Acoustic Emission Entropy as a fracture-sensitive feature for real-time assessment of metal plates under fatigue loading

The paper presents the results of Acoustic Emission (AE) testing of fatigue fracture initiation and propagation in metal plates. The information Entropy of the AE data (i.e., AE Entropy) is assessed as a fracture-sensitive feature for real-time assessment of metal plates under fatigue loading. Both Shannon and Kullback-Leibler formulations are found to be reliable for (a) detection of crack initiation/propagation, and (b) prediction of fracture failure. The reliability of the AE Entropy is also confirmed considering periodic monitoring (i.e., time-discontinuous detection/analysis of AE data), which is representative of structural health monitoring processes. The presented approach is promising for the application to real-time monitoring of metal structures undergoing fatigue loading such as bridges. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.