Acoustic emission from tensile deformation of unnotched and notched specimens of AISI type 304 stainless steels

A set of experiments has been carried out to examine the characteristics of the acoustic emission (AE) generated during tensile deformation of AISI type 304 stainless steels. Two grades of steels—nuclear and commercial; and two types of specimens—unnotched and notched, have been used in this study. The AE total counts obtained in different specimens for specific strain levels have been analysed by regression analysis approach of data analysis. The results indicate that the AE counts from notched specimens are usually higher than those from unnotched specimens in the nuclear grade steel, unlike the opposite results obtained for the commercial grade steel in the present study and also reported results for other materials. These results have been explained with the help of the different sources of AE in the two grades of stainless steels.