• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.414-419
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• 2019

An ultrasonic based magnetostrictive position sensor (MPS) provides an indication of real target position. It determines the real target position by multiplying the propagation speed of ultrasonic wave and the time-of-flight between the receiving signals; one is the initial signal by an excitation current and the other is the reflection signal by the ultrasonic wave. The propagation speed of the ultrasonic wave depends on the temperature of the waveguide. Hence, the change of the propagation speed in various environments is a critical factor in terms of the positioning accuracy in the MPS. This means that the influence of the changes in the waveguide temperature needs to be compensated. In this paper, we presents a novel way to improve the positioning accuracy of MPSs using temperature compensation for waveguide. The proposed method used the inherent measurement blind area for the structure of the MPS, which can simultaneously measure the position of the moving target and the temperature of the waveguide without any additional devices. The average positional error was approximately -23.9 mm and -1.9 mm before and after compensation, respectively. It was confirmed that the positioning accuracy was improved by approximately 93%.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 2006

Reactor core and internal structures of a liquid metal reactor (LMR) can not be visually examined due to an opaque liquid sodium. The under-sodium viewing technique by using an ultrasonic wave should be applied far the visual inspection of reactor internals. In this study, an ultrasonic waveguide sensor with a strip plate has been developed for an application to the under-sodium viewing technique. The Lamb wave propagation of a waveguide sensor has been analyzed and the zero-order antisymmetric $A_0$ plate wave was selected as the application mode of the sensor. The $A_0$ plate wave can be propagated in the dispersive low frequency range by using a liquid wedge clamped to the waveguide. A new technique is presented which is capable of steering the radiation beam angle of a waveguide sensor without a mechanical movement of the sensor assembly The steering function of the ultrasonic radiation beam can be achieved by a frequency tuning method of the excitation pulse in the dispersive range of the $A_0$ mode. The technique provides an opportunity to overcome the scanning limitation of a waveguide sensor. The beam steering function has been evaluated by an experimental verification. The ultrasonic C-scanning experiments are performed in water and the feasibility of the ultrasonic waveguide sensor has been verified.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.776-783
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• 2020

As the refueling of a sodium-cooled fast reactor is conducted by rotating part of the reactor head without opening it, the monitoring of existing obstacles that can disturb the rotation of the reactor head is one of the most important issues. This paper deals with the ultrasonic ranging technique that directly monitors the existence of possible obstacles located in a lateral gap between the upper internal structure and the reactor core in a prototype generation IV sodium-cooled fast reactor (PGSFR). A 10 m long plate-type ultrasonic waveguide sensor, whose feasibility has been successfully demonstrated through preliminary tests, was employed for the ultrasonic ranging technique. The design of the sensor's wave radiating section was modified to improve the radiation performance, and the radiated field was investigated through beam profile measurements. A test facility simulating the lower part of the upper internal structure and the upper part of the reactor core with the same shapes and sizes as those in the PGSFR was newly constructed. Several under-water performance tests were then carried out at room temperature to investigate the applicability of the developed ranging technique using the plate-type ultrasonic waveguide sensor with the actual geometry of the PGSFR's internal structures.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.364-371
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• 2008

Ultrasonic waveguide sensor has been developed for under-sodium viewing of reactor internal structures of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). The structure design concept of a waveguide sensor assembly was suggested and evaluated for the application in SFR. A 10 m long ultrasonic waveguide sensor assembly has been manufactured and the experimental feasibility tests were carried out. The 10 m long distance propagation performance of zero-order antisymmetric $A_0$ Lamb wave has been verified. The feasibility of ultrasonic waveguide sensor has been demonstrated by the C-scanning resolution performance test.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.48-57
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• 2015

