Active source localization in wave guides based on machine learning.

In the present work, an active source localization strategy is proposed. The presence of active sources in a waveguide can have several reasons, such as crack initiation or internal friction. In this study, the active source is represented by an impact event. A steel ball is dropped on an aluminum plate at different positions. Elastic waves are excited and will propagate through the plate. The wave response is acquired by a piezoelectric sensor network, which is attached to the plate. After performing numerical and physical experiments, enough data are collected in order to train an artificial neural network and a support vector machine. Those machine learning algorithms will predict the impact position based on the wave response of each sensor, while only numerical data from the finite element simulations are used to train both methods. After the training process is completed, the algorithms are applied to experimental data. A good agreement between reference and predicted results proves that the wave responses at the piezoelectric transducers contain sufficient information in order to localize the impact position precisely.