• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.166-173
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• 2014

A noncontact nondestructive testing (NDT) method is proposed to detect the damage of pipeline structures and to identify the location of the damage. To achieve this goal, a scanning laser source actuation technique is utilized to generate a guided wave and scans a specific area to find damage location more precisely. The ND: YAG pulsed laser is used to generate Lamb wave and a piezoelectric sensor is installed to measure the structural responses. The measured responses are analyzed using three dimensional Fourier transformation (3DFT). The damage-sensitive features are extracted by wavenumber filtering based on the 3D FT. Then, flaw imaging techniques of a pipeline structures is conducted using the damage-sensitive features. Finally, the pipes with notches are investigated to verify the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed NDT approach.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.389-397
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• 1998

For an effective and efficient management of large amounts of preservice/inservice inspection(PSI/ISI) data in nuclear power plants, an intellegent Windows 95-based data management program was developed. This program enables the prompt extraction of previously conducted PSI/ISI conditions and results so that the time-consuming data management, painstaking data processing and analysis in the past are avoided. The program extracts, and the associated remedies. Furthermore, additional inspection data and comments can be easily added or deleted for subsequent PSI/ISI operation. Although the initial version of the program was applied to Kori nuclear power plant, this program can be equally applied to other nuclear power plant. And also this program can be used to offer the fundamental data for application of evaluation data related to fracture mechanics analysis(FMA), probabilistic reliability assessment(PRA) of PSI/ISI results, performance demonstration initiative(PDI) and risk-informed ISI based on probability of detection(POD) information of ultrasonic examination. Besides, the program can be further developed as a unique PSI/ISI data management expert system that can be apart of PSI/ISI data management expert system that can be a part of PSI/ISI Total Support System(TSS) for Korean nuclear power plants.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.100-107
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• 1997

It has been required to find flaws smaller than $100{\mu}m$ by fracture mechanic consideration. We prepared the infiltrated and sintered SiC structural ceramic specimens including artificial flaws, Fe, pore, WC, Si particles of size ranging from $36{\mu}m$ to $200{\mu}m$. We performed C-scan for the specimen using a high frequency and broad-band ultrasonic transducer to employ polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF) and a broad-band electric scanning system. The flaws in the ceramic specimens were detected in the high frequency detection field up to 100MHz. But, the flaws were not detected in lower frequency detection field up to 60MHz. The ratio of the detected smallest flaw size to the wavelength calculated at the center frequency, 80MHz, was about 0.25 in Rayleigh scattering region.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.162-169
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• 2012

This study detected SCC defects of dissimilar metal welded(STS304 and SA106 Gr. b) pipes using the ultrasonic infrared thermography method and the lock-in image treatment method among infrared thermography method. The infrared excitement equipment has 250 Watt of output and 20 kHz of frequency. By using the ultrasound infrared thermography method, the internal defects of dissimilar metal weld joints of pipes used at nuclear power plants could get detected. By an actual PT test, it was observed that the cracks inside the pipe existed not as a single crack but rather as a multiple cracks within a certain area and generated a hot spot image of a broad area on the thermography image. In addition, UT technology could not easily defects detected by the width of $10\;{\mu}m$ fine hair cracks. but, ultrasound infrared thermography technique was defect detected.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.46-51
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• 2015

Stainless steel is a popular structural materials for liquid-hydrogen storage containers and piping components for transporting high-temperature fluids because of its superior material properties such as high strength and high corrosion resistance at elevated temperatures. In general, tungsten inert gas (TIG) arc welding is used for bonding stainless steel. However, it is often reported that the thermal fatigue cracks or initial defects in stainless steel after welding decreases the reliability of the material. The objective of this paper is to clarify the characteristics of ultrasonic guided wave propagation in relation to a change in the initial crack length in the welding zone of stainless steel. For this purpose, three specimens with different artificial defects of 5 mm, 10 mm, and 20 mm in stainless steel welds were prepared. By considering the thickness of s stainless steel pipe, special attention was given to both the L(0,1) mode and L(0,2) mode in this study. It was clearly found that the L(0,2) mode was more sensitive to defects than the L(0,1) mode. Based on the results of the L(0,1) and L(0,2) mode analyses, the magnitude ratio of the two modes was more effective than studying each mode when evaluating defects near the welded zone of stainless steel because of its linear relationship with the length of the artificial defect.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.62-67
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• 2011

