• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2018.07a
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• pp.454-455
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• 2018

The impedance of an underwater acoustic transducers constituting a multi-channel array structure could be changed in real time by various transmission modes. A power amplifier for driving the transducers usually use a voltage control method, so the transducer and power amplifier may be damaged by over-power due to changeable load conditions. Therefore, the drive controller of the power amplifier should have the function of limiting the power. This paper propose the new voltage control method for limiting the driving power of transducers with variable impedance characteristics.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.65.3-65
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• 2001

In order to apply for pickling line in cold rolling process, a high power magnetostrictive ultrasonic transducer was developed. The transducer is expected to overcome the shortcomings of conventional high power ultrasonic transducers. The transducer consists of Fe-Co-V alloy sheets for the magnetostrictive material, an ultrasonic horn made of Hastelloy to withstand acid solution, and electric driving circuit. In the development, the transducer was designed with the theoretical and numerical methods such as finite element method, and was characterized with experimental water tanks. The developed transducers turned out to be able to generate the sound pressure up to 20,000 Pa, and to be suitable for application ...

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.8
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• pp.1215-1221
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• 2017

Parametric array transducers are used for highly directional speaker in an air environments. Piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers for parametric array transducers need DC-biased voltage driving signals in order to get high-directional quality-sound features. The existing power amplifier such as class A amplifiers has low efficiency and require large volume heatsinks. To overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of the conventional amplifier, this paper proposes a new power amplifier system. The proposed power amplifier system ensures high linearity of output characteristic by utilizing the push-pull class B type amplifier. Furthermore, the proposed power amplifier system gets high efficiency because it contains the DC-DC converter-type power supply which can perform energy recovery and envelope tracking function. Also the paper suggests the detailed circuit topology. Its characteristics are verified by the detailed experimental results.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.3
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• pp.383-390
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• 2018

Piezoelectric micro-machined ultrasonic transducers for highly directional speaker need DC bias voltage. Most existing power amplifiers are not suitable for use in highly directional transducers because they are based on AC. In addition, since the piezoelectric micro-machined ultrasonic transducer has a large capacitive reactance, the power efficiency of the power amplifier is very low. Thus this paper proposes a new high efficiency power amplifier with DC bias voltage. In addition, by designing a matching circuit to compensate the capacitive reactance of the micro-machined ultrasonic transducer, the power efficiency of the power amplifier increases. The operating characteristics of the proposed power amplifier was verified by an experimental prototype. The proposed power amplifier is expected to be widely used in designing and implementing other related power amplifiers.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.5_6
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• pp.731-748
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• 2010

Impact detection and health monitoring are very important tasks for civil infrastructures, such as bridges. Piezoceramic based transducers are widely researched for these tasks due to the piezoceramic material's inherent advantages of dual sensing and actuation ability, which enables the active sensing method for structural health monitoring with a network of piezoceramic transducers. Wireless sensor networks, which are easy for deployment, have great potential in health monitoring systems for large civil infrastructures to identify early-age damages. However, most commercial wireless sensor networks are general purpose and may not be optimized for a network of piezoceramic based transducers. Wireless networks of piezoceramic transducers for active sensing have special requirements, such as relatively high sampling rate (at a few-thousand Hz), incorporation of an amplifier for the piezoceramic element for actuation, and low energy consumption for actuation. In this paper, a wireless network is specially designed for piezoceramic transducers to implement impact detection and active sensing for structural health monitoring. A power efficient embedded system is designed to form the wireless sensor network that is capable of high sampling rate. A 32 bit RISC wireless microcontroller is chosen as the main processor. Detailed design of the hardware system and software system of the wireless sensor network is presented in this paper. To verify the functionality of the wireless sensor network, it is deployed on a two-story concrete frame with embedded piezoceramic transducers, and the active sensing property of piezoceramic material is used to detect the damage in the structure. Experimental results show that the wireless sensor network can effectively implement active sensing and impact detection with high sampling rate while maintaining low power consumption by performing offline data processing and minimizing wireless communication.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.256-265
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• 2019

Several types of cymbal transducers used for underwater detection have been studied. Representative types are Moonie, convex cymbal, and concave cymbal transducers. In this study, we analyzed the characteristics of these three types of transducers for underwater broadband projectors and compared them together. First, the influence of structural variables on the acoustic characteristics of the transducers was analyzed. Based on this, we derived the structure of each transducer type to have a specific center frequency and the maximum bandwidth. As a result of comparing the performance of the optimized transducers, the convex cymbal transducer turned out to be best in terms of both broad bandwidth and high power.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.151-161
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• 2018

