Analysis of damage mechanisms and associated acoustic emission in two SiCf/[Si–B–C] composites exhibiting different tensile behaviours. Part II: Unsupervised acoustic emission data clustering

The present work deals with two SiCf/[Si–B–C] composites exhibiting very different mechanical behaviours under tensile testing: low strain to failure for the one, high strain to failure for the other with similar ultimate strength. In the present Part II, emphasis is made on the clustering procedure of the recorded acoustic emission data. Clustering results are discussed as regards of what is known about the damage mechanisms operating in both composites (see Part I of this work [Moevus M, Rouby D, Godin N, R’Mili M, Reynaud P, Fantozzi G, et al. Analysis of damage mechanisms and associated acoustic emission in two SiC/[Si–B–C] composites exhibiting different tensile curves. Part I: Damage patterns and acoustic emission activity. Compos Sci Technol; in press]) [1]. The different types of matrix cracking in the composite are successfully distinguished by the AE analysis. This methodology will further be applied to static fatigue tests at intermediate temperature, in order to help predicting lifetimes of the composite.