Material fatigue behavior characterization using the wavelet-based AE technique - a case study of acrylic bone cement

In this paper, a wavelet-based acoustic emission (WBAE) technique was devel oped to characterize material fatigue behavior and compared to the results of the classical fracture mechanics approach. To demonstrate the proposed m ethod, acrylic bone cement which is sensitive to hand mixing and vacuum mix ing (VM) methods was selected as an example. The results obtained by the pr oposed method showed that the VM specimen significantly affected the crack propagation rate but this was not the case when the classical fracture mech anics approach was considered. The proposed method, therefore, showed the a dvantages of applying discrete wavelet transform in AE signals to identify and eliminate the noises from AE signals and to provide a multi-re solution analysis. It can be concluded that the WBAE technique is an effective tool to study material fatigue behavior. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rig hts reserved.