ABSTRACT
Brazilian tests on samples with a stress concentrator in the form of a circular hole, raised questions with regard to the material behaviour in the vicinity of the stress concentrator. To study the damage evolution and fracture initiation processes in function of the stress history, a number of experiments were carried out whereby the acoustic emission was recorded. After the discussion of the difficulties posed by the set up and the remedies taken, the attention is focussed on the data processing techniques. The test results appertaining to three samples are discussed next, whereby each sample represents a different kind of behaviour as far as fracturing pattern and acoustic behaviour is concerned. This allows to draw some conclusions regarding the micro cracking in the vicinity of the stress concentrators.
