Structural Health Monitoring by Acoustic Emission of Smart Composite Laminates Embedded with Piezoelectric Sensor

The smaller sizes of current electronic devices suggest the feasibility of creating a smart composite structure using piezoelectric implant to monitor in-situ the lifetime of civil and aerospace structures. This study presents a health monitoring of composites materials integrated by piezoelectric sensors using acoustic emission (AE) technique. A series of specimens of laminates composite with and without piezoelectric implant were tested in three-point bending tests while continuously monitoring the response by the AE technique. The analysis and observation of AE signals leads to the identification of the acoustic signatures of four damage mechanisms in laminates materials. One of the major differences between the two types of materials (with and without embedded sensor) is the intense acoustic activity in the integrated material.