Optical-Fiber Sensors for the Detection of Acoustic Emission

Acoustic emission (AE) is used as a means to anticipate the mechanical failure of critical materials and structures by detecting the release of energy caused by material rearrangement at the microlevel. Optical-fiber sensors have potential advantages over conventional tuned piezoelectric transducers and signal-processing methods for the detection of such types of ultrasonic acoustic wave events. A number of fiber Bragg grating techniques are presented, which in particular offer the potential to provide the high-speed signal processing and ability to multiplex numbers of AE sensors necessary to detect, quantify, and locate AE sources and thereby determine material properties and damage.