• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.373-379
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• 2010

EMAT has been applied in various fields for flaw detection and material characterization because it has noncontact property in wave generation and a good mode selectivity. Unfortunately, however, EMAT shows low signal to noise ratio relative to commercial contact transducer because of low energy conversion efficiency. If the phase matching through the control of time delay between each coil consisting of the array EMAT is accomplished, it is expected that it will be a solution for the improvement of low signal to noise ratio. In this experiment, the phased array EMATs which consists of 3 or 4 meander coils and one big magnet were fabricated for surface and vertical shear wave generation. Effect of phased delay control on signal directivity and amplitude enhancement was verified. A slit with the depth of 0.5 mm and a side-drill hole of 0.5 mm diameter were clearly detected by fabricated phased array EMATs, respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.170-178
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• 1988

An automated ultrasonic flaw detection system was developed for thin-walled and short tubes such as Zircaloy-4 tubes used for cladding heavy-water reactor fuel. The system was based on the two channels immersion pulse-echo technique using 14 MHz shear wave and the specially developed helical scanning technique, in which the tube to be tested is only rotated and the small water tank with spherical focus ultrasonic transducers is translated along the tube length. The optimum angle of incidence of ultrasonic beam was 26 degrees, at which the inside and outside surface defects with the same size and direction could be detected with the same sensitivity. The maximum permissible defects in the Zircaloy-4 tubes, i.e., the longitudinal and circumferential v notches with the length of 0.76mm and 0.38mm, respectively and the depth of 0.04 mm on the inside and outside surface, could be easily detected by the system with the inspection speed of about 1 m/min and the very excellent reproducibility. The ratio of signal to noise was greater than 20 dB for the longitudinal defects and 12 dB for the circumferential defects.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.20-24
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• 2009

There is extensive tubing pipe in the nuclear power plant under high temperature and pressure. Erosion and corrosion defects are expected on this tubing pipe due to environmental and mechanical factors. In this study, Guided Ultrasonic Wave technique was applied to detect defects. The technique explores the advantages of the Guided Ultrasonic Wave method that inspects along the wall of the pipe and can travel long distances, providing rapid collection of data. This paper presents a case study of the Guided Ultrasonic Wave testing of 3/8" tubing pipe. This study offers to understand detected signals through correlation between amplitude and depth of defects.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.647-654
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• 2007

Postulation of flaws, one of the most important areas in RPV integrity assessment, significantly affects the results. In the present work, several parameters, such as orientation, underclad vs. surface cracking, crack depth and shape, etc., are postulated and parametric studies are performed to investigate the influence of the flaw parameters on the structural integrity assessment of the reactor pressure vessel during pressurized thermal shock. The influence of individual parameters describing the crack is evaluated based on sensitivity study results.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.148-158
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• 1998

Determining the thickness if concrete lining and detecting of the cavity where is located behind tunnel lining plays an important role in the safety diagnosis of tunnel structure and the quality control. In this study, we made use of GPR and seismic method in order to find the cavity or flaw. Although GPR is very useful method in the concrete lining without rebar, it is difficult to detect the cavity in the reinforced concrete lining. We applied mini-seismic method to the reinforced concrete lining. The obtained seismic data was processed by means of seismic section in time domain and image section of power spectrum in frequency domain using Impact-Echo method as well. The proposed method can accurately show the location and depth of the cavity in the reinforced concrete lining.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.373-385
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• 2019

A study concerning the strength of brittle materials is presented in this paper. The failure behavior was investigated examining the plane of the crack after the failure and comparing the results obtained with those deriving from the fracture mechanics theory. Although the proposed methods are valid in general for brittle materials, the experiment was performed on glass because the results are more significant for this. Glass elements of various sizes and different edge finishes were subjected to bending tests until collapsing. The bending results were studied in terms of failure load and energy dissipation, and the fracture surfaces were examined by means of microscopic analysis, in which the depth of the flaw and the mirror radius of the fracture were measured and the strength was calculated. These results agreed with those obtained from the fracture mechanics analysis.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.1089-1096
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• 1997

In this paper, Rancho Seco transient which is reported as a typical pressurized thermal shock event is postulated to be occuring in the Kori unit 1 plant, the oldest nuclear power plant in Korea. For the given material properties, transient history such as temperature and pressure, and postulated flaw, the stress distribution is obtained to calculate stress intensities for a wide range of assumed crack sizes. The stress intensities are compared with the fracture toughness, which is determined using the material properties and the distribution of the nil ductility transition temperature, to determine if cracking is expected to occur during the transient. The allowable operating year for the transient is determined and the evaluation results are discussed.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.24-30
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• 1990

In this paper, meander line type EMAT(Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Transducer) has been designed and fabricated with effective properties for detecting flaw existing within one wavelength in depth, and its characteristics have been analyzed. For the purpose of getting effective dynamic and static magnetic intensity, the coil has been arrayed using wire with interval of 0.75 mm and width of 0.65 mm and permanent magnets with 1500 Gauss have been constructed respectively. The center frequency and fractional bandwidth of the fabricated EMAT was 2 MHz and 36% respectively and its impulse response has been measured by non-contacting technique(the distance between the conducting media and the coil was 0.15mm). In the measuring results, it has been shown that Insertion Loss(IL) was 45.46dB and it was good agreement with theoretical result.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.317-328
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• 2009

Current maintenance operations and integrity checks on a wide array of structures require personnel entry into normally-inaccessible or hazardous areas to perform necessary nondestructive inspections. To gain access for these inspections, structure must be disassembled and removed or personnel must be transported to remote locations. The use of in-situ sensors, coupled with remote interrogation, can be employed to overcome a myriad of inspection impediments stemming from accessibility limitations, complex geometries, the location and depth of hidden damage, and the isolated location of the structure. Furthermore, prevention of unexpected flaw growth and structural failure could be improved if on-board health monitoring systems were used to more regularly assess structural integrity. A research program has been completed to develop and validate Comparative Vacuum Monitoring (CVM) Sensors for surface crack detection. Statistical methods using one-sided tolerance intervals were employed to derive Probability of Detection (POD) levels for a wide array of application scenarios. Multi-year field tests were also conducted to study the deployment and long-term operation of CVM sensors on aircraft. This paper presents the quantitative crack detection capabilities of the CVM sensor, its performance in actual flight environments, and the prospects for structural health monitoring applications on aircraft and other civil structures.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.153-161
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• 1996

In this paper, theory of fracture mechanics for the pressurized thermal shock is investigated and numerical procedure for the evaluation of the pressure vessel under pressurized thermal shock is developed. For the given material properties, transient history such as temperature and pressure, and postulated flaw, the stress distribution is obtained to calculate stress intensities for a wide range of assumed crack sizes. The stress intensities are compared with the material fracture toughness values corresponding to the chemical compositions and the distribution of the nil ductility transition temperature, to determine the crack growth during the transient. Plant-specific calculations have been performed for several transients and the evaluation results are discussed.