Acoustic emission location on aluminum alloy structure by using FBG sensors and PSO method

Abstract

Acoustic emission location is important for finding the structural crack and ensuring the structural safety. In this paper, an acoustic emission location method by using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm were investigated. Four FBG sensors were used to form a sensing network to detect the acoustic emission signals. According to the signals, the quadrilateral array location equations were established. By analyzing the acoustic emission signal propagation characteristics, the solution of location equations was converted to an optimization problem. Thus, acoustic emission location can be achieved by using an improved PSO algorithm, which was realized by using the information fusion of multiple standards PSO, to solve the optimization problem. Finally, acoustic emission location system was established and verified on an aluminum alloy plate. The experimental results showed that the average location error was 0.010 m. This paper provided a reliable method for aluminum alloy structural acoustic emission location.

Keywords:

• fiber Bragg grating
• acoustic emission location
• optimization problem
• improved particle swarm optimization

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 61174018] and Fundamental Research Grant of Shandong University, China [grant number 2014YQ009].