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Procedia Structural Integrity 18 (2019) 570–576

25th International Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity

25th International Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity
Acoustic Emission Entropy as a fracture-sensitive feature for real-
Acoustic Emission Entropy as a fracture-sensitive feature for real-
time assessment of metal plates under fatigue loading
time assessment of metal plates under fatigue loading
Danilo D’Angela** and Marianna Ercolino
Danilo D’Angela and Marianna Ercolino
University of Greenwich, School of Engineering, Central Avenue, Chatham ME4 4TB, United Kingdom
University of Greenwich, School of Engineering, Central Avenue, Chatham ME4 4TB, United Kingdom

Abstract
Abstract
The paper presents the results of Acoustic Emission (AE) testing of fatigue fracture initiation and propagation in metal plates. The
The paper presents
information Entropytheofresults
the AEofdataAcoustic Emission
(i.e., AE Entropy) (AE) testing ofasfatigue
is assessed fracture initiation
a fracture-sensitive andfor
feature propagation in metal plates.
real-time assessment The
of metal
information Entropy of the AE data (i.e., AE Entropy) is assessed as a fracture-sensitive feature for real-time
plates under fatigue loading. Both Shannon and Kullback-Leibler formulations are found to be reliable for (a) detection of crack assessment of metal
plates under fatigue loading.
initiation/propagation, and (b)Both Shannon
prediction and Kullback-Leibler
of fracture formulations
failure. The reliability are Entropy
of the AE found toisbe reliable
also for (a)
confirmed detection of
considering crack
periodic
initiation/propagation, and (b) prediction
monitoring (i.e., time-discontinuous of fracture failure.ofThe
detection/analysis AEreliability of theisAErepresentative
data), which Entropy is alsoofconfirmed
structuralconsidering periodic
health monitoring
monitoring (i.e.,
processes. The time-discontinuous
presented detection/analysis
approach is promising of AE data),
for the application which is
to real-time representative
monitoring of structures
of metal structural undergoing
health monitoring
fatigue
processes. The presented
loading such as bridges. approach is promising for the application to real-time monitoring of metal structures undergoing fatigue
loading such as bridges.
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
©
© 2019
2019The
TheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Publishedby Elsevier
by B.V. B.V.
Peer-review
Peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of Elsevier
of the the Gruppo
Gruppo Italiano
Italiano FratturaFrattura (IGF) ExCo.
(IGF) ExCo.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Gruppo Italiano Frattura (IGF) ExCo.
Keywords: Acoustic Emission testing; Fatigue fracture; Information Entropy; metal plates;
Keywords: Acoustic Emission testing; Fatigue fracture; Information Entropy; metal plates;

1. Introduction
1. Introduction
Acoustic Emission (AE) testing (Grosse and Ohtsu, 2008) is among the most innovative techniques for structural
Acoustic
health Emission
monitoring (AE) testing
by means (Grosse and evaluation
of non-destructive Ohtsu, 2008) andispassive
among testing.
the mostAEs
innovative techniques
are elastic for structural
waves spontaneously
health monitoring by means of non-destructive evaluation and passive testing. AEs are elastic waves spontaneously
generated by localised structural damage within solids. The acoustic waves propagate within the bodies interacting
generated by localised
with the structural structural damage
discontinuities. AEs are within solids.
detected The acoustic
by sensors coupled waves propagate within
to the boundaries the bodiescomponents
of the monitored interacting
with the structural discontinuities. AEs are detected by sensors coupled to the boundaries of the monitored
(Fig. 1.a). According to the most common approach, i.e., parameter-based approach, the direct/indirect analysis of components
(Fig. 1.a). According
the features of the AE to the most(i.e.,
waveform common approach,
AE features, Fig.i.e.,
1.b)parameter-based
allows identifyingapproach, the direct/indirect
the damage evolution. analysis of
the features of the AE waveform (i.e., AE features, Fig. 1.b) allows identifying the damage evolution.

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 (0) 7447156365 ;
*
Corresponding
E-mail address:author. Tel.: +44 (0) 7447156365 ;
d.dangela@greenwich.ac.uk
E-mail address: d.dangela@greenwich.ac.uk
2452-3216 © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
2452-3216
Peer-review©under
2019responsibility
The Authors. of
Published by Elsevier
the Gruppo Italiano B.V.
Frattura (IGF) ExCo.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Gruppo Italiano Frattura (IGF) ExCo.

