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Acoustic Emission for Diesel Engine Monitoring: A Review and Preliminary Analysis

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Engineering Asset Management and Infrastructure Sustainability

Abstract

Vibration analysis has been a prime tool in condition monitoring of rotating machines, however, its application to internal combustion engines remains a challenge because engine vibration signatures are highly non-stationary that are not suitable for popular spectrum-based analysis. Signal-to-noise ratio is a main concern in engine signature analysis due to the severe background noise being generated by consecutive mechanical events, such as combustion, valve opening and closing, especially in multi-cylinder engines. Acoustic Emission (AE) has been found to give excellent signal-to-noise ratio allowing discrimination of fine detail of normal or abnormal events during a given cycle. AE has been used to detect faults, such as exhaust valve leakage, fuel injection behaviour, and aspects of the combustion process. This paper presents a review of AE application to diesel engine monitoring and preliminary investigation of AE signature measured on an 18-cylinder diesel engine. AE is compared with vibration acceleration for varying operating conditions: load and speed. Frequency characteristics of AE from those events are analysed in time–frequency domain via short time Fourier transform. The result shows a great potential of AE analysis for detection of various defects in diesel engines.

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Acknowledgments

The work is supported through a grant from the CRC for Integrated Engineering Asset Management (CIEAM).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CRC for Integrated Engineering Asset Management, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George St, Brisbane, QLD, 4001, Australia

    Eric Y. Kim & Andy C. C. Tan

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Pukyong National University, San 100, Yongdang-dong, Nam-gu, Busan, 608-739, South Korea

    Bo-Suk Yang

Authors
  1. Eric Y. Kim
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  2. Andy C. C. Tan
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  3. Bo-Suk Yang
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland University of Technology, Bardolph Place 10, Sunnybank Hills, 4109, Australia

    Joseph Mathew

  2. , Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Lin Ma

  3. Queensland University of Technology, Arrabri Av 192, Mt Ommaney, 4074, Australia

    Andy Tan

  4. Delft University of Technology, Gerard Brandtstraat 107, Leiden, 2332 AK, Netherlands

    Margot Weijnen

  5. University of Cincinnati, Saint Andrews Court 3939, Mason, 45040, USA

    Jay Lee

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag London Limited

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Kim, E.Y., Tan, A.C.C., Yang, BS. (2012). Acoustic Emission for Diesel Engine Monitoring: A Review and Preliminary Analysis. In: Mathew, J., Ma, L., Tan, A., Weijnen, M., Lee, J. (eds) Engineering Asset Management and Infrastructure Sustainability. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-493-7_37

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-493-7_37

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-85729-301-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-85729-493-7

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