Acoustic emission methods in fatigue testing

Abstract: Acoustic emissions are small vibration pulses, elastic waves, emitted from damage processes such as crack growth inside a material. Acoustic emission (AE) is also the name of the test method in which theses emissions are recorded and analysed and the method is used in materials research and the testing and inspection of structures. At Scania, a large manufacturer of trucks and buses, previous attempts to implement this technique has been unsuccessful due to the fact that the hydraulic rigs in which the material typically is tested, produce a high background noise level, that covers the interesting emissions from the material.In this thesis two materials, a grey iron and a carbon fiber reinforced polymer were tested in a hydraulic rig at Scania. Since the material signal was buried in the noise, the entire waveform was recorded, which is an unusual approach, since it generates large amounts of data. It was shown that using frequency analysis, it is possible to extract the material emissions in spite of the hydraulic noise. That fact makes it possible to follow the internal processes of the material leading up to failure, which means new interesting opportunities in materials testing at Scania.