Acoustic Emission Instrumentation for a Superconducting Dipole

Abstract

An instrumentation system for real-time location of acoustic emission (AE) events and identification of sources has been developed for monitoring high-performance superconducting dipoles and quadrupoles used in high-energy accelerators. AE energy, event count, and time of occurrence are extracted in hard-wired circuitry; digitized, stored, and transferred to a PDP-11/23 microcomputer. The system uses first hit method of event detection, with a time resolution of 30 µs — a substantial improvement over currently available commercial AE equipment. The system can be used for up to six AE channels simultaneously.

This work was supported by the Division of High Energy physics of the U.S. Department of Energy. This paper is based on part of a thesis submitted by O. O. Ige in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of Science at the Massachusetts Institue of Technology, Deparment of Mechanical Engineering, January 1985.