• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.540-544
• /
• 2012

Like the phase array based ultrasonic system, complicated electronics has been used for real time signal processing in the magnetostrictive long-range ultrasonic testing(LRUT) system. This study shows that the software approach including the phase compensation, noise filtering and waveform transformation takes advantage rather than the previous hardware approach. Furthermore, it is possible for the software approach to be able more flexible and efficient realtime signal processing. These results will contribute to a cost-effective LRUT system and analysis of the inspection data.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.416-420
• /
• 2008

In EMAT field, spiral RF coils are much more widely used when compared with solenoid coils. In the field of the magnetostrictive strip transducers for long range ultrasonic testing of cylindrical structures, however, solenoid coils has been used. This seems to be attributed to the difficulty in fabricating low frequency (i.e., large size) spiral coils. In this paper, we describe a method for fabricating spiral coil magnetostrictive strip guided wave transducers from FFC (flexible flat cable). It is demonstrated through a comparison experiment that the spiral coil transducer has much superior performance (sensitivity, SNR, and guided wave direction control capability) than the previous transducer with solenoid coils.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.69-72
• /
• 2013

In long-range ultrasonic testing, a phased array probe composed of multiple identical transducers with an uniform interval of one quarter wavelength is usually used for the transmission or reception directivity control. This paper shows that the propagation directions of individual echoes can be identified in real time by displaying the inputs of a process for summing the constitution reception signals after compensating the phase difference due to the transducer interval, together with the output of the process. A constructive interference of the constitution echoes indicates a forward direction echo propagating along an intended direction while a destructive interference implies a reverse direction echo propagating along the direction opposite to the intended one.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.219-225
• /
• 2013

Separate and layered transmitting and receiving spiral coil arrays had been used for the optimized individual applications of magnetostrictive type long-range ultrasonic testing. In this study, it was demonstrated that when taking advantages of the spiral coils with the leg width reduced to be half of the previous one and of the empty spaces due to the decrease of leg width, the transmitting and receiving coil array can be arranged to form a single layer structure allowing more easy use and fabrication. Because of the number of turns of the receiving coils that is proportional to their leg width, the sensitivity of the single layer coil array was about half that of the corresponding double layer coil array while it allowed the receiving amplifier to get faster recovery from a saturation due to the main bang echo. It was also found that the two types of coil arrays have almost the same performances in the view points of signal-to-noise ratio and directivity control.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.364-371
• /
• 2003

In this paper, a review of the current status, on the use of long range cylindrically guided wave modes, and their interaction with cracks and corrosion damage in pipe-like structures will be discussed. Applications of cylindrically guided ultrasonic wave modes have been developed for inspection of corrosion damage in pipelines at chemical plants, flow-accelerated corrosion damage (wall thinning) in feedwater piping, and circumferential stress corrosion cracks in PWR steam generator tubes. It has been demonstrated that this inspection technique can be employed on a variety of piping geometries (diameters from 1 in. to 3 ft, and wall thickness from 0.1 to 6 in.) and a propagation distance of 100 meters or more is sometimes feasible. This technique can also be used in the inspection of inaccessible or buried regions of pipes and tubes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2013

Ultrasonic guided wave techniques have been widely used for long range nondestructive detection in tube-like structures. The present paper investigates the ultrasonic linear and nonlinear parameters for evaluating the thermal damage in aluminum pipe. Specimens were subjected to thermal loading. Flexible polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) comb transducers were used to generate and receive the ultrasonic waves. The second harmonic wave generation technique was used to check the material nonlinearity change after different heat loadings. The conventional linear ultrasonic approach based on attenuation was also used to evaluate the thermal damages in specimens. The results show that the proposed experimental setup is viable to assess the thermal damage in an aluminum pipe. The ultrasonic nonlinear parameter is a promising candidate for the prediction of micro-damages in a tube-like structure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.205-210
• /
• 2008

Magnetic hysteresis loops of a nickel strip and a Fe-Co alloy strip, which have been used in magnetostrictive strip type guided wave transducers for long range ultrasonic testing of pipelines, were measured and then magnetic property effects of a strip on transducer sensitivity were analyzed. The sensitivity of an optimized Fe-Co strip transducer was superior to that of the nickel strip transducer by a factor of about 30. It was shown that this was mainly attributed to the differences in remanence magnetization and coercivity of the two magnetostrictive materials.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.114-121
• /
• 2009

Ultrasonic guided waves have been widely utilized for long range inspection of structures. Especially, development of array guided waves techniques and its application for long range gas pipe lines(length of from hundreds meters to few km) were getting increased. In this study, focusing algorithm for array guided waves was developed in order to improve long range inspectability and accuracy of the array guided waves techniques for long range inspection of gas pipes, and performance of the developed techniques was verified by experiments using the developed array guided wave system. As a result, S/N ratio of array guided wave signals obtained with the focusing algorithm was increased higher than that of signals without focusing algorithm.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.391-407
• /
• 2019

Tracking the location (position) of a surface or underwater marine vehicle is important as part of guidance and navigation. While the Global Positioning System (GPS) works well in an open sea environment but its use is limited whenever testing scaled-down models of such vehicles in the laboratory environment. This paper presents the design, development and implementation of a low energy ultrasonic augmented single beacon-based localization technique suitable for such requirements. The strategy consists of applying Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to achieve location tracking from basic dynamic distance measurements of the moving model from a fixed beacon, while on-board motion sensor measures heading angle and velocity. Iterative application of the Extended Kalman Filter yields x and y co-ordinate positions of the moving model. Tests performed on a free-running ship model in a wave basin facility of dimension 30 m by 30 m by 3 m water depth validate the proposed model. The test results show quick convergence with an error of few centimeters in the estimated position of the ship model. The proposed technique has application in the real field scenario by replacing the ultrasonic sensor with industrial grade long range acoustic modem. As compared with the existing systems such as LBL, SBL, USBL and others localization techniques, the proposed technique can save deployment cost and also cut the cost on number of acoustic modems involved.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.36 no.6
• /
• pp.707-712
• /
• 2012

Very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) behavior of aerospace components has emerged much attention due to their long service life. In this study, a piezoelectric ultrasonic fatigue testing (UFT) system has been developed by Mbrosiatec Co., Ltd. to study the high cycle fatigue (HCF) strength of Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Hourglass-shaped specimens have been investigated in the range from $10^6$ to $10^9$ cycles at room temperature under completely reversed R = -1 loading conditions,. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed that failures occurred in the entire range up to the gigacycle regime, and the fractures have beenfound to be initiated from the surface, unlike in steels. However, it was found from the SEM microgprahs that microcracks transformed into intergranular fractures. Thus, it can be concluded from according to the results that this test method can be applicable to commercialized automotive and railroad parts that require high cycle fatigue strength.