• Composites Research
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.23-31
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• 2009

This paper investigated acoustic emission (AE) characteristics in association with various fracture processes of glass fiber reinforced plastic skin/ aluminum honeycomb core (GF-AH) hybrid composites under compressive and bending loads. Various failure modes such as skin layer fracture, skin/core interfacial fracture, and local plastic yield buckling and cell wall adhesive fracture occurring in the honeycomb cell wall were classified through the fracture identification in association with the AE frequency and amplitude analysis. The distribution of the event-rate in which it has a high amplitude showed a procedure of cell wall adhesive fracture, skin/core interfacial debonding and fiber breakage, whereas distribution of different peak frequencies indicated the plastic deformation of aluminum cell wall and the friction between honeycomb walls. Consequently, the fracture behaviors of GF-AH hybrid composites could be characterized through a nondestructive evaluation employing the AE technique.