Electromagnetic emission (EME) testing and acoustic emission (AE) testing are applied to investigate the failure of a brittle, dielectric material under mechanical load. A setup for three point flexure tests comprising simultaneous monitoring of EME and AE was used to induce fracture of epoxy resin specimens. The influences of the orientation and the distance of the crack surface on the detectable EME signals are the subjects of investigation. As EME sensor a capacitive sensor was used. Tests with an artificial test source are carried out to characterize the system response of the sensor, the attached amplifier and acquisition cards as well as the included bandpass filters. We propose an EME source based on the surface charge density modelled at the position of the fracture plane. Results of finite element method modelling of the EME source are compared to experimental results and show very good agreement. The experimental results show a clear directional character of the emitted electromagnetic field and a strong dependence of the detected signals amplitude on sourcesensor distance. A significant influence of the measurement chain on the detected electromagnetic signals bandwidth was found. Furthermore it is shown that the electromagnetic signals consist of three contributions originating from different source mechanisms. These are attributed to the separation and

Electromagnetic emission (EME) generated by fracture of carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) is studied. The fracture is induced to cross-ply CFRP by mechanical loading in a three-point bending configuration. An EME acquisition setup operating on the principle of capacitive coupling is used to measure the low frequency (kHz-MHz range) electric field whose generation is attributed to the charge redistribution accompanying the fracture processes. Multiple, differently oriented EME sensors, for the simultaneous EME measurement with different source-sensor orientations, were applied to account for the directionality of the EME sources and their generated electric fields. A method to deduce the crack orientation based on the emitted EME field's directionality is proposed. A comparison between the angles of the EME sources obtained by this method and the actual crack surface orientations as determined by computed tomography is made.

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Electromagnetic emission (EME) signals generated by tensile fracture of four different types of polymers and three different carbon fibre types are presented and discussed. A suitable set-up for the detection of the electric field component of EME generated by fracture of solids is proposed. Basic theoretical considerations are made about the coupling between these field components and the capacitive sensors used to directly measure the short ranged and low frequency (kHz-MHz) electric fields emitted by the generation of free surface charges and their spatial movement as dictated by the vibrational motion of the crack walls. Special focus is put on solids with low conductivity, where the influences of the material on the emitted fields is small and the detected electric signals almost solely depend on the source dynamics and the sensor characteristics. Analysis of the influence of the acquisition circuit is presented. The discussion of the electric signals emitted by tensile fracture of carbon fibres and polymer specimens comprises the influences of the material properties on the signals as well as correlations between the signals and the crack dynamics, including the crack propagation velocities.