Fatigue cracks nucleation on steel, acoustic emission and fractal analysis

In this paper, a new acoustic emission (AE) diagnostic technique, for the study of fatigue cracks nucleation and propagation on steel, was investigated. Using the fractal analysis, and the box-counting method (BCM) in particular, it is possible to characterize the spatial distribution of the prime AE sources through the fractal dimension (D) that evolve with the number of fatigue cycles (N) of the specimen. D–N curves were found useful to identify the condition of incipient collapse due to the nucleation and propagation of fatigue cracks on steel. It is possible to use the fractal dimension as a damage parameter. In all tested specimens, the crisis occurs within the same range of values of fractal dimension. The results suggest that it is possible to anticipate the detection of crack beginning relating to the other theoretical or experimental techniques.