• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.796-803
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• 2008

Ultrasonic testing uses the directivity of the ultrasonic wave, which propagates in on direction. The directivity is expressed as the relationship between the propagate direction and its sound pressure. The directivity of an ultrasonic wave is related to the choice of probe arrangement, testing sensitivity and scanning pitch and correct measurement of defect size and location. This paper describes on the directivity measurement of ultrasonic wave using the visualization method. The directivity of shear wave emitted from the angle beam transducer were constant during propagation. The difference of directivity was existed between 2 MHz and 4 MHz angle beam transducers. When these experimental results were compared with the theory which was based on the continuous wave, it showed good agreement with theoretical directivity on the principal lobe.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.423-430
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• 2011

The most satisfactory split-beam transducer for fish sizing maintains a wide bearing angle region for correct fish tracking without interference from side lobes and lower sensitivity to fish echoes outside of the main lobe region to correctly measure the angular location of free-swimming fishes in the sound beam. To evaluate the performance of an experimentally developed 50 kHz split-beam transducer, the angular location of a target was derived from the electrical phase difference between the resultant signals for the pair of transducer quadrants in the horizontal and vertical planes consisting of 32 transducer elements. The electrical phase difference was calculated by cross-spectral density analysis for the signals from the pair of receiving transducer quadrants, and the directivity correction factor for a developed split-beam transducer was estimated as the fourth-order polynomial of the off-axis beam angle for the angular location of the target. The experimental results demonstrate that the distance between the acoustic centers for the pair of receiving transducer quadrants can be controlled to less than one wavelength by optimization with amplitude-weighting transformers, and a smaller center spacing provides a range of greater angular location for tracking of a fish target. In particular, a side lobe level of -25.2 dB and an intercenter spacing of $0.96\lambda$($\lambda$= wavelength) obtained in this study suggest that the angular location of fish targets distributing within a range of approximately ${\pm}28^{\circ}$ without interference from side lobes can be measured.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.163-170
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• 2005

A modular Gaussian beam model is developed to simulate some ultrasonic testing configurations where multiple interfaces are involved. A general formulation is given in a modular matrix form to represent the Gaussian beam propagation with multiple interfaces. The ultrasonic transducer fields are modeled by a multi-Gaussian beam model which is formed by superposing 10 single Gaussian beams. The proposed model, referred to as "MMGB" (modular multi-Gaussian beam) model, is then applied to a typical contact and angle beam testing configuration to predict the output signal reflected from the corner of a vertical crack. The resulting expressions given in a modular matrix form are implemented in a personal computer using the MATLAB program. Simulation results are presented and compared with available experimental results.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Navigation
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.1-39
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• 1981

A doppler log is the typical device which can measure the ship's speed over the ground directly, by means of doppler effect of the underwater ultrasonic wave, which involves the error due to the sea bottom inclination, the trim and the incorrect transducer installation etc. The present doppler log adopts a single transducer, faced in the direction of themain beam, and therefore it is unable to correct the beam direction to eliminate the above mentioned error. Moreover, the frequencyis also limitted in a comparatively high range for getting a sharp beam with single transducer, and the speed over the ground can not be detectable at the deep sea, for an instance, over 200 meters. This paper describes a theoretical consideration for the doppler log error and an analysis by a computer on the observed speed data by a full size model ship. The result is verified that the most of doppler log error is caused by the ultrasonic beam angle of transducer. To eliminate the doppler log error due to the incorrect transducer installation and also to sharpen the beam for lower frequency range to expand measurable sea depth, this paper proposes a method of controlling the directivity adopting a linear transducer array and of controlling the directivity by the control of exciting current, and investigates by the computer simulation and make experiment with magnetostrictive ferrite transducer of 28, 50 and 75KHz. The experimental results are shown well coincide with the measured ones, and they are revealed that in case where the transducer interval is greater than 1 wavelength, the effective control of the beam direction is hardly performed with keeping adequate beam width and side lobe level. It is concluded that 6-elements array with inter element space of a half wavelength can make comparatively sharp beam and low side lobe level. The results obtained here will contribute very much to the improvement of the performance of doppler log.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.594-604
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• 2003

