Sideband Peak Count in a Vibro-Acoustic Modulation Method for Crack Detection

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors present a method of signal processing for vibro-acoustic modulation (VAM) technique based on experimental analysis capable to detect damage accumulation in A108 steel bars. The samples are tested by the cycle loading, which with a small amplitude and evaluated by the modulation index (MI) and Sideband Peak Numbers (SPN). The modulation index defined by the authors in eq. (1), Moreover, a simple bilinear cack model was applied for an interpretation of multiple side band peak generation and some conclusions are drawn.

 

This domain is covered by a large number of published results, from which the authors are citing 39 references. Many authors use the modulation index MI based on the vibro-acoustic modulation VAM technique, similar to the one used in the present work. This computation method is clearly presented by the authors. The validation is done by comparison with the results published in ref. [27].

The manuscript can be evaluated for publication in the Journal” Acoustics” after addressing the following issues:

 

• What are the innovations of the research work? The objects, the research method or new findings? In the reviewer’s opinion, none of them seems to be.
• A tip would be to introduce specific keyword (A108 steel) in order to better consolidate and highlights the characteristics of the experimental model
• The reason for selecting the sizes of samples is not supported by any reference.
• The study is purely experimental and has no mathematical approach.
• Addition the properties of materials for the samples (A108 steel bars), and listed in table.
• The absence of mathematical modelling of the experiments limits its scope to extend the study for different material constructions. Hence, it is must that the experiments are correlated with finite element analysis.
• The problem and gaps have not addressed properly after literature.
• Conclusion also requires some corrections it should be written in crisp language and all the finding should be reported.

The reviewer recommends a major revision to improve the overall value of this paper to the engineering community.

Author Response

We are grateful to the reviewers for their detailed analysis of our paper; their comments have contributed to the significant paper improvement.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper was prepared carefully and with a large list of references. However some improvements should be made to increase its value.

1. Line 53: Perhaps the sentence should be corrected into 'the authors did not count the sideband peaks'.
2. Line 120: The authors should more precisely explain their criterion to determine the 'visible'and unvisible' cracks.
3. Line 146: The authors declare that they counted the sideband peaks for frequencies f+nF while it seems in Fifure 4b that not all peaks were counted and red dot marks are distributed irregularly.

Author Response

We are grateful to the reviewers for their detailed analysis of our paper; their comments have contributed to the significant paper improvement.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Alnutayfat et al have thoroughly revised the manuscript ID acoustics-1534992 entitled "Sideband Peak Count in a Vibro-Acoustic Modulation Method for Crack Detection" in accordance with the comments from the reviewers. The paper can be accepted now for publication in its current form in Journal of Acoustics.