Abstract: Experimental studies on honeycomb sandwich composite compression damage process based on acoustic emission (AE) technique were carried out. By analyzing the load and acoustic emission signal correlation diagrams, on the basis of the damage process and acoustic emission characteristics, it was found that as load increases on the loading conditions, the composite material damage increases gradually. In the initial loading stage, only a few acoustic emission signals and kinds of AE characteristic parameters have some extent increase; in the middle of the loading, acoustic emission signals increase, and kinds of AE characteristic parameters also increase; in the later loading, acoustic signals have obvious paroxysmal increase, and kinds of AE characteristic parameters rapidly increase. It is also found that the acoustic emission characteristics such as amplitude, energy, hit, rise time, duration, count and other parameters in compression tests are useful for monitoring the damage development and failure of the specimen. The distribution of the signal which is filtered by the characteristic parameter of each stage conforms to the practical rupture position.