• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.152-165
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• 1998

This study proposes the analysis and evaluation method of time series ultrasonic signal using the chaoral post-process system for precision rate enhancement of ultrasonic pattern recognition. Chaos features extracted from time series data for analysis quantitatively weld defects For this purpose, feature extraction objectives in this study are fractal dimension, Lyapunov exponent, shape of strange attrator. Trajectory changes in the strange attractor indicated that even same type of defects carried substantial difference in chaoticity resulting from distance shifts such as nearby 0.5, 1.0 skip distance. Such difference in chaoticity enables the evaluation of unique features of defects in the weld zone. In quantitative chaos fenture extraction, feature values of 0.835 and 0.823 in the case of slag inclusion and 0.609 and 0.573 in the case of crack were suggested on the basis of fractal dimension and Lyapunov exponent. Proposed chaoral post-process system in this study can enhances precision rate of ultrasonic pattern recognition results from defect signals of weld zone, such as slag inclusion and crack.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.621-626
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• 2002

The amplitude of a back-wall echo depends on the reflection coefficient of the interface between a transducer and a test material when using contact pulse-echo ultrasonic testing. A couplant is used to transmit ultrasonic energy across the interface, but has an influence on the amplitude of the pulse-echo signal. To investigate the couplant effect on pulse-echo ultrasonic testing, back-wall echoes are measured by using various couplants made of water and glycerine in a carbon and austenitic stainless steel specimens. The amplitude of the first back-wall echo and the apparent attenuation coefficient increases with the acoustic impedance of the couplant. The couplant having a higher value of the transmission coefficient is more effective for flaw detection. The reflection coefficient should be known in order to measure the attenuation coefficient of the test material.

• Biomedical Engineering Letters
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.355-364
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• 2018

When focusing using an ultrasonic transducer array, a main lobe is formed in the focal region of an ultrasound field, but side lobes also arise around the focal region due to the leakage. Since the side lobes cannot be completely eliminated in the focusing process, they are responsible for subsequent ultrasound image quality degradation. To improve ultrasound image quality, a signal processing strategy to reduce side lobes is definitely in demand. To this end, quantitative determination of main and side lobes is necessary. We propose a theoretically and actually error-free method of exactly discriminating and separately computing the main lobe and side lobe parts in ultrasound image by computer simulation. We refer to images constructed using the main and side lobe signals as the main and side lobe images, respectively. Since the main and side lobe images exactly represent their main and side lobe components, respectively, they can be used to evaluate ultrasound image quality. Defining the average brightness of the main and side lobe images, the conventional to side lobe image ratio, and the main to side lobe image ratio as image quality metrics, we can evaluate image characteristics in speckle images. The proposed method is also applied in assessing the performance of side lobe suppression filtering. We show that the proposed method may greatly aid in the evaluation of medical ultrasonic images using computer simulations, albeit lacking the use of actual experimental data.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2005

Ultrasonic inspection methods are widely used for detecting flaws in materials. The signal analysis step plays a crucial part in the data interpretation process. A number of signal processing methods have been proposed to classify ultrasonic flaw signals. One of the more popular methods involves the extraction of an appropriate set of features followed by the use of a neural network for the classification of the signals in the feature spare. This paper describes an alternative approach which uses the least mean square (LMS) method and exportation maximization (EM) algorithm with the model based deconvolution which is employed for classifying nondestructive evaluation (NDE) signals from steam generator tubes in a nuclear power plant. The signals due to cracks and deposits are not significantly different. These signals must be discriminated to prevent from happening a huge disaster such as contamination of water or explosion. A model based deconvolution has been described to facilitate comparison of classification results. The method uses the space alternating generalized expectation maximiBation (SAGE) algorithm ill conjunction with the Newton-Raphson method which uses the Hessian parameter resulting in fast convergence to estimate the time of flight and the distance between the tube wall and the ultrasonic sensor. Results using these schemes for the classification of ultrasonic signals from cracks and deposits within steam generator tubes are presented and showed a reasonable performances.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.557-563
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• 2022

The cortical bone thickness of the tibia is related to fracture risk and overall bone status. The present study aims to investigate the feasibility of two different ultrasonic methods for measuring the cortical bone thickness in bovine tibia in vitro. In the reflection technique, the tibial cortical thickness was determined from ultrasonic reflections from the periosteum and the endosteum producing specific peaks in the signal envelope. In the axial transmission technique, the tibial cortical thickness was determined from ultrasonic guided wave velocities measured along the axial direction of the tibia. The cortical bone thickness determined by using the reflection technique correlated significantly with that measured by using a caliper, with a Pearson's correlation coefficient of r = 0.97 (p < 0.0001). In contrast, the correlation coefficients for the axial transmission technique were r = 0.92 (p < 0.0001) for the first arriving signal method and r = 0.89 (p < 0.0001) for the slow guided wave method. Clinical feasibility should be demonstrated with an in vivo application to address the question whether the ultrasonic methods presented here could be useful as a screening tool for osteoporosis and potentially could be applied to other skeletal sites such as the femur and the radius.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.81-89
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• 1996

