• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 2010

This study was conducted to develop an non-contact ultrasonic transducer for measurement of fruit firmness. The center frequency of non-contact ultrasonic transducer was 500 kHz. As an active element of non-contact ultrasonic transducer, the 1-3 piezoelectric composite material was selected. That material has high piezoelectric properties such as electro-mechanical coupling factor, $k_t$ and piezoelectric voltage constant, $d_{33}$ and also that material has low acoustical impedance which enables to matching the acoustical impedances between piezoelectric material and air. As a front matching material between 1-3 piezoelectric composite material and air, various kinds of paper with different thickness were tested. To control the dead-zone of the fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer, the backing material composed of epoxy resin and tungsten powder were made and evaluated. The fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer for fruit showed that the cneter frequency, bandwidth and beamwidth were approximately 480 kHz, 30 % and 12 mm, respectively. It was concluded that non-contact measurement of apple firmness would be possible by using the fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer.

• 한국방재학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.94-94
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• 2011

배관 구조물에서는 내부 미세 균열에서부터 국부 좌굴, 볼트 풀림, 피로 균열 등과 같이 다양한 형태의 손상이 복합적으로 발생 가능하다. 이러한 복합 손상은 배관 구조물의 누수, 누유 등의 사고를 야기할 수 있다. 하지만 기존의 단일 스케일 계측 시스템으로부터 복합 손상에 의한 실시간 누수를 진단하기는 매우 어렵다. 본 연구 단계에서는 누수를 야기하는 복합 손상을 효율적으로 진단하기 위하여 선행 연구에서 제안된 압전센서를 이용한 자가 계측 회로 기반의 다중 스케일 계측 시스템을 구조물의 복합 손상 진단에 적용하였다. 자가 계측 회로 기반 다중 스케일 계측 시스템은 크게 두 가지 형태의 신호를 계측한다. 첫 번째 스케일은 임피던스 계측으로부터 특정 주파수 대역폭에 대한 구조 응답을 계측하며, 두 번째 스케일은 유도 초음파 계측으로부터 단일 중심 주파수에 해당하는 구조물의 응답을 계측한다. 복합 손상을 손상 유형별로 분류하기 위하여 E/M 임피던스(Electro-mechanical impedance)및 유도 초음파(Guided wave) 계측으로부터 추출한 특성을 이용하여 2차원 손상지수를 계산하고 이를 지도학습 기반 패턴인식 기법(Supervised learning based pattern recognition) 중 확률론적 신경망 기법(Probabilistic Neural Network, PNN)에 적용한다. 제안된 기법의 적용성 검토를 위하여 파이프 구조물에 인위적으로 다중 손상을 생성시켜 시험을 수행하였다. 본 연구에서 제안된 기법이 실제 배관 구조물에 성공적으로 적용된다면 손상 부재의 거동 및 구조물 성능의 손상에 대한 영향을 효율적으로 진단하고 평가함으로써 배관 구조물의 효과적인 유지관리가 가능할 것으로 예상된다.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.391-406
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• 2008

This study attempts to develop a real-time debonding monitoring system for carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strengthened structures by continuously inspecting the bonding condition between the CFRP layer and the host structure. The uniqueness of this study is in developing a new concept and theoretical framework of nondestructive testing (NDT), in which debonding is detected without relying on previously-obtained baseline data. The proposed reference-free damage diagnosis is achieved based on the concept of time reversal acoustics (TRA). In TRA, an input signal at an excitation point can be reconstructed if the response signal measured at another point is reemitted to the original excitation point after being reversed in the time domain. Examining the deviation of the reconstructed signal from the known initial input signal allows instantaneous identification of damage without requiring a baseline signal representing the undamaged state for comparison. The concept of TRA has been extended to guided wave propagations within the CFRP-strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) beams to improve the detectibility of local debonding. Monotonic and fatigue load tests of large-scale CFRP-strengthened RC beams are conducted to demonstrate the potential of the proposed reference-free debonding monitoring system. Comparisons with an electro-mechanical impedance method and an inferred imaging technique are provided as well.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1152-1162
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• 2016

The unequal impedances of the interconnecting cables between paralleled inverters in the island mode of microgrids cause inaccurate reactive power sharing when the traditional droop control is used. Many studies in the literature adopt low speed communications between the inverters and the central control unit to overcome this problem. However, the losses of this communication link can be very detrimental to the performance of the controller. This paper proposes an improved reactive power-sharing control method. It employs infrequent measurements of the voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC) to estimate the output impedance between the inverters and the PCC and then readjust the voltage droop controller gains accordingly. The controller then reverts to being a traditional droop controller using the newly calculated gains. This increases the immunity of the controller against any losses in the communication links between the central control unit and the inverters. The capability of the proposed control method has been demonstrated by simulation and experimental results using a laboratory scale microgrid.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.803-806
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• 2011

