• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1150-1159
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• 2017

Flexibility in the power control of ultrasonic transducers has remained a challenge for cleaning applications. This paper introduces a modification of the existing piezoelectric ceramic transducer (PCT) circuit to increase the range of operation through its impedance characteristics. The output power is controlled using the asymmetrical voltage-cancellation (AVC) method. Together with a phase-locked loop control, the switching frequency of the inverter is automatically adjusted to maintain a lagging phase angle under load-parameter variations during the cleaning process. With the proposed modification, the region of the zero-voltage switching (ZVS) operation is extended, which results in a wider range of output power control. A hardware prototype is constructed and the control algorithm is implemented using an STM32F4 microcontroller. Simulation and experimental results are provided to verify the proposed method for a 50-W PCT. The operating frequency and output power ranges under study are 37 - 41 kHz and 15.8 - 50 W, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.501-510
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• 2000

Recently, advanced signal analysis which is called "time-frequency analysis" has been used widely in nondestructive evaluation applications. Wavelet transform(WT) and Wigner Distribution are the most advanced techniques for processing signals with time-varying spectra. Wavelet analysis method is an attractive technique for evaluation of material characterization nondestructively. Wavelet transform is applied to the time-frequency analysis of ultrasonic echo waveform obtained by an ultrasonic pulse-echo technique. In this study, the feasibility of noise suppression of ultrasonic flaw signal and frequency-dependent ultrasonic group velocity and attenuation coefficient using wavelet analysis of ultrasonic echo waveform have been verified experimentally. The Gabor function is adopted the analyzing wavelet. The wavelet analysis shows that the variations of ultrasonic group velocity and attenuation coefficient due to the change of material characterization can be evaluated at each frequency. Furthermore, to assure the enhancement of detectability and naw sizing performance, both computer simulated results and experimental measurements using wavelet signal processing are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the noise suppression of ultrasonic flaw signal obtained from austenitic stainless steel weld including EDM notch.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 1991

In this study the bonding quality evaluation of FRP honeycomb structure was performed by the ultrasonic C-Scan method and stress wave factor measurements. These NDT techniques could be well applied to the disbonding detection of FRP honeycomb structures. Especially, stress wave factor (SWF) measurement is expected to be a useful technique in field applications.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Information Technology Applications Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.215-218
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• 2005

We have investigated on the development of 2-2 piezocomposites that have better piezoelectric activity and lower acoustic impedance than those of conventional piezoceramics. In this study, we have investigated the piezoelectric and acoustic properties of 2-2 piezocomposites sensor which were fabricated using dice-and-fill technique for the different volume fraction of PZT. The resonance characteristics measured by an impedance analyzer were similar to the analysis of finite element method. The resonance characteristics and the electromechanical coupling factor were the best when the volume fraction PZT was 0.6. It also showed the highest result from the standpoint of sensitivity, bandwidth and ring-down property and so on at the same condition. The specific characteristics shows that the 2-2 piezocomposites turned out to be superior to the ultrasonic sensor composed by single phase PZT.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1988.07a
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• pp.802-805
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• 1988

The objective of the present study was to manufacture the piezoelectric composites of Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) - polymer for applications such as ultrasonic medical diagnosis and hydrophone. The PZT rod-polymer composites have been prepared with 4.5 to 57 volume percent PZT using 1.5 mm rod, so the connectivity pattern of the two phase is 1-3 type. The electromechanical coupling factors of radial mode ($k_{p}$) and thickness mode ($k_{t}$) were nearly independent of the volume percent PZT, which were 0.3 and 0.65, respectively. The acoustic impedance of the piezoelectric composites was measured by the resonance technique in the frequency range 50 KHz-1.5 MHz, which was in the range of 3.8 - 60 Mrayl.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.86.1-86
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• 2002

Polarity correlation is a simplified version of the usual, having a possibility of real-time processing without any reduction of precision. In this paper, its applicability in deterministic signals is first explored generally, by theoretical or numerical analysis of four kinds of the typical signals. Then, based on the results, its two applications are proposed, that are detection and demodulation of FSK signals in digital communication, and time delay estimasion in ultrasonic A-mode measurement. The effectiveness of the proposed applications is confirmed by its superior implementation ability and the results of numerical experiments under practical circumstances.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.3 s.33
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• pp.92-99
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• 1999

