Impact Source Location On Composite Cng Storage Tank Using Acoustic Emission Energy Based Signal Mapping Method

Acoustic emission (AE) is one of the most powerful techniques for detecting damages and identify damage location during operations. However, in case of the source location technique, there is some limitation in conventional AE technology, because it strongly depends on wave speed in the corresponding structures having heterogeneous composite materials. A compressed natural gas(CNG) pressure vessel is usually made of carbon fiber composite outside of vessel for the purpose of strengthening. In this type of composite material, locating impact damage sources exactly using conventional time arrival method is difficult. To overcome this limitation, this study applied the previously developed Contour D/B map technique to four types of CNG storage tanks to identify the source location of damages caused by external shock. The results of the identification of the source location for different types were compared.