Understanding Acoustic Emission Testing- Reading 1 Part B-A

AET Advantages
AE testing is a powerful aid to materials testing and the study of deformation,
fatigue crack growth, fracture, oxidation and corrosion. It gives an immediate
indication of the response and behaviour of a material under stress, intimately
connected with strength, damage and failure. A major advantage of AE
testing is that it does not require access to the whole examination area. In
large structures / vessels permanent sensors can be mounted for periodic
inspection for leak detection and structural integrity monitoring.
Typical advantages of AE technique include:
1. high sensitivity,
2. early and rapid detection of defects, leaks, cracks etc.,
3. on-line monitoring,
4. location of defective regions,
5. minimization of plant downtime for inspection,
6. no need for scanning the whole structural surface and
7. minor disturbance of insulation.
Charlie Chong/ Fion Zhang
http://www.geocities.ws/raobpc/AET.html