• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.38 no.10
• /
• pp.1133-1137
• /
• 2014

The ultrasonic nonlinear parameter ${\beta}$ is generally known as an effective parameter for evaluating material degradation. Thus far, most research has been conducted using a contact method. However, since measurement by this contact method is affected by the contact conditions between the transducer and the specimen, additional devices are required to maintain the contact conditions stable during the measurement. To avoid this inconvenience, this paper proposes a noncontact method. In this study, only the receiver was replaced with a noncontact receiver, and then, the ultrasonic nonlinear parameters measured by the newly developed noncontact receiver were compared with those measured by the contact receiver. Results obtained using both these receivers for heat-treated aluminum alloy specimens showed good agreement. From this result, we can confirm that the ultrasonic nonlinear parameter ${\beta}$ can be measured using the proposed noncontact ultrasonic method.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.352-357
• /
• 2008

The detection of micro cracks in materials at the early stage of fracture is important in many structural safety assurance problems. The nonlinear ultrasonic technique (NUT) has been considered as a positive method for this, since it is more sensitive to micro crack than conventional linear ultrasonic methods. The basic principle is that the waveform is distorted by nonlinear stress-displacement relationship on the crack interface when the ultrasonic wave transmits through, and resultantly higher order harmonics are generated. This phenomenon is called the contact acoustic nonlinearity (CAN). The purpose of this paper is to prove the applicability of CAN experimentally by detection of micro fatigue crack artificailly initiated in Aluminum specimen. For this, we prepared fatigue specimens of Al6061 material with V-notch to initiate the crack, and the amplitude of second order harmonic was measured by scanning along the crack direction. From the results, we could see that the harmonic amplitude had good correlation with COD and it can be used to detect the crack depth in more accurately than the common 6 dB drop echo method.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.193-197
• /
• 2013

In this study, ultrasonic nonlinear characteristics in the heat-treated aluminum alloy have been evaluated. The nonlinearity of ultrasonic wave has been measured as the acoustic nonlinear parameter ${\beta}$, depending upon the amplitude ratio of the second-order harmonic and the fundamental frequency component of ultrasonic wave propagating through the materials. The parameter ${\beta}$ measurement has been carried out with the reflected signals from the back-wall of specimens at the same plane using the contact-type transducers. The heat-treatment, aging, has been achieved at $300^{\circ}C$ for various durations in the range of 1 to 50 hours. The tensile strength and elongation are obtained by the tensile test and then compared with the parameter ${\beta}$. There is a peak of the acoustic nonlinear parameter ${\beta}$ on 5 hours aging and the ${\beta}$ decreases thereafter, exhibiting closed relations with tensile strength and elongation. Also, the heat-treatment time showing peak in the parameter ${\beta}$ was identical to that showing severe change in the ${\sigma}-{\varepsilon}$ curve. These results suggest that the acoustic nonlinear parameter ${\beta}$ can be used for monitoring the strength variations with aging of aluminum alloys.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 1997.06a
• /
• pp.47-52
• /
• 1997

PVDF 고분자 압전 초츰파 변환기를 이용하여 초음파 비선형 파라케타 B/A 측정 시스템을 제작하였다. 이 측정 시스템은 종래의 비선형 파라메타 B/A측정 시스템에 있어 문제점이었던 장치의 복잡성을 대폭 간랸화할 수있으며 고차 고조파까지도 측정할 수 있는 장점이 있다. 이러한 장치를 이용하여 여러 가지 물질에 대한 B/A를 측정한 결과 다른 문헌치와 잘 일치하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.40-46
• /
• 2011

In the field application of the conventional acoustic nonlinear technique using through transmission of bulk waves to evaluate the contact acoustic nonlinearity(CAN) in solid-solid contact interfaces like as in the closed crack, it has difficulty to access inner position for attaching the pulsing or receiving transducer. In the present study, a new reflection technique has been suggested to measure the acoustic nonlinearity in solid-solid contact interfaces, which uses both of pulsing and receiving transducers on the same side of target and so that it will be very useful for the field application. For this, based on the linear and the nonlinear contact stiffness estimated by the power-model of the contacting pressure, the nonlinear parameter of the reflected ultrasonic wave at the interfaces has been theoretically calculated. Experimental results in contact interfaces of A1606l-T6 alloy specimens with loading pressure showed good agreement with the theoretical predictions, which proves the validity of the suggested reflection mode technique.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.345-351
• /
• 2010

