Experimental investigation on acoustic emission in fretting friction and wear of bolted joints

•The relationships between AE characteristics and interface fretting behaviors of a bolted joint are experimentally investigated.•A great correlation is observed between the obtained hysteresis loops and the related AE features under different excitation amplitude.•Frictional coefficients and AE parameters change significantly in the initial wear stages and become stable in the later wear stages.•The frequency intensity and frequency range of the individual burst acoustic emission event are significantly different under different excitation amplitudes and wear stages.