Fiber-reinforced polymers exhibit a series of complex, microscopic damage mechanisms, e.g. matrix cracking, fiber-matrix debonding or fiber breakage, when being loaded. In order to be able to model their behavior, the understanding of damage evolution is of high interest. The method of acoustic emission (AE) allows the detection of damage initiation and growth. Each formation of new microscopic damage results in the generation of an elastic wave. This excited wave propagates through the material until it reaches a sensor, where it is converted into a transient AE signal, that can be analysed to gain information about the underlying damage mechanisms.