF ALUMINIUM MATRIX COMPOSITES REINFORCED BY CONTINUOUS ALUMINA FIBRES.

Marie Jacquesson¹, Pascal Paulmier², Nathalie Godin³ , Roger Fougères³

1ONERA/DMSC, BP 72, 92322 Châtillon Cedex, France.
2ONERA/DMSE, BP 72, 92322 Châtillon Cedex, France.
3INSA de Lyon, GEMPPM, UMR CNRS 5510,
20, av. A. Einstein, 69621 Villeurbanne Cedex, France.

Summary

A quasi-UD aluminium/alumina composite is subjected to tensile and fatigue loadings and acoustic emission monitoring. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential of the acoustic emission technique for locating and detecting damage initiation and propagation and, in relation with metallographic information, for evidencing the different damage mechanisms in this kind of composite. Acoustic emission allows to detect a 3-stage evolution of damage during the fatigue life and to correlate these three stages to three main damage mechanisms that lead to the failure of the composite.

Keywords

aluminium, alumina fibres, fatigue, acoustic emission, damage mechanisms.