• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.5C no.6
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• pp.264-269
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• 2005

The electrostatic comb drive actuator is one of the main building blocks in the field of micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). Most of the comb actuators presented previously have fingers that are rectangular in shape which produce a stable, constant force output during actuation. The use of sawtooth fixed fingers in a comb drive, which were presumed to produce an increasing force output with displacement due to the increased number of regions where fringing force, the driving force of comb actuators, appear. The dimensions of the sawtooth were derived from finite element analysis (FEA) of simplified finger models with sawtooth type fingers of various dimension and were compared to the rectangular finger model that showed that the sawtooth type fingers have $7\~9$ times stronger driving force. Finally, comb drive actuators with sawtooth type and rectangular fingers were fabricated and although the gap was bigger, the comb actuator with sawtooth type fingers showed about 1.7 times greater electrostatic force than the one with rectangular fingers at equal driving voltages. In conclusion, using the proposed sawtooth type comb fingers in a comb drive makes it possible to increase its displacement or reduce the driving voltage.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.159-189
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• 2014

One of the most important requirements in the evaluation of existing structural systems and ensuring a safe performance during their service life is damage assessment. Damage can be defined as a weakening of the structure that adversely affects its current or future performance which may cause undesirable displacements, stresses or vibrations to the structure. The mass and stiffness of a structure will change due to the damage, which in turn changes the measured dynamic response of the system. Damage detection can increase safety, reduce maintenance costs and increase serviceability of the structures. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are simplified models of the human brain and evolved as one of the most useful mathematical concepts used in almost all branches of science and engineering. ANNs have been applied increasingly due to its powerful computational and excellent pattern recognition ability for detecting damage in structural engineering. This paper presents and reviews the technical literature for past two decades on structural damage detection using ANNs with modal parameters such as natural frequencies and mode shapes as inputs.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.04b
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• pp.6-8
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• 2009

This paper presents the novel implementation of memetic algorithm with GA (Genetic Algorithm) and MADS (Mesh Adaptive Direct Search), which is applied for optimal design methodology of electric machine. This hybrid algorithm has been developed for obtaining the global optimum rapidly, which is effective for optimal design of electric machine with many local optima and much longer computation time. In particular, the proposed memetic algorithm has been forwarded to optimal design of direct-driven PM wind generator for maximizing the Annual Energy Production (AEP), of which design objective should be obtained by FEA (Finite Element Analysis). After all, it is shown that GA combined with MADS has contributed to reducing the computation time effectively for optimal design of PM wind generator when compared with purposely developed GA implemented with the parallel computing method.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.832-836
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• 2009

A piezoelectric ultrasonic scaler, usually used to remove the tartar out of teeth and to amputate the pubis, is a recently popular instrument for dental treatment due to its several merits such as small size, low-electric power, precision and low-cost. It has typically two parts of a tip and vibration system, which is also composed of head, piezoelectric elements and tail-mass. The scaler concentrates its displacement on tip and has commonly a resonance frequency at 25~30 kHz, and in order to improve the performance of the scaler, it is important to standardize the size of the vibration system without tip for high performance because scaler in quality differs according to several tips. In this study, a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was utilized to optimize the structure of ultrasonic scaler in the vibration system. Consequently, this study revealed that influence of several tips on property were minimized and scaler showed good property at the resonance frequency of 28 kHz.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.79-87
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• 2010

The Pipe bending process using high frequency local induction heating is an advanced technique to bend pipes with a small bending radius and a large diameter. Even though the pipe bending process is a quite widespread engineering practice, it depends heavily upon trial and error method by field engineers with several years of experience. So it is necessary to develop an integrated methodology for optimum design of the pipe bending process. During hot pipe bending using induction heating, outward wall thickness of a pipe is thinned due to tensile stress and the reduction of wall thickness is not allowed to exceed 12.5%. Taguchi method and dynamic reverse moment is proposed to maintain a reduction ratio of thickness within 12.5%, when D/t ratio is high. An application of the proposed approach was compared with those of the finite element analysis and has good in agreements.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.203-211
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• 2019