1 mol% $Li_2O$ excess $0.9(Na_{0.52}K_{0.48})NbO_3-0.1LiTaO_3$ lead-free piezoelectric multilayer ceramic actuators were investigated to determine their aging properties. To reduce the thermal aging behavior, we applied a rectified unipolar electric field of 5 kV/mm to the specimen to accelerate the electric aging behavior. By employing a rectified unipolar electric field for the piezoelectric actuators, we could remove undesirable heating from the relaxation current in the motion of the ferroelectric domain. To accelerate the aging test, the applied electric fields had a frequency of 900 Hz. To have enough time for charging and discharging, we employed an accurate time constant to design the equivalent circuit model for the aging tester. To extract exact aging behavior, we measured the pseudo-piezoelectric coefficient before and after the aging process. We also measured the electro-mechanical coupling coefficient, the frequency-dependent dielectric permittivity, and the impedance to compare with fresh and aged specimen.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.368-376
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• 2011

Piezoelectric composites have been widely used in broadband acoustic transducers because of their lower acoustic impedance and higher electro-mechanical coupling factor. However, their complex structure has placed many limitations on the design of various transducers. This paper suggests the methodology to substitute the 1-3 piezocomposites by a single-phased material that has properties equivalent to those of the piezocomposites. The resonant method and finite element analysis (FEA) are used to derive the equivalent properties that can accurately depict resonant properties at various vibration modes of the piezocomposites. Validity of the suggested method is confirmed by comparing frequency characteristics of fabricated 1-3 piezocomposite specimens and FEA models. Further, accuracy of the derived material constants is checked by applying the equivalent properties to FEA models of the single phase material for various resonant modes.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.1645-1652
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• 2013

In this paper, a new piezoelectric transducer for high performance ultrasonic flaw detector used in non-destructive test (NDT) is implemented. Here, the goals for some major characteristics such as piezoelectric strain constant and electro-mechanical coupling factor are fixed in advanced. Then, the parameters obtained by finite element analysis (FEA) are exploited to design and implement the piezoelectric transducer. As a result of experiments using manufactured samples, it is proved that the new PZT ceramics satisfy the goals very well. It has much improved impedance characteristic at the resonant frequency and generation of ultrasonic signals. In addition, ultrasonic flaw detector with the new transducer provides increased flaw detecting gain than the conventional one. Thus, it is considered that the new flaw detector contributes significantly to improve reliability of the NDT.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.1292-1299
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• 2003

In this paper, we fabricated new GaAs-based dielectric-supported air gapped microstriplines(DAMLs) using the surface MEMS and the LPF for Ka-band using the fabricated DAMLs. We elevated the signal lines from the substrate, in order to reduce the substrate dielectric loss and obtain low losses at millimeter-wave frequency band with wide impedance range. We fabricated LPF with DAMLs for Ka-band. Due to reducing the dielectric loss of DAMLs, the insertion loss of LPF can be reduced. Miniature is essential to integrate LPF with active devices, so that we fabricated LPF with the slot on the ground to reduce the size of the LPF. We compared a characteristic to LPF with the slot and LPF without the slot.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.37-44
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• 2004

This paper describes a new GaAs-based surface-micromachined microstrip line supported by dielectric post and air-gapped signal line with ground metal. This new type of dielectric-supported air-gapped microstripline(DAML) structure is developed using surface micromachining techniques to provide easy means of airbridge connection between the signal lines and to archive low losses at millimeter-wave frequency band with wide impedance range. Each DAMLs with the length of 5 mm are fabricated and the measured characteristics are compared with those of the conventional microstrip transmission line. These transmission lines are composed of 10 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ height of signal line, post size of 10 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ ${\times}$ 10 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ and post height of 9 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$. By elevating the signal lines from the substrate using the micromachining technology, the substrate dielectric loss can be reduced Compared with of the conventional microstrip transmission line showing 7.5 dB/cm loss at 50 GHz, the loss can be reduced to 1.1 dB/cm loss at 50 GHz.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.18-26
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• 2001

In this paper, the resonant characteristics and modes of the film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR) used in 1~2 GHz frequency region are analyzed by it's input impedance which was calculated by three dimensional finite element method formulated as eigenvalue problem using electro-mechanical wave equation and boundary condition. It was extracted that the resonant and the spurious characteristics considering the effects of electrode area and shape variation and unsymmetry of upper and lower electrode. Those effects couldn't be analyzed by on dimensional analysis, e.g. Mason equivalent model. The simulation result was confirmed by comparing with the simulation data from Mason model analysis and the measured data of the ZnO FBAR fabricated using micro-machining technique. Also, through the simulation of the area variations of FBAR, it was obtained that the optimum ratio of length and thickness is 20:1 and the minimum ratio is 5:1 to operate thickness vibration mode.