Analytical modelling of acoustic emission from buried or surface-breaking cracks under stress

Abstract

Acoustic emission (AE) is a non-destructive testing method used in various industries (aerospace, petrochemical and pressure-vessel industries in general, power generation, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, etc⋯) for the examination of large structures subjected to various stresses (e.g. mechanical loading).The energy released by a defect under stress (the AE phenomenon) can propagate as guided waves in thin structures or as surface Rayleigh waves in thick ones. Sensors (possibly permanently) are positioned at various locations on the structure under examination and are assumed to be sensitive to these waves. Then, post-processing tools typically based on signal processing and triangulation algorithms can be used to inverse these data, allowing one to estimate the position of the defect from which emanates the waves measured. The French Atomic Energy Commission is engaged in the development of tools for simulating AE examinations. These tools are based on specific models for the AE sources, for the propagation of guided or Rayleigh waves and for the behaviour of AE sensors. Here, the coupling of a fracture mechanics based model for AE source and surface/guided wave propagation models is achieved through an integral formulation relying on the elastodynamic reciprocity principle. As a first approximation, a simple piston-like model is used to predict the sensitivity of AE sensors. Predictions computed by our simulation tool are compared to results from the literature for validation purpose.