About the European Working Group on Acoustic Emission
Compiled by Hartmut Vallen, November 7th, 2014.
Foundation and 40th anniversary
The European Working Group on Acoustic Emission (EWGAE) was formed in 1972. The following historic overview is taken from “ACOUSTIC EMISSION WORKING GROUPS: FORUMS FOR TECHNOLOGY EXCHANGE AND DISSEMINATION”, by Tom Drouillard, given at International Conference on Acoustic Emission, AEWG-50/ICAE-6, at Lake Tahoe in 2007:
“On March 14, 1972, Dr. Adrian A. Pollock of Cambridge Consultants, England conducted the Institute of Physics Conference on Acoustic Emission at Imperial College in London; fifteen papers from throughout Europe and the United States were presented. This meeting brought together the key people of Europe already involved in AE research; from England: in addition to Dr. Pollock, Dr. Don Birchon at the Admiralty Materials Laboratory, Drs. Ian L. Mogford and Ian G. Palmer at Central Electricity Research Laboratories, Peter G. Bentley at Risley Engineering and Materials Laboratory of the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, and Dr. Brian Harris at the University of Sussex; from Germany: Drs. Jürgen Eisenblätter and Peter Jax at Battelle-Institut; from France: Dr. Paul F. Dumousseau at the Centre Technique des Industries Mecaniques and M. Nicole Chretien and Dr. E.G. Tomachevsky at the Centre d'Études Nucléaires de Saclay, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique; from Italy: Dr. M. Mirabile at Centro Sperimentale Metallurgico; from Denmark: Arved Nielsen at the Research Establishment Risø, Danish Atomic Energy Commission; and from the Netherlands: Dr. J.C.F. DeKanter at the Technische Hogeschool Delft.”
During the closing session of EWGAE-30 in Granada in Sept. 2012 the 40th anniversary was celebrated in presence of Dr. Adrian Pollock, one of the founders of EWGAE. Adrian reported that a result of this meeting in March 1972 was the formation of the “European Stress Wave Emission Working Group”. Its first meeting was held in November 1972, at the Admiralty Materials Laboratory in England. Fifty people from seven countries attended. The second meeting, co-chaired by Drs. Eisenblätter and Jax, was held in September 1973, at Battelle-Institut in Frankfurt, Germany, at which the group adopted its present name, “European Working Group on Acoustic Emission”. Adrian finished his speech with a nice surprise: He handed over to EWGAE Chairperson Hartmut Vallen one tape and 5 CDs labelled “Inaugural ESWEWG Meeting”. In a nice email exchange after the conference Adrian clarified that the recording was made at the March 1972 meeting, what was the first-ever conference on AE in Europe, but not the first EWGAE conference. The tape was “rescued” from Arved Nielsen who found it in the library of the DAEC Research Establishmentr at Risoe, Denmark.
Here is link to the recordings
on the CDs: Institute
of Physics Conference on Acoustic Emission March 1972 at Imperial
College in London
(password is
required for download -
please used 'Contact us' TAB or contact with Irek Baran in order to
obtain password)
Here is link to the Constitution of EWGAE
Standardization of AE in Europe within CEN TC138
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Codes Subgroup of EWGAE published five codes of practice. In 1991, the work of this group was taken up by a new working group on AE (WG7) of TC138, the Technical Committee for standardization of NDT-principles within CEN. This working group is comprised of national representatives who have been nominated by their respective National Standardization Institutions. The first Convenor of WG-7 was Emilio Fontana of CISE, Italy. After his retirement in 2003, Peter Tscheliesnig of TÜV Austria was appointed and is serving as Convenor of the group. Since 2000, the following standards for AE, developed by TC138 WG7, have been published (year of latest edition shown):
- EN
1330-9:2017-09 NDT - Terminology -
Part 9: Terms used in AE
testing
- EN 13554:2011 NDT - AE - General
principles (latest edition: 2011)
- EN 13477-1:2002 NDT - AE - Equipment
characterisation, Part 1: Equipment description
- EN 13477-2:2010 NDT - AE - Equipment
characterisation, Part 2: Verification of operating characteristics
- EN 14584:2013-07 NDT - AE - Examination
of metallic
pressure equipment during proof testing - planar location of AE sources
- EN 15495:2007 NDT - AE - Examination
of metallic
pressure equipment during proof testing - Zone location of AE sources
- EN 15856:2010 NDT - AE - General
principles of AE
testing for the detection of corrosion within metallic surrounding
filled with liquid
- EN 15857:2010 NDT
- AE - Testing of fibre-reinforced polymers - Specific methodology and
general evaluation criteria
- PN-EN ISO 18081:2016-08 NDT
- AE - Leak detection by means of acoustic emission
During the
last 5 years, active members within the CEN TC138-WG7 were: P.
