Analysis of the Repeatability of the Pencil Lead Break in Comparison to the Ball Impact and Electromagnetic Body-Noise Actuator

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Acoustic emission testing is used to monitor the structural health by recording and analyzing sound signals originating from within a structure. Usually, sensors are attached at key positions on a structure under test to record and analyze these acoustic signals. For reliable measurements, the coupling of these sensors has to be assessed. For this purpose, artificial sound sources are commonly used which induce signals in the form of elastic waves into a structure allowing to approximately assess the frequency response function of the sensor coupling. To assess the coupling of sensors reliably by means of an artificial sound source, it has to exhibit high repeatability, i.e. small relative standard deviation (RSTD) with respect to some characteristic of interest. In this work, the repeatability of the pencil lead break, ball impact and an electromagnetic body-noise actuator is assessed across several repetitions. Through controlled and repeated excitation of the respective artificial sound sources on a concrete girder, the RSTD of the magnitude spectra of the artificial sound sources across frequency is assessed in the frequency range of about 0 kHz to 650 kHz. The ball impact and the actuator exhibited a RSTD of below 5 % of their magnitude spectra for frequencies below about 20 kHz, the maximum frequency for the actuator, whereas for the pencil lead break a RSTD of above 11 % was observed across the entire frequency range. An increase of the RSTD with increasing frequency was observed for the ball impact and the pencil lead break. The repeatability of the pencil lead break, for which a RSTD between 15 % to 40 % was observed for a broad frequency range of its amplitude spectrum, usually achieved a lower relative standard deviation than the ball impacts with 4 mm and 5 mm balls above a frequency of about 60 kHz. A significant increase of the relative standard deviation for the 4 mm and 5 mm ball was observed starting at about 20 kHz. Above about 60 kHz, the relative standard deviation of the 5 mm ball impact had risen to 30 % and more oscillating between about 30 - 50 %. At 200 kHz and more all signals were attenuated to background noise level by the concrete girder. It is concluded, that the pencil lead break is inferior with respect to repeatability below 40 kHz compared to the 4 mm and 5 mm ball impact and electromagnetic body-noise actuator, but performs equally well or better above 60 kHz. The repeatability of the investigated artificial sound sources depends on the investigated frequency range with no unique best. The most important finding is the increasing relative standard deviation of the ball impact with increasing frequency. As a result, the repeatability of the ball impact is questionable and should be investigated before using it in high precision experiments.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages21
JournalThe e-journal of nondestructive testing & ultrasonics
Volume29
Issue number6
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

Conference

Title20th World Conference on Non-Destructive Testing
Abbreviated titleWCNDT 2024
Conference number20
Duration27 - 31 May 2024
Website
LocationSongdo Convensia
CityIncheon
CountryKorea, Republic of

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0001-8735-1345/work/142244503
Mendeley 080611dd-3871-32fb-95fb-584a4abd5561

Keywords