Analysis and detection of failure in aluminium/E-glass prepreg interface with acoustic emission

Adhesive bonding is an alternative to traditional joining systems like riveting and welding which has been used extensively in electronic, automotive, and aerospace industries. Design of such reliable bonding, requires knowledge achievement of bonding fracture resistant. In this study interface failure initiation of Al-2221 and glass/epoxy prepreg has been investigated by using acoustic emission (AE) technique. Furthermore, failure analysis simulation is done by commercial FEA software ABAQUS. Simulation was implemented by cohesive zone model (CZM) by using cohesive surface technic. Prepreg was used to reduce variation in specimen production and in order to improve adhesion between Al-2221 and composite layers. Pretreatment by a chromic acid anodizing agent was performed on the surface of aluminium. Failure initiation was identified by monitoring of force-displacement curve, online processed AE signals and using sentry function analyzing method. Critical load and fracture toughness was then calculated to be used as simulation input. Simulation result indicates that force-displacement curve obtained by sentry function method is in better agreement with the experimental result. According to present study AE online monitoring method can detect aluminium/ composite bonding failure more accurately than the other methods.