In this study, the weight of type IV pressure vessel is optimized through the burst pressure condition using the finite element analysis (FEA) based on the genetic algorithm (GA). The optimization design variables include the thickness of composite layers and the winding angles. The optimized design variables are validated using the numerical simulations for the pressure vessel. Consequently, the weight is decreased by about 6.5% as compared to the previously reported results for Type III pressure vessel. Additionally, a method which reduces the entire optimization time is proposed. In the original method, the population size is constant across all generations. However, the proposed method could reduce the workload through the reduction of the population size by half for every 25 generations. Thus, the proposed method is observed to increase the weight by about 0.1%, however, the working time for the optimization could be decreased by about 46.5%.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.371-377
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• 2019

A flexible piezoelectric energy harvester(f-PEH) that converts tiny mechanical and vibrational energy resources into electric signals without any restraints is drawing attention as a self-powered source to operate flexible electronic systems. In particular, the nanocomposites-based f-PEHs fabricated by a simple and low-cost spin-coating method show a mechanically stable and high output performance compared to only piezoelectric polymers or perovskite thin films. Here, the non-piezoelectric polymer matrix of the nanocomposite-based f-PEH is replaced by a P(VDF-TrFE) piezoelectric polymer to improve the output performance generated from the f-PEH. The piezoelectric hybrid nanocomposite is produced by distributing the perovskite PZT nanoparticles inside the piezoelectric elastomer; subsequently, the piezoelectric hybrid material is spin-coated onto a thin metal substrate to achieve a nanocomposite-based f-PEH. A fabricated energy device after a two-step poling process shows a maximum output voltage of 9.4 V and a current of 160 nA under repeated mechanical bending. Finite element analysis(FEA) simulation results support the experimental results.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2021

In this study, we successfully developed a highly reliable ultrasonic sediment sensor to detect the sediment levels in sewer pipes in harsh environments. The ultrasonic transducer employed in the ultrasonic sediment sensor was designed so as to possess a simple structure. The developed sensor was carefully optimized by simulating the electromechanical characteristics, radiated sound wave pressures, and directivity via finite element analysis. It was also designed to possess a simple mounting structure minimizing the flow disturbance in a 400-mm sewer pipe; additionally, eight ultrasonic transducers were arranged in a four-channel mode, allowing for measurement of the sediment height in five easy steps. Through experimental evaluations, we verified the performance of the ultrasonic sediment-level sensor and its industrial applicability. The results suggested that although the precision value was notably low at 15 mm, the sediment detection performance was adequate; therefore, the developed sensor can potentially be used in industrial applications.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.547-564
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• 2023

This study investigates the effect of bolt preloading on the rotational stiffness of stainless steel end-plate connections. An experimental programme incorporating 11 full-scale joint specimens are carried out comparing the behaviours of fully pre-tensioned (PT) and snug-tightened (ST) flush/extended end-plate connections, made of austenitic or lean duplex stainless steels. It is observed from the tests that the presence of bolt preloading leads to a significant increase in the rotational stiffness. A parallel finite element analysis (FEA) validated against the test results demonstrates that the geometric imperfection of end-plate has a strong influence on the moment-rotation response of preloaded end-plate connections, which is crucial to explain the observed "two-stage" behaviour of these connections. Based on the data obtained from the tests and FE parametric study, the performance of the Eurocode 3 predictive model is evaluated, which exhibits a significant deviation in predicting the rotational stiffness of stainless steel end-plate connections. A modified bi-linear model, which incorporates three key properties, is therefore proposed to enable a better prediction. Finally, the effect of bolt preloading is demonstrated at the system (structure) level considering the serviceability of semi-continuous stainless steel beams with end-plate connections.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2020.08a
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• pp.157-159
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• 2020

This paper presents an optimal planar transformer design of a 3-kW Low voltage DC-DC Converter (LDC) with 3.68 kW/L power density for electric vehicle (xEV) application. The transformer is optimized based on the trade-off between footprint and loss using the proposed figure-of-merit (FOM) based optimization. In order to achieve ZVS under entire load range, an external leakage inductance is added and implemented using the proposed magnetic integration technique. A comparison between non-integrated and integrated magnetic core using finite element analysis (FEA) is presented. The result shows that the integrated core can reduce the core loss up to 35 % and core boxed volume up to 15 % compared to the non-integrated core. Experimental results are also provided to validate the proposed magnetic integration technique.