Development Of Acoustic Emission Training Technique And Localization Method Using Q-Switched Laser And Multiple Sensors/Single Channel Acquisition

Various structural health monitoring (SHM) systems have been suggested for aerospace industry in order to increase its life-cycle and economic efficiency. In the case of aircraft structure madden with metal, a major concern was hot spots, such as notches, bolts holes, and where corrosion or stress concentration occurs due to moisture or salinity. However, with the increasing use of composites in the aerospace industry, further advanced SHM systems have been being required to be applied to composite structures, which have much complex damage mechanism. In this paper, a method of acoustic emission localization for composite structures using Q-switched laser and multiple Amplifier-integrated PZTs have been proposed. The presented technique aims at localization of the AE with an error in distance of less than 10 mm. Acoustic emission simulation and the localization attempt were conducted in the composite structure to validate the suggested method. Localization results, which are coordinates of detected regions, grid plots and color intensity map have been presented together to show reliability of the method.