• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.528-535
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• 2004

Ultrasonic Vibrator is designed to achieve the maximum vibration amplitude at 30 kHz by in-cluding a horn (diameter, 40 mm), mechanical vibration amplifier at the top of the ultrasonic vibrator in the system and making the complete system resonate. In addition, it is experimentally visualized by particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) that the acoustic streaming velocity in the gap is at maximum when the gap between the ultrasonic vibrator and stationary plate agrees with the multiples of half-wavelength of the ultrasonic wave. This fact results from the resonance of the sound wave and the theoretical analysis of that is also accomplished and verified by experiment. It is observed that the magnitude of the acoustic streaming dependent upon the gap between the ultrasonic vibrator and stationary plate possibly changes due to the measurement of the average velocity fields of the acoustic streaming induced by the ultrasonic vibration at resonance and non-resonance. There exists extremely small average velocity at non-resonant gaps while the relatively large average velocity exists at resonant gaps compared with non-resonant gaps. It also reveals that there should be larger axial turbulent intensity at the hub region of the vibrator and at the edge of it in the resonant gap where the air streaming velocity is maximized and the flow phenomena is conspicuous than that at the other region. Because the variation of the acoustic streaming velocity at resonant gap is more distinctive than that at non-resonant gap, shear stress increases more in the resonant gap and is also maximized at the center region of the vibrator except the local position of center (r〓0). At the non-resonant gap there should be low values of vorticity distribution, but in contrast to the non-resonant gap, high and negative values of it exist at the center region of the vibrator with respect to the radial direction and in the vicinity of the middle region with respect to the axial direction. Acoustic streaming is noise-free due to the ultrasonic vibration and maintenance-free because of the absence of moving parts. Moreover, the proposed method by acoustic streaming can be utilized to the nano and micro-electro mechanical systems as a driving mechanism in addition to the augmentation of the streaming velocity.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.449-464
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• 2008

An array based, outward monitoring, ultrasonic guided wave based SHM technique using a single transmitter and multiple receivers (STMR), with a small footprint is discussed here. The previous implementation of such SHM arrays used a phase-reconstruction algorithm (that is similar to the beam-steering algorithm) for the imaging of reflectors. These algorithms were found to have a limitation during the imaging of defects/reflectors that are present in the "near-field" of the array. Here, the "near-field" is defined to be approximately 3-4 times the diameter of the compact array. This limitation is caused by approximations in the beam-steering reconstruction algorithm. In this paper, a migration-based reconstruction algorithm, with dispersion correction in the frequency domain, is discussed. Simulation and experimental studies are used to demonstrate that this algorithm improves the reconstruction in the "near-field" without decreasing the ability to reconstruct defects in the "far-field" in both isotropic and anisotropic plates.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.17-29
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• 2016

Ultrasonic tomography is a powerful tool for identifying defects within an object or structure. But practical application of ultrasonic tomography to solids is often limited by time consuming transducer coupling. Air-coupled ultrasonic measurements may eliminate the coupling problem and allow for more rapid data collection and tomographic image construction. This research aims to integrate recent developments in air-coupled ultrasonic measurements with current tomography reconstruction routines to improve testing capability. The goal is to identify low velocity inclusions (air-filled voids and notches) within solids using constructed velocity images. Finite element analysis is used to simulate the experiment in order to determine efficient data collection schemes. Comparable air-coupled ultrasonic signals are then collected through homogeneous and isotropic solid (PVC polymer) samples. Volumetric (void) and planar (notch) inclusions within the samples are identified in the constructed velocity tomograms for a variety of transducer configurations. Although there is some distortion of the inclusions, the experimentally obtained tomograms accurately indicate their size and location. Reconstruction error values, defined as misidentification of the inclusion size and position, were in the range of 1.5-1.7%. Part 2 of this paper set will describe the application of this imaging technique to concrete that contains inclusions.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.41-44
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• 1986

The objective of tissue characterization is to provide quantitative information about the physical state of tissue interrogated by an ultrasound beam. In the computer simulation, it was found that the echoes were composed of the interferences of the ultrasonic waves reflected from both sides of the thin object, and could be separated by the spectral correlation method. Also, the phantom study demonstrates that thickness of the thin acryl layer beyond the resolution of common ultrasonic imaging systems can be measured- using this method.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2020