2452-3216  2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Gruppo Italiano Frattura (IGF) ExCo.
10.1016/j.prostr.2019.08.201
 Danilo D’ Angela et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 18 (2019) 570–576 571
2 Danilo D’Angela et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

(a) (b)

Fig. 1. AE testing: (a) technique application scheme (MISTRAS Limited), and (b) main AE features (Ercolino et al., 2015).

AE testing has been widely applied in recent years, and several techniques have been developed for the analysis of
the AE data. The data analysis techniques range from basic historical/comparison plots (Aggelis et al., 2011;
Gostautas et al., 2005) and correlation analysis (Al-jumaili, 2016; Carpinteri et al., 2009), to multidimensional
analysis and clustering (Al-jumaili, 2016; Ercolino et al., 2015). AE testing has been shown to be reliable for structural
damage assessment in the case of laboratory testing and time-continuous monitoring (Al-jumaili, 2016; Carpinteri et
al., 2009). However, when the testing conditions are not well-controlled (e.g., monitoring of in-service bridges) or in
the case of time-discontinuous data detection, AE testing is not necessarily reliable and valid (Chai et al., 2018; Chen
et al., 2017; Nair and Cai, 2010). Even if novel processing techniques have been recently developed for noise
disturbance reduction, their features depend on the specific application, and field monitoring is often needed (Schultz,
2015). Furthermore, the intrinsic chaotic nature of the AE waves makes even more difficult the analysis and the
interpretation of AE data (Kahirdeh et al., 2017a).
Recent studies directly addressed the chaotic nature of the AE phenomena in order to improve the damage
assessment by means of AE testing. This was motivated by the known phenomenological correlation between the
structural damage and the systemic disorder, which can be quantified by the evaluation of the Entropy of the system
(Amiri and Khonsari, 2011; Moreno-Gomez et al., 2018). Entropy is an extensive property of a thermodynamic
system, and its concept is used in statistical mechanics and information theory to assess the evolution of systems
having a large number of degrees of freedom. One of the first formulations of the information Entropy is due to
Shannon (1948); Shannon Entropy defines the measure of uncertainty contained within a random variable, or
equivalently, the amount of information that a variable contains. Shannon Entropy and thermodynamic Entropy are
not theoretically correlated; however, their applied formulations are equivalent. Shannon Entropy of the AE waves
(i.e., AE Entropy or acoustic Entropy) was found to be promising for structural damage assessment, but it is still far
from the application to (a) real-time structural health monitoring, and (b) time-discontinuous data detection/analysis
(Kahirdeh et al., 2017a, 2017b; Stavrakas et al., 2016).
The paper presents AE testing of fatigue fracture in metal plates performed according to the parameter-based
approach (Grosse and Ohtsu, 2008). The detected AE data were post-processed and filtered using the latest literature
techniques (Ercolino et al., 2015; Yu et al., 2011). The information Entropy of the AE data (AE Entropy) was evaluated
according to both Shannon (1948) and Kullback-Leibler (1951) formulations. The experimental crack initiation, crack
propagation, and fracture failure were correlated to the AE Entropy evolution. Damage criteria based on AE Entropy
were also identified for time-discontinuous data detection, simulating realistic structural health monitoring of fracture-
critical components of bridges.

2. Experimental testing and AE analysis

Acoustic Emission (AE) testing of fatigue crack initiation and propagation was performed on Compact Tension
(CT) specimens (D’Angela and Ercolino, 2018) made of structural metals. The testing set-up is shown in Fig. 2.a, and
the geometry of the testes samples is shown in Fig. 2.b/c.
572 Danilo D’ Angela et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 18 (2019) 570–576
Danilo D’Angela et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 3

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 2. Testing features: (a) testing set-up, (b) CT specimen geometry (Table 1), and (c) notch detail. The dimensions are in mm.

The mechanical testing was carried out using a servo-hydraulic digitally controlled actuator; AE testing was
performed using a single-channel USB AE system (software AEwin™); a 300 kHz-resonant ultra-low noise pre-
amplified sensor (PKI30) was used to detect the AE data. The AE equipment was produced by MISTRAS Limited.
The superior end of the fatigue machine was fixed, and the inferior one was moved by the actuator (Fig. 2.a); the AE
sensor was coupled to the fixed end of the fatigue machine by a thin layer of silicone glue. The testing plan is reported
in Table 1. Four CT samples were tested (Fig 2.b and Table 1): the samples A1 and A2 (S1 and S2) were made of
Aluminum alloy 7075-T651 (Steel S355J0). Two mock tests were carried out prior to the definite tests using similar
samples; these were aimed to (a) check the reliability of the whole testing equipment, and (b) calibrate the AE testing
parameters. Accordingly, the AE amplitude threshold was set equal to 45dB. The crack initiation was detected during
the testing by means of dye penetrant inspection (European Committee for Standardization, 2000); the failure was
defined by the complete fracture of the sample (clearly observable).

