A Nontraditional AE Source Location Algorithm Applicable to Complex Materials and Structures

초록

For the practically useful application of two-dimensional AE source location, especially in the materials with anisotropy and the structures in complicated shape, a new algorithm has been developed and verified by several experimental results. In this new approach, we have divided the region-of-interest into a set of finite elements, taken each element as a virtual source, and calculated the arrival time differences between sensors by using the measured velocity at the corresponding direction. The actual velocities at every degree from 0º to 90º were measured in advance at the actual structure. The experimentally measured value of the arrival time difference was then compared with the calculated one for every element to minimize the location error. The results of experimental verification confirmed that the problem of source location errors due both to materials anisotropy and to structures geometry could be completely solved. The accuracy of source location could be significantly improved within the practical limit of measurement error. The proposed method can be easily implemented into the existing systems of AE signals processing unit.