Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate acoustic emission (AE)characteristic of ultra high molecular weight polycthylene/low density polyethylene (PE-UHMW/PE-LD) laminates during tensile damage process by means of correlation analysis and principal componentanalysis. The result of experi-
mcnt reveals strong correlation between AE parameters. For example, the correlation coefficient betwecn duration time and counts of [0] is 0.976，while that between amplitude and counts of[90] is 0 .8.According to principal component analysis, the first principal components of [0] and[90] reflect
the character of time domain，such as rise time and duration time, and the second principal components of them reflect the character of frequency domain，such as peak frequency and frequency centriod. The principal component score of[90] shows different damage modes, such as the onset of interface crack- ing, the growth of interface cracking and the fracture of interface, each possessing different scores.

Key words: composite, damage, acoustic emission, parameter analysis, correlation analysis, principalcomponent analysis