Acoustic emission is the generation of stress waves by sudden movement in stressed materials. This article begins with a comparison of acoustic emission from most other nondestructive testing (NDT) methods, and discusses the range of applicability of acoustic emission. It describes the instrumentation principles of acoustic emission and reviews the role of acoustic emission in materials studies. The article illustrates the testing of metal-matrix composites (MMCs) using acoustic emission and the use of acoustic emission inspection in production quality control. It concludes with information on the structural test applications of acoustic emission inspection to find defects and to assess or ensure structural integrity.

This article introduces the principal methodologies and some advanced technologies that are being applied for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composites. These include acoustic emission, ultrasonic, eddy-current, computed tomography, electromagnetic acoustic transducer, radiography, thermography, and low-frequency vibration methods. The article also provides information on NDE methods commonly used for metal-matrix composites.

This article discusses the principles and limitations of micromagnetic techniques, namely, magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) and magnetoacoustic emission (MAE). It also discusses various factors limiting the establishment of acceptance criteria for test components as they pertain to the successful application of MBN measurement and signal interpretation. The article provides an overview of basic magnetic phenomena and dynamics in ferromagnetic materials that underlie the origin of MBN emissions. It describes the changes in the domain structure of the ferromagnetic material under an applied external field. The relationship between uniaxial stress and angular-dependent strain is also discussed. The influence of stress on domain walls, and therefore, the generation of Barkhausen noise are described. The article also describes the directional and angular MBN measurements and provides information on detection, angular dependence, and advanced analysis methods of MBN emissions.

This article introduces the concept of condition monitoring (CM) and summarizes various techniques used for CM across the industrial sectors. The techniques include visual inspection, performance monitoring, vibration condition monitoring, vibration condition monitoring, lubricant oil analysis, acoustic emission testing, temperature monitoring, motor current signature analysis, and ultrasound emission. The article describes the evolution of condition-based maintenance in CM. It also describes the basics of integrated vehicle health management, a capability that enables a number of maintenance philosophies. The article concludes with a discussion on various condition monitoring in industrial sectors, including condition-monitoring techniques in nuclear power plants, road condition monitoring, and condition monitoring in wind turbines.

This article focuses on the heat removal stages involved in quenching, and on the experimental setup used for measuring temperature and detecting sound signals with the help of illustrations and curves. The quenching process generates acoustic signals, which are the consequences of the phase transformation of steel and of the boiling process at the interface during the cooling process. The sound-pressure signal is captured by the hydrophone through sound-emission measurements that occur during steel quenching in different quenching media. The analysis of the results offers an interesting approach to evaluation and, more importantly, to monitoring, controlling, and optimizing the entire quenching process.

This article lists the system parameters of the friction welding process and describes the four categories of monitoring and control of the manufacturing process. It discusses the monitoring methods of a rotary friction welded sample, for determining in-process quality of ferrous alloys, and dissimilar metals using acoustic emission. The article reviews the feasibility of detecting the presence of ferrite during microstructural evolution of friction welding of three austenitic stainless steels: 310, 304, and 255. It also explains the in-process quality control of friction welding.

This article introduces the principal methodologies and some technologies that are being applied for nondestructive evaluation of composite materials. These include ultrasonic testing (UT), air-coupled UT, laser UT, ultrasonic spectroscopy, leaky lamb wave method, acousto-ultrasonics, radiography, X-ray computed tomography, thermography, low-frequency vibration methods, acoustic emission, eddy current testing, optical holography, and shearography. The article presents some examples are for fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composites. Many of the techniques have general applicability to other types of composites such as metal-matrix composites and ceramic-matrix composites.

Testing and characterization of fatigue crack growth are used extensively to predict the rate at which subcritical cracks grow due to fatigue loading. ASTM standard E 647 is the accepted guideline for fatigue crack growth testing (FCGR) and is applicable to a wide variety of materials and growth rates. The two most widely used types of specimens are the middle-crack tension and compact-type specimens. This article describes the factors affecting the selection of appropriate geometries of these specimens: consideration of material availability and raw form, desired loading condition, and equipment limitations. Various crack measurement techniques, including optical, ultrasonic, acoustic emission, electrical, and compliance methods, are also reviewed. The article discusses the two major aspects of FCGR test analysis: to ensure suitability of the test data and to calculate growth rates from the data.

Acoustic-emission inspection detects and analyzes minute acoustic-emission signals generated by discontinuities in materials under applied stress. This article discusses the types of acoustic emissions (continuous-type emissions and burst-type emissions) and applications, including laboratory testing, production testing, and structural testing. The article includes a section in which the characteristics of acoustic emission inspection are compared with other nondestructive testing methods. Further, it briefly reviews the key elements of the acoustic-emission instrumentation, which includes the acoustic-emission resonant sensor.

This article describes the test techniques that are available for monitoring crack initiation and crack growth and for obtaining information on fatigue damage in test specimens. These techniques include optical methods, the compliance method, electric potential measurement, and gel electrode imaging methods. The article discusses the magnetic techniques that are primarily used as inspection techniques for detecting fatigue cracks in structural components. It details the principles and operation procedures of the liquid penetrant methods, positron annihilation techniques, acoustic emission techniques, ultrasonic methods, eddy current techniques, infrared techniques, exoelectron methods, and gamma radiography. The article explains the microscopy methods used to determine fatigue crack initiation and propagation. These include electron microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and scanning acoustic microscopy. The article also reviews the X-ray diffraction technique used for determining the compositional changes, strain changes, and residual stress evaluation during the fatigue process.

