Investigation of the relationship between internal fluid leakage through a valve and the acoustic emission generated from the leakage

The detection of acoustic emission (AE) signals produced by liquid and gas leakage through valves can be related directly to the qualitative leakage rate. This allows for cost estimation of losses in processes for several industries. However, to find out the relationship between qualitative leakage rate and AE signal large amounts of experimental data is needed. This paper presents a theoretical investigation of the acoustic emission to detect the internal leakage rate through a valve and experimental validation. The AE signals generated by internal liquid and gas leakage through valves were characterised. The effect of the influenced factors of leakage rates, inlet pressure levels, valve sizes and valve types, on AE parameter, AERMS, were studied and explained. The results of theoretical and experimental showed that AE signal power computed from the power spectral density (PSD) correlated well with influenced factors of leakage rates. Finally, a novel and inexpensive AE instrument has been invented for predicting qualitative leakage rate using a micro processor and derived relationship.