Elastic-plastic fracture toughness JIC can be used a s an effective design criterion in elastic-plastic fracture mechanics. Among the JIC test methods approved by ASTM, unloading compliance method was used in this study. In order to examine the relationship between fracture behavior of JIC test and AE signals, the post processing of AE signals has been carried out by Short Time Fourier Transform(STFT), one of the time-frequency analysis methods. The objective of this study is to evaluate the application of characterization of AE signals for unloading compliance method of JIC test. As a result of time-frequency analysis, we could extract the AE from the raw signal and analyze the frequencies in AE signal at the same time. AE signal generated by elastic-plastic fracture of material has some different aspects at elastic and plastic ranges, or the first portion of crack growth by fracture. First of all, increased energy recorded and detected by using AE count method increase rapidly from the start of ductile fracture. The variation of main frequency range with time-frequency analysis method could be confirmed. We could know fracture behavior of interior material by examination AE characteristics generated in real-time when elastic-plastic fracture occurred in material under loading.