• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.293-310
• /
• 2017

An ultrasonic assisting vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) system was designed to promote the heat and mass transfer in membrane distillation (MD) process. Both the effects of operating conditions and ultrasonic parameters to permeation flux in this process were investigated; the heat and mass transfer mechanism was also being discussed in this paper. The results showed that the performance of VMD process was improved significantly by ultrasonic assisting. The permeation flux was boosted at a certain feed solution temperature, pressure at permeate side and feed solution velocity whether or not to PP and PTFE. The results also indicated that ultrasonic power and frequency also was the key factor affecting the mass and transfer efficiencies. The feed side transfer coefficient ($K_f$), corresponding to ultrasonic power ($K_f=4.406-0.026{\times}P+7.824{\times}10^{-5}{\times}P^2$) and ultrasonic frequency ($K_f=0.941+0.598{\times}f-0.012{\times}f^2+6.283{\times}10^{-5}f^3$), was obtained and employed in the modeling of ultrasonic assisting VMD process. The modeling results showed that the calculated value of $K_f$ aligned with experimental results well. Both variations of temperature polarization coefficient (TPC) and concentration polarization coefficient (CPC) were studied based on the obtained data. The results showed that both TPC and CPC were improved obviously by the ultrasonic parameters.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.239-242
• /
• 2015

In this paper, we propose a walking assisting system for blind people using Android smartphone and Arduino board. In our proposed system, we use an Android smartphone case and an external ultrasonic sensor to detect the obstacles ahead. In this manner, blind people is able to aware unexpected objects by smartphone speakers or vibration functionality. In addition, the walking assisting system is also designed a notice system which will be triggered by built-in smartphone camera flash when blind people walk in some darkness place. The experimental results from real experiments on blind people have demonstrated the applicability of our walking assisting system, when it not only efficiently helps blind people avoid obstacles ahead but also possible traffic collisions in darkness condition.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.353-359
• /
• 2017

The sonophoresis, a representative low-intensity ultrasonic therapy, is a technique for delivering the drugs into the epidermis, dermis and skin appendages by using physical vibration and heat effects of the ultrasonic waves. Sonophoresis could increases the delivering and absorption efficiency of the drugs usually consisting of hydrophilic molecules and macromolecules. In addition, it has the advantage of being effective in delivering drugs with relatively large molecular sizes such as insulin or lipid. In this study, we proposed a multi-structure ultrasonic transducer assembly with a large-size single piezoelectric element and a drug delivery function at the treatment site for efficient sonophoresis treatment. Futhermore, a transducer assembly structure capable of raising and maintaining the temperature of the treatment site was proposed and evaluated for effectiveness. The transducer assembly proposed in this study is expected to improve the efficiency of sonophoresis by providing a constant amount of drug, and assisting drug delivery through heating the treatment site.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.447-456
• /
• 1997

When the disabled is operating a rehabilitation assisting system with a joystick by himself, unlike in the case of a normal person, tremor with joystick control or instant miscontrol can often occur. If these misoperations should be directly relayed to the system, shaking or malfunction of the mobile rehabilitation assisting system might be the result. The safety of the disabled is of prime concern. To solve this problem, that is, to prevent the miscontrol of the disabled operator and avoid crashes into his or her surroundings, we propose the force-reflection locomotion algorithm with the joystick. This method uses ultrasonic sensors to measure the distance between the object and mobile robot. Based on the reception of sensory data, the necessary torque is applied via the joystick to the attatched motor. To confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method, the subjects on the reflected force by the dynamic characteristics of the joystick and the reflected force by the distance information are tested Even though there are some differences in human dexterity, we confirmed the fact that the information from the obstacles was relayed to the operator via the joystick and resulted in an improved operational performance and safety level with regard to those obstacles.