Abstract
AE monitoring of damage process of rabbit patellar tendon under static tensile load was carried out. Considering strong viscoelasticity of tendon, load was applied at various loading rate (10, 1, 0.1 mm/min) until the complete rupture in physiological saline at 37℃. The displacement of the specimen was monitored by a digital video camera, and acquired images were used for determining the displacement distribution in tendon by the digital image correlation (DIC) technique. It was found that AE signals were detected before the maximum load and AE source locations corresponded to the locally elongated area, which indicates that fascicle failure takes place before the maximum load. The average failure stress increased as loading rate increased, and the differences in average failure stress were considered to be statistically significant. Consequently, the fundamental insights for the damage monitoring technique which are indispensable for the optimization of programs of sports training or rehabilitation are obtained.
