• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.230-237
• /
• 2003

Ultrasonic testing method has been developed to evaluate adhesive layers in blast tube for the reliability of the rocket. The main objective of the present work was to find debonding and missing adhesive in epoxy layer between steel and FRP layers. In this approach, the ultrasonic reflection from the interface between the steel sheet and the epoxy adhesive is measured with a high-frequency pulse-echo setup in order to identify contact debonding and missing adhesive. Then, the steel sheet is excited to resonance by low-frequency ultrasound, and the gap size underneath the measuring location is estimated from the resonance responses. For practical application in industry an automated testing system has been developed where the proposed approach is implemented. The performance of the proposed approach has been verified by actual measurement of gap sizes from the cross-sections of cut specimens using an optical microscope.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.12-17
• /
• 2006

A steam generator of nuclear power plant has thousands of thin tubes. These tubes play an important role in maintaining the pressure boundary between the primary and secondary side of nuclear power plant. The steam generator tube is easy to be damaged because of the severe operating conditions such as the high temperature and pressure. Therefore, tremendous efforts are made to assess the structural integrity of the steam generator tubes. The eddy current test is the most popular non-destructive test to assess the integrity of the tubes. However, the eddy current test has the limitation to size the flaw accurately because the eddy current signal behavior depends on the total volume of flaw. This paper shows the possibility that the ultrasonic test method can be applied to detect the flaws in the steam generator tubes and to measure them quantitatively. From the test results, it is expected that if the ultrasonic test is put to practical use in the steam generator tube inspection, the inspection results will be improved.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.475-479
• /
• 2003

Traditional ultrasonic evaluation to detect micro/small surface cracks is the pulse-echo technique using the normal immersion transducer with high frequency, or the angle beam transducer with surface wave. It is difficult to make the automatic ultrasonic system that is to detect micro and small surface crack and position on the large structure like steel and ceramic rolls, because of the huge data of inspection and the ambiguous position data of transducer. The aim of this study using the high precision scanning acoustic microscope with 10MHz large aperture transducer was to display the real time A, B, C-scan for the automatic ultrasonic system in order to detect the existence and position of surface crack. The ultrasonic method with large aperture transducer was improved the scanning time and speed over 10times faster than traditional methods.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.353-358
• /
• 2013

The ultrasonic characteristics of 2.25Cr-1Mo steel were investigated in relation to the isothermal heat treatment temperature and time. Charpy impact tests and hardness tests were conducted on individual specimens with three different heat treatment conditions. A pulse-echo method with longitudinal waves was used to measure the attenuation and velocity of ultrasonic waves. The FATT (fracture appearance transition temperature) increased with an increase in the isothermal heat treatment time, which implies that the toughness decreased. As the isothermal heat treatment time and temperature increased, the longitudinal wave velocity and ultrasonic attenuation coefficient were raised.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.85-89
• /
• 1997

In this paper, the imdedance for each layer using triple cepstrum signal processing for reflected ultrasonic signal from the multilayer structure has been analyzed. The reflection coefficient can be obtained from the amplitude and the polarity of the peaks in the triple cepstrum, and then the impedance of each layer has been reconstructed by the reflection coefficient. In this experiment, four types of multilayers consisting of different metal layers were manufactured. The reflected signals from the multilayer structure have been detected by pulse-echo method. The impedances have been reconstructed by triple cepstrum technique. The experimental results have been in good agreement with the theoretical results.

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

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.26-30
• /
• 1997

In this paper, the thickness measurement method of adhesive layers of multilayers using power cepstrum signal processing technique has been proposed. The peak values for reflected signal from each layer have been separated by power cepstrum technique. Therefore, thickness of adhesive layers have been measured by the intervals of peak signal. In the experiment, the adhesive layers of 0.5mm-0.75mm thickness using epoxy(2-Ton and Plastic Steel Putty(A)) between the aluminum and the brass were formed. The adhesive layer thickness which is calculated with data of reflected signal by ultrasonic pulse-echo method was within error 1.34% of the measured values.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.479-493
• /
• 2023

The need for safety management has arisen due to the increasing number of years of operated underground structures, such as tunnels and utility tunnels, and accidents caused by those aging infrastructures. However, in the case of privately managed underground utility ducts, there is a lack of detailed guidelines for facility safety and maintenance, resulting in inadequate safety management. Furthermore, the absence of basic design information and the limited space for safety assessments make applying currently used non-destructive testing methods challenging. Therefore, this study suggests non-destructive inspection methods using ultrasonic and impact-echo techniques to assess the quality of underground structures. Thickness, presence of rebars, depth of rebars, and the presence and depth of internal defects are assessed to provide fundamental data for the safety assessment of box-type general underground structures. To validate the proposed methodology, different conditions of concrete specimens are designed and cured to simulate actual field conditions. Applying ultrasonic and impact signals and collecting data through multi-channel accelerometers determine the thickness of the simulated specimens, the depth of embedded rebar, and the extent of defects. The predicted results are well agreed upon compared with actual measurements. The proposed methodology is expected to contribute to developing safety diagnostic methods applicable to general underground structures in practical field conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.353-362
• /
• 2016

Thermal barrier coating (TBC) is an essential element consisting of a super-alloy base and ceramic coating designed to achieve long operational time under a high temperature and pressure environment. However, the top coat of TBC can be delaminated at certain temperatures with long operation time. As the delamination of TBC is directly related to the blade damage, the coupling status of the TBC should be assured for reliable operation. Conventional studies of nondestructive evaluation have been made for detecting generation of thermally grown oxide (TGO) or qualitatively evaluating delamination in TBC. In this study, the ultrasonic C-scan method was developed to obtain the damage map inside TBC by estimating the delamination in a quantitative way. All specimens were isothermally degraded at $1,100^{\circ}C$ with different time, having different partial delamination area. To detect partial delamination in TBC, the C-scan was performed by a single transducer using pulse-echo method with normal incidence. Partial delamination coefficients of 1 mm to 6 mm were derived by the proportion of the surface reflection signal and flaw signal which were theoretical signals using Rogers-Van Buren and Kim's equations. Using the partial delamination coefficients, the partial delamination maps were obtained. Regardless of the partial delamination coefficient, partial delamination area was increased when degradation time was increased in TBC. In addition, a decrease in partial delamination area in each TBC specimen was observed when the partial delamination coefficient was increased. From the portion of the partial delamination maps, the criterion for delamination was derived.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.518-524
• /
• 2004

The feasibility of Y(z) curve method of scanning acoustic microscope using high frequency transducer was experimentally studied for assessment of the thermal degradation in Co-based superalloy. Thermal degradation was performed to simulate the microstructural changes in Co-based superalloy arising from long term exposure at high temperature. Longitudinal wave velocity measured by pulse echo method using 10MHz transducer and leaky surface acoustic wave (LSAW) velocity measured by V(z) curve method using 200MHE transducer were measured to investigate the effect on thermal degradation. Ultrasonic velocity decreased as the aging time increased in both ultrasonic waves. Moreover, the low frequency longitudinal wave velocity decreased a little. Otherwise, the high frequency LSAW velocity drastically decreased up to a maximum of 4.7% at the aging time of 4,000hours. A good correlation was found between LSAW and Vickers hardness. Consequently, V(z) curve method of SAM using high frequency transducer could be a potential tool for assessing thermal degradation.