• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.798-802
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• 2007

The synthetic focusing in the ultrasonic imaging systems has been formed in the way that one element transmits a circular wave and receives an echo signal. The amplitude of the signal transmitted from one element is too small to propagate a long distance so that the SNR(Signal to Noise Ratio) is very low in an image obtained by the synthetic focusing. To solve this problem, a defocusing method which uses several elements has been proposed. In this method, the SNR is improved due to using several elements to transmit the circular wave. But if the number of transmitting elements increases, the phase distortion is severe in the defocusing method. In this paper, we propose a new method that can generate a circular wave using a lot of elements without phase distortion. At first, we generate limited plane waves with different propagation angles and then superpose them to make a circular wave. We show that the circular wave can be used to improve SNR in the real-time 3D ultrasonic imaging as well as the synthetic focusing through computer simulation and experiments.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.657-666
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• 2020

A rotational pulse-echo ultrasonic propagation imager that can inspect cylindrical specimens for material nondestructive evaluations is proposed herein. In this system, a laser-generated ultrasonic bulk wave is used for inspection, which enables a clear visualization of subsurface defects with a precise reproduction of the damage shape and size. The ultrasonic waves are generated by a Q-switched laser that impinges on the outer surface of the specimen walls. The generated waves travel through the walls and their echo is detected by a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV) at the same point. To obtain the optimal Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of the measured signal, the LDV requires the sensed surface to be at a right angle to the laser beam and at a predefined constant standoff distance from the laser head. For flat specimens, these constraints can be easily satisfied by performing a raster scan using a dual-axis linear stage. However, this arrangement cannot be used for cylindrical specimens owing to their curved nature. To inspect the cylindrical specimens, a circular scan technology is newly proposed for pulse-echo laser ultrasound. A rotational stage is coupled with a single-axis linear stage to inspect the desired area of the specimen. This system arrangement ensures that the standoff distance and beam incidence angle are maintained while the cylindrical specimen is being inspected. This enables the inspection of a curved specimen while maintaining the optimal SNR. The measurement result is displayed in parallel with the on-going inspection. The inspection data used in scanning are mapped from rotational coordinates to linear coordinates for visualization and post-processing of results. A graphical user interface software is implemented in C++ using a QT framework and controls all the individual blocks of the system and implements the necessary image processing, scan calculations, data acquisition, signal processing and result visualization.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.51-65
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is the development and application of a high resolution ultrasonic wave imaging system to detect discontinuity plane in lab-scale rock models. This technique is based on received time series which capture the multiple reflections at interface. This study includes the fundamental aspects of ultrasonic wave propagation in rock mass, the selection of the optimal ultrasonic wave transducer, data gathering, a signal processing, imaging methods, and experiments. Experiments are carried out by the horizontal movement and rotation devices. Experimental studies show the discontinuity is well detected by the horizontal movement and rotation devices under water. Furthermore, the discontinuity and the cavity on the plaster block are identified by the rotation device. This study suggests that the new method may be an economical and effective tool for the detection of the discontinuity on rock mass.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.246-250
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• 2018

In this paper, laser ultrasonic rotation scanning method was proposed to inspect and visualize defects in corner section of curved composite structure. L-shaped composite specimen with defects in its corner section were inspected using laser ultrasonic rotation scanning method. L-shaped specimens had artificial defects at three different depths to simulate delamination damage. All artificial defects were detected clearly in different time-of-flight according to their depths. Inspection result showed that the proposed method is suitable to inspect round corner section of curved composite structure without any special tools.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.1E
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• pp.11-27
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• 2010

Nowadays, ultrasound Doppler imaging is widely used in assessing cardiovascular functions in the human body. However, a major drawback of ultrasonic Doppler methods is that they can provide information on blood flow velocity along the ultrasound beam propagation direction only. Thus, the blood flow velocity is estimated differently depending on the angle between the ultrasound beam and the flow direction. In order to overcome this limitation, there have been many researches devoted to estimating both axial and lateral velocities. The purpose of this article is to survey various two-dimensional velocity estimation methods in the context of Doppler imaging. Some velocity vector estimation methods can also be applied to determine tissue motion as required in elastography. The discussion is mainly concerned with the case of estimating a two-dimensional in-plane velocity vector involving the axial and lateral directions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.214-219
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• 2012

초음파전파영상화(UPI) 시스템은 2007년에 첫 논문 발표를 통해 시스템 개발이 보고된 이후 소프트웨어 및 하드웨어적 측면에서 다양한 형태로 발전된 시스템의 개발이 이루어졌다. 본 기고에서는 기본 UPI 시스템, 섬유파트랜스듀서 UPI 시스템, 순수광학시스템으로서 광섬유 센서 UPI 시스템, 완전비접촉 시스템으로서의 공기정압압전센서 UPI 시스템 및 레이저도플러진동계 UPI 시스템, 장거리 UPI 시스템, 옥외 적용성에 필수적인 저온환경 UPI 시스템 등을 소개한다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.464-474
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• 2003

