• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.173-184
• /
• 2019

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the true fracture energy and monitor the damage progression in steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) specimens using acoustic emission (AE) features. Four point bending test is carried out using pre-notched plain and fibre reinforced (0.5% and 1% volume fraction) - concrete under monotonic loading. AE sensors are affixed at different locations of the specimens and AE parameters such as rise time, AE energy, hits, counts, amplitude and duration etc. are obtained. Using the captured and processed AE event data, fracture process zone is identified and the true fracture energy is evaluated. The AE data is also employed for tracing the damage progression in plain and fibre reinforced concrete, using both parametric- and signal- based techniques. Hilbert - Huang transform (HHT) is used in signal based processing for evaluating instantaneous frequency of the acoustic events. It is found that the appropriately processed and carefully analyzed acoustic data is capable of providing vital information on progression of damage on different types of concrete.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.6 no.5_6
• /
• pp.689-709
• /
• 2010

In this paper, a low cost, low power but multifunctional wireless sensor node is presented for the impedance-based SHM using piezoelectric sensors. Firstly, a miniaturized impedance measuring chip device is utilized for low cost and low power structural excitation/sensing. Then, structural damage detection/sensor self-diagnosis algorithms are embedded on the on-board microcontroller. This sensor node uses the power harvested from the solar energy to measure and analyze the impedance data. Simultaneously it monitors temperature on the structure near the piezoelectric sensor and battery power consumption. The wireless sensor node is based on the TinyOS platform for operation, and users can take MATLAB$^{(R)}$ interface for the control of the sensor node through serial communication. In order to validate the performance of this multifunctional wireless impedance sensor node, a series of experimental studies have been carried out for detecting loose bolts and crack damages on lab-scale steel structural members as well as on real steel bridge and building structures. It has been found that the proposed sensor nodes can be effectively used for local wireless health monitoring of structural components and for constructing a low-cost and multifunctional SHM system as "place and forget" wireless sensors.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.435-457
• /
• 2015

The most widely known form of multifunctional aircraft structure is smart structures for structural health monitoring (SHM). The aim is to provide automated systems whose purposes are to identify and to characterize possible damage within structures by using a network of actuators and sensors. Unfortunately, environmental and operational variability render many of the proposed damage detection methods difficult to successfully be applied. In this paper, an original robust damage detection approach using output-only vibration data is proposed. It is based on independent component analysis and matrix perturbation analysis, where an analytical threshold is proposed to get rid of statistical assumptions usually performed in damage detection approach. The effectiveness of the proposed SHM method is demonstrated numerically using finite element simulations and experimentally through a conformal load-bearing antenna structure and composite plates instrumented with piezoelectric ceramic materials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
• /
• 2015.11a
• /
• pp.102-133
• /
• 2015

Nature, such as plants, insects, and marine animals, uses micro/nano-textured surfaces in their components (e.g., leaves, wings, eyes, legs, and skins) for multiple purposes, such as water-repellency, anti-adhesiveness, and self-cleanness. Such multifunctional surface properties are attributed to three-dimensional surface structures with modulated surface wettability. Especially, hydrophobic surface structures create a composite interface with liquid by retaining air between the structures, minimizing the contact area with liquid. Such non-wetting surface property, so-called superhydrophobicity, can offer numerous application potentials, such as hydrodynamic drag reduction, anti-biofouling, anti-corrosion, anti-fogging, anti-frosting, and anti-icing. Over the last couple of decades, we have witnessed a significant advancement in the understanding of surface superhydrophobicity as well as the design, fabrication, and applications of superhydrophobic coatings/surfaces/materials. In this talk, the designs, fabrications, and applications of superhydrophobic surfaces for multifunctionalities will be presented, including hydrodynamic friction reduction, anti-biofouling, anti-corrosion, and anti-icing.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.115-122
• /
• 2016

Melanin is a common name used for a certain type of natural dark pigments existing in living organisms, particularly in human hair, eyes, and skin. The unique free radical scavenging effect of melanine could help protecting cells and tissues from harmful UV light. While their exact molecular structures in nature are not still well defined, their multifunctional properties including electrical and ionic conductivities, antioxidation, wet adhesion, and metal ion chelation, are highlighted for the potential applications in bioorganic electronics including biomedical sensors and devices. In this mini-review, we will discuss sources, synthesis methods, structures and multifunctional properties of melanin materials in addition to current research directions on a wide range of applications.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.529-539
• /
• 2019

