Thermal spray coating is formed by a process in which melted particles flying with high speed towards substrate, then crash and spread on the substrate surface cooled and solidified in a very short time, Stacking of the particles makes coating. In this study, the exfoliation of $Al_2$O$_3$ and Ni-4.5wt.%Al thermally sprayed coating which were deposited by an atmospheric plasma spray apparatus are investigated using an AE method. A tensile test is conducted on notch specimens in a stress range below the elastic limit of substrate. The wave forms of AE generated from the three coating specimens can be classified by FFT analysis into two types which low frequency(type I waveform is considered to corresponds exfoliation of coating layers and type II waveform corresponds the plastic deformation of notch tip or the resultant fracture of coating. The fracture of the coating layers can estimate by AE event and amplitude, because AE features increase when the deformation generates.