A novel defect localization method based on time reversal focusing method and Akaike information criterion with AE technique

Pressure vessels play an important role in many fields such as critical assets evaluation in manufacturing, transportation and aerospace. In order to reduce the potential hazard caused by defects in vessels during operation, a fast and convenient defect localization method is needed. On the basis of acoustic emission (AE) technique, this paper proposed a novel defect localization method based on time reversal focusing method (TRFM) and Akaike information criterion (AIC). Compared with the time difference of arrival (TDOA) method, the time reversal focusing technology was proved to be superior in eliminating the pseudo defect locations and obtaining higher accuracy. Furthermore, the results were improved with a post-processing feature of the normalized AIC (NAIC), which is sensitive to the defect signal arrival and can be used to remove the artefacts. The localization experiments on a steel tank were implemented to testify the localized performance of the compared methods. Experimental tests clearly demonstrate that, the localization performance of time reversal focusing method is generally better than that of the TDOA method, in terms of localization accuracy and stability. In addition, the NAIC further helps to enhance the focusing effect of TRFM images on the defect signals and suppress the residual artefacts.