Understanding Acoustic Emission Testing- Reading 1 Part B-A

8.0 AE Source Location Techniques
Multi-Channel Source Location Techniques:
Locating the source of significant acoustic emissions is often the main goal of
an inspection. Although the magnitude of the damage may be unknown after
AE analysis, follow up testing at source locations can provide these answers.
As previously mentioned, many AE systems are capable of using multiple
sensors/channels during testing, allowing them to record a hit from a single
AE event. These AE systems can be used to determine the location of an
event source. As hits are recorded by each sensor/channel, the source can
be located by knowing the velocity of the wave in the material and the
difference in hit arrival times among the sensors, as measured by hardware
circuitry or computer software. By properly spacing the sensors in this manner,
it is possible to inspect an entire structure with relatively few sensors.
Charlie Chong/ Fion Zhang