Error distribution and influencing factors of acoustic emission source location for sensor rectangular network

The arrangement of acoustic emission (AE) sensors would influence the location accuracy. This study focuses on two-dimensional source location using four sensors, which are placed at the four corners of a rectangle. To assess the influence of sensor arrangement, numerous simulation experiments were conducted with different aspect ratios of the rectangle. The results reveal that there is a highly accurate location area at the central region of the rectangle and four regions with pronounced location errors along the symmetry axis. This means that sensor arrangement should be strategic to make the interested monitoring area not at the above range. Additionally, as the aspect ratio increases, the location accuracy decreases. When the aspect ratio surpasses 7:1, the location results would be seriously distorted. Furthermore, the observed error distribution pattern is validated through pencil-lead breaking experiments and the corresponding explanation is provided to clarify these findings.