Acoustic emission (AE) source localization is a fundamental element of rock fracture damage imaging. To improve the efficiency and accuracy of AE source localization, this paper proposes a joint method comprising a three-dimensional (3D) AE source localization simplex method and grid search scanning. Using the concept of the geometry of simplexes, tetrahedral iterations were first conducted to narrow down the suspected source region. This is followed by a process of meshing the region and node searching to scan for optimal solutions, until the source location is determined. The resulting algorithm was tested using the artificial excitation source localization and uniaxial compression tests, after which the localization results were compared with the simplex and exhaustive methods. The results revealed that the localization obtained using the proposed method is more stable and can be effectively avoided compared with the simplex localization method. Furthermore, compared with the global scanning method, the proposed method is more efficient, with an average time of 10%–20% of the global scanning localization algorithm. Thus, the proposed algorithm is of great significance for laboratory research focused on locating rupture damages sustained by large-sized rock masses or test blocks.

声发射（AE）源定位是岩石破裂损伤成像的基本要素。为了提高声发射源定位的效率和精度，本文提出了一种包括三维（3D）声发射源定位单纯形法和网格搜索扫描的联合方法。利用单纯形几何的概念，首先进行四面体迭代以缩小可疑源区域的范围。接下来是对区域进行网格划分和节点搜索以扫描最佳解决方案的过程，直到确定源位置。使用人工激励源定位和单轴压缩测试对所得算法进行了测试，然后将定位结果与单纯法和穷举法进行了比较。结果表明，与单纯形定位方法相比，该方法获得的定位更加稳定，可以有效避免。此外，与全局扫描方法相比，该方法效率更高，平均时间是全局扫描定位算法的10%~20%。因此，该算法对于定位大型岩体或试块破裂损伤的实验室研究具有重要意义。