• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.24-27
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• 2012

The measurement of the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of polypropylene laminated paper (PPLP) as electric insulating material is important for its practical superconducting device application. The thermal strain induced to HTS tapes and its insulating material during cooling from room temperature might largely affect the critical current ($I_c$) of HTS tapes. In this study, the thermal contraction of PPLP material was measured during cooling from 300 K to 77 K using double extensometers. Initially, the CTE of a brass tape was measured and it was compared with a reference data. It was found that the measured thermal expansion data of the brass material approaches that of the reference one. Based on the results, it was then confirmed that the measurement technique could be applied to thin and flexible samples. Therefore, the same measurement procedure was applied to PPLP material using double extensometers. As a result, the linear CTE of the PPLP at 77 K has been measured to be ${\sim}15.3{\times}10^{-6}/K$. Also, it was found that the thermal contraction characteristics of PPLP was dominated by polypropylene on the cross direction (higher thermal contraction) while it was dominated by Kraft paper on the machine direction (lower thermal contraction). Overall, this measurement procedure could be adopted for the determination of CTE of flexible materials such as PPLP.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.139-155
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• 2011

Polymeric thin-film assemblies whose bulk electrical conductivity and mechanical performance have been enhanced by single-walled carbon nanotubes are proposed for measuring strain and corrosion activity in metallic structural systems. Similar to the dermatological system found in animals, the proposed self-sensing thin-film assembly supports spatial strain and pH sensing via localized changes in electrical conductivity. Specifically, electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is used to create detailed mappings of film conductivity over its complete surface area using electrical measurements taken at the film boundary. While EIT is a powerful means of mapping the sensing skin's spatial response, it requires a data acquisition system capable of taking electrical impedance measurements on a large number of electrodes. A low-cost wireless impedance analyzer is proposed to fully automate EIT data acquisition. The key attribute of the device is a flexible sinusoidal waveform generator capable of generating regulated current signals with frequencies from near-DC to 20 MHz. Furthermore, a multiplexed sensing interface offers 32 addressable channels from which voltage measurements can be made. A wireless interface is included to eliminate the cumbersome wiring often required for data acquisition in a structure. The functionality of the wireless impedance analyzer is illustrated on an experimental setup with the system used for automated acquisition of electrical impedance measurements taken on the boundary of a bio-inspired sensing skin recently proposed for structural health monitoring.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.593-598
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• 2016

Static tests and low-cycle fatigue tests were conducted to analyze the characteristics of the bellows for LNG vessels according to the forming methods. The cycle life of bellows was tested based on the specified cyclic life, 80000 cycles, to analyze the difference in characteristics between pre-and post-test data by measuring the strain and stress of each convolution of formed bellows. The low-cycle fatigue test was conducted using a strain gauge that was attached to the convolution of bellows. Formed bellows were placed on the structural test device which was equipped with a hydraulic system and was capable of moving in the x-y direction. Data was measured and processed by a multi recorder. Through the static test and low-cycle fatigue tests results, the difference between the cycle life of bellows formed by mechanical methods and of those formed by hydraulic methods was investigated. Moreover, the cause of difference in cyclic life according to forming methods was performed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.383-399
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• 2015

Today, as railways increase their capacity and speeds, it is more important than ever to be completely aware of the state of vehicles fleet's condition to ensure the highest quality and safety standards, as well as being able to maintain the costs as low as possible. Operation of a modern, dynamic and efficient railway demands a real time, accurate and reliable evaluation of the infrastructure assets, including signal networks and diagnostic systems able to acquire functional parameters. In the conventional system, measurement data are reliably collected using coaxial wires for communication between sensors and the repository. As sensors grow in size, the cost of the monitoring system can grow. Recently, auto-powered wireless sensor has been considered as an alternative tool for economical and accurate realization of structural health monitoring system, being provided by the following essential features: on-board micro-processor, sensing capability, wireless communication, auto-powered battery, and low cost. In this work, an original harvester device is designed to supply wireless sensor system battery using train bogie energy. Piezoelectric materials have in here considered due to their established ability to directly convert applied strain energy into usable electric energy and their relatively simple modelling into an integrated system. The mechanical and electrical properties of the system are studied according to the project specifications. The numerical formulation is implemented with in-house code using commercial software tool and then experimentally validated through a proof of concept setup using an excitation signal by a real application scenario.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.3_4
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• pp.331-346
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• 2004

A new sensor system is proposed for measuring damage indexes. The damage index is a physical value that is well correlated to a critical damage in a device or a structure. The mechanism proposed here utilizes elastic buckling of a thin wire and does not require any external power supply for memorizing the index. The mechanisms to detect peak strain, peak displacement, peak acceleration and cumulative deformation as examples of damage indexes are presented. Furthermore, passive and active wireless data retrieval mechanisms using electromagnetic induction are proposed. The passive wireless system is achieved by forming a closed LC circuit to oscillate at its natural frequency. The active wireless sensor can transmit the data much further than the passive system at the sacrifice of slightly complicated electric circuit for the sensor. For wireless data retrieval, no wire is needed for the sensor to supply electrical power. For the active system, electrical power is supplied to the sensor by radio waves emitted from the retrieval system. Thus, external power supply is only needed for the retrieval system when the retrieval becomes necessary. Theoretical and experimental studies to show excellent performance of the proposed sensor are presented. Finally, a prototype damage index sensor installed into a 7 storey base-isolated building is explained.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.292-297
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• 2000

