Distributed multichannel acoustic-emission system equipped with microprocessors for strength testing of long objects

The paper analyzes the structure of a distributed multichannel microprocessor acoustic-emission (AE) facility for diagnosing metallic tested objects of large lengths. Each unit of the distributed AE facility is housed in a small case and equipped with a built-in simulator of an AE signal, which enables one to tune up in the automatic mode acoustic emission transducers and measure the propagation velocity of acoustic signals. The measuring channels are connected to a computer using the Ethernet technique. The paper describes a technique for estimating remaining service lives taking as examples samples of aircraft materials and compares calculations to experimental data.