Integrated Instrumentation System for Acoustic Emission Sensing using Low Cost PZT Patch  (In-AESense)

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This technology has many applications in different fields, i.e., damage detection in civil structures, crack initiation and propagation in metal structures, real time health monitoring of bridge structures, corrosion monitoring, leakage detection in pipelines, leakage detection in fuel tanks and containment/nuclear structures etc.

• Commercially available AE sensors are costly, hence, technology has been developed to replace AE sensors with low cost PZT patch sensors with amplified signals using pre -amplifiers.
• Early level of initiation of damage/leakage can be detected and localized using acoustic emission technique.
• By using this technique, continuous real time monitoring of in-service structures/pipeline can be performed using AE measurements so that any catastrophic events of leakage/defects can be avoided by getting the early warning.
• Through this invention, it has been found that high cost AE sensors can be replaced with low cost PZT patch sensors, with proper instrumentation.