Abstract: In this paper, acoustic emission (AE) technology was used to study the mechanical properties and damage evolution process of steel fiber reinforced concrete- and wood-filled GFRP tubes with different steel fiber volume fractions (0, 1%, 1.5% and 2%) under axial compression. The results showed that the steel fiber with 1.5% volume content was the optimal content, which increased the ultimate bearing capacity of the specimen by 35.7% and the displacement ductility coefficient by 4.73%. According to the characteristics of acoustic emission ringing counts, the addition of steel fibers reduces the intensity of acoustic emission signals. When the peak frequency band of acoustic emission signals gradually transitions from low frequency range (0-100 kHz) to high frequency range (200-300 kHz), the damage form gradually changes from large-scale damage to small-scale damage. The results of RA-AF analysis showed that the incorporation of steel fiber increased the number of cracks and the range of crack propagation, reduced the width of macroscopic cracks and increased the proportion of shear cracks. The damage evolution model based on the cumulative number of acoustic emission events and stress has been established. The larger the parameter m value, the smaller the brittleness of the specimen, indicating that the model can reflect the damage evolution law of the specimen.