A Principal Component Analysis of Acoustic Emission Signals from a Landing Gear Component

Acoustic emission monitoring was completed on a painted aerospace grade steel landing gear component undergoing fatigue loading until rupture. A post-test linear location analysis of the collected signals revealed eleven groups where high activity (greater than 2000 hits) occurred within a defined location, three of which corresponded in location to the position of fracture and final rupture of the specimen. Feature data, such as amplitude, rise-time, energy etc. were used to describe the identified signals in each group. A dimension reduction through principal component analysis of the feature data of all groups was performed. Results showed that high amplitude signals associated with four groups of signals arising from noise could be separated from the fracture groups. However four groups not associated with noise or the known positions of the fracture groups were not separable from the signals attributed to fractures. The paint layer of the specimen was removed and a magnetic particle investigation was completed that showed these four groups coincided with regions of additional fracture in the component.