• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.142-147
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• 2020

This study investigates the effects of moisture content on diffuse ultrasound to be applied for the evaluation of micro-structural damage in concrete subjected to various environmental conditions. We monitored diffuse wave parameters for concrete samples in process of water saturation for 5 days. Dried samples were immersed in a water bath, and the change of moisture content in concrete were estimated by measuring the change of mass. For the diffuse wave analysis, a frequency range of 500 kHz, which represents a scattering regime of ultrasound in concrete, was selected. The test results reveal that the ultrasonic diffusivity slightly changed, and the ultrasonic dissipation significantly increased by approximately 120% in the process of water saturation. Therefore, the moisture content in concrete should be considered for the evaluation of micro-structural damage using diffuse wave techniques.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.227-239
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• 2020

Despite proven effectiveness and accuracy in laboratories, the existing damage assessment based on guided ultrasonic waves (GUWs) or acoustic emission (AE) confronts challenges when extended to real-world structural health monitoring (SHM) for railway tracks. Central to the concerns are the extremely complex signal appearance due to highly dispersive and multimodal wave features, restriction on transducer installations, and severe contaminations of ambient noise. It remains a critical yet unsolved problem along with recent attempts to implement SHM in bourgeoning high-speed railway (HSR). By leveraging authors' continued endeavours, an SHM framework, based on actively generated diffuse ultrasonic waves (DUWs) and a benchmark-free condition contrast algorithm, has been developed and deployed via an all-in-one SHM system. Miniaturized lead zirconate titanate (PZT) wafers are utilized to generate and acquire DUWs in long-range railway tracks. Fatigue cracks in the tracks show unique contact behaviours under different conditions of external loads and further disturb DUW propagation. By contrast DUW propagation traits, fatigue cracks in railway tracks can be characterised quantitatively and the holistic health status of the tracks can be evaluated in a real-time manner. Compared with GUW- or AE-based methods, the DUW-driven inspection philosophy exhibits immunity to ambient noise and measurement uncertainty, less dependence on baseline signals, use of significantly reduced number of transducers, and high robustness in atrocious engineering conditions. Conformance tests are performed on HSR tracks, in which the evolution of fatigue damage is monitored continuously and quantitatively, demonstrating effectiveness, adaptability, reliability and robustness of DUW-driven SHM towards HSR applications.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Navigation
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 1980

Computer simulation results on the radiation pattern of an ultrasonic beam by the plurall arrangement of the transducers were reported by Sin (1979). This paper describes on the measurement of radiation pattern in case of one vibrox transducer and two vibrox transducers by varying the interval between the transducers. The measured results obtained are as follows; 1. Radiation wave of ultrasonic transducer is propagated to diffuse with spherical wave from center of transducer. 2. In case of one vibrox transducer, the greater the length of transducer, the sharper becomes the radiation pattern. 3. In case of two vibrox transducers, the maine lobe is revealed at the center of two transducers, it is shown difficult to make control freely of radiation pattern by varying merely the interval of transducers.