• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.317-323
• /
• 2010

The manual ultrasonic examination for the nuclear power plant piping welds has been demonstrated by using KPD(Korean Performance Demonstration) generic procedure. For automated ultrasonic examination, there is no generic procedure and it should be qualified by using applicable automated equipment. Until now, most of qualified procedures used pulse-echo technique and there is no qualified procedure using phased array technique. In this study, data acquisition and analysis software were developed and phased-array transducer and wedge were designed to implement phased array technique for nuclear power plant in-service inspection. The developed procedure are qualified for performance demonstration for the flaw detection, length sizing and depth sizing. The qualified procedure will be applied for the field examination in the nuclear power plant piping weld inspection.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.304-310
• /
• 2005

The techniques in order to measure the depth of defect in weldment and structure accurately have been developed. Many researches have made efforts to develop the methods for the accurate depth sizing of defect. TOFD is known as the most accurate method of various methods for measuring depth sizing. However, there is a possibility to miss defects because of the limitation of beam coverage for the ultrasound incident angle. In this study, the results for detectability and depth sizing using phased array ultrasonic technique for thick body were compared with those of conventional TOFD technique. It was experimentally confirmed that the phased array ultrasonic TOFD technique gives good detectability and accurate depth measurement for the various types of defects. The phased array ultrasonic TOFD technique developed in this study will contribute to increase the inspection reliability in thick component such as the pressure vessel of power generation industry.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.185-191
• /
• 2012

Typically, a wedge is involved to generate effectively high inspection angle in pipe weld inspection using phased array ultrasonic technique. But the usage of this wedge for weld or access limited area can cause coverage limitation for the examination volume because of the wedge front length. Therefore, the shear wave phased array probe which can generate high inspection angle without wedge is essentially necessary. In this paper, the shear wave phased array ultrasonic probe which can generate high inspection angle designed by modeling and manufactured from the modelling result. And this shear wave probe tested whether it can detect and sizing for EDM test block that contains various depth. As results, the experimental results show that the designed shear wave phased array probe can detect and size with reliable accuracy. Therefore if this phased array probe apply in field inspection, it is expected that it show more reliable inspection result for plant structure having access limitation.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.137-146
• /
• 2019

The ultrasonic phased arrays are used for treating tumors in the human body by the focus control of the acoustic pressure at the desired position. The magnitude and phase of the surface acoustic pressure in each ultrasonic transducer is controlled by the magnitude and phase of the applied voltage to it. In this paper, the relationship between the applied voltage and the surface acoustic pressure of the ultrasound transducer is modelled, and the desired voltage is realized by PWM technique. The validity of the proposed method is verified by computer simulation of the focus control of a ultrasonic phased array composed of 61 ultrasonic transducers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.151-157
• /
• 2004

Ultrasonic testing is a kind of nondestructive test to detect a crack or discontinuity in materials or on material surfaces by sending ultrasound to it. This conventional ultrasonic technique has some limitations in reliably detecting crack or accurately assessing materials in the case of complex-shaped power plant components such as a turbine blade root. An alternative method for such a difficult inspection is highly needed. In this study, application of a phased array ultrasonic testing (UT) system to a turbine blade, one of the critical power plant components, has been considered, and the particular incident angle has been determined so that the greatest track detectability and the most accurate crack length evaluation nay be achieved. The response of ultrasonic phased array was also analyzed to establish a special method to determine the track )ength without moving the transducer. The result showed that the developed method for crack length assessment is a more accurate and effective method, compared with the conventional method.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.299-306
• /
• 2015

A conventional phased array system can control an ultrasonic beam electronically by adjusting the excitation time delay of individual elements in a multi-element probe and produce an ultrasonic image. In Contrast, full matrix capture (FMC) is a data acquisition process that allows receiving ultrasonic signals from one single shot of the phased array transducer element through all the other elements and captures the complete dataset from every possible transmit-receive combination. This FMC data can be used to create the ultrasonic image in post processing. It is possible to produce not only images equivalent to conventional phased array image but also total focusing method (TFM) images with improved resolution and sharpness, which is virtually focused at any point in a region of interest. In this paper, the system that can perform FMC by using a conventional phased array instrument is developed, and a study was conducted on the imaging algorithms to reconstruct sector B-scan and TFM images from FMC dataset.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.20-26
• /
• 2005

Ultrasonic guided waves have been widely employed for long range inspection of structures such as plates, rods and pipes. There are numerous modes with different wave velocities, and the appropriate mode selection is one of key techniques in the application of guided waves. In the present work, phase tuning by an array transducer was applied to generate ultrasonic guided waves. For this purpose, 8-channel ultrasonic pulser/receiver and their controller which enables sequential activation of each channels with given time delay were developed. Eight transducers were fabricated in order to generate guided waves by using an array transducer. The selective tuning of wave mode can be achieved by changing the interval between elements of an array transducer.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.13-20
• /
• 2017

A conventional phased array ultrasonic system offers the ability to steer an ultrasonic beam by applying independent time delays of individual elements in the array and produce an ultrasonic image. In contrast, full matrix capture (FMC) is a data acquisition process that collects a complete matrix of A-scans from every possible independent transmit-receive combination in a phased array transducer and makes it possible to reconstruct various images that cannot be produced by conventional phased array with the post processing as well as images equivalent to a conventional phased array image. In this paper, a basic algorithm based on the LLL mode total focusing method (TFM) that can image crack type flaws is described. And this technique was applied to reconstruct flaw images from the FMC dataset obtained from the experiments and ultrasonic simulation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.231-238
• /
• 2006

Nondestructive examination for low pressure turbine disc in standard nuclear power plant using phased array technique was studied. For this purpose, disc mockups were made and notches were machined in the mockups. Detection and length sizing by different methods are compared. Depth of deep notches could be measured by using AATT(absolute arrival time technique) or RATT(relative arrival time technique) but shallow notches that must be detected in early stage couldn't be measured by these two methods. For this case, notch depth was estimated by using signal response angle range and preyed usefulness.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.15-20
• /
• 2009

The results of crack evaluation by conventional UT(Ultrasonic Test)is highly depend on the inspector's experience or knowledge of ultrasound. Phased array UT system and its application methods for small crack length evaluation will be a good alternative method which overcome present UT weakness. This study was aimed at checking the accuracy of crack length evaluation method by electronic scanning and discuss about characteristics of electronic scanning for crack length evaluation. Especially ultrasonic phased array with electronic scan technique was used in carrying out both sizing and detect ability of crack as its length changes. The response of ultrasonic phased array was analyzed to obtain the special method of determining crack length without moving the transducer and detect-ability of crack minimal length and depth from the material. A method of crack length determining by electronic scanning for the small crack is very real method which has it's accuracy and verify the effectiveness of method compared to a conventional crack length determination.