Nanoparticles-coated and impact-damaged carbon-fiber reinforced plastics(CFRP) laminates were tested under compression-after-impact(CAI) mode and the propagation of damage due to compressive loading has been monitored by acoustic emission(AE). The impact damage was induced not by mechanical loading but by a simulated lightning strike. CFRP laminates were made of carbon prepregs prepared by coating of conductive nano-particles directly on the fibers and the coupons were subjected to simulated lightning strikes with a high voltage/current impulse of 10~40 kA within a few microseconds. The effects of nano-particles coating and the degree of damage induced by the simulated lightning strikes on the AE activities were examined, and the relationship between the compressive residual strength and AE behavior has been evaluated in terms of AE event counts and the onset of AE activity with the compressive loading. The degree of impact damage was also measured in terms of damage area by using ultrasonic C-scan images. From the results assessed during the CAI tests of damaged CFRP showed that AE monitoring appeared to be very useful to differentiate the degree of damage hence the mechanical integrity of composite structures damaged by lightning strikes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.173-180
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• 2013

Compacted graphite iron(CGI), also known as vermicular graphite iron, is a metal which is gaining popularity in applications that require either greater strength, or lower weight than cast iron. Recently compacted graphite iron has been used for diesel engine blocks. Considering that using in exhaust manifold of the diesel engine, CGI340 was conducted the heat treatment during 1 hour to 96 hours from 873 to 1273 K. Mechanical characteristics were evaluated. The obtained results are as follows; The tensile strength of the heat treated specimens showed overall lower tensile strength than that of the base metal. Tensile strength decreases with increasing of heat treatment time, and the higher heat treatment temperature and the longer time, were more reduced. The fatigue limit by the ultrasonic fatigue test was approximately 130 MPa of base metal, 100 MPa of 1173 K (96 hrs) specimen, respectively. The hardness decreases with increasing heat treatment time, and the higher the heat treatment temperature was lowered hardness distribution. In CGI340, average hardness of nodular graphite was 120 Hv, average hardness of vermicular graphite was 114 Hv. This showed lower hardness than the base structure ferrite. The nodular graphite and vermicular graphite according to the heat treatment temperature and time didn't have a consistent change. However, the grain size of base structure grew with increasing of heat treatment time.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2004

It is possible to detect flaws in pipelines without interruption using all EMAT transducer because it is a non-contact transducer which can transmit ultrasonic waves into specimens without couplant. And it ran easily generate guided waves desired in each specific problem by altering the design of coil and magnet. In the present work, EMAT systems have been fabricated to generate surface waves, and selectively the plate wave of $A_1\;or\;S_1$ mode. The surface wave of 1.5MHz showed a good signal-to-noise ratio without distortion in its propagation along a pipeline, while the $S_1$ mode of 800kHz and the $A_1$ mode of 940kHz were distorted according to their dispersive properties. The wider the excitation pulse becomes, the better the mode selectivity of the plate waves becomes. A pipe of 256mm inner diameter and 5.5m thickness with 5 flaws was used for comparing the flaw detectability among the modes under consideration.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.384-389
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• 2004

As the increase of the operation year of nuclear power plants, the probabilities of the degradation of the major facilities and materials in the nuclear power plants are increased. The integrity of those facilities shall be monitored and verified by the non-destructive examination methods with the regulation codes, so called inservice inspection(ISI). The ISI of Yonggwang unit 6 was performed in four different parts, 1) non-destructive examinations for the components, piping weldments and structures, 2) automated ultrasonic examinations for pressure vessels, 3) visual examinations for the interior structures of the reactor, 4) eddy current examinations for the steam generator tubes. As the results, there was no severe indication and all detected indications were evaluated as non-relavent. Especially for the examinations of the piping weldments, PD(Performance Demonstration) was applied as a W examination method defined in the 1995 edition of ASME Code Sec. XI. The implementation of the PD for the piping weld results in an improvement of the reliability of the UT examinations.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.494-501
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• 2012

In the present paper, the ultrasound blood images were measured at both the human radial artery(RA) and common carotid artery(CCA), depending on the age, and the pulsatility index of blood echogenicity(PIBE) was analyzed. In addition, the ultrasound blood images were measured at both RA and CCA of both the stroke patients and the control group, and PIBE was compared. PIBE of RA for the young group was similar with that for the old group ($0.13{\pm}0.11$ and $0.16{\pm}0.03$). PIBE of CCA for the young group, however, was larger than that for the old group ($0.70{\pm}0.21$ and $0.32{\pm}0.01$), and was more variable depending on the subject. Similarly, the fibrinogen concentrations of the patients ($336{\pm}61$ and $340{\pm}126mg/dl$) were more than that of the control group ($264{\pm}38$ and $257{\pm}43mg/dl$), for both RA and CCA. The results indicate the possibility of the ultrasonic test on the correlation between erythrocyte aggregation and stroke, and it is expected that the in-vivo EA measurement would be clinically useful.