Improved or Green Wave-Guide Methods in the Acoustic Emission Inspection of High / Low-Temperature or Complicated Vessels

Abstract

Acoustic emission (AE) sensors are used to detect acoustic signals from serious and active defects of vessels inspected. Ordinary AE sensors generally can not be directly coupled on walls of high/low-temperature or complicated vessels because of the limitations of their temperatures or configurations. In this paper, several practical and improved wave-guide rods are designed so as to test these special vessels using ordinary AE sensors, and more importantly, some “green” wave-guide methods are put forward for the same purpose. As a successful practice, this paper introduces the AE on-line testing of a cryogenic bi-layer storage tank by means of a special wave-guide method. A lot of field testing practice shows that those recommended wave-guide methods are economical, simple and practical, and that they meet the needs of AE testing of most high/low-temperature or complicated vessels using ordinary sensors.