An Adaptable Method for Rapid Fatigue Limit Prediction of Composite Materials Based on Acoustic Emission Technology

ABSTRACT Encouraged by the emerging infrared thermography (IT)–based technique for determining fatigue limit of composite materials, this study introduces a novel approach for the quick fatigue limit determination based on acoustic emission (AE) technology. The AE‐based method expands fatigue testing capabilities beyond the IT‐based methods. Fatigue experiments were conducted for the composite laminates and composite sandwich panels subjected to stepwise increasing cyclic loads. For composite laminate specimens subjected to tension–tension and tension–compression fatigue loads, the fatigue limits obtained by the AE‐based method are in good correlation with those acquired from the IT‐based method as well as the conventional up‐and‐down test procedure. In the tests for out‐of‐plane shearing fatigue limits of composite sandwich panel specimens, where the IT‐based method did not work properly, the AE‐based method performed well and obtained the fatigue limit estimation, which is in line with that derived from the S–N curve data, thereby demonstrating its high adaptability.