A new type of cascade sandwiched piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer is presented and studied. The cascade transducer is composed of two traditional longitudinally sandwiched piezoelectric transducers, which are connected together in series mechanically and in parallel electrically. Based on the analytical method, the electromechanical equivalent circuit of the cascade transducer is derived and the resonance/anti-resonance frequency equations are obtained. The impedance characteristics and the vibrational modes of the transducer are analyzed. By means of numerical method, the dependency of the resonance/anti-resonance frequency and the effective electromechanical coupling coefficient on the geometrical dimensions of the cascade transducer are studied and some interesting conclusions are obtained. Two prototypes of the cascade transducers are designed and made; the resonance/anti-resonance frequency is measured. It is shown that the analytical resonance/anti-resonance frequencies are in good agreement with the experimental results. It is expected that this kind of cascade transducer can be used in large power and high intensity ultrasonic applications, such as ultrasonic liquid processing, ultrasonic metal machining and ultrasonic welding and soldering.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.499-512
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• 2017

Traditional structural dynamic analysis and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of large scale concrete civil structures rely on manufactured embedding transducers to obtain structural dynamic properties. However, the embedding of manufactured transducers is very expensive and low efficiency for signal acquisition. In dynamic structural analysis and SHM areas, piezoelectric transducers are more and more popular due to the advantages like quick response, low cost and adaptability to different sizes. In this paper, the applicable feasibility assessment of the designed "artificial" piezoelectric transducers called Concrete Piezoelectric Smart Module (CPSM) in dynamic structural analysis is performed via three major experiments. Experimental Modal Analysis (EMA) based on Ibrahim Time Domain (ITD) Method is applied to experimentally extract modal parameters. Numerical modal analysis by finite element method (FEM) modeling is also performed for comparison. First ten order modal parameters are identified by EMA using CPSMs, PCBs and FEM modeling. Comparisons are made between CPSMs and PCBs, between FEM and CPSMs extracted modal parameters. Results show that Power Spectral Density by CPSMs and PCBs are similar, CPSMs acquired signal amplitudes can be used to predict concrete compressive strength. Modal parameter (natural frequencies) identified from CPSMs acquired signal and PCBs acquired signal are different in a very small range (~3%), and extracted natural frequencies from CPSMs acquired signal and FEM results are in an allowable small range (~5%) as well. Therefore, CPSMs are applicable for signal acquisition of dynamic responses and can be used in dynamic modal analysis, structural health monitoring and related areas.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.364-375
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• 2014

Parametric array transducers are used for long-range and highly directional communication in an underwater environments. The power amplifiers for parametric array transducers should have sufficient linear output characteristic and high efficiency to avoid communication errors, system heating, and fuel problems. But the conventional power amplifier with fixed source voltage is very low efficient due to large power loss by the big difference between the fixed source voltage and the amplifier output voltage. Thus to solve the problems this paper proposes the high efficiency power amplifier for parametric array transducers. The proposed power amplifier ensures high linearity of output characteristic by utilizing the push-pull class B type amplifier and furthermore gets high efficiency by applying the envelope tracking technique that variable source voltage tracks the envelope of the amplified signal. Also the paper suggests the detailed circuit topology and design guideline of class B push-pull type amplifier and variable output voltage AC/DC converter. Its characteristics are verified by the detailed simulation and experimental results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.547-577
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• 2013

To suppress vibration and noise of mechanical structures piezoelectric ceramics play an increasing role as effective, simple and light-weighted damping devices as they are suitable for sensing and actuating. Out of the various piezoelectric damping methods this paper compares mode based active control strategies to passive shunt damping for thin plates. Therefore, a new approach for the optimal placement of the piezoelectric sensors/actuators, or more general transducers, is proposed after intense theoretical investigations based on the Kirchhoff kinematical hypotheses of plates; in particular, modal and nilpotent transducers are discussed in detail. Based on the proposed distribution a discrete design for modal transducers is implemented, tested and verified on an experimental setup. For active control the modal sensors clearly identify the eigenmodes, whereas the modal actuators impose distributed eigenstrains in order to reduce the transverse plate vibrations. In contrast to the modal control, passive shunt damping works without requiring additional actuators or auxiliary power and can therefore act as an autonomous system, but it is less effective compensating the flexible vibrations. Exemplarily, an acryl glass plate disturbed by an arbitrary force initialized by a loudspeaker is investigated. Comparing the different methods their specific advantages are highlighted and a significant broadband reduction of the vibrations of up to -20dB is obtained.