Sensor Network Optimization Using Localization Error Measurements for Acoustic Emission Source Location of Plates

Abstract

Sensor networks greatly influence the accuracy of acoustic emission source localization. We conducted a numerical simulation and a pencil-lead break experiment on a 600mm×600mm plate to investigate the most effective six-sensor network. We determine the effective monitoring range for each sensor network by calculating the number of effective location results. Both simulation and experiment results reveal that the localization method performs poorly when sources are located on corner regions outside the sensor network. Comparing the effective monitoring ranges of different sensor networks, we found that the optimal sensor network consists of four sensors located at the outer corners and two sensors at the horizontal or vertical inner corners. The optimal sensor network improves the location accuracy of sources on corner regions outside the sensor network, thereby increasing the effective monitoring range of the sensor network.

Keywords: sensor networks, effective location results, Effective monitoring range, velocity-free localization