Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Acoustic Emission Source Localization Using an Enhanced Guided Wave...

Area of Science:

• Mechanical Engineering
• Materials Science
• Non-Destructive Testing

Background:

• Acoustic emission (AE) inspection is vital for detecting damage in mechanical structures.
• Classical AE methods with sparse sensors struggle with localization accuracy in complex structures due to reliance on pre-defined wave velocities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance AE source localization accuracy in aluminum thin plates using a passive guided wave phased array method.
• To develop a method that does not require prior knowledge of wave velocity for accurate damage detection.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a cross-shaped phased array enhanced with four additional far-end sensors for AE source localization.
• Implemented a two-step approach: real-time velocity and polar angle calculation via phased array, followed by source location determination using far-end sensors.
• Validated the method through numerical simulations and physical experiments on aluminum flat panels and stiffened thin-walled structures.

Main Results:

• The proposed cross-shaped guided wave phased array method with enhanced sensors accurately localized AE sources without prior wave velocity information.
• Achieved high localization accuracy on both simple aluminum plates and complex stiffened thin-walled structures.
• Investigated the impact of phased array element count and time window length on localization performance.

Conclusions:

• The passive guided wave phased array method offers superior AE source localization accuracy compared to traditional sparse array techniques.
• The method is robust and applicable to complicated mechanical structures, improving damage detection capabilities.
• Further analysis provides insights into optimizing the phased array configuration for specific applications.