A State-of-art methodologies on implementing conventional piezoelectric and flexible PVDF elements for generating ultrasonic guided waves in a tubing are presented. Comb transducers with PVDF can be efficiently applied to selectively excite a guided wave mode by wrapping around any size pipe while a conventional immersion type piezo-elements can be also possibly used with a modification of transducer fabrication. Technical comparisons between the use of angle beam probe and comb one will be also discussed in detail. The presented technique can be easily applied to NDE for a long range inspection of tubular structures.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.173-183
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• 2010

In a split beam echo sounder, the transducer design needs to have minimal side lobes because the angular position and level of the side lobes establishes the usable signal level and phase angle limits for determining target strength. In order to suppress effectively the generation of unwanted side lobes in the directivity pattern of split beam transducer, the spacing and size of the transducer elements need to be controlled less than half of a wavelength. With this purpose, a 50 kHz tonpilz type transducer with a half-wavelength diameter in relation to the development of a split beam transducer was designed using the equivalent circuit model, and the underwater performance characteristics were measured and analyzed. From the in-air and in-water impedance responses, the measured value of the electro-acoustic conversion efficiency for the designed transducer was 51.6%. A maximum transmitting voltage response (TVR) value of 172.25dB re $1{\mu}Pa/V$ at 1m was achieved at 52.92kHz with a specially designed matching network and the quality factor was 10.3 with the transmitting bandwidth of 5.14kHz. A maximum receiving sensitivity (SRT) of -183.57dB re $1V/{\mu}Pa$ was measured at 51.45kHz and the receiving bandwidth at -3dB was 1.71kHz. These results suggest that the designed tonpilz type transducer can be effectively used in the development of a split beam transducer for a 50kHz fish sizing echo sounder.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2000

A low frequency, high power hydroacoustic transducer with 7 tonpilz piston elements assembled in a circular array suitable for marine application, such as the transmission of underwater information and the development of new fisheries resources in the deep sea zone was designed. A modified Mason's model was applied to monitor and to simulate the transducer behavior at each step during the fabrication. The in air, and in water constructed tonpilz transducer was tested experimentally and numerically by changing the size and the type of the material for head, tail and acoustic window. Also, the developed transducer was excited by pulse signals and the received waveform was analyzed. The resonance peaks in the transmitting voltage response(TVR) of a single tonpilz element without housing were observed at 11.33kHz in air and 10.93kHz in air and 10.93 kHz in water, respectively, with the overall electrical-acoustic efficiency of 43.7%. The value of TVR of single tonpilz element with aluminum housing in water was 129.87dB re 1 $\mu$Pa/V at 12.25 kHz with the frequency bandwith of 2.15 kHz and half beam angle of 30.2$^{\circ}$at -3dB.The resonance peaks in the transmitting voltage response of the 7 element circular transducer were observed at 11.50 kHz in air and 11.45 kHz in water, respectively. The value of TVR in water 144.84 dB re 1$\mu$Pa/V at 11.5kHz with the frequency bandwith of 4.25 kHz and the half beam angle of $22.3^{\circ} $ at -3dB.Reasonable agreement between the experimental measurements and the theoretical predictions for the directivity patterns, TVRs and the impedance characteristics of the designed transducer was achieved.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.196-213
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• 2001

