Abstract: As the critical working environment and the diversity of the background noises, traditional non-destructive testing (NDT) methods don’t work well for the monitoring of offshore platforms. A damage identification method for offshore platforms with an ambiguity function integrated correlation coefficient of the acoustic emission(AE) signals is proposed. Some tests are taken to get the AE signals that are produced by the cracks, corrosion, impact and friction what may happen on offshore platforms frequently, then the templates of the ambiguity function images are built, and an expression to calculate the correlation coefficient of these images is created. Analyzing the testing samples with the templates, the faults are identified correctly, and the validity of this method is proved. Providing the reliable theoretical basis and method to build the identification system based on the correlation coefficient of the ambiguity function images template library of AE signals. Meanwhile, the cross-component is restrained effectively in ambiguity function domain, and improving the treatment efficiency of offshore platforms for real-time monitoring and big data analysis.

Key words: acoustic emission, ambiguity function, correlation coefficient, damage identification, offshore platform