Acoustical emission technique applied to the characterisation of brittle materials

The structural properties of brittle materials have been analyzed via sound emission which generally accompanies the rupture of this type of material. In this paper, an experimental study was performed using brittle material specimens with different shapes. Mechanical loaning up to rupture by simple two-point bending allows the product characterization and quantification of its mechanical parameters. The sound emission induced by the rupture is also identified. We present here the results concerning the variation, the evolution, and the correlation of different mechanical and acoustical parameters deduced during the rupture of brittle materials. The results obtained show that the evolution of different acoustical parameters are related to the fundamental mechanical parameters, and suggest that the characterization of a given product mal be achieved by either sound emission and mechanical method or by sound emission alone. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.