Structural Integrity Monitoring System
Using Acoustic Wave (Acoustic Emission)

1 Introduction

1.1 Application Scenes:

Structural health monitoring (SHM) means by monitoring some essential parameter values to evaluate the structural integrity and health conditions and plan predictive maintenance to reduce downtime and maintenance costs. SHM can be applied on various structures, materials and equipment, such as bridges, wind turbines, tanks, pressure vessels, aerial work platforms, or any structural or material components. For example, cracks in metal and non-metallic structures such as bridges and dams, petrochemical tanks or pressure vessels, valves and pipelines, etc.

Acoustic wave (acoustic emission) technology has advantages of detecting the initial cracking and and monitoring the crack growing dynamically without stopping operations and shutdowns. Therefore, compared to other NDT technologies, acoustic emission technology is one of the time and cost effective methods for structural health and integrity monitoring.

1.2 Technical Principles:

The damage processes such as cracks, deformation and delamination in structural materials are often accompanied by sound waves (acoustic emission). The sound wave is acquired and analyzed, and the type, degree and location of damage can be determined by the acoustic wave (acoustic emission) system, and a health assessment can be made on the integrity of structural components.

2 Solution - RAEM1 remote Acoustic Wave (Acoustic Emission) monitoring system

System diagram

A variety of data output communication modes (Wi-Fi, 4G, Ethernet, RS485, etc.) can be configured according to user requirements to achieve regular scheduled detection, local long-term monitoring, and remote long-term monitoring and other application modes.

Note: The above systems have the functions in mobile app with Bluetooth communication for inspections and on-site debugging settings.

2.1 Features

3 Main Hardware and Software Introduction

RAEM1 remote Acoustic Wave (Acoustic Emission) monitoring system consists of:

Multiple RAEM1 can be composed of a multi-channel real-time monitoring system for a large structure.

3.1 Detailed System Options for SHM Applications