Table 1. Testing plan.

ID test Material W [mm] H [mm] N [mm] B [mm] P [kN] R [-] f [Hz]
A1 Al 7075-T6 71 86 32 4 2.5 0.05 10
A2 Al 7075-T6 63 77 29 10 5 0.05 10
S1 S355 63 77 29 10 5 0.05 10
S2 S355 63 77 29 10 6 0.05 10

The AE signals were filtered using the modified Swansong II filtering technique (Ercolino et al., 2015) in order to
remove (a) long-duration Hits with low Amplitude, and (b) short-duration Hits with high Amplitude, which are typical
features of non-genuine AE signals. The filtering limit values were derived by Yu et al. (2011), who performed similar
tests. The traditional AE analysis was preliminary performed considering both historical/comparison plots and
correlation analysis (i.e., b-value analysis). The information Entropy of the AE data was performed according to both
Shannon (1948), and Kullback- Leibler (1951) formulations. The former Entropy is referred as Shannon Entropy HS
(Equation 1), and the latter is referred as relative Entropy HR (Equation 2). Both Entropies are defined by the
probability mass distribution vector pi (Equation 3), which can be evaluated considering the ratio between the number
of Counts ni and the cumulative number of Counts ci.

𝐻𝐻� � � ∑���� 𝑝𝑝� 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙� �𝑝𝑝� � (1)

��
𝐻𝐻� � � ∑���� 𝑝𝑝� 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙� � � (2)
����

�� �� �
𝑝𝑝� � � ; ; … ; �� (3)
�� �� ��
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3. Results and discussion

