Problems of Locating Acoustic Emission Sources

The accuracy of locating acoustic emission (AE) sources in the zones of stress raisers (central holes 5 mm in diameter) located a distance of 40 mm away from the receiving transducers has been assessed during rupture tests of flat specimens made of steel, an aluminum alloy, and a composite with overall dimensions of mm. The dependence of the calculated propagation velocity of AE pulses on their amplitude and partial energy of various modes of Lamb waves has been studied. With the threshold method of signal recording, the error in locating AE sources when the distance between an AE source and the receiving AE transducer (AE) m can exceed 10% of the base size ( ) of the location area. For AE pulses with an amplitude of dB, the error level can reach 20–30% of the base size of the antenna array with a decrease in distance m.