• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.265-271
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• 2018

This paper presents a method for detecting damage to a structure at low cost using its impedance. The impedance technique is a typical method to detect local damage for structural health monitoring. This is a common technique for estimating damage by monitoring the electro-mechanical admittance signal of the structure. To apply this technique, an expensive impedance analyzer is generally used. On the other hand, it is necessary to develop a low-cost variant to effectively disseminate the technique. In this study, a method based on the transfer impedance using a function generator and digital multimeter, which are generally used in the laboratory instead of an impedance analyzer, was developed. That is, this technique estimates the damage by comparing the damage index using the amplitude ratio of the output voltage measured in the healthy and damaged state. A transfer impedance test was carried out on a steel specimen. By comparing the damage index, the presence of damage could be assessed reasonably. This study is a basic investigation of an impedance-based low-cost damage detection method that can be used effectively for structural health monitoring if supplemented with future research to estimate the damage location and severity.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.573-574
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• 2009

The feasibility of electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) sensing technique, utilizing piezo-ceramic (PZT) patches, for online strength gain monitoring of early age concrete is investigated. An experimental study is conducted on PZT patch instrumented concrete specimens. The applicability of the EMI sensing technique for strength gain monitoring is discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.202-208
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• 2002

An electro-hydraulic manipulator using hydraulic actuators has many nonlinear elements, and its parameter fluctuations are greater than those of an electrically driven manipulator. So it is relatively difficult to realize not only stable contact work but also accurate force control for the autonomous assembly tasks using hydraulic manipulators. In this report, we applied a compliance control which is based on the position control by a disturbance observer for our manipulator system. And a reference trajectory modification method is proposed in order to achieve accurate force control even though the stiffness and position of environment change. Experimental results show that highly robust force tracking by a 6-link electro-hydraulic manipulator could be achieved under various environment conditions.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.373-380
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• 2004

This paper presents the feasibility of an impedance-based damage detection technique using piezoelectric (PZT) transducers for civil infrastructures such as steel bridges. The impedance-based damage detection method is based on monitoring the changes in the electrical impedance. Those changes in the electrical impedance are due to the electro-mechanical coupling property of the piezoelectric material and structure. An effective integrated structural health monitoring system must include a statistical process of damage detection that is automated and real time assessment of damage in the structure. Once measured, damage sensitive features from this impedance change can be statistically quantified for various damage cases. The results of the experimental study on three kinds of structural members show that cracks or loosened bolts/nuts near the PZT sensors may be effectively detected by monitoring the shifts of the resonant frequencies. The root mean square (RMS) deviations of impedance functions between before and after damages were also considered as a damage indicator. The subsequent statistical methods using the impedance signature of the PZT sensors were investigated.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.999-1010
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• 2003

Uninterrupted power supply has become indispensable during the maintenance task of active electric power lines as a result of today's highly information-oriented society and increasing demand of electric utilities. This maintenance task has the risk of electric shock and the danger of falling from high place. Therefore it is necessary to realize an autonomous robot system using electro-hydraulic manipulators because hydraulic manipulators have the advantage of electric insulation and power/mass density. Meanwhile an electro-hydraulic manipulator using hydraulic actuators has many nonlinear elements, and its parameter fluctuations are greater than those of an electrically driven manipulator. So it is relatively difficult to realize not only stable contact work but also accurate force control for the autonomous assembly tasks using hydraulic manipulators. In this paper, the robust force control of a 6-link electro-hydraulic manipulator system used in the real maintenance task of active electric lines is examined in detail. A nominal model for the system is obtained from experimental frequency responses of the system, and the deviation of the manipulator system from the nominal model is derived by a multiplicative uncertainty. Robust disturbance observers for force control are designed using this information in an H$\_$$\infty$/ framework, and implemented on the two different setups. Experimental results show that highly robust force tracking by a 6-link electro-hydraulic manipulator could be achieved even if the stiffness of environment and the shape of wall change.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.221-233
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• 2017

