On the Statistical Significance Test for the Procedure of Polarity Classification by Types of Acoustic Emission Sources

Abstract

Using a mathematical statistics approach, we review the procedure for type classification of acoustic emission (AE) events into shear, tension, and collapse, proposed by Zang et al. (1998). The procedure is based on counting the signs of first pulses of waves arriving at acoustic sensors and is widely used in rock physics experiments. Under the assumption that the determination errors of first-pulse signs at sensors have uniform and independent distribution, the statistical significance and power of the type separation test are evaluated for a given number of sensors used. We consider and compare three methods of the construction of a statistical test based on the P-value approach and symmetric and asymmetric statistical hypothesis tests. Considering the results of the statistical study, we propose some practical recommendations for selecting a threshold to classify AE event types in experimental studies.