Aircraft operators being faced with water accumulation in fuel tanks on a daily basis and\nare looking for reliable detection systems to determine the remaining amount of accumulated ice\nduring maintenance after flight. Using such a technology, an increase in the safety and efficiency\nof the aircraft operation would be possible in this highly competitive market. This article presents\nthe use of the Acoustic Emission Technique (AE) for the reliable and non-invasive monitoring of the\nmelting of ice in fuel tanks. This technology is in principle based on the fact that a phase transition\ncomes frequently along with stress relaxation that can be used for monitoring the process. Therefore,\nthe melting of water can, in essence, be monitored with AE without accessing the ice directly.\nThe analysis of the AE signals has been carried out in the time domain since it was the melting of ice\nneeded to be monitored as a function of temperature rise time. The insights presented in this paper\ncan possibly lead to new technologies for ice detection, especially in remote areas that are not easily\naccessible with other techniques.
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