Compressed Air Leak Detection Using Microphone Array Techniques

Abstract

Compressed air leakage is a well known issue and means loss of the expensive industrial utility. The energy loss is embedded in a product and thus any compressed air leakage reduction directly affects LCA. The traditional method for leak detection such as ultrasonic hand held leak detector is limited in application to very short distances. In this paper, the concept of a microphone array operating in the audible frequency range is used to localize compressed air leaks. Both advanced time and frequency domain beamforming methods have been demonstrated on a laboratory experimental rig with several open blows representing leakage. The preliminary results have shown the applicability of the concept and suggest that microphone array approach has potential to be a robust leak identification tool.