Acoustic source localization technique is an important step for structural health monitoring (SHM).  Many techniques for acoustic source localization have been developed and implemented. With the wide application of heterogeneous materials, the structural health of heterogeneous structures becomes more and more important. Acoustic source localization (ASL) in three dimensional (3D) materials especially in heterogeneous materials is more challenging. More unknown parameters, excessive sensor arrays, limited properties of the 3D structure and complex nonlinear equations greatly hinder the application and development of 3D acoustic source localization. Besides, when the acoustic signal propagates through different media in a 3D heterogeneous structure, it is refracted at the interfaces following Snell's law which makes the ASL in heterogeneous structure more complicated.

In this paper, the basic theoretical research on the propagation of acoustic waves in 3D heterogeneous structure is carried out considering the refraction effect. A localization technique is firstly proposed based on the triangular pyramid sensor cluster using only the time difference of arriving (TDOA) and the location information of cluster. The wave field of the acoustic source in 3D heterogeneous structure is simulated. The new technique can predict the velocity and acoustic source localization with a small number of sensors. A 3D heterogeneous numerical model of two materials using finite element simulation is created to verify the acoustic source propagation and localization. The results show the practicability of the proposed technique.

The numerical model proves a faster and more effective theoretical method for the acoustic source localization technology. At the same time, the 3D acoustic source localization technology not only has important significance for the non-destructive detection of large-scale 3D structures and equipment, but also is indispensable for the spatial sound source localization problem.


Acoustic Wave Propagation and Source Localization in a 3d Heterogeneous Structure - a Numerical Study

No proceedings papers in 2020. Video only.

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