High temperature and pressure materials in power plant are degraded by creep damage, if they are exposed to constant loads for long times, which occurs in load bearing structures of pressurized components operationg at elevated temperatures. Many conventional measurement techniques such as replica method, electric resistance method, and hardness test method for measuring creep damgage have been used. So far, the replica method is mainly used for the inspection of high temperature and pressure components. This technique is, however, restricted to applications at the surface of the testpieces and cannot be used to material inside. In this paper, ultrasonic evaluation for the detection of creep damage in the form of cavaties on grain boundaries or intergranular microcracks were carried out. And the absolute measuring method of quantitative ultrasonic velocity technique for Cr-Mo material degradation was analyzed. As a result of ultrasonic tests for crept for specimens, we founded that the sound velocity was decreased as increase of creep life fraction(${phi}c$) and also, confirmed that hardness was decreased as increase of creep life fraction(${phi}c$).

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.276-283
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• 2012

In this paper, a practical quasi-optimal DOA(direction of arrival) estimator is proposed in order to develop a one-axis gimbaled ultrasonic source tracker for mobile robot applications. With help of the gimbal structure, the ultrasonic moving source tracking problem can be simply reduced to the DOA estimation. The DOA estimation is known as one of the representative long-pending nonlinear filtering problems, but the conventional nonlinear filters might be restrictive in many actual situations because it cannot guarantee the reliable performance due to the use of nonlinear signal model. This motivates us to reformulate the DOA estimation problem in the linear robust state estimation setting. Based on the assumption that the received ultrasonic signals are noisy sinusoids satisfying linear prediction property, a linear uncertain measurement model is newly derived. To avoid the DOA estimation performance degradation caused by the stochastic parameter uncertainty contained in the linear measurement model, the recently developed NCRKF (non-conservative robust Kalman filter) scheme [1] is utilized. The proposed linear DOA estimator provides excellent DOA estimation performance and it is suitable for real-time implementation for its linear recursive filter structure. The effectiveness of the suggested DOA estimation scheme is demonstrated through simulations and experiments.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.601-609
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• 2018

Steel bolts are used in the construction industry for a large variety of applications that range from fixing permanent installations to temporary fixtures. In the past much research has been focused on developing destructive testing techniques to estimate their pull-out load carrying capacity with very little attention to develop non-destructive techniques. In this regards the presented research work details the combined use of ultrasonic pulse velocity and Schmidt hammer tests to identify anchor bolts with faculty installation and to estimate their pull-out strength by relating it to the Schmidt hammer rebound value. From experimentation, it was observed that the load capacity of bolt depends on its embedment length, diameter, bond quality/concrete strength and alignment. Ultrasonic pulse velocity test is used to judge the quality of bond of embedded anchor bolt by relating the increase in ultrasonic pulse transit time to the presence of internal pours and cracks in the vicinity of steel bolt and the surrounding concrete. This information combined with the Schmidt hammer rebound number, R, can be used to accurately identify defective bolts which resulted in lower pull-out strength. 12 mm diameter bolts with embedment length of 70 mm and 50 mm were investigated using constant strength concrete. Pull-out load capacity versus the Schmidt hammer rebound number for each embedment length is presented.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2002

The effect of ultrasonic radiation is reported for silica-poly(ethylene glycol) system prepared without the solvent using sol-gel processing by varying various parameters such as ultrasonic irradiation time, PEG content and HCl/TEOS molar ratio. The property of sonogel is compared with classic gel which has been prepared with ethanol as a solvent by traditional sol-gel processing. SEM, BET, DTA-TGA, density and Vickers hardness measurements are carried out for analyzing the samples. The gelation time is found strongly dependent on radiation time, PEG content and pH value, and has been discussed on the basis of existing theories. The $SiO_2-10$ & 20 wt% PEG sonogel exhibited superior optical, physical and gel properties as compared to the classic gel, hence, found suitable for device applications. The ultrasonic radiation increased the density and surface area, and also reduced the pore size which is well supported by the shift in the peak of DTA curve. The DTA thermogram was found similar to that of pure silica gel.