This paper compares six different filtering protocols used in Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring of fatigue crack growth. The filtering protocols are combination of three different filtering techniques which are based on Swansong-like filters and load filters. The filters are compared deterministically and probabilistically. The deterministic comparison is based on the coefficient of determination of the resulting AE data, while the probabilistic comparison is based on the quantification of the uncertainty of the different filtering protocols. The uncertainty of the filtering protocols is quantified by calculating the entropy of the probability distribution of some AE and fracture mechanics parameters for the given filtering protocol. The methodology is useful in cases where several filtering protocols are available and there is no reason to choose one over the others. Acoustic Emission data from a compact tension specimen tested under cyclic load is used for the comparison.

Date Published: 27 March 2012
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 8341, Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2012, 83410L (27 March 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.915415

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8341:
Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2012
Henry A. Sodano, Editor(s)