Deformation, acoustic emission and ultrasound velocity during fatigue tests on paper

We study the evolution of mechanical properties of paper samples during cyclic experiments. The issue is to look at the sample-to-sample variation, and we try to predict the number of loading cycles to failure. We used two concurrent methods to obtain the deformation: the strain was calculated from vertical displacement measured by laser interferometer sensor, as well as, computed by digital image correlation technique from pictures taken each 2s by a camera. Acoustic emission of fracture was also recorded, and an active ultrasonic wave method using piezoelectric transducers is used to follow the viscoelastic behaviour of each sample. We found that a sharp final increase of different variables like deformation, strain rate and fluctuations, are signs of an imminent rupture of the paper. Moreover looking at the evolution of these quantities during the first cycle only is already an indicator about the lifetime of the sample.