Investigation of Material Performance Degradation for High-Strength Aluminum Alloy Using Acoustic Emission Method

Yibo Ai,Hongbo Que,Weidong Zhang,Chang Sun

doi:10.3390/met5010228

Abstract

Structural materials damages are always in the form of micro-defects or cracks. Traditional or conventional methods such as micro and macro examination, tensile, bend, impact and hardness tests can be used to detect the micro damage or defects. However, these tests are destructive in nature and not in real-time, thus a non-destructive and real-time monitoring and characterization of the material damage is needed. This study is focused on the application of a non-destructive and real-time acoustic emission (AE) method to study material performance degradation of a high-strength aluminum alloy of high-speed train gearbox shell. By applying data relative analysis and interpretation of AE signals, the characteristic parameters of materials performance were achieved and the failure criteria of the characteristic parameters for the material tensile damage process were established. The results show that the AE method and signal analysis can be used to accomplish the non-destructive and real-time detection of the material performance degradation process of the high-strength aluminum alloy. This technique can be extended to other engineering materials.

Highlights

With the continuous increase in speed of high-speed train, the material widely used is high-aluminum alloy because of its lightweight and higher strength and good fatigue properties [1,2].The gearbox of high-speed train is one of the important parts of its drive system, and is of great importance for operation safety of high-speed train
Lugo et al [7] studied the damage evolution in a 7075 aluminum alloy by using acoustic emissions to quantify the evolution of damage, but their research is based on the destructive experiment
Behrens et al [8] presented an approach for online crack detection during cold forging of steel components using the acoustic emission technique, but the data was obtained by off-line laboratory experiments

Summary

Introduction

With the continuous increase in speed of high-speed train, the material widely used is high-aluminum alloy because of its lightweight and higher strength and good fatigue properties [1,2].The gearbox of high-speed train is one of the important parts of its drive system, and is of great importance for operation safety of high-speed train. With the continuous increase in speed of high-speed train, the material widely used is high-aluminum alloy because of its lightweight and higher strength and good fatigue properties [1,2]. As the operational safety is important for transportation purposes, a method of non-destructive and real-time detection for the material is urgently required. Traditional method for materials research is microscopic observation, but this method is always accompanied by destructive testing and not in real time. Lugo et al [7] studied the damage evolution in a 7075 aluminum alloy by using acoustic emissions to quantify the evolution of damage, but their research is based on the destructive experiment. The technical feasibility and relative analysis method of the AE method used for non-destructive testing should be further studied especially in real-time detection and characterization for materials

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion