Damage analysis of carbon nanofiber modified flax fiber composite by acoustic emission

Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) has received widespread attention in the field of civil engineering because of its superior durability and corrosion resistance. This article presents the damage mechanisms of a novelty composite called carbon nanofiber modified flax fiber polymer (CNF-modified FFRP). The ability of acoustic emission (AE) to detect damage evolution for different configurations of specimens under uniaxial tension was examined, and some useful AE characteristic parameters were obtained. Test results shows that the mechanical properties of modified composites are associated with the CNF content and the evenness of CNF dispersed in the epoxy matrix. Various damage mechanisms was established by means of scanning electron microscope images. The fuzzy c-means clustering were proposed to classify AE events into groups representing different generation mechanisms. The classifiers are constructed using the traditional AE features - six parameters from each burst. Amplitude and peak-frequency were selected as the best cluster-definition features from these AE parameters. After comprehensive comparison, a correlation between these AE events classes and the damage mechanisms observed was proposed.