Research on the time difference of arrival location method of an acoustic emission source based on visible graph modelling

Considering the high sensitivity of the location accuracy of the threshold-based time difference of arrival (TDOA) location method to the threshold, a TDOA location method involving an acoustic emission (AE) source for offshore platform damage based on visible graph (VG) modelling was proposed. The corresponding network topology to AE time domain signals was constructed using visible graph modelling. Node degrees in the network were analysed and nodes with singular degrees were used as the time of arrival (TOA) of the corresponding waveform, thereby extracting the TOA of SO and A0 mode waves. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed TDOA location method can effectively avoid the impact of the threshold on the TOA and can improve the location accuracy and stability of the TDOA method.