Location method of acoustic emission source in non-uniform temperature field

In view of the location accuracy decrease of time division of arriving (TDOA) method in non-uniform temperature field, the location performance of acoustic emission beam-forming was studied. Firstly, the propagation characteristics of acoustic emission signals were obtained by using plate wave theory, and the main factors affecting the accuracy like dispersion phenomenon are analyzed on the basis of the results. Then, the location performance of acoustic emission beam-forming based on uniform linear array wss explored by numerical simulation, and show that the positioning accuracy on sensors array direction is stable in certain speed range. The artificial acoustic emission sources which were created by breaking a mechanical pencil lead on the plate surface before and after heating were implemented to verify the simulation. The results were analyzed and show that the acoustic emission beam-forming method has high location accuracy in non-uniform temperature field and good prospect of application for positioning stator-rotor rub of aero-engine in which stator has uneven temperature.