An Experimental Study on Optimal Placement of AE Sensor for Localisation of AE Source in Steel Truss Bridge

Sudden loss of serviceability of structures has been documented all over the world. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has a great role in the structural engineer investigating the health of the structure. Non-destructive Technique (NDT) is a fruitful technique for the structure which should survive for a long time to maintain good health. Several NDT are available to engineers; the Acoustic Emission (AE) technique is one of them, which is sanctioned for health monitoring of the structures in real-time. Operation of the AE technique for structural health is maintained by inspecting the wave response of a given structure in real time. Measurement of such a type of response will take place after putting the AE sensors at various locations of the given structure. Since AE sensors are very costly devices, it is most important to find out the suitable sensitive location in the structure, such that a minimum no of sensors can be placed for monitoring the whole structure. In this study, an effort is made to investigate the optimal location of sensors in prototype steel bridges in the laboratory. The signal of damage is simulated with Pencil Lead Break (PLB) technique (Hsu-Nielsen Source). In this study, localization of damage means localization of AE signal/source. Through exhaustive experiments, the optimal location of the sensor is identified by analyzing the data. In data analysis, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model has been used for better comparison, and optimal placement of a single sensor is obtained. Finally, this methodology may show the right way to obtain the optimal placement of AE sensors in a real-life steel truss bridge for the future.