Study on Mode I Fracture Toughness and FEM analysis of Carbon/Epoxy Laminates Using Acoustic Emission Signal

Composite materials have been used in aerospace industry and many applications because of many advantages such as specific strength and stiffness and corrosion resistance etc. However, it is vulnerable to impacts, these impact lead to formation of cracks in composite laminate and failure of structures. In this paper, we analyzed Mode I fracture toughness of Carbon/Epoxy laminates using acoustic emission signal. DCB test was carried out to analyze Mode I failure characterization of Carbon/Epoxy laminates, and AE sensor was attached to measure AE signal induced by failure of specimen. Fracture toughness was calculated using cumulative AE energy and measured crack length using camera. The calculated fracture toughness was applied in FE model and the result of FE analysis compared with DCB test results. The results show good agreement with between FEM and DCB test results.