Mechanical and environmental loadings cause a variety of failure modes in composites, including matrix cracking, fiber-matrix debonding, delamination between plies, and fiber breakage. This article summarizes visual analysis and nondestructive testing (NDT) methods for failure analysis of composites. The NDT methods include radiography, ultrasonic techniques, acoustic emission, and thermograph. The article also provides information on destructive test techniques.

Leak testing is used to determine the rate at which a liquid or gas penetrates from inside a component or assembly to the outside, or vice versa. This article discusses the type of leaks, namely real leaks, and virtual leaks. It describes the leak testing of fluid systems at pressure through acoustic method and bubble testing. The article gives a short note on types of leak detectors, sulfur hexafluoride detectors and mass-spectrometer. It tabulates the pressure and vacuum system leak-testing methods and discusses the application of gas detectors in leak testing.

This article describes testing and characterization methods of ceramics for chemical analysis, phase analysis, microstructural analysis, macroscopic property characterization, strength and proof testing, thermophysical property testing, and nondestructive evaluation techniques. Chemical analysis is carried out by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, and plasma-emission spectrophotometry. Phase analysis is done by X-ray diffraction, spectroscopic methods, thermal analysis, and quantitative analysis. Techniques used for microstructural analysis include reflected light microscopy using polarized light, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive analysis of X-rays, and wavelength dispersive analysis of X-rays. Macroscopic property characterization involves measurement of porosity, density, and surface area. The article describes testing methods such as room and high-temperature strength test methods, proof testing, fracture toughness measurement, and hardness and wear testing. It also explains methods for determining thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, heat capacity, and emissivity of ceramics and glass and measurement of these properties as a function of temperature.

This article discusses the general principles, optical systems, and emission sources of optical emission spectroscopy for elemental analysis. Changes in the energy of the valence or outer shell electrons result in the atomic lines used in emission spectroscopy. Each possible combination of electron configurations produces a spectroscopic term that describes the state of the atom. Atomic emission is analytically useful only to the extent that the emission from one atomic species can be measured and its intensity recorded independent of emission from other sources. Emission sources are often designed to minimize molecular emission. Each of the four types of emission sources; arcs, high-voltage sparks, glow discharges, and flames; has a set of physical characteristics with accompanying analytical assets and liabilities. The article also discusses the applications of each type of emission source.

Nondestructive testing (NDT), also known as nondestructive evaluation (NDE), includes various techniques to characterize materials without damage. This article focuses on the typical NDE techniques that may be considered when conducting a failure investigation. The article begins with discussion about the concept of the probability of detection (POD), on which the statistical reliability of crack detection is based. The coverage includes the various methods of surface inspection, including visual-examination tools, scanning technology in dimensional metrology, and the common methods of detecting surface discontinuities by magnetic-particle inspection, liquid penetrant inspection, and eddy-current testing. The major NDE methods for internal (volumetric) inspection in failure analysis also are described.

This article describes the two commonly used standardized tests for determining the mechanical properties of thermal spray coatings: hardness testing and tensile adhesion testing. It discusses the destructive and non-destructive methods of residual-stress measurement. Electrochemical testing methodologies include two distinctly different methods: direct and alternating current impedance techniques for assessing the corrosion resistance of coating attributes. The article also reviews the testing methods for determining thermomechanical and environmental stability of thermal barrier coatings. It discusses the wear testing methodologies that are standardized by ASTM, including the pin-on-disk, block-on-ring, dry sand/rubber wheel, erosion, metallographic apparatus abrasion, fretting wear, cavitation, reciprocating ball-on-flat, impact, and rolling contact fatigue test. The article concludes with a discussion on the methods of testing abradability and erosion resistance in abradable coatings.

This article discusses the tests designed specifically to evaluate the adhesion, friction, and wear behavior of various material systems. It tabulates the characteristics of common types of wear and mechanical surface damage. The article also considers the displaying and analyzing of adhesion, friction, and wear test data. It concludes with a description of devices used for testing adhesion, friction, and wear.

The influence of friction and wear on the function and structure of tribological systems is determined by various types of tribological tests. This article introduces the general categories of tribological testing and describes the basic objectives of testing. It reviews the results of tribological tests, where the system-dependent characteristics of friction and wear data can be expressed in different forms, such as tribographs, transition diagrams, and tribomaps. A summary of various methods of surface analysis is presented in a table. The article discusses the relationship between wear and reliability in terms of exponential distribution, Weibull distribution, and gamma distribution. It concludes with information on the effects of interaction on failure probability.

This article describes the role of the full-scale testing in assessing composite structural systems of aircraft and qualifying them for in-service use. The typical full-scale tests include static, durability, and damage tolerance. The article discusses parameters to consider when developing the basic requirements for the static test. The parameters include material considerations, moisture and temperature effects, structure size, load application alternatives, instrumentation requirements, test procedure considerations, ultimate load requirements, and test results correlation. The basic requirements common for durability and damage tolerance tests, including environmental effects and inspection requirements are also discussed.

Hardness characterizes the resistance of the ceramic to deformation, densification, displacement, and fracture. It is usually measured with conventional microindentation hardness machines using the Knoop or the Vickers diamond indenters. This article discusses the metrology issues of the Knoop and the Vickers hardness in ceramics. It explicates how to estimate fracture toughness from Vickers indentation cracking. The article also provides information on instrumented hardness testing and the Meyer law.