It is very important for ultrasonic test method to evaluate the integrity of the class I components in nuclear power plants. However, as the rltrasonic test is affected by internal structures and configurations of test materials, backscattering, that is, time invariant noise is generated in large grain size materials. Due to the above reason, the received signal results in low signal to noise(S/N) ratio. Split spectrum processing(SSP) technique is effective to suppress the grain noise. The conventional SSP technique. however, has been applied to unique algorithm. This paper shows that MPO(minimization and polarity threshold) algorithm which two algorithms are applied simulatancously, was utilized, the signal processing time was shorten by using the new constant-Q SSP with the FIR filter which frequency to bandwidth ratio is constant and the optimum parameters were analysed for the signal processing to longitudinal wave and shear wave with the same requirements of inspection on nuclear power plant site. Moreover, the new ultrasonic test instrument, the reference block of the same product form and material specification, stainless stell test specimens and copper test specimens block of the same fabricated for the application of new SSP technique. As the result of experimental test with new ultrasonic test instrument and test specimens, the signal to noise ratio was improved by appying the new SSP technique.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2009

Currently almost all in-service-inspection techniques, applied in domestic nuclear power plants, are partial to field inspection technique. These kinds of techniques are related to managing nuclear power plants by the operation of foreign-produced inspection devices. There have been so many needsfor development of native in-service-inspection device because there is no native diagnosis device for nuclear power plant inspection yet in Korea. In this research, we developed several core techniques to make an automated ultrasonic pipe inspection system for nuclear power plants. A high performance multi-channel ultrasonic pulser/receiver module, an A/D converter module and a digital main CPU module were developed and the performance of the developed modules was verified. The S/N ratio, noise level and signal acquisition performance of the developed modules showed proper level as we designed in the beginning.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.8-13
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• 2008

In this study, an investigation of shear wave ultrasonic technique was carried out to detect stacking orientation error for CF/Epoxy quasi-isotropy composite laminates. The ultrasonic shear wave is particularly sensitive to ply orientation and layup sequence in tire CF/Epoxy composite laminates. In the manufacturing of composite laminates, it is important that layup errors be detected in samples. In this work, an effect was mack to develop shear wave techniques that can be applied to composite laminates. During testing, the mast significant problem is that the couplant conditions do not remain the same because of its changing viscosity. The design and use of a shear ware transducer would greatly alleviate the couplant problem. A pyramid of aluminum, with isosceles triangle (two 45o angles) sides, was made to generate shear waves, using two longitudinal transducers based on an ultrasonic-polarized mechanism. A signal splitter was connected to the pulser jack on a pulser/receiver and to the longitudinal transducers. The longitudinal transducers were mounted with mineral oil, and the shear transducer was mounted with burnt honey on the bottom as a receiver. The shear wave was generated at a maximum and a minimum based on the ultrasonic-polarized mechanism. Results show it is feasible to measure layup error using shear wave transducers on a stacking of prepregs in composites.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.251-260
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• 2001

Damage Profess of CFRP laminates under monotonic tensile test was characterized by the correlation between Acoustic Emission(AE) and Ultrasonic Test(UT). The amplitude distribution of AE signal from a specimens is an aid to the determination of the extent of the different fracture mechanism such as matrix crack, debonding, fiber pullout and fiber fracture as load is increased. In addtion, the characteristics of ultrasonic amplitude attenuation are useful lot analysis of the different type of fracture mechanism. Different orientation of carbon fiber reinforced plastic specimens were used to investigate the AE amplitude range and ultrasonic amplitude attenuation. Finally, loading-unloading tests were carried out to check Felicity effect. During the tests, ultrasonic amplitude attenuation was investigated at the same time and compared with AE parameters. The result showed that two parameters of both AE and UT could be effectively used for analysis of fracture mechanism in CFRP laminates.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.29-35
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• 2015

Pipes, commonly used in energy and petrochemical facilities, have various types of defects induced by diverse factors and this is often issued in NDE society. Ultrasonic guided wave inspection method are normally adopted to insure the healthiness of industry pipes. Recently, ultrasonic guided wave inspection is shifted to adopt arrayed probes and system. And here we developed an array guided wave ultrasonic testing system can adapt arrayed probes and focusing methods. In this paper, an array guided wave ultrasonic testing system is presented including a transmitting focusing technique and flaw signal level enhancement.