• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.13-27
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• 2023

Fatigue crack is a fatal problem for steel structures. Early detection and maintenance can help extend the service life and prevent hazards. This paper presents the ultrasonic guided waves-based (UGWs-based) fatigue crack detection of a steel I-beam. The semi-analytical finite element model has been built to obtain the wave propagation characteristics. Damage indices in both time and frequency domains were analyzed by considering the characteristic variations of UGWs including the amplitude, phase angle, and wave packet energy. The pulse-echo and pitch-catch methods were combined in the detection scheme. Lab-scale experiments were conducted on welded steel I-beams to verify the proposed method. Results show that the damage indices based on the characteristic variations in the time domain can identify and localize the fatigue crack before it enters the rapid growth stage. The damage severity can be reasonably evaluated by analyzing the time-domain damage indices. Two nonlinear damage indices in the frequency domain give earlier warnings of the fatigue crack than the time-domain damage indices do. The identification results based on the above two nonlinear indices are found to be less consistent under various excitation frequencies. More robust nonlinear techniques needed to be searched and tested for early crack detection in steel I-beams in further study.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.683-696
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• 2017

In this study, the reliability of nonlinear ultrasonic modulation based fatigue crack detection is improved using a feature-level data fusion approach. When two ultrasonic inputs at two distinct frequencies are applied to a specimen with a fatigue crack, modulation components at the summation and difference of these two input frequencies appear. First, the spectral amplitudes of the modulation components and their spectral correlations are defined as individual features. Then, a 2D feature space is constructed by combining these two features, and the presence of a fatigue crack is identified in the feature space. The effectiveness of the proposed fatigue crack detection technique is experimentally validated through cyclic loading tests of aluminum plates, full-scale steel girders and a rotating shaft component. Subsequently, the improved reliability of the proposed technique is quantitatively investigated using receiver operating characteristic analysis. The uniqueness of this study lies in (1) improvement of nonlinear ultrasonic modulation based fatigue crack detection reliability using feature-level data fusion, (2) reference-free fatigue crack diagnosis without using the baseline data obtained from the intact condition of the structure, (3) application to full-scale steel girders and shaft component, and (4) quantitative investigation of the improved reliability using receiver operating characteristic analysis.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.13-25
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• 2020

One of the most important aspects in structural health monitoring is the detection of fatigue damage. Structural components such as heavy-duty bolts work under high dynamic loads, and thus are prone to accumulate fatigue damage and cracks may originate. Those heavy-duty bolts are used, for example, in wind power generation and mining equipment. Therefore, the investigation of new and more effective monitoring technologies attracts a great interest. In this study the acoustic emission (AE) technology was employed to detect incipient damage during fatigue testing of a M36 bolt. Initial results showed that the AE signals have a high level of background noise due to how the load is applied by the fatigue testing machine. Thus, an advanced signal processing method in the time-frequency domain, the Hilbert-Huang Spectrum (HHS), was applied to reveal AE components buried in background noise in form of high-frequency peaks that can be associated with damage progression. Accordingly, the main contribution of the present study is providing insights regarding the detection of incipient damage during fatigue testing using AE signals and providing recommendations for further research.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.603-609
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• 1990

Detection and non-propagating cracks of small fatigue crack for smooth and pre-cracked specimens were examined in a carbon steel. The fretting oxide induced crack closure triggered by the roughness induced crack closure has an important role in determing the length. The fatigue limit for the with no cracks or with a short pre-crack is lower at R=-1 than that at R=0. A non-propagating crack are quite different between points near the specimen's surface and those of deepest penetration.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.44-48
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• 2016

Driver fatigue is a major cause of fatal road accidents and has significant implications in road safety. In recent years, researchers have investigated steering wheel grip force as an alternative method to detect driver fatigue noninvasively and in real time. In this study, a fatigue detection system was developed by monitoring the grip force and changes in the grip force were measured while participants' engaged in an interactive simulated driving task. The study also measured the participants' subjective sleepiness to ensure the validity of measuring grip force. The results indicated that while participants engaged in a driving task, steering wheel grip force decreased and subjective sleepiness increased concurrently over time. The possible applications of the driver fatigue detection system by steering wheel grip force and future guidelines are discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.4
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• pp.407-416
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• 2019