Current paper deals with thermoelastic static and free vibrational behaviors of axisymmetric thick cylinders reinforced with functionally graded (FG) randomly oriented graphene subjected to internal pressure and thermal gradient loads. The heat transfer and mechanical analyses of randomly oriented graphene-reinforced nanocomposite (GRNC) cylinders are facilitated by developing a weak form mesh-free method based on moving least squares (MLS) shape functions. Furthermore, in order to estimate the material properties of GRNC with temperature dependent components, a modified Halpin-Tsai model incorporated with two efficiency parameters is utilized. It is assumed that the distributions of graphene nano-sheets are uniform and FG along the radial direction of nanocomposite cylinders. By comparing with the exact result, the accuracy of the developed method is verified. Also, the convergence of the method is successfully confirmed. Then we investigated the effects of graphene distribution and volume fraction as well as thermo-mechanical boundary conditions on the temperature distribution, static response and natural frequency of the considered FG-GRNC thick cylinders. The results disclosed that graphene distribution has significant effects on the temperature and hoop stress distributions of FG-GRNC cylinders. However, the volume fraction of graphene has stronger effect on the natural frequencies of the considered thick cylinders than its distribution.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.25 no.8
• /
• pp.646-650
• /
• 2012

Multifunctional structures with two kinds of materials have been intensively investigated in order to improve their electrical characteristic with two functions simultaneously. However, the research regarding of multifunctional ceramic sensor is still in a preliminary stage and how to integrate them with low-cost and high-yield mass production process remains a challenge issue. In this study, we fabricated the multifunctional ceramic sensor composed of temperature and gas sensors. Moreover, we investigated the CO sensing properties of three dimensional nanostuctured $Nb_2O_5$ thin film gas sensors fabricated with silica ($SiO_2$ nanosphere (${\O}$= 750 nm). Compared to plain films, the nanostructured films show enhanced gas sensing of greater sensitivity and a faster response. This result reveals that significantly increased sensitivity is an increase in the effective surface area for the adsorption of gas molecules.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.23-39
• /
• 2013

In this article, a smart multifunctional optical system-on-a-chip (SOC) sensor platform is presented and its application for fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor interrogation in optical sensor networks is investigated. The smart SOC sensor platform consists of a superluminescent diode as a broadband source, a tunable microelectromechanical system (MEMS) based Fabry-P$\acute{e}$rot filter, photodetectors, and an integrated microcontroller for data acquisition, processing, and communication. Integrated with a wireless sensor network (WSN) module in a compact package, a smart optical sensor node is developed. The smart multifunctional sensor platform has the capability of interrogating different types of optical fiber sensors, including Fabry-P$\acute{e}$rot sensors and Bragg grating sensors. As a case study, the smart optical sensor platform is demonstrated to interrogate multiplexed FBG strain sensors. A time domain signal processing method is used to obtain the Bragg wavelength shift of two FBG strain sensors through sweeping the MEMS tunable Fabry-P$\acute{e}$rot filter. A tuning range of 46 nm and a tuning speed of 10 Hz are achieved. The smart optical sensor platform will open doors to many applications that require high performance optical WSNs.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.13-27
• /
• 2005

Simultaneous precision positioning and vibration suppression of a reciprocating flexible manipulator is investigated in this paper. The flexible manipulator is driven by a multifunctional active strut with fuzzy logic controllers. The multifunctional active strut is a combination of a motor assembly and a piezoelectric stack actuator to simultaneously provide precision positioning and wide frequency bandwidth vibration suppression capabilities. First, the multifunctional active strut and the flexible manipulator are introduced, and their dynamic models are derived. A control strategy is then proposed, which includes a position controller and a vibration controller to achieve simultaneous precision positioning and vibration suppression of the flexible manipulator. Next, fuzzy logic control approach is presented to design a fuzzy logic position controller and a fuzzy logic vibration controller. Finally, experiments are conducted for the fuzzy logic controllers and the experimental results are compared with those from a PID control scheme consisting of a PID position controller and a PID vibration control. The comparison indicates that the fuzzy logic controller can easily handle the non-linearity in the strut and provide higher position accuracy and better vibration reduction with less control power consumption.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.34-37
• /
• 2019

Gadolinium contrast agents (CAs) are integral components of clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, safety concerns have arisen regarding the use of gadolinium CAs, due to their association with nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF). Furthermore, recently the long-term retention of $Gd^{3+}-based$ CAs in brains patients with normal renal function raised another possible safety issue. The safety concerns of $Gd^{3+}-based$ CAs have been based on the ligand structure of $Gd^{3+}-based$ CAs, and findings that $Gd^{3+}-based$ CAs with linear ligand structures showed much higher incidences of NSF and brain retention of CAs than $Gd^{3+}-based$ CAs with macrocyclic ligand structure. In the current study, we report the in vivo biodistribution profile of a new highly stable multifunctional $Gd^{3+}-based$ CA, with macrocyclic ligand structure (HNP-2006). MR imaging using HNP-2006 demonstrated a significant contrast enhancement in many different organs. Furthermore, the contrast enhanced tumor imaging using HNP-2006 confirmed that this new macrocyclic CA can be used for detecting tumor in the central nervous system. Therefore, this new multifunctional HNP-2006 with macrocyclic ligand structure shows great promise for whole-body clinical application.