Tscheliesnig (Convenor, Austria), C. Herve (France), J. Bohse, A. Mück
and H. Vallen (Germany), A. Anastasopoulos (Greece), C. De Petris
(Italy), E. Romero (Spain), H. Schoorlemmer (The Netherlands), L.
Rogers, P. Cole and J. Burns (U.K.), I. Baran (Poland), V. Svoboda
(Czech Republic).
The European Standard for Qualification
and Certification of NDT
Personnel, EN_ISO 9712 (substitutes EN473) covers the AE testing method
(abbreviation: AT) and defines details for education and certification.
During 2005, the British Institute of
Non-Destructive testing has
established an Acoustic Emission Working Group to develop the Acoustic
Emission sections of their PCN scheme which provides an international
programme for the certification of testing, inspection and condition
monitoring personnel which satisfies the requirements of numerous
European and international standards. Members of this group include K
Holford, T Bradshaw, D Mba, M Forde, Trevor Holroyd, Winfield Stewart,
Ian Taylor, John O'Brien, R Reuben, Stuart Courtenay and Martin
Peacock.
All these Standards have significantly
contributed to the acceptance of
the AE testing method in Europe.
In July 2014, also independent of TC138,
the German Expert Committee AE
of DGZfP published a new edition of Guideline SE2 “Verification of AE
sensors and their coupling in the laboratory”. Involved in the
development of this document were Dr. J. Bohse, Dr. A.
Brunner, Dr. J. Eisenblätter, Dr. C. Große, DI S. Pirskawetz, Dr. M.
Sause, DI G. Schauritsch, DI J. Sell, DI P. Tscheliesnig, DI H. Vallen.
The
increasing desire to exchange ideas and experience is reflected in the
number of participants.
AE Testing in Europe is now well established in several important areas
of proof testing, in-service monitoring, corrosion and leak detection.
Development of the technology continues to be driven by the needs of
the industry to reduce inspection and maintenance costs while
preserving its assets and personnel safety. The advancement of PC
technology has positively influenced new developments in hardware and
software for powerful and user-friendly testing equipment.
Thoughts about future directions
The following thoughts about future requirements and directions for AE which are worth to be considered are also taken from “ACOUSTIC EMISSION WORKING GROUPS: FORUMS FOR TECHNOLOGY EXCHANGE AND DISSEMINATION”, by Tom Drouillard, given at International Conference on Acoustic Emission, ICAE-5, at Lake Tahoe, in 2007:
The
following table gives an overview of history of the EWGAE conferences held since 1972:
No. | Year | City | Country | Additional info |
1st | 1972 | London | UK | |
2nd | 1973 | Frankfurt | Germany | |
3rd | 1974 | Ispra | Italy | Combined with Euratom |
4th | 1975 | Secley | France | Combined with French AEC |
5th | 1976 | Roskilde | Denmark | |
6th | 1977 | Rome | Italy | |
7th | 1978 | Risley | UK | |
8th | 1979 | Dortmund | Germany | |
9th | 1980 | Senlis/Paris | France | |
10th | 1981 | Winterthur | Switzerland | |
11th | 1982 | Milano | Italy | |
12th | 1983 | Cologne | West Germany | |
13th | 1984 | Harwell | UK | |
14th | 1985 | Lyon | France | |
15th | 1986* | Istambul | Turkey | |
16th | 1987* | London | UK | Combined with ECNDT |
17th | 1988 | Scheveningen | Holland | |
18th | 1989 | Vienna | Austria | |
19th | 1990 | Erlangen | Germany | |
20th | 1992* | Leuven | Belgium | |
21st | 1994 | Nice | France | Combined with ECNDT |
22nd | 1996* | Aberdeen | UK | |
23rd | 1998* | Vienna | Austria | |
24th | 2000* | Senslis/Paris | France | |
25th | 2002* | Prague | Czech Republic | |
26th | 2004* | Berlin | Germany | |
27th | 2006* | Cardiff | UK | |
28th | 2008* | Kraków | Poland | |
29th | 2010* | Vienna | Austria | |
30th | 2012* | Granada | Spain | Combined with 7th ICAE |
31th | 2014* | Dresden | Germany | |
32nd | 2016* | Prague | Czech Republic | |
33rd | 2018* | Senlis | France | |
34rd | 2020 | Granada | Spain | Canceled due to Covid-19 pandemic |
35th | 2022* | Ljubljana | Slovenia | Combined with 10th ICAE |
* proceedings published