The array equations are commonly used for analysis and conceptual design of active sonar projector arrays. Calculation of the radiation impedance matrix poses a major computational bottleneck for the solution of the array equations, which leads to a dramatic increase in computational load as the number of constituent transducers increases. Here, we propose an iteration-based solution method that does not require the calculation of the radiation impedance matrix, as a computationally efficient alternative to the status quo. The validity of the iteration-based analysis is judged against the full finite-element analysis that includes the entire array as well as the medium. The array equations for the 1/3-sector of a cylindrical array comprised of 48 Tonpilz transducers are augmented by the lumped element models, and are solved iteratively for the acoustic and electro-mechanical characteristics. The iteration-based analysis exhibits rapid convergence and accuracy comparable with the FE analysis. Simulations also reveal that the acoustic coupling between transducers has more pronounced effects on the electro-mechanical characteristics of individual transducers than the acoustic performance of the array.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.347-352
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• 2011

The maximum accuracy of position control by using an industrial robot is about $100{\mu}m$, whereas the maximum tolerated imprecision in the position of precision parts is about several tens of micrometers. Therefore, it is very difficult to assemble parts by position control only. Moreover, in the case of precision assembly, jamming or wedging can easily occur because of small position/orientation errors, which may damage the parts to be assembled. To overcome these problems, we investigated a force control scheme that provides proper motion in response to the contact force. In this study, we constructed a force control system that can be easily implemented in a position-controlled manipulator. Impedance control by using an admittance filter was adopted to perform stable contact tasks. It is shown that the precision parts can be assembled well by adopting impedance control and blind search methods.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.719-743
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• 2011

A hybrid damage monitoring scheme using parallel acceleration-impedance approaches is proposed to detect girder damage and support damage in steel plate-girder bridges which are under ambient train-induced excitations. The hybrid scheme consists of three phases: global and local damage monitoring in parallel manner, damage occurrence alarming and local damage identification, and detailed damage estimation. In the first phase, damage occurrence in a structure is globally monitored by changes in vibration features and, at the same moment, damage occurrence in local critical members is monitored by changes in impedance features. In the second phase, the occurrence of damage is alarmed and the type of damage is locally identified by recognizing patterns of vibration and impedance features. In the final phase, the location and severity of the locally identified damage are estimated by using modal strain energy-based damage index methods. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is evaluated on a steel plate-girder bridge model which was experimentally tested under model train-induced excitations. Acceleration responses and electro-mechanical impedance signatures were measured for several damage scenarios of girder damage and support damage.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.35-46
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• 2008

In this paper the authors address the problem of comparing two different smart damping techniques using the numerical modelling of the electro-mechanical impedance for plate structures partially treated with active constrained layer damping treatments. The paper summarizes the modelling procedures including a finite element formulation capable of accounting for the observed behaviour. The example used is a smart cantilever plate structure containing a viscoelastic material (VEM) layer sandwiched between a piezoelectric constrained layer and the host vibrating plate. Comparisons are made between active constrained layer and active damping only and based on the resonance frequency amplitudes of the electrical admittance numerically evaluated at the surface of the piezoelectric model of the vibrating structure.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.629-636
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• 2011

This paper describes the smart structural system that uses smart materials for real-time monitoring and active control of bolted joints in steel structures. The impedance-based structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques, which utilize the electro-mechanical coupling property of piezoelectric materials, was used to detect loose bolts in bolted joints. By monitoring the measured electrical impedance and comparing it with the measured baseline, a bolt loosening damage was detected. The damage was evaluated quantitatively using the damage metrics in conductance signature with respect to the healthy states. When loosening damage was detected in the bolted joint, the external heater actuated the shape memory alloy (SMA) washer. Then the heated SMA washer expanded axially and adjusted the bolt tension to restore the lost torque. An experiment was conducted by integrating the piezoelectric-material-based SHM function and the SMA-based active control function on a bolted joint, after which the performance of thesmart self-healing joint system was investigated.