Establishment of Absolute Measurement Standards for In-Situ Calibration of Acoustic Emission Energy

Abstract

To date acoustic emission (AE) monitoring has been undertaken without proper means of calibration and the actual AE measurement results are significantly affected by the experimental layout. As the use of AE monitoring increases, the need for more meaningful measurement to reflect the AE physical process becomes urgent and necessary, and this ultimately requires an absolute calibration for AE measurement systems in-situ. This paper outlines a possible hierarchy of measurement standards for AE energy calibration using artificial standard AE energy sources generated by the elastic impact of a bouncing-ball, the thermoelastic irradiation of a pulsed-laser, and the excitation of a conical piezoelectric transducer. The basic idea is to provide absolute standard AE energy sources for calibration of AE measurement systems in-situ.