Acoustic Emissions (AE) has been successfully used with composite structures to both locate and give a measure of
damage accumulation. The current experimental study uses AE to monitor large-scale composite modular bridge
components. The components consist of a carbon/epoxy beam structure as well as a composite to metallic bonded/bolted
joint. The bonded joints consist of double lap aluminum splice plates bonded and bolted to carbon/epoxy laminates
representing the tension rail of a beam. The AE system is used to monitor the bridge component during failure loading to
assess the failure progression and using time of arrival to give insight into the origins of the failures. Also, a feature in
the AE data called Cumulative Acoustic Emission counts (CAE) is used to give an estimate of the severity and rate of
damage accumulation. For the bolted/bonded joints, the AE data is used to interpret the source and location of damage
that induced failure in the joint. These results are used to investigate the use of bolts in conjunction with the bonded
joint. A description of each of the components (beam and joint) is given with AE results. A summary of lessons learned
for AE testing of large composite structures as well as insight into failure progression and location is presented.
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