The results related to the traditional AE analysis are not reported in the paper for the sake of brevity. However, the
traditional analysis is confirmed as qualitative and inefficient for reliable fracture damage assessment. Historical and
comparison plots exhibit qualitative damage correlations in some cases; they are not robust enough for real-time
monitoring. The b-value analysis does not show clear and univocal damage correlations; in only two cases out of four,
b-value is correlated to the fracture damage (i.e., it decreases along with the cracking process). The traditional AE
analysis methods do not address the chaotic nature of the AE phenomena, as well as the mechanical noise disturbance.
Therefore, the evaluation of acoustic Entropy is even more motivated.
Both logarithmic cumulative Shannon Entropy (HS) and relative Entropy (HR) are plotted in Fig. 3 for all considered
cases; the times related to crack initiation/propagation and failure are also shown. The use of the logarithmic scale
was already found to be effective for the representation of the cumulative AE Entropy: this allows to identify better
the potential damage correlations (Kahirdeh et al., 2017b). Fig. 3 shows that Shannon Entropy curves related to the
different cases have a very similar pattern: (1) short-duration sub-vertical-tangent branch, (2) smooth knee, (3)
decreasing-tangent branch, and (4) long-duration sub-horizontal-tangent branch (plateau). The relative Entropy curves
also have a similar trend (1) short-duration sub-vertical-tangent branch, (2) abrupt knee, and (3) long-duration sub-
horizontal-tangent branch (plateau); the A1 case also presents a more irregular increasing branch just before the plateau
occurring, as well as it shows an increasing stage after the plateau. Overall, the Shannon and relative Entropy curves
present a very similar trend.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 3. Logarithmic cumulative Shannon Entropy (log ΣHS) and relative Entropy (log ΣHR) for (a) A1, (b) A2, (c) S1, and (d) S2 cases. The crack
initiation and fracture failure times are shown, as well as the crack propagation range is shaded.
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Fig. 4 shows the boxplots of the Entropy values corresponding to the failure for both Shannon and relative Entropy
formulations: (a) cumulative Entropy at the failure (𝛴𝛴𝛴𝛴𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 ) over the median value (𝛴𝛴𝛴𝛴 �
𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 ), and (b) logarithmic
cumulative Entropy at the failure (𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 ). The dispersion of the relative Entropy values at the failure is
significantly smaller than the Shannon Entropy one, considering both 𝛴𝛴𝛴𝛴𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 over 𝛴𝛴𝛴𝛴
�
𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 and 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹𝐹 .
Damage correlations are identified considering both Shannon and relative Entropy curves. Crack initiation is
correlated to the transition between stage (2) and (3) for the Shannon Entropy, and to the initiation of the stage (3) for
the relative Entropy (Fig. 3). Crack propagation is associated with the stage (3) for both Shannon Entropy and relative
Entropy (Fig. 3). Fracture failure corresponds to the occurring of the stage (4) for the Shannon Entropy (Fig. 3), and
to a threshold value for the relative Entropy (Fig. 4). The damage correlations related to the Shannon Entropy are more
qualitative than the ones related to the relative Entropy; however, the former can be reasonably considered as more
robust and consistent. As a matter of fact, the trend of the Shannon Entropy curves is more regular and clearly sub-
staged, as well as it is less affected by the testing/sample conditions. Furthermore, damage criteria based on more
gradual response (e.g., smooth knee) are easier to be assessed by real-time monitoring.
The cumulative Shannon Entropy is evaluated considering several sets of random monitoring processes, which are
more representative of real structural health monitoring processes. A random monitoring process consists of randomly
selected sequential detection windows, during which AE data are recorded and the Entropy is assessed. A set of random
processes can be defined by (a) the number of detection windows (NDW) over the structural lifetime (Lt), (b) the time
duration of the detection windows (TDW), and (c) a set of rules for the random selection of the detection windows. TDW
should be significantly smaller than Lt in order to be consistent with realistic monitoring. The minimum time interval
between the end of the previous detection windows and the beginning of the following (ΔT) is the main rule for the
random selection of the detection windows.
Fig. 5 shows the logarithmic cumulative Shannon Entropy (log ΣHS) evaluated according to the abovementioned
procedure applied to the A2 case. A number of 500 curves is considered for each set of values of NDW. In particular,
five sets of NDW are considered (ranging from 10 to 100), TDW is assumed equal to 0.005 Lt, and ΔT is assumed equal
to 10 TDW. The global Entropy curve is also shown in Fig. 5. The trend of the Entropy curves is proven to not be
affected by (a) time-discontinuous detection, (b) random selection of the detection windows, and (b) variation of NDW.
The increase of NDW (with the consequent increase of total monitored time) translates the curves towards the global
Entropy curve without affecting the relative shape and trend of the curves. The sets of random curves have the same
trend of the global curve, even if a much-reduced total monitored time is considered (e.g., smaller than 0.1 Lt). The
damage criteria verified for the time-continuous global curve (e.g., curve knee and plateau in Fig. 3) are also valid in
the considered conditions (Fig. 4), which simulate more realistic structural health monitoring processes.

(a) (b)

Fig. 4. Boxplots of failure Entropy values for both Shannon and relative Entropy formulations: (a) cumulative Entropy at the failure (𝛴𝛴𝛴𝛴���� ) over
� ���� ), and (b) logarithmic cumulative Entropy at the failure (𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙���� ).
the median value (𝛴𝛴𝛴𝛴
 Danilo D’ Angela et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 18 (2019) 570–576 575
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Fig. 5. Logarithmic cumulative Shannon Entropy (log ΣHS) over time-discontinuous data detection related to the A2 case: five sets of 500 random
process curves varying the number of detection windows (NDW) and global Entropy curve.

4. Conclusions

The results of AE testing of fatigue fracture in metal plates were presented in the paper. The information Entropy
of the AE data (AE Entropy) was experimentally investigated as a fracture-sensitive feature for real-time monitoring
of metal plates under fatigue fracture. Both Shannon and Kullback-Leibler (i.e., relative Entropy) formulations were
considered for the computation of the AE Entropy. Crack initiation and fracture propagation were found to be clearly
correlated to the evolution of both Shannon and relative cumulative Entropy. The analysis of the AE Entropy allowed
the prediction of the fracture failure. The reliability of the AE Entropy was also checked considering time-
discontinuous data detection, which is typical of realistic monitoring of structures. Both time-discontinuous detection
and reduced total monitored time did not affect the trend of the Entropy evolution. The findings strengthened the
robustness of the presented approach. Even if the evaluation of the AE Entropy resulted promising for the application
to real monitoring of structures, further studies are necessary to strengthen the experimental damage criteria as well
as to define innovative monitoring protocols.

Acknowledgements

The project was supported by REF funding (2016/2017 and 2017/2018) awarded by Dr Marianna Ercolino.

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