Due to the unique properties of polymer composites, these materials are used in many industries, including shipbuilding (hulls of boats, yachts, motorboats, cutters, ship and cooling doors, pontoons and floats, torpedo tubes and missiles, protective shields, antenna masts, radar shields, and antennas, etc.). Modern measurement methods and tools allow to determine the properties of the composite material, already during its design. The article presents the use of the method of acoustic emission and Kolmogorov-Sinai (K-S) metric entropy to determine the mechanical properties of composites. The tested materials were polyester-glass laminate without additives and with a 10% content of polyester-glass waste. The changes taking place in the composite material during loading were visualized using a piezoelectric sensor used in the acoustic emission method. Thanks to the analysis of the RMS parameter (root mean square of the acoustic emission signal), it is possible to determine the range of stresses at which significant changes occur in the material in terms of its use as a construction material. In the K-S entropy method, an important measuring tool is the extensometer, namely the displacement sensor built into it. The results obtained during the static tensile test with the use of an extensometer allow them to be used to calculate the K-S metric entropy. Many materials, including composite materials, do not have a yield point. In principle, there are no methods for determining the transition of a material from elastic to plastic phase. The authors showed that, with the use of a modern testing machine and very high-quality instrumentation to record measurement data using the Kolmogorov-Sinai (K-S) metric entropy method and the acoustic emission (AE) method, it is possible to determine the material transition from elastic to plastic phase. Determining the yield strength of composite materials is extremely important information when designing a structure.

In this paper the results of mechanical studies of the Aropol 536 composite on the epoxy-resin base are described. The aim of the studies was to measure elastic-plastic changes in the composite during its deformation. The obtained results were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Sinai metric entropy. The entropy was computed applying phase portraits reconstructed from a phase plane using delayed coordinates. Resolution of the particular experimental setup limits the number of the acquired data points, i.e., from several to tens of thousands of points and it has significant influence on accuracy of the obtained results. In conclusion, in the tested composites elastic-plastic deformations are periodic and repeat in a distinctive way in a wide range of deformations of the sample. Deformation of the elastic-plastic composite are associated with its complex structure and studies of its mechanical properties require more advanced methods such as use of Kolmogorov-Sinai metric entropy.

This study analyzes the possibility of applying the acoustic emission method (AE) and the Kolmogorov-Sinai (K-S) metric entropy phenomenon in determining the structural changes that take place within the EN AW 7020 aluminum alloy. The experimental part comprised of a static tensile test carried out on aluminum alloy samples, and the simultaneous recording of the acoustic signal generated inside the material. This signal was further processed and diagrams of the effective electrical signal value (RMS) as a function of time were drawn up. The diagrams obtained were applied on tensile curves. A record of measurements carried out was used to analyze the properties of the material, applying a method based on Kolmogorov-Sinai (K-S) metric entropy. For this purpose, a diagram of metric entropy as a function of time was developed for each sample and applied on the corresponding course of stretching. The results of studies applying the AE and the K-S metric entropy method show that K-S metric entropy can be used as a method to determine the yield point of the material where there are no pronounced yield points.

Composite materials have nowadays become a group of construction materials whose application in mechanical structure designing has been constantly increasing. There is therefore a real demand for an objective opinion on the mechanical properties of composites. According to the authors, determining those properties based on the recommended methods included in current standards requires objectivization. The difficulty is that those methods are usually based on the geometrical shape of stress curves in the strain function. The study proposes an new method of testing the mechanical properties of composites through analyzing the internal dynamics of measurement data based on uniaxial stretching tests. A tool in such an analysis is determining the Kolmogorov-Sinai metric entropy values of measurement data. Nine samples of composite materials having various compositions have been tested. In selecting these materials, the focus has been on the possibility of introducing composite recyclates as their structural components.