Acoustic emission characterization of tensile damage in 3D braiding composite shafts

The acoustic emission (AE) method was used to monitor the tensile damage in a 3D braiding composite shaft. The 3D braiding composite shaft was manufactured via Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Moulding (VARTM) and the tensile experiment was conducted accompanied by AE monitoring. The AE signals were analyzed using the wavelet transformation for time-frequency analysis. The characteristic values of the AE signals were decomposed by the principal component analysis (PCA). The damage mode of the 3D braiding composite shaft under tension was identified and classified by the fuzzy clustering method (FCM). The results showed that the AE method could monitor the damage evolution process of the 3D braiding composite shaft under tension and the FCM combined with the PCA effectively divided the damage mode of the 3D braiding composite shaft. The results will provide an effective method for health monitoring of the 3D braiding composite shaft within engineering.