Acoustic Emission for Sustainable Polymer Composites: Methods, Data, and Multimodal Monitoring
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Composites and Nanocomposites".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: acoustic emission (AE); polymer composites; biocomposites; damage mechanisms; multimodal sensing; machine learning; sustainable materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Acoustic emission (AE) is a powerful non-destructive technique for detecting and classifying damage processes in polymeric materials and biocomposites. This Special Issue seeks contributions that move beyond isolated case studies to address three interlinked priorities: (1) Robust AE methodology and data practices, including benchmark tests, metadata standards, and open datasets. (2) Multimodal and embedded sensing approaches that combine AE with digital image correlation, thermography, embedded piezoelectric/film sensors, or other methods to improve damage localization and attribution. (3) Advanced data analytics, from unsupervised clustering to explainable machine learning, which translate AE waveforms into mechanistic descriptions within the composite with uncertainty quantification. Papers highlighting sustainability considerations and the unique AE fingerprints of natural fiber composites are particularly welcome, as are studies demonstrating transfer from lab tests to in-service monitoring. Emphasis is also placed on comparative studies that bridge synthetic and bio-based composites, comprehensive waveform databases enabling reproducible research, and integrative frameworks that couple AE with finite-element or micromechanical modeling. Through these efforts, this Special Issue aims to advance AE from a diagnostic tool toward a predictive and design-guiding methodology for next-generation sustainable materials.
Dr. Tomaz Kek
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- acoustic emission (AE)
- polymer composites
- biocomposites
- damage mechanisms
- multimodal sensing
- machine learning
- non-destructive evaluation (NDE)
- sustainable materials
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