Multivariate Analysis of Damage Events in a Polymer Composite

Abstract

Our prior studies of polymer composites subjected to stress have shown that a statistical distribution of acoustic emission damage events occur in multiscale and include several damage modes. Various multiscale modeling and simulation methods have been developed by others to obtain constitutive equations, which were used to link the variables between microscopic and macroscopic scales of continuum. Very limited experimental work exists to reveal physical evidence on the multiscale damage modes, and their relationship and consequential influence on performance of materials. This paper reports an innovative approach that experimentally evidences the response of damage events in different scales to the applied stress. It shows that a strong correlation exists between multiscale damage modes, and that ensemble-normalized entropy and physical evidence can be qualitatively and quantitatively used to integrate related damage modes at different scales.