Ultrasonic imaging of 3-D structures for nondestructive evaluation must provide readily recognizable images with enough details to clearly show various flaws that may or may not be present. Typical flaws that need to be detected are miniature cracks, for instance, in metal pipes having aged over years of operation in nuclear power plants; and these sub-millimeter cracks or flaws must be depicted in the final 3-D image for a meaningful evaluation. As a step towards improving conspicuity and thus detection of flaws, we propose a pulse-echo ultrasonic imaging technique to generate various 3-D views of the 3-D object under evaluation through strategic scanning and processing of the pulse-echo data. We employ a 2-D Wiener filter that filters the pulse-echo data along the plane orthogonal to the beam propagation so that ultrasonic beams can be sharpened. This three-dimensional processing and display coupled with 3-D manipulation capabilities by which users are able to pan and rotate the 3-D structure improve conspicuity of flaws. Providing such manipulation operations allow a clear depiction of the size and the location of various flaws in 3-D.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.405-414
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• 2009

This paper proposed a methodology based on ultrasonic diffraction technique to inspect the depth of a crack initiated from a notch of CT specimen by fatigue test, and its usefulness was verified by experiments. Especially, in order to identify accurately the diffractive waves from the crack tip in the situation where there are extra diffractive elements such as a notch, we have tried imaging by transducer scan and analyzed the propagation path of diffracted wave. Two specimens with and without a crack were experimented. Higher frequency and larger refractive angle of transducer showed a tendency to decrease the error in the measurements, and the measured crack depth showed an error less than 0.38 mm in case of 4 MHz $60^{\circ}-60^{\circ}$. The proposed methodology is applicable to weak diffractive sources, and so that it would be useful to inspect micro cracks and for their depth sizing.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.03a
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• pp.751-758
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• 2002

Boreholes that are drilled in soft or unconsolidated materials such as gravels and coals are prone to collapse. To maintain the hole, some kinds of casing pipes are needed. If thereby a plastic pipe e.g. PVC is used for the casing, Televiewer tool is still capable of detecting structural features such as fractures in the borehole wall behind the pipe, whereas other borehole-imaging logging devices such as BIPS (Borehole Image Processing System) and FMS(Formation Micro Scanner) won't provide any information about that. Televiewer's primary component is a piezoelectric transducer centered in the hole. It acts as both a transmitter and receiver, and sends an ultrasonic beam. That is reflected, in the same manner as the seismic wave propagation, from the both sides(inner and outer surfaces) of the casing pipe, transmits through the pipe and then reflected from the borehole wall. With an appropriate choice of time-windowing, it is possible to capture the returning signals from both the borehole wall and the outer side of casing pipe as well. A suite of laboratory tests were performed on various physical models composed of plastic pipes with different diameters. Although the amplitudes of returning signals were reduced to about half the usual value due to the transmission loss, the dynamic range of Televiewer tool was sufficient to observe the structural features behind the casing pipe. Besides, several representative case studies at various research areas in our country are presented. The results demonstrate the usefulness of the transmissivity of Televiewer acoustic km, which will assist in further structural interpretation.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.10b
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• pp.273-275
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• 2005

Active thermography is being used since several years for remote non-destructive testing. It provides thermal images for remote detection and imaging of damages. Also, it is based on propagation and reflection of thermal waves which are launched from the surface into the inspected component by absorption of modulated radiation. For energy deposition, it use external heat sources (e.g., halogen lamp or convective heating) or internal heat generation (e.g., microwaves, eddy current, or elastic wave). Among the external heat sources, the ultrasound is generally used for energy deposition because of defect selective heating up. The heat source generating a thermal wave is provided by the defect itself due to the attenuation of amplitude modulated ultrasound. A defect causes locally enhanced losses and consequently selective heating up. Therefore amplitude modulation of the injected ultrasonic wave turns a defect into a thermal wave transmitter whose signal is detected at the surface by thermal infrared camera. This way ultrasound thermography(UT) allows for selective defect detection which enhances the probability of defect detection in the presence of complicated intact structures. In this paper the applicability of UT for fast defect detection is described. Examples are presented showing the detection of defects in PCB material. Measurements were performed on various kinds of typical defects in PCB materials (both Cu metal and non-metal epoxy). The obtained thermal image reveals area of defect in row of thick epoxy material and PCB.