Guided Wave Propagation Modelling to Aid Understanding of Acoustic Emission System Performance on Complex Aerospace Structures

The design of acoustic emission structural health monitoring systems often only considers the plate properties of a structure and not the features present. Here a practical modelling approach is demonstrated to aid the understanding of how wave propagation within a structure affects the performance of an acoustic emission system. Empirical models of a row of 5mm holes and a bolted L-section, a common feature in aerospace structures, are found from experimental results and incorporated in the system model. The model is used to assess which transducers acoustic emission events at different positions will trigger and how the position of transducers and the number of transducers used will affect event location error. This demonstrates potential uses of the modelling.