Quantitative Acoustic Emission Fatigue Crack Characterization in Structural Steel and Weld

Abstract

The fatigue crack growth characteristics of structural steel and weld connections are analyzed using quantitative acoustic emission (AE) technique. This was experimentally investigated by three-point bending testing of specimens under low cycle constant amplitude loading using the wavelet packet analysis. The crack growth sequence, that is, initiation, crack propagation, and fracture, is extracted from their corresponding frequency feature bands, respectively. The results obtained proved to be superior to qualitative AE analysis and the traditional linear elastic fracture mechanics for fatigue crack characterization in structural steel and welds.