In this research, the dynamic photoelastic experimental hybrid method for bimaterial is introduced. Dynamic biaxial loading device is developed, its strain rate is 31.637 s-1 and its maximum impact load is 20 ton. Manufactured methods for model of the dynamic photoelastic experiment for bimaterial are suggested. They are bonding method(bonding material: AW106, PC-1) and molding method. In the bonding method, residual stress is not occurred in the manufactured bimaterial. Crack is propagated along the interface or sometimes deviated from the interface. While in the molding method, residual stress is occurred in the manufactured bimaterial. Crack is always deviated from the interface and propagated in the epoxy region(softer materila). In order to propagate with constant velocity along the interface of bimaterial with arbitrary stiffer material, edge crack should be located along the interface of the acute angle side of the softer material in the bimaterial.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.34-39
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• 2008

In this study, CFRP(Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics) that has high specific strength and elastic modulus and low thermal strain was used as a material for the lightweight structural member. CFRP is a fiber material as anisotropic material. The anisotropic material is characterized by the change of its mechanical properties according to stacking orientation angle. CFRP orientation angle was oriented in [A/B]s in order to examine the effect of CFRP orientation angle on the characteristics of energy absorption. CFRP is very weak to the impact from the outside. So, when impact is applied to CFRP, its strength is rapidly lowered. The hybrid material was manufactured by combining CFRP to aluminum which is lightweight and widely used for structural members of the automobile. The hybrid member was shaped as a side member that could support the automobile engine and mount and absorb a large amount of impact energy at the front-end in case of automobile collision. The bending test device was manufactured in accordance with ASTM standard, and mounted to UTM for bending test. For comparing bending characteristics of the hybrid member with those of Aluminum and CFRP member, tests were performed for aluminum, CFRP and hybrid member, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.525-530
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• 2023

Stretchable piezoelectric energy harvester (S-PEHs) based on composite materials are considered one of the potential candidates for realizing wearable self-powered devices for smart clothing and electronic skin. However, low energy conversion performance and expensive stretchable electrodes are major bottlenecks hindering the development and application of S-PEHs. Here, we fabricated the S-PEH by adopting the piezoelectric composites with enhanced stress transfer properties and kirigami-patterned textile electrodes. The optimum contents of piezoelectric BaTiO₃ nanoparticles inside the carbon nanotube/ecoflex composite were selected as 30 wt% considering the trade-off between stretchability and energy harvesting performance of the device. The final S-PEH shows an output voltage and mechanical stability of ~5 V and ~3,000 cycles under repeated 150% of tensile strain, respectively. This work presents a cost-effective and scalable way to fabricate stretchable piezoelectric devices for self-powered wearable electronic systems.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.803-810
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• 2007

An analytical method capable of predicting various stress-strain responses in axially loaded concrete confined with FRP (fiber reinforced polymers) composites in a rational manner is presented. Its underlying idea is that the volumetric expansion due to progressive microcracking in mechanically loaded concrete is an important measure of the extent of damage in the material microstructure, and can be utilized to estimate the load-carrying capacity of concrete by considering the corresponding accumulated damage. Following from this, an elastic modulus expressed as a function of area strain and concrete porosity, the energy-balance equation relating the dilating concrete to the confining device interactively, the varying confining pressure, and an incremental calculation algorithm are included in the solution procedure. The proposed method enables the evaluation of lateral strains consecutively according to the related mechanical model and the energy-balance equation, rather than using an empirically derived equation for Poisson's ratio or dilation rate as in other analytical methods. Several existing analytical methods that can predict the overall response were also examined and discussed, particularly focusing on the way of considering the volumetric expansion. The results predicted by the proposed and Samaan's bilinear equation models correlated with observed results with a reasonable degree, however it can be judged that the latter is not capable of predicting the response of lateral strains correctly due to incorporating the initial Poisson's ratio and the final converged dilation rate only. Further, the proposed method seems to have greater benefits in other applications by the use of the fundamental principles of mechanics.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.3 s.258
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• pp.209-216
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• 2007

Bacterial chemotaxis is essential to the study of structure and function of bacteria. Although many studies have accumulated the knowledge about chemotaxis in the past, the motion of a single bacterium has not been studied much yet. In this study, we have developed a device microfabricated by soft lithography and consisting of microfluidic channels. The microfluidic assay generates a concentration gradient of chemoattractant linearly in the main channel by only diffusion of the chemicals. Bacteria are injected into the main channel in a single row by hydrodynamic focusing technique. We measured the velocity of bacteria in response to a given concentration gradient of chemoattractant using the microfludic assay, optical systems with CCD camera and simple PTV (Particle Tracking Velocimetry) algorithm. The advantage of this assay and experiment is to measure the velocity of a single bacterium and to quantify the degree of chemotaxis by statistically analyzing the velocity at the same time. Specifically, we measured and analyzed the motility of Escherichia coli strain RP437 in response to various concentration gradients of L-aspartate statistically and quantitatively by using this microfluidic assay. We obtained the probability density of the velocity while RP437 cells are swimming and tumbling in the presence of the linear concentration gradient of L-aspartate, and quantified the degree of chemotaxis by analyzing the probability density.