National Physical Laboratory has completed a collaborative project with Lloyd’s Register of Shipping and Airbus UK, to develop a method for the calibration of acoustic emission (AE) sensors. The application of the sensors is the detection and location of discrete micro-fracture events that accompany stable crack growth in metals, due to fatigue and stress corrosion.
The project showed that sensor calibration can be achieved using a well-characterised glass test block. A new laser interferometer of high sensitivity and excellent noise performance has been acquired and it has been shown that laser interferometry provides an effective method of making non-contact measurements of surface displacement for calibration purposes.
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