DISTRIBUTED MODE SYSTEM FOR REAL TIME ACOUSTIC EMISSION MONITORING
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Abstract
A distributed real time health monitoring system is described for monitoring of acoustic emission signals from different regions of a structure such as aircraft or spacecraft structures. The health monitoring system has its analysis and prognosis intelligence distributed out to the local regions being monitored and therefore does not require extensive cabling systems to carry the high bandwidth information characteristic of acoustic emission.
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29. A method for the continued real time health monitoring of a structure using acoustic emission analysis comprising the steps of:
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a. fixedly mounting at least one acoustic emission transducer in a region of said structure to be monitored;
b. distributing, in that same said region, a distributed health monitoring system containing all necessary hardware and software for complete analysis of the raw acoustic emission signals from said at least one transducer;
c. amplifying the voltage signals received from said at least one acoustic emission transducer to produce an amplified signal;
d. filtering said amplified signal to eliminate unwanted frequencies to produce a filtered signal;
e. acquiring, during a pre-determined time period, said filtered signal to identify and record acoustic emission events;
f. diagnosing, from said recorded acoustic emission events for said pre-determined time period, the overall health assessment of said region of said structure;
wherein said diagnosing step further comprises the steps of;
i. calculating in a first calculation, the number of acoustic emission events above a threshold decibel level;
ii. calculating, in a second calculation, a historical index for said acoustic emission events;
iii. calculating, in a third calculation, a cumulative energy for said acoustic emission events;
iv. calculating, in a fourth calculation, a severity of said acoustic emission events;
v. calculating, in a fifth calculation, a measure of relative damage by comparing said historical index and said severity to pre-determined and pre-recorded experimental acoustic emission research data; and
vi. calculating, as a numerical rating, an overall health assessment of said region of said structure for said pre-determined time period, using the results of said first, second, third, and fifth calculations - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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Specification