Abstract <p>The structural health monitoring of pipe network using acoustic emission (AE) technique requires thorough understanding of the wave propagation and which factors impact it. This study examines the influence of seam weldments on acoustic emission (AE) wave behavior in low-carbon steel pipes and source location. Two AE sensors were mounted 179° apart on the pipe section, then Hsu–Nielsen (H–N) tests were conducted to simulate artificial AE sources. The results showed that AE waves propagate in manner of Lamb-like waves and attenuate significantly at the seam weld region due to microstructural changes, acoustic impedance mismatches, and higher damping capacity. Further, to explore the impact of seam weld on the angular localization of AE sources, a difference in time of arrival (DTOA) approach is proposed with Akaike information criterion (AIC) and H–N tests were performed on five diverse angular locations. The highest deviation is found to be (±5.89°). The angular deviations were impacted by the seam weld zone indicating that the weld significantly alters wave propagation characteristics. These effects are attributed to scattering, mode conversion, and local attenuation at the weld seam, which distort the arrival times used in location calculations. Therefore, the results reveal the impact of seam weldment on the AE wave propagation and source location which can be considered while designing structural health monitoring strategies for pipeline networks.</p>