Development of a fiber-optic AE sensor for on-line monitoring system

The objective of this paper is to develop a fiber-optic acoustic emission(AE) sensor applicable to on-line monitoring systems which is suitable for long-distance signal transmission. An AE sensor was developed by use of a fiber-optic cantilever and an extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer(EFPI). The efficiency of signal processing was improved by driving the high frequency AE signals into the low frequency ones. In order to verify the developed sensor, the tensile and the pencil lead fracture(PLF) tests were performed including the experiment showing the Kaiser effect. From tests, AE signals were successfully detected in the elastic-plastic deformation range, especially higher signals at the crack propagation. The developed sensor is expected to be used for an on-line monitoring of crack propagation in mechanical systems.