The characterisation of failure mechanisms in carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) materials using the acoustic emission (AE) technique has been the topic of a number of publications. However, it is often challenging to obtain comprehensive and reliable information about individual failure mechanisms. This situation was the impetus for elaborating a comprehensive overview that covers all failure mechanisms within the framework of CFRP materials. Thus, we performed tensile and compact tension tests on specimens with various stacking sequences to induce specific failure modes and mechanisms. The AE activity was monitored using two different wideband AE sensors and further analysed using a hybrid AE hit detection process. The datasets received from both sensors were separately subjected to clustering analysis using the spectral clustering technique, which incorporated an unsupervised k-means clustering algorithm. The failure mechanism analysis also included a proposed filtering process based on the power distribution across the considered frequency range, with which it was possible to distinguish between the fibre pull-out and fibre breakage mechanisms. This functionality was particularly useful in cases where it was evident that the above-mentioned damage mechanisms exhibited very similar parametric characteristics. The results of the clustering analysis were compared to those of the scanning electron microscopy analysis, which confirmed the conclusions of the AE data analysis.
Keywords: CFRP; acoustic emission; failure mechanism; spectral clustering.