ACOUSTIC EMISSION OF BOLT-BEARING TESTING ON STRUCTURAL COMPOSITE LUMBERS

Acoustic emission (AE) characteristics of full-hole bolt-bearing testing on structural composite lumbers (SCL) including laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and oriented strand lumber (OSL) were investigated. The main conclusion is that AE cumulative counts vs time curves of the tested SCL in this study can be characterized with three distinct regions in terms of AE count rates: Region I with a lower constant count rate, Region II with varied and increased count rates, and Region Ill with a higher constant count rate. Differences in AE count rates of these three regions occurred between LVL and OSL. Also, within each tested SCL, differences in AE count rates were observed among the three regions. These differences in terms of AE count rates between two tested SCL indicate that different types of wood-based composites might have different AE characteristics in terms of the count rate changes when they are subjected to increased bolt compression load. In other words, these differences in AE characteristics between the two tested materials suggest AE "signatures" do exist for SCL bolt connections.