This paper develops a wireless sensor for online fatigue crack detection and failure warning based on crack-induced nonlinear ultrasonic modulation. The wireless sensor consists of packaged piezoelectric (PZT) module, an excitation/sensing module, a data acquisition/processing module, a wireless communication module, and a power supply module. The packaged PZT and the excitation/sensing module generate ultrasonic waves on a structure and capture the response. Based on nonlinear ultrasonic modulation created by a crack, the data acquisition/processing module periodically performs fatigue crack diagnosis and provides failure warning if a component failure is imminent. The outcomes are transmitted to a base through the wireless communication module where two-levels duty cycling media access control (MAC) is implemented. The uniqueness of the paper lies in that 1) the proposed wireless sensor is developed specifically for online fatigue crack detection and failure warning, 2) failure warning as well as crack diagnosis are provided based on crack-induced nonlinear ultrasonic modulation, 3) event-driven operation of the sensor, considering rare extreme events such as earthquakes, is made possible with a power minimization strategy, and 4) the applicability of the wireless sensor to steel welded members is examined through field and laboratory tests. A fatigue crack on a steel welded specimen was successfully detected when the overall width of the crack was around $30{\mu}m$, and a failure warnings were provided when about 97.6% of the remaining useful fatigue lives were reached. Four wireless sensors were deployed on Yeongjong Grand Bridge in Souht Korea. The wireless sensor consumed 282.95 J for 3 weeks, and the processed results on the sensor were transmitted up to 20 m with over 90% success rate.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.6 no.9
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• pp.2341-2350
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• 2012

Face detection is the first step of vision-based driver fatigue detection method. Traditional face detection methods have problems of high false-detection rates and long detection times. A space-time restrained Adaboost method is presented in this paper that resolves these problems. Firstly, the possible position of a driver's face in a video frame is measured relative to the previous frame. Secondly, a space-time restriction strategy is designed to restrain the detection window and scale of the Adaboost method to reduce time consumption and false-detection of face detection. Finally, a face knowledge restriction strategy is designed to confirm that the faces detected by this Adaboost method. Experiments compare the methods and confirm that a driver's face can be detected rapidly and precisely.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.17-34
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• 2022

For steel structures, fatigue cracks are critical damage induced by long-term cycle loading and distortion effects. Vision-based crack detection can be a solution to ensure structural integrity and performance by continuous monitoring and non-destructive assessment. A critical issue is to distinguish cracks from other features in captured images which possibly consist of complex backgrounds such as handwritings and marks, which were made to record crack patterns and lengths during periodic visual inspections. This study presents a parametric study on image-based crack identification for orthotropic steel bridge decks using captured images with complicated backgrounds. Firstly, a framework for vision-based crack segmentation using the atrous convolution-based Deeplapv3+ network (ACDN) is designed. Secondly, features on crack images are labeled to build three databanks by consideration of objects in the backgrounds. Thirdly, evaluation metrics computed from the trained ACDN models are utilized to evaluate the effects of obstacles on crack detection results. Finally, various training parameters, including image sizes, hyper-parameters, and the number of training images, are optimized for the ACDN model of crack detection. The result demonstrated that fatigue cracks could be identified by the trained ACDN models, and the accuracy of the crack-detection result was improved by optimizing the training parameters. It enables the applicability of the vision-based technique for early detecting tiny fatigue cracks in steel structures.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.35 no.9C
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• pp.756-760
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• 2010

This paper is proposed to an novel facial behavior recognition system for driver's fatigue detection. Facial behavior is shown in various facial feature such as head expression, head pose, gaze, wrinkles. But it is very difficult to clearly discriminate a certain behavior by the obtained facial feature. Because, the behavior of a person is complicated and the face representing behavior is vague in providing enough information. The proposed system for facial behavior recognition first performs detection facial feature such as eye tracking, facial feature tracking, furrow detection, head orientation estimation, head motion detection and indicates the obtained feature by AU of FACS. On the basis of the obtained AU, it infers probability each state occur through Bayesian network.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.569-584
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• 2016

This paper presents a method for stochastic modelling of fatigue crack growth and optimising inspection and maintenance strategy for the structural members of steel bridges. The fatigue crack evolution is considered as a stochastic process with uncertainties, and the Gamma process is adopted to simulate the propagation of fatigue crack in steel bridge members. From the stochastic modelling for fatigue crack growth, the probability of failure caused by fatigue is predicted over the service life of steel bridge members. The remaining fatigue life of steel bridge members is determined by comparing the fatigue crack length with its predetermined threshold. Furthermore, the probability of detection is adopted to consider the uncertainties in detecting fatigue crack by using existing damage detection techniques. A multi-objective optimisation problem is proposed and solved by a genetic algorithm to determine the optimised inspection and maintenance strategy for the fatigue affected steel bridge members. The optimised strategy is achieved by minimizing the life-cycle cost, including the inspection, maintenance and failure costs, and maximizing the service life after necessary intervention. The number of intervention during the service life is also taken into account to investigate the relationship between the service life and the cost for maintenance. The results from numerical examples show that the proposed method can provide a useful approach for cost-effective inspection and maintenance strategy for fatigue affected steel bridges.