Acoustic source localization in anisotropic plates

The conventional triangulation technique cannot locate the acoustic source in an anisotropic plate because this technique requires the wave speed to be independent of the propagation direction which is not the case for an anisotropic plate. All methods proposed so far for source localization in anisotropic plates require either the knowledge of the direction dependent velocity profile or a dense array of sensors. In this paper for the first time a technique is proposed to locate the acoustic source in large anisotropic plates with the help of only six sensors without knowing the direction dependent velocity profile in the plate. Experimental results show that the proposed technique works for both isotropic and anisotropic structures. For isotropic plates the required number of sensors can be reduced from 6 to 4.

► A new formulation for localizing acoustic sources in large plates is presented.
► Knowledge of the wave velocity in isotropic or anisotropic plate is not required.
► Need to know either direction or frequency dependent wave velocity is avoided.
► Only four sensors needed for isotropic plate and six for anisotropic plate.