Intrinsically Safe Integral Preamplifier Acoustic Emission Transducers

摘要

Intrinsic safety (IS) is a signalling technique that protects plant and personnel from the risk of fire and explosions by ensuring that the energy transferred to a hazardous area is well below the energy required to ignite the explosive gas atmosphere. IS basic principles are presented in this paper. Two intrinsically safe acoustic emission (AE) transducers with integrated 20 dB preamplifier are described in this paper. A power adaptor has been designed to provide power and signal conditioning for the AE transducers and will be installed outside the hazardous area. An IS barrier is built into the power adaptor. The power adaptor will be constructed in an IP20 (IEC 60529) enclosure which will be mounted on standard 35 mm DIN rail. The transducers and power adaptor are developed to meet the requirements of electrical apparatus standards UL 60079-0 and UL 60079-11.