Post-impact damage characterisation of natural fibre reinforced composites using acoustic emission

The present study aims to characterise damage due to low velocity impact on jute fibre reinforced polyester composites. To attain this goal, a number of post-impact mechanical tests have been carried out, including tensile tests, three-point bending and indentation, using either a staircase or a continuous loading programme. On all these tests acoustic emission activity (AE) was monitored. The results, compared with damage observed under an optical microscope, show that AE is able to perform a reliable measurement of the level of damage also, on a natural fibre reinforced laminate. The main limitations of this study are owing to the rather low ultimate stress of the material and to the need to apply a loading to evaluate the damage produced by the impact event.