Acoustic Emission Applied to Mechanically Loaded Paper

Acoustic Emission applied to mechanically loaded Paper (AEP) is a current European Union funded Fifth Framework project. The overall objective of this project is to investigate the micro mechanics behind the behaviour of paper under mechanical loading, with a view to enabling the development of new and value added paper products with a better competitive edge in the global market. To achieve this, Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring is used for detecting and recording damage on a scale ranging from a single fibre or fibre/fibre bond, to details on a macro level. This requires the development of methods by which it should be possible to identify which damage mechanism produces a specific acoustic event. Another scientific objective is to investigate the applicability of Continuum Damage Mechanics (CDM) to describe the progress of damage and the influence of damage on the mechanical behaviour of paper, leading to a constitutive model that can account for damage and also for damage localisation. The technological objective of the project is to specify and make available equipment suited for this purpose, which means both hardware; i.e. sensors, pre – amplifiers, etc., and software; i.e. routines for doing statistics, pattern recognition, etc., tailored for applications in paper physics, incorporating product design, and production. Another technological objective is the availability of a relevant damage constitutive model suitable for application in numerical routines, such as Finite Element codes. Such work therefore, necessitates a multi-disciplinary team, comprising of four partners in the three relevant scientific fields; paper science, information technology (IT) and Acoustic Emission. These fields are somewhat disparate and this work offers the opportunity of stimulating future collaboration. This paper reports on the background and progress of the AEP project to date. DGZfP-Proceedings BB 90-CD Lecture 41 EWGAE 2004 424