Large-scale industrial facility structures continue to deteriorate due to the effects of operating and environmental conditions. The problems of these industrial facilities are potentially causing economic losses, environmental pollution, casualties, and national losses. Accordingly, in order to prevent disaster accidents of large structures in advance, the necessity of diagnosing structures using non-destructive inspection techniques is being highlighted. The defect occurrence, location and defect type of the structure are important parameters for predicting the remaining life of the structure, so continuous defect observation is very important. Recently, many researchers have been actively researching real-time monitoring technology to solve these problems. Structure Health Monitoring Inspection is a technology that can identify and respond to the occurrence of defects in real time, but there is a limit to check the degree of defects and the direction of growth of defects. In order to compensate for the shortcomings of these technologies, the importance of defect imaging techniques is emerging, and in order to find defects in large structures, a method of inspecting a wide range using guided ultrasonic is effective. The work presented here introduces a calculation for the shape factor for evaluation of the damaged area, as well as a variable β parameter technique to correct a damaged shape. Also, we perform research in modeling simulation and an experiment for comparison with a suggested inspection method and verify its validity. The curved structure image obtained by the advanced RAPID algorithm showed a good match between the defect area and the shape.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.3E
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• pp.111-118
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• 2010

Three-dimensional ultrasound imaging is a new, exciting technology that allows physicians to use ultrasound to view pathology as a volume, thereby enhancing comprehension of patient anatomy. In this paper, a brief history of the 3-D ultrasound imaging is described in accordance with the development of transducer technology. Then, two representative types of 3-D imaging transducers are reviewed with description of the concept and operation principle of each type: mechanical transducer and matrix array transducer. The mechanical transducer is detailed into free-hand scanning and sequential scanning types. Advantages of each transducer over the other and the technical issues for further performance enhancement are also presented.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.476-484
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• 2019

Photoacoustic imaging is a hybrid real-time imaging technique that combines high optical contrast and ultrasonic resolution. It has primarily been utilized in pre-clinical research and has evolved into clinical practice. In this paper, we review photoacosutic imaging for detection of primary canccer and metastatis and its limitation in translation from pre-clinical to clinical application.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.233-240
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• 2009

Using a spatial compound imaging technique in a medical ultrasound imaging system, the average speed of sound in a medium of interest is measured, and imaging of its distribution is implemented. When the brightness reaches the highest level in an ultrasonic image obtained as the speed of sound used in focusing is varied, it turns out that the focusing has been accomplished satisfactorily and that the speed of sound which has been adopted becomes the sought-after average speed of sound. Because spatial compound imaging provides many different views of the same object, the adverse effect of erroneous speed-of-sound estimation tends to be more severe in compound imaging than in plain B-mode imaging. Thus, in compound imaging, the average speed of sound even in the case of speckled images can be accurately estimated by observing the brightness change due to different speeds of sound employed. Using this new method that offers spatial diversity, we can construct an image of the speed of sound distribution in a phantom embedded with a 10-mm diameter plastic cylinder whose speed of sound is different from that of the background. The speed of sound in the cylinder is found to be different from that of the surrounding medium.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.64-68
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• 2013

Non destructive testing(NDT) methods of electrofusion(EF) joints of thermoplastics pipes are required for fusion joint safety and for the long term reliability of a pipe system. Electrofusion joints, which are joined at the proper fusion process and procedures, may encounter defects due to the difference of ovality between pipes and coupling, improper fusion process or porosity result from electrofusion joining. These defects can cause the failure of pipeline and by extension, they can be caused the limit to expand the use of plastics pipes. This paper studies inspection results using ultrasonic imaging method for damaged polyethylene electrofusion joints. Gas was leaking from 250mm diameter polyethylene electrofusion joints at February 2004 which was electrofused at December 1994 and operation pressure was 2.45kPa. First, surface inspection was conducted and then in order to find the types of defects examination using ultrasonic imaging method was performed. Lack of fusion and inappropriate inserting for polyethylene pipes into electrofusion coupling were found and causes of the gas leak were judged that misalignment and insert defect. Cutting inspection was performed and each inspection results were compared to. Results of ultrasonic imaging method and cutting inspection were the same.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.123-130
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• 2014

An ultrasonic magnetostrictive transducer-based phased-array system for imaging defects in plate structures is newly proposed. In that most ultrasonic phased array systems rely on piezoelectric transducers or electromagnetic acoustic transducers, this system has its own unique feature of employing magnetostrictive transducers. Interest in using a phased array system using magnetostrictive transducers has been recently reported for pipe inspection but no such system has been developed for plate inspection. In this investigation, we aim to propose a phased array system using OL-MPTs (Omnidirectional Lamb wave Magnetostrictive Patch Transducers) for plate inspection. The developed system consists of a multi-channel function generator, power amplifiers, preamplifiers and a data acquisition unit. In the process of its development, each of the units must be checked and in doing so, we suggest types of ultrasonic wave experiments that should be carried out. Finally, the phased system using a transducer array composed of eight OL-MPTs is newly configured and is applied for actual crack detection experiments.