A Gas Leak and Structural Damage Detector for Spacecraft on-orbit Based on Two-staged Acoustic Sensors Array

Abstract

The leaks are very dangerous for astronauts on orbit spacecraft. So the techniques of leak testing have been developed with acoustics method. The produce of pneumatic sound source of the leak and the gas leak detection technology based on acoustic sensor array are studied. The detection distance and direction of array are verified by the experiments. In the leak, the sound power of the gas jet is related to the diameter and length of the leak. When the measuring distance is constant, the average error of the experiment is relative to angle between leak and sensor array. When the relative angle is constant, with the increase of the distance, orientation error increases slightly, but is less than ±5°.