In a sodium-cooled fast reactor, which is a Generation-IV reactor, refueling is conducted by rotating, but not opening, the reactor head to prevent a reaction between the sodium, water and air. Therefore, an inspection technique that checks for the presence of any obstacles between the reactor core and the upper internal structure, which could disturb the rotation of the reactor head, is essential prior to the refueling of a sodium-cooled fast reactor. To this end, an ultrasound-based inspection technique should be employed because the opacity of the sodium prevents conventional optical inspection techniques from being applied to the monitoring of obstacles. In this study, a ranging inspection technique using a plate-type ultrasonic waveguide sensor was developed to monitor the presence of any obstacles between the reactor core and the upper internal structure in the opaque sodium. Because the waveguide sensor installs an ultrasonic transducer in a relatively cold region and transmits the ultrasonic waves into the hot radioactive liquid sodium through a long waveguide, it offers better reliability and is less susceptible to thermal or radiation damage. A 10 m horizontal beam waveguide sensor capable of radiating an ultrasonic wave horizontally was developed, and beam profile measurements and basic experiments were carried out to investigate the characteristics of the developed sensor. The beam width and propagation distance of the ultrasonic wave radiated from the sensor were assessed based on the experimental results. Finally, a feasibility test using cylindrical targets (corresponding to the shape of possible obstacles) was also conducted to evaluate the applicability of the developed ranging inspection technique to actual applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.65-66
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• 2005

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.395-400
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• 2013

In this paper, we introduce the implementation of high accurate level sensor system using the pulse wave type magnetostriction sensor. When a current pulse flows along the waveguide, the magnetic field also propagates towards the end of waveguide. When this magnetic field just passes the position of the magnet for level detection, the resultant magnetic field by these two magnetic fields makes a torsional reflected signal. This is used to calculate the time difference between a interrogation pulse wave and this torsional reflected signal. The key elements and characteristics were investigated to implement level sensor system based on this principle. We introduce a method to calculate the speed of ultrasonic reflected signal and how to make a model of sensing coil. In particular, we experiment with the characteristics of the torsional reflected signal according to the changes of the interrogation voltage and displacement. To make high accurate level sensor system, two methods were compared. One is to use the comparator and time counter, the other is STFT(Short Time FFT) which is capable of the time-frequency analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.151-156
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• 1994

Exertion has been made to develop high-temperature (about $250{\sim}650^{\circ}C$) immersion ultrasonic sensor for the visualization of objects, temperature measurement, dimensional check, or nondestructive testing of welds under liquid sodium. In this study, the feasibility of the ultrasonic sensor taking advantage of a strip waveguide was confirmed by water-experiment. The lowest order of antisymmetric Lamb wave was used in the frequency range with negligible dispersion. This plate wave was excited in the stainless steel strip waveguide of 1.0mm thickness and 13mm width by the comb-structure transducer of 2.3MHz frequency. Its attenuation coefficient was 1.2dB/m in air and 380dB/m in water. The signal to noise ratio of 25dB was obtained from a planar reflector 270mm away from the beam aperture of $13mm{\times}39mm$ size.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2012.04a
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• pp.743-744
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• 2012

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.471-484
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• 2016

Optical fiber sensors have been proven that they have the potential to detect high-frequency ultrasonic signals, in structural health monitoring field which generally refers to acoustic emission signals from active structural damages and guided waves excited by ultrasonic actuators and propagating in waveguide. In this work, the sensing properties of optical fiber sensors based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer were investigated in the metal plate. Analytical formulas were conducted first to explore the parameters affecting its sensing performances. Due to the simple and definable frequency component, the Lamb wave excited by the piezoelectric wafer was employed to study the sensitivity of the proposed optical fiber sensors with respect to the frequency, rather than the acoustic emission signals. In the experiments, according to above investigations, spiral shape optical fiber sensors with different size were selected to increase their sensitivity. Lamb waves were excited by a circular piezoelectric wafer, while another piezoelectric wafer was used to compare their voltage responses. Furthermore, by changing the excitation frequency, the tuning frequency characteristic of the proposed optical fiber sensor was also investigated experimentally.