The oblique incidence technique for ultrasonic nonlinear characterization was studied in stainless steel 316L alloy subjected to high cycle fatigue. A dog-bone plate specimen was prepared to make different faitgue-driven deformation at each position where the stress concentration could occur in the middle of specimen. In addition to the normal transmission technique, the oblique incidence technique which is newly suggested in this study, was used to measure ultrasonic nonlinear parameter. The fatigued specimen shows higher ultrasonic nonlinear parameter than the virgin specimen for both techniques. Ultrasonic nonlinear parameter highly increases in the middle of test specimen where the stress concentration existes. Relative nonlinear parameter has strong correlation with fatigue damage. Consequently, the oblique incidence technique with longitudinal wave can be potential to characterize high cycle fatigue damage.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.362-368
• /
• 2012

The objective of this study is to image the harmonic wave generated by contact acoustic nonlinearity in obliquely incident ultrasonic wave for early detection of closed cracks. A closed crack has been simulated by contacting two aluminum block specimens producing solid-solid contact interfaces and then acoustic nonlinearity has been imaged with contact pressure. Sampling phased array(SPA) and synthetic aperture focusing technique(SAFT) are used for imaging techniques. The amplitude of the fundamental frequency decreased with appling pressure. But, the amplitude of second harmonic increased with pressure and was a maximum amplitude at the simulation point of closed crack. Then, the amplitude of second harmonic decreased. As a result, harmonic imaging of contact acoustic nonlinearity is possible and it is expected to be apply for early detection of initial cracks.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.458-463
• /
• 2010

Since the acoustic nonlinearity is sensitive to the minute variation of material properties, the nonlinear ultrasonic technique(NUT) has been considered as a promising method to evaluate the material degradation or fatigue. However, there are certain limitations to apply the conventional NUT using the bulk wave to thin plates. In case of plates, the use of Lamb wave can be considered, however, the propagation characteristics of Lamb wave are completely different with the bulk wave, and thus the separate study for the nonlinearity of Lamb wave is required. For this work, this paper analyzed first the conditions of mode pair suitable for the practical application as well as for the cumulative propagation of quadratic harmonic frequency and summarized the result in for conditions; (1) phase matching, (2) non-zero power flux, (3) group velocity matching, and (4) non-zero out-of-plane displacement. Experimental results in aluminum plates showed that the amplitude of the secondary Lamb wave and nonlinear parameter growed up with increasing propagation distance at the mode pair satisfying the above all conditions and that the ration of nonlinear parameters measured in Al6061-T6 and Al1100-H15 was closed to the ratio of the absolute nonlinear parameters.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.145-152
• /
• 2010

This study evaluated the fatigue degradation in a SUS316L specimen using the nonlinear ultrasonic method. The nonlinearity of the ultrasonic wave was estimated by a relative nonlinear parameter defined as the ratio of the amplitudes for the fundamental wave to the second harmonic wave. In the experiment, a measurement system with contact transducers was constructed; reliable measurements were assured by keeping measurement conditions consistent and reducing extra harmonics generated in the measurement system. Two types of SUS316L specimen were used in experiments; a rotating bar fatigue specimen and a tensile fatigue specimen. The fatigue condition used was high cycle fatigue. The former specimen had a cylindrical shape and was used to observe the change in the nonlinear parameter after fatigue accumulation in a specimen. The latter was a plate-shaped specimen and was used to confirm the change in the nonlinear parameter at the position where the fatigue stress was concentrated. The measured nonlinear parameter showed a strong correlation to the damage level in both fatigue tests.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.651-658
• /
• 2012

This paper concentrates on the evaluation of microcracks in thermal damaged concrete on the basis of the nonlinear ultrasonic modulation technique. Since concrete structure exposed to high temperature accompanies the development of microcracks due to the physical and chemical changes from temperature and exposed time, the adoption of nonlinear approach is required. Instead of using the conventional ultrasonic nondestructive methods which have the limitation in evaluating excessive microcracks, accordingly, a nonlinear ultrasonic modulation method which shows better sensitivity in quantifying microcracks is introduced. Upon the analysis for the modulation of ultrasonic wave and low frequency impact to measure the nonlinearity parameter, which can be used as an indicator of thermal damage, the verification processes for the introduced technique are followed: SEM investigation and permeable pore space test are performed to characterize thermally induced microcracks in concrete, and ultrasonic pulse velocity tests are performed to confirm the outstanding sensitivity of nonlinear ultrasonic modulation technique. In advance, compressive strength of thermal damaged concrete is measured to represent the effect of microcracks on performance degradation. Correlation studies between experimental data and measured data show that nonlinear ultrasonic modulation technique can effectively be used to quantify thermally induced microcracks, and to estimate the compressive strength of thermally damaged concrete.