摘要 |
<p>An apparatus for measuring acoustic emission is activated only at critical periods which are determined by detection of the background noise from a reference level. An acoustic emission transducer continuously transmits a signal to a detection circuit which delivers the top modulation envelope of the background noise to a comparator at a reference level delivered by a control unit. When a mean level of the background noise does not exceed a threshold reference level the AE is sampled at a low rate, f. When the background noise exceeds the threshold reference level the data sampling unit is activated to sample AE at a much higher rate F. Therefore AE is sampled at a high rate only when the pump or other machine under test is running and at a low rate when the article under test is not operating. The AE testing device also includes a frequency spectrum correlator which allows background noise to activate the increased sampling rate only if the noise is in a given frequency range.</p> |