Nonlinear Kalman Filtering for acoustic emission source localization in anisotropic panels.

Nonlinear Kalman Filtering is an established field in applied probability and control systems, which plays an important role in many practical applications from target tracking to weather and climate prediction. However, its application for acoustic emission (AE) source localization has been very limited. In this paper, two well-known nonlinear Kalman Filtering algorithms are presented to estimate the location of AE sources in anisotropic panels: the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF). These algorithms are applied to two cases: velocity profile known (CASE I) and velocity profile unknown (CASE II). The algorithms are compared with a more traditional nonlinear least squares method. Experimental tests are carried out on a carbon-fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite panel instrumented with a sparse array of piezoelectric transducers to validate the proposed approaches. AE sources are simulated using an instrumented miniature impulse hammer. In order to evaluate the performance of the algorithms, two metrics are used: (1) accuracy of the AE source localization and (2) computational cost. Furthermore, it is shown that both EKF and UKF can provide a confidence interval of the estimated AE source location and can account for uncertainty in time of flight measurements.