In the paper, the results of investigations on the properties of acoustic emission signals generated in a tested pressure vessel are presented. The investigations were performed by repeating several times the following procedure: an increase in pressure, maintaining a given pressure level, a further increase in pressure, and then maintaining the pressure at new determined level. During the tests the acoustic emission signals were recorded by the measuring system 8AE-PD with piezoelectric sensors D9241A. The used eight-channel measuring system 8AE-PD enables the monitoring, recording and then basic and advanced analysis of signals.

The results of basic analysis carried out in domain of time and the results of advanced analysis carried out in the discrimination threshold domain of the recorded acoustic emission signals are presented in the paper.

In the framework of the advanced analysis, results are described by the defined by the author descriptors with acronyms ADC, ADP and ADNC. Such description is based on identifying the properties of amplitude distributions of acoustic emission signals by assigning them the level of advancement. It is shown that for signals including continoues AE or single burst AE signals descriptions of such registered signals by means of ADC, ADP and ADNC descriptors and by Upp and Urms descriptors provide identical ordering of registered acoustic emission signals. For complex signals, the description using ADC, ADP and ADNC descriptors based on the analysis of amplitude distributions of recorded signals gives the order of signals with more accurate connection with deformational processes being sources of acoustic emission signals.

The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

In this paper, the properties of AE signals originating from phenomena occurring during magnetization of ferromagnetic materials which are used to construct power transformer cores are presented. The AE signals in a selected power oil transformer were recorded and analyzed. The analysis included, i.e., time, frequency, and time-frequency analyses, calculations of amplitude distributions of the signals and defined AE descriptors, determination of the descriptor map on the side walls of transformers, as well as a detailed analysis of selected part of the signals.

The maps of descriptors were analyzed in the frequency bands of 20–70 kHz, 70–100 kHz, and 100–200 kHz. The analysis of the properties of the signals was performed in time and frequency domains. Based on the analysis, there were identified the AE signals originating from the phenomena occurring during the core magnetization of a power oil transformer. To identify those phenomena, the maps of the ADC descriptor calculated in the band of 20–70 kHz when selecting the measurement points in which there were no AE sources from partial discharges were used.

An analysis of magnetoacoustic emission signals in the bands of 70–100 kHz and 100–200 kHz was also performed. The analysis of the signal properties in such an extended frequency range allowed determining the properties of the magnetoacoustic signals coming from core sheets of power oil transformers.

A computer measurement system, designed and built by authors, dedicated to location and description of partial discharges (PD) in oil power transformers examined by means of the acoustic emission (AE) method is presented. The measurement system is equipped with 8 measurement channels and ensures: monitoring of signals, registration of data in real time within a band of 25–1000 kHz in laboratory and real conditions, basic and advanced analysis of recorded signals. The basic analysis carried out in the time, frequency and time-frequency domains deals with general properties of the AE signals coming from PDs. The advanced analysis, performed in the discrimination threshold domain, results in identification of signals coming from different acoustic sources as well as location of these sources in the examined transformers in terms of defined by authors descriptors and maps of these descriptors on the side walls of the tested transformer tank. Examples of typical results of laboratory tests carried out with the use of the built-in measurement system are presented.