• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 2010

This study was conducted to develop an non-contact ultrasonic transducer for measurement of fruit firmness. The center frequency of non-contact ultrasonic transducer was 500 kHz. As an active element of non-contact ultrasonic transducer, the 1-3 piezoelectric composite material was selected. That material has high piezoelectric properties such as electro-mechanical coupling factor, $k_t$ and piezoelectric voltage constant, $d_{33}$ and also that material has low acoustical impedance which enables to matching the acoustical impedances between piezoelectric material and air. As a front matching material between 1-3 piezoelectric composite material and air, various kinds of paper with different thickness were tested. To control the dead-zone of the fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer, the backing material composed of epoxy resin and tungsten powder were made and evaluated. The fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer for fruit showed that the cneter frequency, bandwidth and beamwidth were approximately 480 kHz, 30 % and 12 mm, respectively. It was concluded that non-contact measurement of apple firmness would be possible by using the fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.263-269
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• 2007

Although variable resistance displacement transducer is widely applied for its technical simplicity, electrical point contact limits measurement resolution (precision). The present study introduced roller shaped structure for electrical line contact. Proto-type transducer was developed and measurement characteristics were compared with a commercialized product. When the displacement was varied with steps of 5 mm, 1 mm, and down to 0.1 mm, the correlation coefficient between resistance and displacement decreased lower than 0.9 in the commercialized product while the proto-type transducer maintained values higher than 0.99. Therefore, the measurement resolution was enhanced by approximately 10 times. Since manufacturing also seemed easier, the present results would enable more accurate and less expensive manufacturing of variable resistance displacement transducer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.864-868
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• 2005

This paper develops an analysis model of a piezoelectric transducer. The transducer considered in this paper is a bolt-clamped Langevin-type transducer, which consists of a couple of piezoelectric discs, a couple of metal blocks for added mass effect, and a bolt to tighten them. A new analytical model for the transducer has been developed by taking into account the contact area between the piezoelectric ceramic and the metal block. The analysis model is verified by calculating the variations of the resonance frequency due to the contact area and comparing them with reported experimental results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.576-581
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• 2007

Ultrasonic nonlinearity has been considered as a promising method to evaluate the micro damage of material; however, its magnitude is so small that its measurement is not easy. Especially, when we use contact PZT transducer, if the contacting pressure is not kept in constant during the measurement then there exists extraneous fluctuation in the measured nonlinearity caused by the unstable contact condition, In this paper, we developed a pneumatic control system to keep the contacting pressure of transducer in constant during the measurement and analyzed the effect of contacting pressure to the ultrasonic nonlinearity measurement As a result, we found that the pressure of transducer in our measurement system should be greater than 170 kPa to measure the ultrasonic nonlinear parameter in stable with no dependency on the contacting pressure.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.269-275
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• 2007

In this study, ultrasonic transducers for non-destructive contact measurement of whole fruits were developed. The design parameters for ultrasonic transducer such as acoustical impedance of fruits, kinds of piezoelectric materials, ultrasonic wave frequency, and transducer diameter were investigated. In order to match the acoustical impedance between piezoelectric material and fruit, various materials were fabricated and evaluated. Also to control the sensitivity and bandwidth of the ultrasonic transducer, various backing materials were fabricated and evaluated. Especially, the wear plate of the ultrasonic transducer was designed and fabricated considering the curvature of fruit. The central frequencies of two developed ultrasonic transducers were about 100 kHz and 200 kHz, respectively. With the developed ultrasonic transducers, non-destructive evaluation of the fruit will be possible.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2019

This work proposes a noncontact ultrasonic transducer for detecting wall-thinning of containment liner plates of nuclear power plants by measuring their thickness without physical contact. Because the containment liner plate is designed to prevent atmospheric leakage of radioactive substances under severe nuclear accident, its wall-thinning inspection is important for safety of nuclear power plants. Wall-thinning investigation of containment liner plates have been carried out by measuring their thickness with contact-type ultrasonic thickness gauge by inspectors and needs a lot of time and cost. As an alternative, an electromagnetic acoustic transducer measuring precisely thickness of containment liner plates without any physical contact or couplant was suggested in this research. A transducer generating and measuring shear ultrasonic waves in thickness direction was designed and wave field produced by the transducer was analyzed to verify the design. The working performance of the suggested transducer was tested with carbon steel plate specimens with various thicknesses. The test result shows that the proposed transducer can measure thickness of the specimens precisely without any couplant and implies that swift scanning of wall-thinning of containment liner plates will be possible with the proposed transducer.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.192-198
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• 2013

Purpose: Methods for non-destructive estimation of product quality have been reported in various industrial fields, but the application of ultrasonic techniques for the agricultural products of potatoes, pears, apples, watermelons, kiwis and tomatoes etc. have been rarely reported since the application of a contact-type ultrasonic transducer in agricultural products is very difficult. Therefore, this study sought to determine the firmness of apples using non-contact ultrasonic techniques. Methods: For this experiment, an ultrasonic experimental tester using a non-contact ultrasonic transducer was created, and a signal processing program was used to analyze the acquired ultrasonic reflected signal. Also, a universal testing machine was used to measure firmness parameters of the apples such as bioyield strength, a firmness factor, after the ultrasonic tests had been performed. Results: Six distance correction factors were calculated to obtain consistent values of ultrasonic properties regardless of the distance between the transducer and the surface of the subject. We developed prediction models of the bioyield strength using the distance correction factors. Conclusions: The optimum prediction model of the bioyield strength of apples using a non-contact ultrasonic technique was a multiple regression model ($R^2=0.9402$).

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.358-363
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• 2008

Ultrasonic nonlinearity has been considered as a promising method to evaluate the micro damage of material; however, its magnitude is so small that its measurement is not easy. Thus, in this study, we investigate the effects of such experimental system dependent factors in the measurement of ultrasonic nonlinear parameter by using contact PZT transducer. Experimental results showed that the effect of system dependent nonlinearity is reduced when the contact pressure and transducer input voltage are sufficiently large. These results will be very useful to find out the proper experiment condition to measure rather accurate nonlinear parameter.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.267-278
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• 2015

In this study, the elastomer cover, a new contact material, was developed to establish the customized ultrasonic measurement considering surface irregularities of stone cultural heritages. The cover exhibits high elastic force and wear resistance because it has tensile strength of 17MPa and elongation of 625%. In addition, as a result of comparative experiments for the seven types according to transducers and contact materials including the elastomer cover, rock surface irregularities significantly affect attenuation of ultrasonic velocity. The phenomenon was more noticeable in the chiseling finish and indirect transmission measurement rather than the dabbed finish and direct transmission measurement. However, the Type F using the exponential transducer and elastomer cover showed stable P-wave velocity and high amplitude regardless of the surface irregularities. This because the elastomer cover sufficiently sticks to surface irregularities and removes pores between a transducer and a rock specimen. Therefore, the Type F should be used for the ultrasonic measurement of stone cultural heritages with surface irregularities.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.294-299
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• 1999

In this paper, the calibration system for contact transducer has been developed to improve the reliability of the inspection result of ultrasonic testing on rotors. This system consists of signal processing parts: (oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, pulser/receiver), standard block, and user interface program. Signal processing for the calibration system was performed quickly with high accuracy. The developed system has been applied to a practical calibration of probe using the non-destructive testing on rotors, and demonstrated high sensitivity and precision.