Detection and modeling of acoustic emissions for fault diagnostics

The formation of microcracks in a material creates propagating ultrasonic waves that are called acoustic emissions (AEs). These AEs provide an early warning to the onset of material failure. In practical cases, however, these AEs have to be detected at very low SNRs, amongst strong interference and random noise. This paper presents some preliminary results from an ongoing investigation into the modeling and detection of AEs as a viable technique for predictive diagnostics.