Acoustic Emission Sources Localization in Plates Based on Modified S-Transform and an Extended Kalman Filter

This paper presents a new approach of Acoustic emission (AE) sources localization in a plate-like structure using a modified S-transform (MST) and an Extended Kalman filter (EKF). The proposed approach consists of two main stages. In the first stage, the arrival time measurements of Lamb waves are carried out by a MST. The MST has excellent time-frequency resolution characteristics. The EKF, on the other hand, solves a set of nonlinear equations to iteratively estimate the impact location (AE) coordinates and the wave velocity. Thus, by combining both the MST and EKF, the drawbacks of a triangulation method were overcome. The performance of the proposed approach is validated through pencil-lead breaks performed on an aluminum plate. The experimental validation of the proposed technique reveal significant accuracy in the AE events localization.