A split beam ultrasonic transducer operating at a frequency of 70 kHz to use in the fish sizing echo sounder was developed and the acoustic radiation characteristics were experimentally analyzed. The amplitude shading method utilizing the properties of the Chebyshev polynomials was used to obtain side lobe levels below -20 dB and to optimize the relationship between main beam width and side lobe level of the transducer, and the amplitude shading coefficient to each of the elements was achieved by changing the amplitude contribution of elements with 4 weighting transformers embodied in the planar array transducer assembly. The planar array split beam transducer assembly was composed of 36 piezoelectric ceramics (NEPEC N-21, Tokin) of rod type of 10 mm in diameter and 18.7 mm in length of 70 kHz arranged in the rectangular configuration, and the 4 electrical inputs were supplied to the beamformer. A series of impedance measurements were conducted to check the uniformity of the individual quadrants, and also in the configurations of reception and transmission, resonant frequency, and the transmitting and receiving characteristics were measured in the water tank and analyzed, respectively. The results obtained are summarized as follows : 1. Average resonant and antiresonant frequencies of electrical impedance for four quadrants of the split beam transducer in water were 69.8 kHz and 83.0 kHz, respectively. Average electrical impedance for each individual transducer quadrant was 49.2$\Omega$ at resonant frequency and 704.7$\Omega$ at antiresonant frequency. 2. The resonance peak in the transmitting voltage response (TVR) for four quadrants of the split beam transducer was observed all at 70.0 kHz and the value of TVR was all about 165.5 dB re 1 $\mu$Pa/V at 1 m at 70.0 kHz with bandwidth of 10.0 kHz between -3 dB down points. The resonance peak in the receiving sensitivity (SRT) for four combined quadrants (quad LU+LL, quad RU+RL, quad LU+RU, quad LL+RL) of the split beam transducer was observed all at 75.0 kHz and the value of SRT was all about -177.7 dB re 1 V/$\mu$Pa at 75.0 kHz with bandwidth of 10.0 kHz between -3 dB down points. The sum beam transmitting voltage response and receiving senstivity was 175.0 dB re 1$\mu$Pa/V at 1 m at 75.0 kHz with bandwidth of 10.0 kHz, respectively. 3. The sum beam of split beam transducer was approximately circular with a half beam angle of $9.0^\circ$ at -3 dB points all in both axis of the horizontal plane and the vertical plane. The first measured side lobe levels for the sum beam of split beam transducer were -19.7 dB at $22^\circ$ and -19.4 dB at $-26^\circ$ in the horizontal plane, respectively and -20.1 dB at $22^\circ$ and -22.0 dB at $-26^\circ$ in the vertical plane, respectively. 4. The developed split beam transducer was tested to estimate the angular position of the target in the beam through split beam phase measurements, and the beam pattern loss for target strength corrections was measured and analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.207-216
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• 1999

A phased array is a multi-element piezoelectric device whose elements are individually excited by electric pulses at programmed delay time. One of the advantages of using phased array in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) application over conventional ultrasonic transducers is their great maneuverability of ultrasonic beam. There are some parameters such as the number and the size of the piezoelectric elements and the inter-element spacing of the elements to design phased array transducer. In this study, the characteristic of ultrasonic beam for phased array transducer due to the variation of the number of elements has been simulated for ultrasonic SH-wave on the basis of Huygen's principle. Ultrasonic beam directivity and focusing due to the change of time delay of each element were discussed due to the change of the number of piezoelectric elements. It was found that ultrasonic beam was much more spreaded and hence its sound pressure was decreased as steering angle of ultrasonic beam was increased. In addition, the ability of ultrasonic bean focusing decreased gradually with the increase of focal length at the same piezoelectric elements. However, the ability of beam focusing was improved as the number of consisting elements was increased.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Marine Engineers Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.201-204
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• 2006

In the side scan sonar method, use is made of the back-scattering, at low grazing angles of incidence to the seabed, of relatively high-frequency acoustic waves radiated in a fan-shaped beam from a transducer contained in a towed body. The fan beam is oriented so that the wider angle is in the vertical plane (scan range) and the narrower angle in the horizontal plane (beam width) with the axis of the beam normal to the ship track. The display of the returns is usually realized as a series of closely spaced intensity-modulated lines on a paper recorder or computer screen display. In this way a two-dimensional picture of the seabed is build up.