Acoustic Emission (AE)

The acoustic emission (AE) technique is particularly useful for monitoring of the localized microstructural changes in materials. The ultrasonic AE waves can be recorded with excellent temporal resolution from e.g. mechanically loaded materials (due to cracking, dislocation motion, twinning, or certain phase transformations) or as a result of different corrosion processes. The AE signal analysis, performed in the time or frequency domain, provides unique in-situ information about the involved processes from the entire sample volume.

Our team has a long-standing experience with AE analyses within the framework of numerous international collaborations as we belong to the few institutions utilizing this technique in materials science.

Our AE laboratory is equipped with portable computer-controlled AE systems supplied by Vallen Systeme GmbH, Physical Acoustic Corporation, and DAKEL-ZD Rpety companies. The devices can record AE data in the continuous data acquisition mode (with sampling rate up to 40 MHz), or in the threshold-based regime providing a comprehensive set of AE event parameters. We are capable of performing complex AE signal examination (including SFFT, wavelet, de-noising, clustering analyses, etc.) using the commercial software and self-developed scripts.

Contact: RNDr. Ing. Michal Knapek, Ph.D.