Investigation of Damage-Induced Ultrasound Signals Emitted by Fatigue Cracks in Steel Marine Structures
Cecilia Saccone (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
Lotfollah Pahlavan (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
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Abstract
In this paper, an investigation of the characterization of fatigue damage-induced signals by means of Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring is presented. The objective is to establish a correlation between AE signals and fatigue crack growth data. To achieve this, small-scale fatigue experiments have been performed. The test consists of cyclic loading of standardized compact test (CT) specimens at room temperature. Damage-induced ultrasound signals were continuously measured using four AE transducers. The results suggest that AE signals emitted by fatigue crack growth from the initiation moment can be detected with a satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio. A multi-parameter analysis including amplitude, counts and hit rate of AE data in correlation with crack growth data was performed. Three stages of fatigue crack growth were identified, offering a basis for further damage characterisation using AE monitoring.